Subverse - [CM] StudioFOW - Fowchan
Due to a Steam bug, I have been unable to post announcements with the authoring tools. This has been fixed, please note that all dates in the following announcement were made on September 28, 2019.



It was a busy September here at StudioFOW and it’s the first full month where I could see all the new additions to the team fully integrated into Subverse’s workflow, and I have to say – I like what I’m seeing. We’ve been careful and recruited very intelligently to make sure we have the right personnel in place to deliver the game. As a result, everyone is gelling and we seem to finally have a nice little indie studio vibe going on. There’s even a token gimp leashed to Yagskie’s desk who refills his coffee. Who needs a $5000 espresso machine?

Squidgirl Model



Next up on the waifu conveyor belt is another one of the promised Kickstarter stretch goals, the infamous “Huntress” aka squidgirl. She is a departure from our usual bevy of stacked femme fatales, offering a... flatter alternative for the discerning Captain. Don't let her cute looks fool you, she's a relentless space combat boss that hunts you throughout the game, and we took great pains to integrate her into the main storyline so that she doesn’t feel like a tacked on KS reward. As a result, I think you guys will enjoy her recruitment mission which is an exciting riff on 80s action movies all the way through. We’re applying the finishing touches on the model now and she will be viewable on the StudioFOW website in October.


Mangaka



Another promised reward was the delivery of the Subverse hentai doujin. Over the last few months I’ve been working closely with several prominent mangaka in order to bring this to life and I’m thinking you guys will enjoy the fruits of our labor. The doujins play to each artists’ established strengths, whilst keeping with the themes of the game...meaning that both fans of the mangaka and fans of Subverse will be hype for it. And if you're fans of both...well, then you're in for a real treat. Another great thing about these doujins is that they allow us to explore darker content we are not able to in the game. As we get closer to releasing the manga next year I am getting more and more excited to share snippets with everyone. And of course, the reward will be free to all StudioFOW fans and backers.


Script finished

At long last the entirety of the script is locked and ready to be recorded by the sultriest VAs we could find. Clocking in at over 400 pages, this is about 5 movies worth of galactic debauchery - full of twists, turns, romance, drama and more toilet humor than you could shake a Chutt’s dingleberry at. We split the writing into three phases

1) Main script including all the new cinematics

2) All onboard dialogue including post-mission conversations and reactions to galactic events

3) Loyalty quests and side missions for each waifu

As you can see, there is a LOT to record. Normally I would have liked to save this until the end, but due to the massive lead-times associated with recording a script of this size, we will start recording sessions as soon as October in order to get as much voiced content ready for 1.0 as possible. I’d rather be slightly inefficient than to miss the 1.0 build being voiced, because the performances really bring everything to life.




Beta Commencement

The long awaited beta of the space shooter is live this weekend (September 28, 2019, original posting date.) – right on schedule as promised. Eligible backers (£75 and up) need to head on over to the Discord and register your key with the awesomely named “Masterbeta” bot which will assign you a key. Once you have your key you’ll be able to opt into the beta on Steam if you own Subverse in your library. Remember, this is just a bare-bones build so whilst aesthetic feedback is noted, we are honestly looking for feedback on mechanics e.g. does it feel responsive, are you having trouble with a particular enemy type, do the hitboxes feel right for you?

Testers have an important role, but it’s also important to be laser-precise with your feedback. Because there are so many of you, it will take some time to sift through all the feedback and get to the critical issues, therefore patience is appreciated. Heading into the Fall we are really excited to be finishing up the last few remaining waifus and getting deeper into the gameplay elements, working together with our 4000+ testers to create a worthy adult game for pervs everywhere to enjoy.

-DC

Subverse - [CM] StudioFOW - Fowchan
Welcome back to another thrilling addition of the Subverse dev diaries, a series of creator updates with dirty words and even dirtier space girls.

What's New, Pussycat?
Meow!



As you can see, we've put the finishing touches on our catgirl infiltration specialist - Taron Kraask! Taron was one of the first stretch goals for Subverse, and the whole team was super excited to bring her to life.

Taron's species is known as the nikith (nigh-kith), which are obviously the Subverse equivalent of the feline humanoids so prevalent in the hentai world. Most nikith are content remaining in the hunter-gatherer phase of their society, but Taron fell in love with technology as soon as she had a fateful close encounter with an alien vibrator.

Since she is still relatively young and doesn't have much experience with culture outside her primitive planet, this can cause Taron to come across as socially awkward in many situations. However, her radiant positivity, eagerness to please and genetically inherent addiction to the pheromones of solar males like the Captain make her a shiny beacon of endlessly horny hope aboard the Mary Celeste.

That previously mentioned and almost inconveniently powerful reaction towards the protagonist of Subverse leads to all sorts of hilarious and fun interactions in the game, especially during her recruitment missions. But don't worry...despite her seemingly whimsical characterization, this kitty has claws and sick ninja moves that will allow you to stealthily shred through the opposition in both grid and space combat. She is voiced by StudioFOW legend Milly Stern, who also voiced 2B in our most downloaded movie ever: Nier First Assembly (yes, even more popular than K3).


BETA BEGINS
As we previously mentioned, the closed beta begins on Saturday, September 28th!

To make sure you are ready to go, use the following checklist:

1.) Have Big Bang Theorist backer status (donation of £75 or more).

2.) Redeem your Steam key that was previously provided so that Subverse is in your Steam library.

3.) Join the Studio FOW Discord server and access the Beta Oasis room.

4.) Send a DM to the bot "Masterbeta#1202" after it is launched on Saturday, September 21st, and follow the instructions to receive your beta key.

5.) Redeem that secondary key on Steam to add the beta download branch to Subverse.

6.) Download the update when Steam states it is available on the 28th.

7.) Open the first closed beta build and have fun!

Bug reports and feedback forms are available in-game and will be sent to Studio FOW's internal servers for review. It is immensely helpful if you can provide the context of what happened when you experience any bugs so we can potentially recreate these situations and analyze them, so please be sure to include as much specific information as possible!

ENTER THE DRAGON NEBULA



On that note, we're starting the party with our SHMUP-tacular gameplay! The first closed beta build will include three sections:

1.) SHMUP tutorial level, administered by DEMI

2.) The first space gameplay mission of Subverse

3.) "Endless mode" for testing purposes

While the first two sections are obviously intended to give you a gentle introduction to how space combat works in Subverse, the third is our little gift to the community that will allow you to play to your heart's content and hopefully uncover some bugs for us to fix in the process. The first pool of enemies is limited to pirates but we'll add more dickheads to the builds as beta progresses.

For now, you will be playing the game mode that we refer to as ANNIHILATION (kill everything = victory). As we continue development, we will also make additional modes playable such as the previously revealed DEFENDER where you are responsible for protecting objectives.

So how exactly does space combat work in Subverse? Here's a mini-instruction manual and rundown of the gameplay:



MOVEMENT

Your ship is guided with WASD movement. Subverse is primarily one of those rare free-roaming SHMUPs that allows you to wreak havoc all across the map rather than forcing you in one direction.

Hitting the shift key will activate cruise mode, which gives the F3N1X a speed boost to help you dodge attacks, flank bad guys or get to a defensive position much faster.



WEAPONS

Aiming is accomplished by moving a targeting reticle around the screen with the mouse. You can open fire on any targets acquired using the left mouse button, which is the trigger for the F3N1X's basic repeating particle cannon. It has unlimited ammo, so you can blast away and kill things real good all you want.

You'll also have access to the first special attack of the game, which is a precision-strike missile. It can be fired with the right mouse button. Should the projectile collide with anything, it will instantly detonate. However, you can also manually detonate it in the middle of clusters of enemies for a big sexy multi-kill. Note that this weapon reduces your ship's energy, so you must wait for it to recharge before it's ready to fire again.

Speaking of energy, the F3N1X has access to another attack tied to the space bar called the charge drive. This will send your ship speeding forward at lethal velocity, either destroying or causing heavy damage to any enemies dumb enough to not get the fuck outta the way. The charge drive can also be used to dodge enemy projectiles in a pinch.



RESOURCES

With two attacks tied to the energy resource system, you're likely to run out fast if you spam them. However, lucky for you, energy pickups will be available from fallen enemies.

Note that there are two levels of ship integrity in Subverse - shields and hull. Shields regenerate automatically after a period of time when no additional damage is taken, whereas hull does not. You can pick up health packs to get your hull back into shape.



BAD GUYS

You'll be throwing down with the pirates, which are the first enemy faction in Subverse. We guarantee these guys are all complete assholes, so don't feel bad about reducing them to wreckage and racking up points in the process.

You can increase your score in Subverse by defeating enemies, and each enemy has a different score value attached to them. There are currently five unique rival vessels in the build, and each of them can be found in escalating levels of difficulty (distinguished by color schemes).

Each one will require a different strategy to defeat. It's when you have multiple different classes of enemy on the screen coming at you at the same time that Subverse really shines as an arcade shooter that rewards quick-thinking, resource management and defensive movement combined with aggressive attack patterns.

We're all thrilled to see how the initial gameplay is received! However, please keep in mind that we are still barely in beta (its more like an alpha) and we have a long way to go before the game reaches its potential.



Calendar & Artbook

More excellent news! We are very confident our digital art rewards will be ready on time for their estimated release dates (End of 2019 for the calendar, early 2020 for the art book). Both projects are turning out even better than we imagined, and we can't wait to send them out to our loyal supporters! Expect a few teases here and there as more dev diaries are published.

Until Next Time

We're working around the clock like usual to finish up the last few waifu and main character models, so we'll have updates about those soon.

We hope you all take care and look forward to working with you throughout the rest of Subverse's development!

Sincerely,

Mr. Kristoff

- Senior Producer
Subverse - [CM] StudioFOW - Fowchan
Greetings once again to our loyal backers! I'm happy to be bringing you the most important dev diary yet.

By the way, Fortune says hello.



Closed Beta Release Date

We're delighted to announce the closed beta will begin for all Big Bang Theorists (backers that pledged £75 or more) on September 28th, 2019! Make sure you have your keys retrieved and activated in your Steam libraries so you can access it.

As previously mentioned, this first build will include the SHMUP tutorial and the first mission of the game. However, we're also adding an endless combat mode for testing purposes. If you're eligible, Make sure you drop by our Discord server and sign up for the Beta Oasis room so you can give us feedback and report any bugs there.

Model Teases

Here's an updated WIP of Taron Kraask's model, which includes her color scheme. We're putting the finishing touches on her fur textures to make sure she's extra fabulous before her first appearance on the cat walk.



For all you Studio 69 VIPs, we're pleased to reveal the club itself in all its glory! Now that it has had a final pass done on the lighting and assets, it's up to the quality we first envisioned for it. We hope you all look forward to chilling, having a drink and playing a few bar games with your favorite waifus here.



WELCOME TO PANDORA!

And now, at long last, we are proud to present our unique and powerful system of customized hand-holding in Subverse - PANDORA!

Pandora is a tech tree that allows you to send your lap rocket on a fucktacular journey into the black hole of your choice. Remember how we talked about the XP capsule system (aka PP/Pooter Points) last week? Every time your waifu levels up, you get one PP. You can insert your PP right here.


There are three pools of hand-holding from which you can unlock scenes:

CAPTAIN - 1v1 fun with the panty-faced protagonist, both in POV and cinematic poses.

CREW - The ladies of Subverse get to have futa fun with each other courtesy of Dr. Lillian Margaliss's insta-dick technology as well as some group poses involving other Mary Celeste denizens.

XENO - Big old sloppy 100% certified organic Manticore meat monster hogs for your waifus to enjoy. You can look forward to fiends of both the bi and quadrupedal variety to play with.

All of these options also contain categories hand-animated by our artisan fucksmiths, and our animations are tailored to each waifu's unique personality, i.e. Killi will be more dominant with her teases.

Here are the categories below:

TEASE - (Pre-meal Cocktail) Good old fashioned animated pinups.

FOREPLAY - (Appetizers) Basically any kind of lewd act ending with "-job."

SEX - (Entree) The meat and potatoes course of the night where you can enjoy a variety of orifices.

AFTERS - (Dessert) The creamy, cuddly icing on your waifu. A great way to end the night.

You can insert the scenes you've unlocked into their corresponding Pandora Player slots (e.g. unlock a TEASE with Lily, it goes into the TEASE slot). This allows you to essentially assemble your very own custom short movies. Different scenes from different trees can be mixed and matched to create a smorgasbord of depravity. You can even save presets of your favorite combinations or just hit randomize and go to town on whatever Pandora has in store for you!

While you will gain enough PP throughout the course of Subverse to unlock every single scene, you are free to specialize in just a single tree if you wish. This gives you unlimited power over your own fetishes.


TL/DR:

- Spend PP to unlock scenes of your choice

- Assemble the scenes in Pandora

- Generate scene and hit play to enjoy!


New Roadmap, New Strategy

We are so thrilled to announce that two full-time software engineers with AAA gaming experience have joined the Subverse team. They're already making a huge impact on production, and we couldn't be happier to have them here.

During the past few months, we've also been in contact with several world-renowned game producers that have been acting as mentors for us during this process.

Their advice, along with that of our new engineers, have caused us to audit the current release strategy and pipeline. This brought us to the conclusion that Early Access would not be beneficial for Subverse.

Please note: THIS DECISION WILL NOT EFFECT THE CLOSED BETA IN ANY WAY.

The other good news is that this decision will actually allow us to significantly speed up production of the full release because it won't be necessary to constantly update and maintain the numerous Early Access builds. We're currently ahead of our internal production schedule and we see no issue with maintaining this pace.

This decision wasn't taken lightly. Subverse is currently 13th global on the Steam Wishlist, We could've easily taken the cash grab route and put out the unpolished Early Access chapters, but Studio FOW has always been committed to creating products that we are proud of and we know the fans will thoroughly enjoy.



Why is Early Access not viable for Subverse?

1) Single-player, story-driven RPGs don't tend to do early access. Early Access is typically utilized by FPS games, rogue-likes, and MMOs that have gameplay loops and dynamic online components that need to be thoroughly tested.

2) One of our advisers made the excellent point that we have almost 4,500 eligible closed beta testers. This is a huge pool that we can tap into to make gameplay tweaks, thus nullifying the whole point of Early Access for the general public.

3) Subverse is a story-driven game meant to be experienced as a whole, not in the stop/start fashion that is forced by Early Access. Having to wait potentially up to a month for the next chapter to be released will really hurt the momentum of the overall game.

4) Internally, we've seen the difference between a fully completed section of the game and an Early Access one, and it's night and day in terms of quality. We feel it would be a disservice to you guys and the project to release it before the quality you deserve can be achieved throughout the game.

SO WHAT'S NEXT?

We'll be releasing public gameplay footage following the start of the closed beta and keeping you guys in the loop with our Youtube channel, so please don't feel left out even if you don't have closed beta access. We'll make sure everyone has a ticket aboard the hype train for the duration of the project, and we're extremely excited to take the trip with you.

Sincerely,

Mr. Kristoff

Senior Producer
Subverse - [CM] StudioFOW - Fowchan
Greetings once again! How are our special advocates of space titty operas doing this week? Step aboard this filthy rocket ride and hold on tight, because some serious Subverse information loads are about to explode all over your precious faces.

TARON KRAASK



As you can see, Taron's model is turning out quite nicely thanks to our team of catgirl aficionado modelers. Her full model and outfit will be completed and added to our website soon. Taron was a bonus character unlocked during the Kickstarter campaign, and she'll be joining your crew about midway through the story.

Also.. in case you missed it, visit our Subverse homepage to see space elf Elaisha Sorn's model in full 3D!

BRAND NEW MARY CELESTE



We recently decided to give the Mary Celeste a complete overhaul since it just felt wrong having a pre-canned protagonist vessel.

For this task we enlisted Mr. Alexey Pyatov, a sci-fi fetishist with a raging hard-on for designing spaceships. He's been working closely with Daddy DC over the past month to cook up this totally sick concept for what is destined to be forever known as the "Millenium Falcon of Butt-Fucking."

The front or "maw" of the ship will house the hangar, and it's from there your trusty F3N1X fighter will launch during combat missions. There will also be sections for stealth drives, the bridge, cantina, laboratory, captain's quarters and even a locker room. The new Mary Celeste will receive a low-poly pass and then be implemented into the game by the end of the month (gropey Chewbacca not included).

WAIFU LOYALTY SYSTEM




And now, onto the gameplay details!

In Subverse, we've decided to merge traditional RPG leveling with a loyalty system. Instead of having separate combat levels and then a romance system, you will be able to progress both at the same time by simply playing through the game. Each time you win a battle or complete a quest, you will be given an experience capsule.

You can then give that capsule to any waifu of your choice to grant her XP towards leveling up. Once she "dings" and levels up, she then gains a talent point, or...as we lovingly call them: Pooter Points (PP).

PP is used to unlock the sex scenes in Subverse. The more PP you have, the better/more complex sex scenes become available (very much like an MMORPG talent tree if it included eating ass). This streamlined system means that you don't have to fiddle around with combat talents or stats - she'll automatically perform better in battle and you'll get to focus your attention on what lewd acts she can perform in bed.




As you can see from the top image, there are also some rewards to earn on her road to level 40. Every 10 levels include a major "milestone" event for your waifu, and we'll be revealing the milestone rewards at a later date.

However, we will confirm that she'll trust you enough to activate her loyalty quest once you hit the level cap!

To review:

1) Fight battles/quests with waifu of your choice

2) Gain EXP in the form of a capsule

3) Feed this EXP capsule to any waifu on the crew

4) She eventually levels up and gains 1 PP to spend on sex scenes

5) Rinse and repeat until level 40 to unlock cool rewards

THE BETA COMETH

I know all of you have been waiting patiently to know when the closed beta will begin and how it will work, so let's lay out the details for you now...

The closed beta will be available to all Big Bang Theorists (those that pledged £75 or more). If you qualify and haven't signed up for the beta yet, make sure you visit our Discord server!

We will send out a message in the "Beta Oasis" room to let you know as soon as the first build is ready to go live. Builds will be accessed through a special branch on Steam, so you'll need to use your key and add Subverse to your library.

Initially, we're going to release the first SHMUP mission (including the tutorial) for you to enjoy. We hope to have the same sections of grid combat available not long after. Keep an eye out on Discord and Twitter for dates.

TWITTER...NOW!!!

If you haven't followed @studiofow or @subversegame on Twitter yet, make sure you do ASAP! We've posted lots of delightful things there that we can't post here, such as the very first actual preview of our dirty animations starring none other than Killi as she shows you just how useful prehensile Vanneran tails can be.

WHAT'S NEXT???

Later this month we will post the 7th dev diary, and it's here that we will finally reveal the details of how hand-holding works in Subverse and how can you spend those Pooter Points! It's a robust system of fuck machinations birthed straight from the depraved mind of DC-sama himself while lethal amounts of vodka, sausage grease and black hentai magic coursed through his veins.


Sincerely,

Mr. Kristoff, Senior Producer
Jul 28, 2019
Subverse - [CM] StudioFOW - Fowchan
I’m back, bitches! Our Commander in Queef, Big Daddy DC, has entrusted me with handling the dev diary updates while he traverses the globe on an unholy mission to relocate Studio FOW's headquarters from the volcanic fires of Mordor to somewhere more habitable for our filthy future endeavors.

I can’t wait to tease you degenerates with all sorts of taint-tickling tidbits! Also, I dare you say that last part ten times fast.

LAST CALL FOR VA AUDITIONS!

To you or any of your friends with hopes of one day getting paid to sit on a Bad Dragon, pretend it’s a space slug’s gigantic slimy reproductive rod and moan in sweet orgasmic bliss for the entire world to hear –

TURN IN YOUR AUDITIONS NOW!

The open casting call ends today. Don’t let this opportunity slip through your sticky fingers!

On the other hand, if you want to BE the space slug, we’re looking for those as well. Here’s a WIP of a "chutt" - our lovable species of obese lateral undulators. All you veteran hentai fans should recognize the inspiration ;)



ENTER THE GENERAL

We only showed a little a bit of the corrupt general last time, so here’s another shot of her base mesh in progress. The entire model (including outfit) will be completed in the next few days, ticking off yet another roadmap goal! Those of you waifu fanatics that have been dying to get down with the thiccness are going to be most pleased with this one.

Dear Diary,

Dat ass was phat.



SPEAKING OF THICC...LOOK AT THIS FUCKING SCRIPT. LOOK AT IT.



As you can see, this thing is HUGE - and it's not even in its final form yet!

We've been hard at work day and night expanding the script of Subverse. Several confidential writing cumsultants have also been assisting to shape the story into something that we’re confident will make you laugh, cry and touch yourself all at the same time.



Once the scenes are finished, we're going to send them off to our amazing voice actors to record. The dialogue system of Subverse displays these lines on a sleek UI along with our character models that are capable of displaying fully animated emotions to emphasize the delivery. This design lets us show off our waifu models and set the mood for kino sci-fappage.



BIG SEXY DEV OVERHAUL

Our trusty programming duo, One-Eyed Jeremy and Hungry JJ, are still crankin’ away at the core systems coding. We’ve totally upgraded everything under the hood that to make sure all of the additional features and gameplay chapters added during the campaign will fit nicely and not result in some cervix-slamming nightmare later down the line.

We're still looking for a passionate senior programmer to help us move into full development, so contact us if you have the necessary experience/portfolio and want to punch a first class ticket to the dark side by helping us bring our space titty opera to life!

Our modeling team has also been swapping out our placeholder assets for new, custom hotness. We'll be teasing more vehicles as progress continues.

Can you guess who's going to be flying this bad boy?



WHAT'S NEXT???

For those of you most interested in the gameplay, we'll be announcing some of the integral gameplay systems in Subverse in the next update as well as showing off some more sweet models!

Sincerely,

- Mr. Kristoff

Senior Producer
Jul 14, 2019
Subverse - [CM] StudioFOW - Fowchan
Greetings perverts, it's time to tear myself away from the sheer unbridled horror that is the Planet Surveys, and fill you in on what filthy things we've been up to these past 2 weeks.

The Corrupt General

This character is actually really critical to the story in the opening Chapters, and features prominently in a very early cinematic - as such we have swapped her and Taron around in the production schedule to enable our cinematics crew to be able to work with the model. I don't wanna reveal too much but her inspiration is a hefty mix between Guts from Berserk and a Terminator...so yep, you can imagine what kind of badass we're crafting here.

Badasses still need to look good though, so here's a WIP shot of her lip-gloss. The General's model should be ready soon at which point we will resume the normal waifu roadmap.



XenoEnv Textures

We're continuing to update our texture library and of course we need some gross-looking stuff for tentacles and the inside of Moneyshot's colon. This is well ahead of schedule and only a few organic textures remain, so our scenebuilding team of Beamwire and WTX are primed for the rest of 2019.



Cinematics

No StudioFOW adult product is complete without anime-style fight scenes that 90% of you will skip anyway, so naturally we are working hard on this part of the game. Taking a leaf from our filmmaking ventures, we've gone ahead and storyboarded these story sequences out, in order to give our animators the best possible foundation for success. You can find a sample of these boards below if you want to take a peek. Eventually these will be voice acted along with the rest of the game.




I will also be expanding the animator team to help cope with the increased cinematic load, so if you're interested in being part of our animation crew then start prepping those CV's! Please note that only exceptional candidates will be considered for this position, but if you don't have the required industry experience then you can still apply if your demo reel is amazing. More details on the posting to come next month.

Planet Survey

The planet survey has eaten up almost all my time these past 2 weeks. Out of the 400 or so planet surveys about 80% of these had to be completely rewritten, so this is going to take way more time than initially I thought. Combined with the huge number of non-english speaking applicants (Writing your entire lore in Chinese doesn't help us, guys) we're looking at one big shitshow. Luckily I have recruited somebody to help me out with this so god bless my translator for taking this unholy bullet straight in the balls. We'll get there, buddy. Hang in there, and hold my hand. But no seriously, patience is appreciated as we get through all the surveys.

Keys

Out of the 57,730 backers only about 70 of you still need a key. This is down to things like typing "gogle" instead of "google" on email forms, and using throwaway emails - Fow-Chan will be contacting you to sort out the keys manually, but in case she doesn't feel free to email her at fowchan@streembit.com

Please remember to activate your keys on Steam. This can be done by going to the Games tab then clicking Activate, and entering the code you have been sent. The fulfillment team has done an exceptional job with delivering everything (especially considering this is our first KS and we didn't use BackerKit) so please help them out by activating your keys and checking your spam folders.



Moving

On a personal note, this will be my last update until September - I am moving countries next month so our Senior Producer Mr. Kristoff will be stepping in to do the next 4 updates for you guys. Hopefully everything goes to plan and immigration doesn't throw me out for attempting to smuggle DEMI dakimakura prototypes across the border. See you on the other side!

-DC


Jun 28, 2019
Subverse - [CM] StudioFOW - Fowchan
Hi everyone,

It’s been another busy two weeks at StudioFOW so it’s time to update you all again on the progress on Subverse.

A lot of very talented artists are working together on this project and they are all contributing across multiple fields. It's great to see the passion for the game is strong, although the waifus probably have something to do with that...

Studio 69



The new member of the team, WTX, has joined forces with Portsman and Rocky to create our Studio 69 club level for the VIP Kickstarter backers. Right now the geometry is in place and the props are being finalized, you can see the basic layout below. After we finish some texture touch-ups we will set-dress the build and start an optimization pass inside UE4. Note that set dressing may include the Smenchkin jizzing all over that nice coffee table. The Captain and your waifu of choice will occupy the couch, while the jukebox takes up the left of the screen. The center is for the stripper tube, which is still conceptual at this stage.

Smenchkin



Yes, this disgusting little critter is ready as promised in the roadmap. You can view him in all his unholy glory below. The Smenchkin will be a pet exclusive to certain Kickstarter backers nutty enough to pledge for it - and now he will nut all over your Captains Quarters.


Next Waifu



Our neckbeard blacksmiths are hard at work forging the armor of this next waifu...it's not ready until it can withstand the force of a space dragon's dick


Texture Artistry



We've enlisted the help of additional texture wizards to fill out some of the gaps in the library. We'll be using these across the game in various ground combat and cinematic levels.


Keys

I'm pleased to report that 99.6% of all keys have been successfully delivered thanks to the hard work of Fow-Chan and our server guys. If for some reason you don't have a key, once again, check your spam folder, and then email fowchan@streembit.com or go on our Discord and open a ticket.

Programming

The programming team has put in the hard yards over the past week working on the space combat module and progression systems, including laying the groundwork for future outfits via the Locker Room, and tweaking the enemy wave spawners for some of the more exotic boss fights. The guys have a lot to get through in 2019 so they will be needing some assistance. As such, the job posting for the Senior Unreal 4 Developer is now live. I have to say some of the applicants so far have been pretty poor - if you have the balls to ask for $200,000 a year then at least read the fucking job posting. Wasting our time not knowing what game you're even applying for is a pretty bad first impression to make.

Curious Colonist

If you happen to be in this tier (£250 and above) please note that there is a cutoff point on July 14th for submitting your planet requests. At this point if you have not responded to your survey (check Kickstarter) then you will forfeit this reward, as we have to start implementing these planets into the game.

Epic Games Store

Just kidding. We love you guys.

- Studio FOW
Subverse - [CM] StudioFOW - Fowchan
Hello everyone!

It's been a busy two weeks here at the studio - I'm back to my usual 80-hour a week schedule, 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, no days off - trying to organize everything across the studio and getting the last of the new pre-production duties out of the way. As a director you have to work these kinds of hours and lead by example otherwise you really cannot ask the same of your team when the going gets tough. Burn-out is not really an issue since it's an honor to work on such an amazing project, but I hope to dial it back a bit once production gets into full swing and departments become self-sufficient.

Here's a rundown of what we've been doing since the last update:

SCRIPT

We've expanded the game from a 3-chapter game to a 10+ chapter game, so a lot of the ending and third act is still a work in progress - but we've made amazing progress on the script so far and we're on course to have it ready for recording well ahead of time. We're also in the process of headhunting an additional writer to help with the onboard dialogue sequences. This new writer will take a bit of weight off Kristoff and myself in terms of the writing load. We also hope the new writer will vary it up with a more feminine tone as well, instead of the usual testosterone-fueled fuckery.



MODELING

The Mantic bestiary is expanding by the day, and thanks to the hard work of Dzung and his team alongside our new modeler, we have alien dicks galore! We're also cleaning up some of the existing models and making them more consistent with our art direction. Anything else we don't have time for will be supplemented by buying them off the trusty Unreal Marketplace and corrupting them, in true StudioFOW fashion.



WAIFUS

Elaisha is getting finished up rigging-wise (the hair is fucking insane) and she'll be all good to go next week. Dzung and Portsman are working on the outfit for the next waifu so we're well on schedule here. The Smenchkin, whilst not a waifu (thank god) is also going to be ready by the end of June. I can't wait to share some screenshots of this critter with you guys!



CLOUD

We've synced our cloud storage and updated our GitHub repository to make sure its production-ready for the devs. We have a new chain of command established for ferrying assets across as well as complete backup system to prevent any mishaps when Manski's obese, 20kilo monster of a cat chews on our cables.


DOCUMENTATION

Basic documentation is now in place for the new devs coming onboard - this will enable them to get their bearings quicker as well as be a point of reference for the team internally. We hope to expand the documentation in the coming weeks.


ANIMATION

The animators are pleased to be experiencing the full power of DEMI's butthole. Very pleased.


KEYS

Steam keys are now being sent out in waves, over 30,000 of you have already activated your copies which is awesome. If for some reason you don't receive a key - check your spam/junk folder. Then double check it again. Then triple-check it. 99% of the time the key email is in your spam folder, 1% of the time it's an actual error. Keep in mind we send keys to the email address associated with your Kickstarter account. If by chance you do have an actual problem please email fowchan@streembit.com with your issue and she will sort it out for you.


CINEMATICS

I've just returned from a crazy, 3-day storyboarding session in London where we sketched out about 300 shots for the new cinematics that were added as part of the Kickstarter goal. These cinematics are going to be kickass in every sense of the word and will make you all proud to be supporting the game.




We appreciate your support and will see you for the next page of our Dev Diary!

- Studio FOW
Subverse - [CM] StudioFOW - Fowchan
Hello pervs and welcome to our new Dev Diary series, where we'll be detailing some of the behind the scenes stuff during the making of everyone's favorite space RPG fuckfest.

I'll try and keep the techno-babble to a minimum and make this a fun and brief overview of what we've been working on. We'll aim to have a diary on the 14th and 28th of each month so this will be a fortnightly affair! I'm DC the creative director of the project, and I'll be walking you through everything this week.


POST CAMPAIGN


All the souls have been collected inside Fow-Chan's jar, and we're happy to report that most of you made it intact...for those that didn't, never fear - you can still support Subverse when we launch on Steam, so even if you're not interested in playing an Early Access game you can support the devs' pizza addiction that way.

We've sent out the surveys (20£+) and most of you have responded, but some of you have not, so please check your emails that you signed up with as there may something waiting for you in there! I noticed there's a massive number of Curious Colonists - you guys are gonna have to bear with us until we get through it all sometime next month.

Keys are on the way! We've been in touch with Steam support about sending out a large volume of keys and we hope to be pressing the giant red button very soon. Fow-Chan and her team will be handling the key allocation so you're in good hands.


RECRUITMENT DRIVE


Recruitment is underway! We've already begun filling positions for key artist personnel. Keep in mind that the final team size will be around 12 people, half of those being part-timers so it's still a tiny dev team and we're being careful about recruiting the right personnel. The primary thing I'm looking for as a Director when it comes to artists is attitude - I'm already getting price hikers sniffing around, trying to haggle overpriced rates because we've had a successful Kickstarter - these always go straight in the bin in favor of somebody who is showing me they're willing to be a part of this historic project at any cost.

Next month we'll be recruiting for dev positions so if you have extensive UE4 experience (no interns or "this will be my summer job" types please...) then keep an eye out for announcements regarding those. Once again, please be prepared to work and to work diligently - StudioFOW may be a team of degenerate neckbeards but we're also extremely hard workers - classic 90's crunch culture is the norm around here!

Casting calls for some of the roles have been sent out and our casting catgirl Samine is working super hard on getting a great cast together for the rest of the important roles. Hardcore fans will be pleased to know that you'll also be hearing the return of some StudioFOW favorites from our old movies to bring these babes to life!

For the rest of the positions, we'll be doing our usual headhunting which has worked extremely well for the studio in the past, so hopefully it does so again. We'll be introducing all the new members just before Early Access drops!

The Mangaka lineup has also turned into somewhat of an All-Star team, more on that next time!


CAMPAIGN SCOPE


Now that Kickstarter has closed, we'll be posting over on Steam as well (if you haven't seen us, be sure you've enabled Adult Content in your Steam preferences) and trying to keep a more active presence over there. That's not to mean you can't follow dev diaries on Kickstarter, we're just trying to keep it posted on multiple fronts for visibility. We've also had a lot of requests for curator copies and such but please request these closer to the early access date, we're not giving out curator keys at this stage or press copies to anybody whilst we still have backer keys to handle. Supporters are the priority, not curators.

The byproduct of all the milestones being smashed also means the scope of the game has slightly increased, which means we were hard at work this month expanding the script, animation pool, and doing general code cleanups to facilitate a couple of new modules. We've greatly enjoyed this process because we get to make the game we intend to, so getting Subverse into full gear is going to be really fun! The budget will also allow us to put an extra shine on certain things, which you perverts will no doubt enjoy... and also enable me to partake in some good old fashioned directorial wankery, like giant dick-laser space battles and a turtle with three ballsacks strapped to its chin.

Concerning the Boin Boin/Whale tiers, a lot of you haven't replied to these yet so please check your Kickstarter messages! I don't want you to miss out on these and we do have a time limit so get those requests in!

Due to the expanded scope, we'll also be a little more conservative with our media/video strategy. We don't want to blow our load too early by showing stuff that's not ready - and the game is changing rapidly each week so we'll probably settle a bit before drip feeding some hype stuff out on Youtube. I have some ideas on how to give the waifus a bit more limelight and it's gonna be awesome.


ELAISHA


Oh yeah, have a slutty space-elf!




- DC & Fowchan
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