Time passes so quickly

I guess I should say sorry for putting the project on hold for so long. A few months back I went back to school after having quit for half a year. Now I find myself lacking in time to work on the project.

That being said, I am still working on it. It's more of a hobby project that I just work on whenever I have some free time, for now. I still spend most of my vacations working on new content, and have finished a few things and writting more of the story.

As for the future of the project, honestly I can't tell you. I'm planning on releasing updates whenever I feel like it's worth anyone's time to try it out, and I'm sure there will come a time where I can work on the project full-time once again.

I'm sorry to those of you who would have rather seen a steady (increase in) development pace. I'll make sure to let the world know when I've released a new update.

Just for the sake of completeness, I've completed the following in the meantime:

• Alchemy system with recipes
• Starting recipes for every account
• Elf village encounter
• Random encounters in the city / forest
• Search options with a random chance to discover materials
• A city behind the forest, and a mountain area on the other side
• The mountain has a basic encounter with a dragon girl
• The "prisoner" path when talking to the engineer
• New craftable items, like cheap potions. The easiest items you can create have side-effects

I had more encounters for the city, but decided to scrap them. They didn't feel very interesting and they may have been trying too hard to be funny... Maybe I'll revise them and add them in the future.

Thank you for your time, and see you later!

Sincerely Yours,

JV

17/09/2016 - Woosh

Hi there,

So for the last few weeks I've been trying my best to work on the project, but it's not really working out. I recently went back to school and I work on saturdays, which is pretty hard to combine with this project. I'm getting little bits of work done, but that's not enough.

This is not me saying the project is going to close, but I will be needing some time to figure out how to manage my time better. Until then I will be posting on the blog to update you of any changes.

As always, thank you all for the support. I know this sucks; I'd rather quit my job and education and work on this full-time, but last time I did that it didn't work out too well.

Sincerely Yours,
JV

04/09/2016 - Back to work!

Hi there,

Sorry for the long break; First I was on a short vacation, and then I got caught up in my studies. Either way, I'm planning on continuing the project starting today. There are a few changes I want to make.

First of all, my schedule. I'll be working on the project mostly on the weekends, and plan on posting blog posts every sunday evening. It might be a little optimistic, but I want to release a large update every 2 weeks with a follow-up patch to fix bugs the day after.

The biggest change I want to make is to make the game downloadable. We've discussed the pros and cons before, and I guess there's really no reason not to release the game as a download. It will just take a bit longer to release.

As for content. I'm going to finish the alchemy content today, and for the rest of the week I'll be writing.

Thank you for your patience, and it's good to be back!

Sincerely Yours,
JV

25/08/2016 - Progress Report 2, Electric Boogaloo

Hi there,

This week is the last week of my vacation. I'm sorry there hasn't been much progress, but on the bright side I'm enjoying my last days of vacation. I'll be back on track upcoming monday, thank you again for your patience!

Sincerely Yours,
JV

18/08/2016 - Progress Report

Hi there,

I've been a bit busy with events; Yesterday I went to Gamescom, which was great. Got myself a neat t-shirt.

Anyway, about the game. I haven't been able to get too much work done, but I did get sóme work done. A part of it was writing for scenes I want to use in the next content patch, and the other part is a close-to-finished alchemy system. It shows a list of all the recipes you unlocked and the ingredients needed to create the item. The last thing I finished is a concept for the Patreon armor, so I'll be trying to convert that into actual items.

Events can unlock recipes; Your book already contains a recipe for a health potion and a calming potion (reduces lust).

I feel bad saying this, but don't expect too much activity this week. I'm going to do whatever I can, but I have a few events planned and I'm usually too tired to do anything the next day (after work). I'll report any progress I make.

Thank you for your patience. I hope you have a great week!

Sincerely Yours,
JV

12/08/2016 - Disappearing comments

Hi there,

Just a quick message; I just noticed a lot of messages got removed as spam. I didn't do it manually, and I only just found out. I'll try to find out why it's happening, so I'm terribly sorry for the inconvenience!

I made sure to mark the comments as "not spam", so they should now be visible. If the message isn't too old, I'll make sure to reply to them also.

Sincerely Yours,
JV

12/08/2016 - Buffs, Lust, Elves & Alchemy

Hi there,

New patch! For those of you who kept an eye on the new patch tracker most of this wont be a suprise, but you can find the final patch notes below.

Let me know if you encounter any bugs! Also, special thanks to Liz Aardt for reporting a ton of bugs in the past few weeks that I didn't see because a bunch of comments got removed as spam. The same goes for a few anonymous posters!

Sincerely Yours,
JV

Patreon and Website related changes

• Patrons added to the thank you page
• Let me know if you'd rather have your name removed!
• Patrons that canceled removed
• Not sure what happened here; Some people were on the "Processed" list, and then they weren't.
• Landing page removed from the website; Instead automatically goes to the play page
• jvmymonsterworld.com to play the game
• jvmmw.blogspot.com for the dev. blog
• Patrons that pledged $5 or more will gain access to the dev version of the game; This gives them access to new and unfinished content as it's being developed

New Buff System

• Can target the player or the opponent
• Buffs can have different effects (and can infinitely scale for more)
• Damaging the player or opponent
• Stunning the player / opponent
• Increase the player's lust
• Status rolls if the buff can be prevented by meeting certain requirements (break bindings with a high strength roll, for example)
• Can show different messages based on the roll's success

Lust System

• Increasing lust during combat can result in the player giving up
• You can masturbate to reduce lust; during combat, in your home, on the streets, on your home
• Items and masturbating can lower player lust
• Adds a small message to the defeat scene
• Probably going to expand on this someday; maybe companion-specific defeat scenes; Lots of room for more content!
• Has a max and min value, so I can tweak it a little in the future or create items / buffs that affect this stat

Actions with random consequences

• A vague action such as "explore the streets" or "ask around" can yield different results
• Was technically already possible, but made an easier system to do this in seconds

Bug Fixes (Thank you LA!)

• Waiting no longer deals damage
• Selecting thigh-length in the character description would bug the character description
• Companion actions in areas could show up before the player actually passed the companion summoning scene

Bug Fixes (Thank you Anonymous!)

• Sewer slime scene will no longer trigger if you made a decision at the engineer and then go there

Other Bug Fixes

• Small bug in defeat-scenes code
• Changing stance now once again shows appropriate text

Small Changes

• Slime Girl in sewers now increases lust when charging. No longer deals damage
• Small spelling mistake fix when changing stance

New content

• Bart has something to say before you leave the city
• He'll be outside the gates if you can't go inside the city
• You can walk around at the docks to try and find Sea Salt
• Used in alchemy
• Potentially maybe an ingredient in a certain kind of icecream
• Ask people around the city for tips before you leave
• First version of elf encounter
• Massive thanks to BubbleLord for writing this encounter. Has a lot of content already, but it's unfinished.
• Mainly male scenes released. If there's no female scene available, it will display the male scene instead with a warning at the beginning
• Text changes every time you defeat her. Including encounter, defeat and victory scenes
• Should be noted that there is currently no option to simply leave the Elf girl after a victory
• Content created by other people will get some form of recognition inside the game later. Probably a small block in the user interface that shows the creator's username and website link (if any)
• Would love to hear your feedback on the encounter!
• After checking the mirror, you can masturbate in your home (read lust system)

09/08/2016 - First Patreon Milestone Reached & Live Patch Tracker

Hi there,

In case you hadn't seen it yet, the new progress notes are live. It's literally just a text file, but it's linked to a text file I update every 10 seconds while I'm programming. This means, if you want the literal last second update on the patch's progress, check out the file. Unfortunately it also means it's going to be filled with spelling mistakes, vague descriptions and the occasional unfunny joke.

Next update should be out tomorrow, then I plan to work on a new encounters in the forest leading up to a new part of the story and a few random events in the city. I'll also work on the new armor the lovely Patrons unlocked as a milestone. I'll make sure the armor is useful all throughout your journey.

So that's it for today, thank you for your time! I'll make sure to post another update tomorrow.

Sincerely Yours,
JV

05/08/2016 - Buffs & Progress Tracking

Hi there,

I've been hard at work to make a nice buff system. I honestly finished it in a few hours, but decided it wasn't going to scale well so I made plans for a better one. The end result is much better, and if I ever want to code a new kind of (de-)buff it should be a piece of cake. So far it supports:

• Targetting the player or the opponent
• Buffs can have different effects (and can infinitely scale for more)
• Damaging the player or opponent
• Stunning the player / opponent
• Increase the player's lust
• Status rolls if the buff can be prevented by meeting certain requirements (break bindings with a high strength roll, for example)
• Can show different messages based on the roll's success

After that I went and coded the lust-meter. For now it will reset after each fight, but I might make it so that it persists after combat. A counter-measure for this would be a salve to reduce lust-gain, higher intelligence, or masturbating (with or without companion).

I also started making plans for a neat parser so character creation isn't useless. It's completely fleshed out already, and I don't think it would be hard to code. The only thing I'm not sure of is how advanced I want to make it, since it does increase writing complexity by quite a bit.

I've also started writing the unfinished parts of the encounter with the engineer, but decided to make it a bit shorter than originally intended. It's still a fun little option I'd say. The next part that I want to write is the outside part of the city, if you can no longer enter it. Basically people will have set up camp there and set up shops. You'll also get your basic camping equipment here.

At some point I imagine I'll be increasing the difficulty of the engineer's quest and warn players that making a decision might lock you out of the city. This is because I have a lot more content planned for the city. I could also make it so you can't do the quest until you've done all the others.

I'm going to be adding a live patch tracker. I'll replace the current link with a link to a text file that I use to make notes as I'm working. This way you can see what I'm doing every day, and get some inside information if you're interested in that.

I guess I did have a question for anyone still reading; Would you want an offline (read, downloadable) version of the game? For now I don't really see a reason to do it, but I could do it in the future to make it easier for people to test custom content.

That's about it for now! Thank you for your time, hope you're having a wonderful day.

Sincerely Yours,

JV

PS: I decided to give Free Cities (NSFW) a try; It's definitely worth a shot!

01/08/2016 - Bug Fixes, Changes, Drops & Patreon

Hi there,

Small patch note on some work I did today.

• Coins are no longer consumed on use...
• New material "Slime Residue" added to the game
• Enemies can now drop items
• Slimes and guards now drop items
• Prices of potions have been increased
• Fixed a bug with the day / night system that would crash the game
• The first person reporting this told me it happened to him at level 5 and 7. This was because he performed a certain action between 22 and 6 (in-game time) that crashed the game. Took me a while to find out what was causing it
• Fixed a few bugs with Meira
• You couldn't fight with her as you active companion in most instances
• Another bug where you wouldn't be able to go into the sewers
• Pretty hefty overhaul of the battle system's code
• Improved scalability of code
• Increased performance
• Added inventory button to the battle menu
• Damage in fights can no longer be negative
• Inventory button works more efficiently now
• Yea that sounds as uninteresting as it actually is
• Fixed a small issue in shops that would show errors. It wasn't actually an issue, but it was bugging me

I wanted to release a bit more, but it's getting late and I felt these bug fixes needed to get out as soon as possible. Either way, I'm really happy I got these problems out of the way. Feels like I just cleaned my house.

I expect to release one more small patch tomorrow before I move on to the bigger stuff! If you encounter any more bugs, please let me know. At the moment, there are no known bugs.

One more thing I would like to say, about Patreon. I'll be posting previews of new content with information there from time to time as a thank you to all the amazing Patrons. I seriously did not expect to get this much support, so I feel a little guilty and would like to do a bit more for them.

Sincerely Yours,

JV

29/07/2016 - Buffs, Lust & Drops

Hi there,

Small progress report after all reported bugs have been fixed. Thanks again for that by the way!

I've been working on a drop system, which... well, it makes it possible for enemies to drop things. I want this done soon because I want to start working on a crafting / alchemy system. It'll start off by allowing the player to create a potion, but eventually I want to have a large list of items you can create to set up a nice camp, increase companion affection, maybe make them a nice sweater for those cold nights. Or... well, plenty of choices.

Buffs; Most of the work was done already, but now it's been coupled with the lust bar. So the lust bar has been enabled too.

Elf encounter, I might release the current content so we can get some feedback. I really like it so far and I'm looking forward to seeing it develop in the future.

After that, I'm finishing up the forest because I don't like the current layout. But to do that, I have to write down the exact storyline for that area. Or atleast part of it.

I expect to have another patch ready on sunday or monday.

Sincerely Yours,
JV

29/07/2016 - Bug fixes & Small Change

Hi there,

Thank you to everyone who's helped me track down or reported bugs! I managed to fix a couple, but I didn't manage to reproduce all of the reported issues.

Small changes

• Character creation can now be skipped if you view the mirror after having done so once already
• Going with the Engineer's suggestion for the city will no longer lock you out of the mansion (New)
• Victory is now prioritised over defeat (New)
• This means if you and the opponent both land a finishing blow, it will count as a victory for you
• In this case you will end up with 1HP

Fixed

• The bestiary book in the library should no longer crash the game
• Inspecting the library after having already done so should no longer be possible
• This would result in crashing the game
• Impossible to level up stats, clicking "increase" does not do anything
• Fixed this, along with a few other Internet Explorer related bugs
• Current and unlocked (but inactive) companions are now saved and loaded properly. (New)
• Unlocking the Shoggoth and then loading a save where you didn't have her would still give the player the option to switch to Meira as a companion. This was because the list of unlocked companions wasn't overwritten when loading a new save.

Reported but could not reproduce

• After a certain (amount of) action(s), the game freezes or the screen doesn't update!
• If you get this error, please try to reproduce it before reporting. I'm sorry for the inconvencience, but it might just be the host timing out. If the project does well, I'll invest in a better host.
• The slime girl sewer scene says I'm male, but I made a female character
• I reproduced this once, and afterwards it's been fine for me. I don't know what's causing it, but I'll keep an eye on it.

Thank you again for the amazing support. Let me know if you encounter any more issues with the game!

Sincerely Yours,

JV

26/07/2016 - Patch notes

Hi there,

Good news and bad news! The goods news is, it's patch time. The bad news is, it doesn't have 20 new companions and a finished storyline. Seriously though, I wish I could get more work done. Sometimes it just doesn't happen.

Anyway, patch notes!

• You can no longer run from the tutorial fight in the sewers
• Player now has a dominance / affection meter for every companion
• Companion can perform random actions during combat
• For now, it's an escalating chain of events that slowly lowers your dominance over your companion
• Actions increase your lust during combat
• Chance of a random action happening during a turn in combat are based on affection / dominance towards your companion. Low dominance increases chance significantly, while high dominance lowers the chance significantly. High affection lowers the chance slightly, and low affection increases the chance slightly
• For example, it starts out with simple movements that the player starts to notice at times. This then slowly gets worse, so if dominance reaches the lowest possible value this can turn into full-on penetration during combat
• Will add positive effects in the future based on high affection and dominance
• Player has a lust meter that can trigger an auto loss during combat (hidden, for now)
• I plan to expand this mechanic much more in the future, to give it an effect outside of combat
• Enemy attacks and random actions from your companion during combat can increase lust
• Shoggoth introduction scene
• New companion I've been working on (mostly concepting)
• For now, has a small introduction scene and that's about it. She can't fight for you, so she'll pretty much act like a "stalker" while you're traveling if you take her with you
• I've got a lot of plans for her, but in the meantime she'll be cleaning your house and getting angry at the slime companion for making a mess
• Shoggoth is mostly a utility companion, so not much use in combat. She'll have plenty of content though, so no worries.
• Entire new forest area, ending in a crossroads
• I've got a story fleshed out for the forest, but I want to focus on finishing the current content as much as I can first. This means the forest will be empty in this patch, but expect content in the following patch
• Fixed a bug with experience not updating immediately after combat
• Added a new system where companions can interact with eachother or the environment
• Fixed bug where dialog that needs player gender would crash the game
• Items can now start dialogs, 
• Pendant now allows you to talk to your companion even if they're not there
• You can now switch companion by talking to your current companion inside you house (pendant wont have this option)

I'm still deciding if the player keeps their level when switching companion, or if every companion has seperate levels and stats.

I'll be working on a few small things to release soon. We also have a cool elf encounter in the forest being worked on as you may have heard already!

Thank you again everyone for the support! I'm looking forward to the future. Let me know if you encounter any bugs or spelling mistakes!

Sincerely Yours,

JV

20/07/2016 - Talking about the next patch and Survey results, "Slime girls are melting??" -edition

Hi there,

Sheesh it's hot.

Anyway, let's start with the survey results. Honestly it's pretty much what I expected the results to be, but I'm glad I did it anyway. Thank you so much to the 133 people that completed it!

Survey Results

Would you like to have / mind having a fatique or stamina system
An overwhelming 78.6% didn't mind having the system as long as it's executed properly. Over time we'll probably tweak the stamina system a little bit and see if it has a place in the game. I just want to give players a little more incentive to actually survive/camp while surviving

How do you think the sub / dom system should work

Opinions were very divived here, with 3 options having about 25% of the votes. To sum it up, a dominance / affection system would work / be fine as long as the player still has control over it's actions in all cases. If the player does end up losing control, players would like to see this in the form of a seperate storyline.

For now I'm working on a system where the player does lose / gain control over it's companion, but aside from combat it doesn't have any affect on the storyline. This will not stay that way, but we'll take it one step at a time. (see patches notes)

What's your opinion on switch companions

49.6% wanted to be able to switch unless the player, depending on the companion, has reached a certain amount of submissiveness. 22.9% wanted to be able to switch between companions unless the player is completely dominated by it's companion.

I'll probably end up going with both, depending on the companion.

What's your opinion on m/m content

No suprise here. If you can turn it off there's no harm in adding it either way.

Upcoming patch

Potential Elf companion

I've been talking to BubbleLord on Fenoxo's forum, who's been working on a potential Elf companion. He's already writting quite a lot, but there's no eta on when we'll release her. Either way, at first she will be released as an encounter / battle in the forest. I'm looking forward to seeing her in-game!

Patch content

I haven't really talked about what exactly is in the new patch too much, so here's a few things I have finished working on:

• You can no longer run from the tutorial fight in the sewers
• Player now has a dominance / affection meter for every companion
• Companion can perform random actions during combat
• For now, it's an escalating chain of events that slowly lowers your dominance over your companion
• Actions increase your lust during combat
• Chance of a random action happening during a turn in combat are based on affection / dominance towards your companion. Low dominance increases chance significantly, while high dominance lowers the chance significantly. High affection lowers the chance slightly, and low affection increases the chance slightly
• For example, it starts out with simple movements that the player starts to notice at times. This then slowly gets worse, so if dominance reaches the lowest possible value this can turn into full-on penetration during combat
• Will add positive effects in the future based on high affection and dominance
• Player has a lust meter that can trigger an auto loss during combat
• I plan to expand this mechanic much more in the future, to give it an effect outside of combat
• Enemy attacks and random actions from your companion during combat can increase lust
• Shoggoth introduction scene
• New companion I've been working on (mostly concepting)
• For now, has a small introduction scene and that's about it. She can't fight for you, so she'll pretty much act like a "stalker" while you're traveling if you take her with you
• I've got a lot of plans for her, but in the meantime she'll be cleaning your house and getting angry at the slime companion for making a mess
• Entire new forest area, ending in a crossroads
• I've got a story fleshed out for the forest, but I want to focus on finishing the current content as much as I can first. This means the forest will be empty in the next patch, but expect content in the following patch

That's all for now. Thank you all very much for your support so far, it's been great! I'll try to release the patch tomorrow, depending on how late I'll get home.

Sincerely Yours,

JV

17/07/2016 - Survey time!

Hi there,

I've set up a survey with a few questions / problems that have been on my mind lately. If you want to help out the project, please allow me to take a few minutes of your time to answer 4 questions:

• Click me to open the survey!

Thank you in advance!

Sincerely Yours,

JV

14/07/2016 - I'm not dead, no worries

Hi there,

It's me, game guy.

I'm still actively working on the game, and planning on releasing the new content on sunday. I caught the flu so the past few days have been filled with the inspiring routine of working, eating and sleeping.

I've also been talking with someone that offered to write content for a new monster girl (maybe companion) that will fit the next biome/area nicely. The next patch will contain the new areas, but they will not have any content. So, feel free to explore when it's out!

Anyway, I just thought I should post something. I should have done so earlier, however.

Sincerely Yours,
JV

04/07/2016 - "Small" UI changes

Hi there,

I released a small update which includes the following:

• CSS changes to support low resolution screens or small window sizes a lot better
• Out of the status bars, the health bar is prioritised
• Out of the menu options; save, load and inventory is prioritised
• Character bar (top of the screen) only shows name
• Status (Health / Stamina / Experience) bars
• New book on the history of Tha'al, unlocked after current content ends (relatively short, bit of back-story. Will expand on it in the future)
• Mini-map

Before I start talking about the changes, I would like to note that we'll probably get a new user interface in the far future. I'm not a great designer, so this is pretty much the best I can do. I'm hoping I can pay someone else to make a better one later.

About the mini-map, I think it could use some improvements. In it's current state it's a little confusing as it does show you what directions has a location, but it doesn't tell you if you can access that location from your current location. It also doesn't tell you which direction you came from, but I'll add that in a bit.

As for the next content update, I'm sorry it's taking so long. Halfway through I decided I wasn't happy with the new companion and started working on a new version. There were too many similarities between the slime companion and the new one in terms of personality. I'll try to release it soon.

The next update should also contain changes to the combat system, where the relationship with your companion affects random actions during battles. I'll post the game to tfgamessite afterwards, since I feel it will meet the criteria needed to post it there.

Would love to hear suggestions on the map and status bars beyond what's already been discussed, and let me know if you encounter any bugs!

Sincerely Yours,

JV

23/06/2016 - Sick, dealing with heat & progress

Hi there,

So I've been taking a few days off because I was sick; I don't handle heat well. Today I picked up writing again and trying to whip up a new interface that provides players with more information. I'm also trying to see if I can make the UI a little more interactive without going over the top with special effects.

Not much news for now. I just wanted to take up the last part of this post with a thank you to all the current patreons. I know the month is not over, but just the fact that there were people checking out the page makes my life a little better. So, thank you!

Sincerely Yours,
JV

19/06/2016 - More changes and fixes!

The following changes and fixes are now live:

• Giving Bart the photo frame doesn't end up in closing the conversation, instead you get to see the option to ask about the building in the southern district
• Agreeing with the engineer on the his opinion of slimes now doesn't get you stuck in the conversation
• Fixed small typo when examining vase in the mansion
• After retrieving the bandana from the dispenser, mailbox no longer freezes the game (Thank you IvoryOwl!)
• Stance & Equipment changes are now loaded/saved to slots
• Fixed a bug that wouldn't allow you to progress through the puzzle in the mansion after clearing the current content
• Small change to description of the Science Dev. Room
• Engineer is no longer there after the main quest, access to the entire mansion might be closed off in the future
• Fixed a bug where your health could go below 0, so sleeping wouldn't actually heal you to full (Thank you The Kaiser is wiser!)
• Slime companion stats description now match it's actual stats (Thank you Liz Aardt!)
• Added gender prefix to parser (him / her) for the guard introduction scene (Thank you Liz Aardt!)

Currently thinking of a change I want to make to the User Interface to show stats outside of battle. It's just that I didn't want to clutter the UI and instead keep it simple, but I didn't execute it properly. Interface changes will probably include player health, stamina and experience (to next level).

For now I'll be working on the second part of the content patch; Thank you for the support and patience!

One more thing I'd like to address; I understand the development of the game isn't very fast. The reason for that is pretty simple, I'm looking for a job and the project isn't really big enough at the moment to make me want to give up my other hobbies. I'll just keep going at a steady pace, and hopefully one day the situation will change if the game catches on!

Until then I'm extremely grateful to everyone that checks out the game and especially if they leave feedback or help me track down all the bugs!

Sincerely Yours,
JV

16/06/2016 - Follow-Up Patch - Bug Fixes, Corrections & Changes

Hi there,

As promised, a smaller patch that should take care of most of the bugs and spelling mistakes:

Bug fixes:

• Bart would always treat the player as if they asked for a discount (Credits to Vylir, thanks!)
• Bart's shop after moving doesn't have the option of asking about the pots / herbs (Credits to Vylir, thanks!)
• Doing the puzzle in the mansion several (2?) times would lock the game, making it impossible to progress
• A few hundred changes and fixes to existing text

Let me know if you find anything else that I missed!

Sincerely Yours,

JV