Shuffle Me v0.2.0 - The Arena Update (Patreon)

Hey, it's Sifa :D

The first update for Shuffle Me Godot :D Also, Arena goes into Public (free for all), and will stay there forever :D While everything else will be available for my Patrons for a while.As usual, these are the tier links, and some info and changelog are bellow.

Welcome to the Arena

I have already explained what the Arena is in previous posts. In short, you need to fully transform your opponent before they transform you. No fighting allowed though xD Only talking, flirting and... any other ways to help you win xD

The Arena campaign is all about the battle phase. There are no events or different characters. Just you and your opponent. And 2 post-battle events where you can get new cards and items.

The purpose of this game mode is to test how our Avatar X Avatar system works. If everything is fine - we'll make more complicated Campaigns with more characters and events utilizing Avatar x Avatar systems.

Another purpose is to promote the game. The build with only the arena is going to be a Demo, kind of. It'll be updated too, with new mechanics, cards, clothes, etc. Maybe some new characters or difficulty settings. I want to say that it's going to be improved too, because it's basically the same as Patreon builds, just without the other campaigns.

Opponents

Opponent is quite similar to the player themselves atm. We'll improve that by giving opponents more unique features, like hairstyles, eyes, stuff like that. Maybe even additional gear. And sure, with that we'll add more unique cards for them. So in the end we have not just 1 opponent, but several different opponents, each with their own strong sides and weak spots.

Most likely, new characters will be released in Arena first, to test and balance them well. And only then I'll add them into campaigns (or add campaigns for them). It will be a great way to test all their cards and unique mechanics.

However, if you play the game, you'll see that there are still some issues with Avatar x Avatar animations.

First is wrong alignment of limbs and body parts sometimes. For example, hand that meant to be touching the lips is touching the nose. Stuff like that is caused by my favorite TF type - Posture. From more masculine posture you go to more feminine posture. Most of the animations are made for more feminine posture, so when one of the characters is masculine - it might be a bit odd. It's not that bad though; we're working on fixing that. Already had to fix some... body parts that should... point to the right spot.

Another issue is a bit weird disappearing of the opponent after the battle. Haven't found a better way to hide them for the card-choice events yet. Maybe some additional effects will help, we'll see.

One more thing that I don't like is the lack of effects. At first I thought to include effects like 'goo' shots, spanks and such in the animation skeletons, so I can control them when animating. It wasn't the best idea, so I reverted it. For such effects we'll need to add some more systems to spawn the right stuff in the right spots and right times. It'll be a better solution in the end.

Plenty of smaller things also need to be made, like adding skirts, high heels, different items and gear, etc. Each of these might not be that easy. Especially high heels. There's still plenty to improve.

Anyway, enough talking xD I better write one more post later, because I have some more things that I want to talk about :D

Changelog of Shuffle Me v0.2.0:

Added The Arena campaign

Two men enter, at least one woman leaves...

New enemy that can be TF'd like the player, with a full suite of enemy cards and animations.

Progress screen between Battle Phases

Avatar X Avatar system

Undressing mechanics for the Opponent and for both at the same time

New interactions (solo and together), aka Cards

Body transformation for the Opponent

Almost linear progression for the Opponent

Progression when you win

Progression when you lose due to high Stress

Progression when you lose due to high Arousal

Loss when you lose due to max TF

Added a few unique clothing items.

Added "Examine Self" button -- get a closer look at your character, optionally undress them.

Reduced the amount of walking between events/encounters/etc, and removed camera jerk when loading a new one.

Made the pause menu buttons bigger.

Removed need for separate .dll/.so-- game is just one .exe file now!

A bunch of other technical improvements

Enjoy :D