Fate of the Squire - with demo! [BxB][Fantasy][Adult]

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MonsoonMushroom
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OCTOBER SHOWCASE

#16 Post by MonsoonMushroom »

It's the end of the month, so it's time for a masterpost! This month I've focused pretty much exclusively on CG scenes and character sprites. There's a fair few so it's probably better if I just line them up. Remember to click the image for a bigger version!

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You can see our protagonist Leith, his three knightly love interests, his family and a few NPCs (for lack of a better term) at the end there. You can see the family sprites have some alternate outfits; the plan is to give the knights some clothing variety too, since the game lasts for a year so it'd be a bit weird if they never changed clothes.

I had actually finished the protagonist/love interests sprites before this month but like the really clever person I am, I'd made the sprites a single layer only so swapping out their clothes would've been a nightmare. I spent some time converting them to multiple layers, sort of like one of those paper dress up doll things:

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I've done the same trick with two other NPC sprites – the noblewoman and nobleman. There are a fair few nameless noble characters, so I made one super-modular sprite that can be used for all of them. I should've gone for a less distinctive pose in retrospect, but you live and learn:

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Leith and the love interests now have a full set of facial expressions with interchangeable brows, eyes and mouths. This allows for a possible 3,456 combinations per character! Of course some of those combinations look really weird and so wouldn’t be used but still:

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The expressions can get pretty nuanced, like here where I tried seeing how many disdainful expressions Lyall can make (answer: a lot):

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Obviously, the family sprites have a stripped down expression set since they don't need over 3000 expressions, and the minor characters only have a few each.


Ok, that's it for sprites! I still have quite a lot of work to do there but the majority of sprites needed for a game demo have been completed now. The other thing I've worked on is CGs, including the opening of the game:

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Last month I added some writing to the first game month that let players get a better feel for the love interests. This month I've worked on the CGs for those scenes and I'm pretty happy with how they've turned out:

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That's about everything. I started a new day job at the start of October so development has slowed quite a bit – I expected as much, but it's still annoying. I'm going to work towards having a demo release at the end of November but I have the sneaking suspicion I won't have time to polish or test it, so it may end up being December instead.
Last edited by MonsoonMushroom on Mon Jan 29, 2018 5:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Fate of the Squire [BxB][Fantasy][Adult]

#17 Post by bobconway »

I've been following your progress on tumblr, and I'm always impressed both with the fact that you're doing every part of the game yourself, and also with how good this game is looking, visually. The game itself sounds good, as well (but that's harder to evaluate from screenshots :) ).

Looking forward to a demo release to see all of this awesome art in action!
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NOVEMBER SHOWCASE

#18 Post by MonsoonMushroom »

Iiiit's time for a big update post!

So first and foremost, the demo isn't ready. I know I know, Murphy's Law. Going from unemployed to a full time job is the main culprit for my delays though.
I have coded the events of the first game month (the demo will be the first 2 game months) so progress is coming along nicely, but there's much more work to do before I feel I can release a demo. Nonetheless I think I'll have the demo ready for the end of December - except that's Christmas and all, so more like the start of January.

Anyway, let me show you what I have so far! Obviously I was mostly coding over the past month and I can't exactly show that off, but I put together some handy gifs so you can see the game in action! Obviously, image quality is limited by the gif capture here:

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And the game play side of things:

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...Also bear in mind those background images are placeholder pilfered art. There's no way I'd get the backgrounds done on time so that's... well, a task for next year.

That's about all I can really show off! December will focus on finishing the coding, adding the music, polishing/bugtesting and figuring out how I turn this into a playable game.
Last edited by MonsoonMushroom on Mon Jan 29, 2018 5:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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DECEMBER SHOWCASE

#19 Post by MonsoonMushroom »

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December showcase time! (a week late, because it was Christmas day last monday). And today is the start of a brand new year – fitting, because...

~*~The demo is complete!~*~
What are you waiting for? Download it here!
(Note: .zip file for PC only. Size is about 117MB)
(Also note: this game contains graphic adult content. Please don't download if you're a minor)

This last month has been spent finishing art assets, finding music and fixing bugs. After handing it to my chief game tester, aka Boyfriend, I also shuffled the order of scenes around a little, tweaked some dialogue and made a few general gameplay improvements.

The demo is by no means perfect. I'm still using placeholder art as backgrounds. The status icon is still just a sketch. Some of the CGs could do with updating as well, especially the opening (because I drew the opening CGs first, so of course they're the least polished). I couldn't find any bugs but it's entirely possible there are some still there. If while playing you notice anything wonky, reporting it via PM here or on my tumblr will help me to spot and fix it.

The demo lets you play the first 2 months of Fate of the Squire (which lasts for 12 months). It's free and always will be. The plan is now to focus on finishing the art assets I still need (mostly backgrounds) so I can put out a new graphically-updated demo. After that I'll start adding new content on Patreon, which patrons can access right away. I haven't entirely decided yet, but it'll either be an early access type model where updates will eventually become public, or they'll stay patron-only until the game is totally complete (planned for August 2018, but realistically likely to be later than that) after which it will be free for everyone.

Note it is possible to lose at the end of the demo, so if you're struggling I've put some gameplay hints in the original post. If you do find the gameplay unbalanced however, or you have some general gameplay improvement suggestions (that aren't a massive undertaking, i.e. random events) then feel free to message me.

Other than that, happy playing! And don't forget to keep an eye on the tumblr or patreon for weekly updates about the development progress.
Last edited by MonsoonMushroom on Mon Jan 29, 2018 5:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Fate of the Squire - with demo! [BxB][Fantasy][Adult]

#20 Post by Ertal77 »

Downloading the demo at light speed!
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Re: Fate of the Squire - with demo! [BxB][Fantasy][Adult]

#21 Post by illuminate001 »

I’m surprised no one has said a peep about your demo yet MM! So 1st off, I usually don’t enjoy stat raising VN’s, however I really loved FOTS so far! You gave just the right amount of a taste and balanced the mechanical stat-raising with story, heart, and chaos (mostly from family, but even that was touching! I loved my younger brother soooo much! I really would give my all during the Fete, and endure things I didn’t want to just for him!).

Right from the start, I was attracted to Garaile, from his Mohawk to his tan skin and badass (and predatory) ways. But I realized I still wanted to enjoy the studies of my squireship and eventually my squireship as well! Like sex is 1 thing, but it’s gotta be more than that! So I ended up taking lessons I enjoyed.

What that revealed was that my kindred knight was Areli. Although he wasn’t my 1st pick initially, I think I melted alittle when he accepted my gift despite the mocking nobles.

1thing though, I knew I was aiming for Areli but decided to have an erotic dream about Garaile. Since well, I was sure Areli would pick me and I’d never see Garaile again. (I wonder what that says about me...lol) But as it seems, if you dream of a Knight you’re incompatible with, the knight you have trained for won’t send you a favor.

Personally I felt alittle cheated and punished by that. I think had I known I was making a hard choice as to which Knight I hoped sent me a favor, that I’d have chose Areli. Then again, if I had dreamt in earnest and been pure and dreamt of Areli like I guess I was supposed to...then the favor as a reward was just?

Either way I loved the demo! Especially the stained glass UI and sexy scenes. Bravo!
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Re: Fate of the Squire - with demo! [BxB][Fantasy][Adult]

#22 Post by MonsoonMushroom »

illuminate001 wrote: Sun Jan 14, 2018 7:38 am Amazing review!
Whoa, thank you so much for such a detailed review! It's interesting that you started off attracted to Garaile but switched to Areli too, I'm glad the scenes were impactful enough to have changed your mind.

I will say that the dream actually has no bearing on which knight will send you a favour (at least, I didn't code it to do that...) though it does change a little bit of dialogue at the end of the demo - and potentially later in the game where the knights' sex scenes do/don't up to what Leith dreamed about or was expecting from them. You can choose to dream of any knight you'd like, and reload to see all the dream scenes at your leisure but no, it definitely doesn't prevent the knight from sending you a favour.

If you didn't receive any favour at all, it'll be because your stats weren't high enough - which is a likely outcome if you tried a little bit of everything rather than focusing on certain stats from the start. Or if you trained with one knight in mind, only to change your mind and start aiming for another a few weeks into the game! To be fair I did receive feedback from my chief game tester (that being, ahem, my SO) that I should lower the stat requirements for the game while people were figuring out which knight they wanted to go for. I need to update the demo anyway once I've finished painting all the backgrounds, so I'll also make the demo a little less demanding too.

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Re: Fate of the Squire - with demo! [BxB][Fantasy][Adult]

#23 Post by illuminate001 »

Weird! Cause I swear I saved just before the dream. And when I chose Garaile, no one came to send me a favor. However when I reloaded (obviously dissatisfied with not being chosen at all) and then I chose Areli, he sent over the red satin hanky. Perhaps the code is doing something you didn't expect?

Also is it possible to receive multiple favors? Just out of curiosity.
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Re: Fate of the Squire - with demo! [BxB][Fantasy][Adult]

#24 Post by MonsoonMushroom »

That's... super weird, I re-checked the code and it definitely shouldn't affect who sends you the favour. You didn't replay anything or do anything differently? The difference between a good end and a bad end can be a single point in the right stat, so even if you did one extra lesson in, say, decorum it might have been enough to tip the balance in your favour.

It's not possible to have multiple favours, no. As it stands now, the game script actually reads the knight outcomes alphabetically, meaning if you met the point requirement for Areli and Garaile, you would receive Areli's favour. That technically makes Lyall the hardest knight to get (sort of fitting for him though). Being able to choose between favours/knight routes if you impressed more than one could be something to add to the game later on though.

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JANUARY SHOWCASE

#25 Post by MonsoonMushroom »

It’s the end of the month! You know what that means… masterpost time!

So, this month’s masterpost will be less exciting than the others because I’ve spent all of January drawing backgrounds. I mean, maybe some of you out there really appreciate a good background but like most artists I love figure drawing and detest environments. Even so I’ve muddled through, and here is a composition of all of them:

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Full size here.

So above is… well it’s 18 backgrounds, but some are night time variations/palette swaps, so it’s actually 12 backgrounds. I want to release an updated demo at the end of February (same content, just getting rid of all the placeholder graphics) and have worked out that the demo uses 20 backgrounds. That means there’s 8 more still to go! So I’m going to spend the next 3 weeks of February getting all of those done.

I’ve also been working on a few tweaks to the game itself. I’ve had some feedback for the game here and on itch.io which has been glowing so far, but I’ve also had some good suggestions for what to improve. Based on one person’s suggestion I’ve updated the day planner screen to show you your money balance, so you don’t have to keep checking the status screen:

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You’ll also notice that I finally got around to updating the status icon at the top left too!

Based on other feedback, I’m also going to make the demo a little easier to ‘win’. This means you might end up fulfilling the ending requirements for more than one knight – so I intend to add in something that will let you pick your preferred route if that happens.

So yes, there’s still quite a lot to do before the end of February but I think I’ve budgeted enough time for it. I’m hoping to participate in NaNoRenO after that (I think it’d be good to get more than one VN under my belt, and the break from Squire would be nice) but I’m still struggling for realistically feasible ideas, so we’ll see.

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Re: Fate of the Squire - with demo! [BxB][Fantasy][Adult]

#26 Post by bobconway »

As someone who has no artistic ability, and therefore appreciates any art (figure or background), those backgrounds are gorgeous. The game, as a whole, is looking really pretty.

I've been meaning to pick up the demo (never enough time for everything :P), but it sounds like maybe I should wait a bit for that if you have some demo changes coming down the pipeline anyway. I assume you'll post (on tumblr, or here, or something) when the updated demo is available?
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Re: Fate of the Squire - with demo! [BxB][Fantasy][Adult]

#27 Post by MonsoonMushroom »

bobconway wrote: Mon Jan 29, 2018 5:50 pm As someone who has no artistic ability, and therefore appreciates any art (figure or background), those backgrounds are gorgeous. The game, as a whole, is looking really pretty.

I've been meaning to pick up the demo (never enough time for everything :P), but it sounds like maybe I should wait a bit for that if you have some demo changes coming down the pipeline anyway. I assume you'll post (on tumblr, or here, or something) when the updated demo is available?
Aww, thanks very much for the compliment! Drawing backgrounds is laboriously slow for me and I'm never entirely happy with them when finished, so I'm glad they're looking ok.

Yes, there should be a new demo at the end of February, which is really only 4 weeks away, so it may be worth waiting! There won't be more content (aside from a little extra if you earn more than one favour) but the game will look a lot more cohesive hopefully. And yes, I'll post a link top the new demo in my next end-of-month masterpost!

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FEBRUARY SHOWCASE

#28 Post by MonsoonMushroom »

It's the end of the month! And I'm proud to present...

~*~ Fate of the Squire demo 2.0! ~*~
(Click for the MEGA link or get it from Itch. File size: 109 mb)


This month has been spent on the tedious task of drawing backgrounds. 20 new backgrounds have now been completed – 33 if you include night-time colour variants. No more placeholders!

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I’ve also made a few gameplay improvements based on feedback from people here and over at itch.io, most notably lowering the stat requirements for getting a good end. It’s now also possible to receive more than one knight’s favour at the end of September, effectively allowing you to choose your route/love interest.

Here’s a full changelog for anyone interested:

* All placeholder graphics – mostly pertaining to backgrounds – have now been replaced with original artwork! Expect more tweaks to these in the future however
* Minor script changes to suit the new backgrounds (i.e. Leith will not describe the courtyard as ‘green’ because, well, the new version isn’t)
* Redid the background of the 'meeting Areli’ scene to match the new environment background
* Made Lyall’s fur mantle bigger / more badass, minor dialogue tweak in his meeting scene
* Brightened up the title screen animation a tad
* As requested by a player, the day planner screen now shows money, so no more constantly checking your status screen
* The requirements to earn a knight’s favour have been reduced, making the demo easier to 'win’
* Subsequently, it’s also now easier to meet the requirements for more than one knight. Leith will now receive multiple favours if that happens, and can then choose which favour/route he wants
* Brightened up most of the CGs
* Caught and corrected a few typos in the writing/coding
* The guard NPC sprite had minor colour change when changing expression – this has now been fixed
* Minor colour change between CG variations in Areli’s dream scene – also fixed
* Minor sprite adjustments across the board, namely making head sizes a bit more uniform
* Added a NSFW / adult content warning splashscreen at the start of the game


As a side note I've also written a quick .txt game guide for anyone struggling with/not fond of the dating sim mechanics, which you can now download from MEGA here​ or on the Itch game page.

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So what happens now?

For Squire, the next stage now is to work on the next in-game month, October, which centres around a Samhain/Halloween parade at the end of the month. This will be released on Patreon, but will become public once Patreon is 1-2 months ahead (early access is, after all, the point of being a patron).

But!

It’s also NaNoRenO in… oh, four day’s time. I’ve come up with a decent idea that I think is doable (if challenging) within a month and so I plan to take a hiatus from Squire to work on that.

I’ll post something about the NaNo2018 idea soon, but for now I’ll say that it also features a knight and squire, and a villainous warlock who has all kinds of ways of playing with them. M/M content and very, very explicit. So yes, expect updates for the side-project IP – working title Corruptor – until the end of March. Details soon, promise <3

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APRIL SHOWCASE

#29 Post by MonsoonMushroom »

It’s the last Monday of the month, so it’s time for a masterpost!

First the bad news: The October demo isn’t ready. I suspected it wouldn’t be due to my week off after NaNoRenO (which I sorely needed, but it did cut into Squire development time). Although the main scenes are in the game I feel it could do with a bit more dialogue – Leith musing about upcoming events, that kind of thing. Some of the sprites could also do with minor tweaking, and I still need to colour in that day planner town map background.

I’m still hoping to have the new release by next week, May 7th. There will also be an updated version of the public demo – no content changes, just the minor fixes and a message at the end about the new content.

Now to show you what’s in store next week (for patrons only currently, but you can have a look as well). We have…

New costumes for the four main characters:
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Bigger version here.

A new scene with the knight:

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Some family time:

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A Samhain festival at the end of the month, with some more knight contact:

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That’s all I can show off for now. I’ll see you next week with a new release, hopefully!

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Updated demo!

#30 Post by MonsoonMushroom »

I normally just post here once a month so as not to bombard the forums, but this is just as a quickie post to say that the October content mentioned above has now been released on Patreon (it will be public eventually). There's also an updated demo! No gameplay changes, just minor face fixes, background coding and a shinier map background to the day planner:

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