Hello folks,

The Fortune release is now in the hands of the internal testers, who are churning out daily feedback sheets. After this process is complete, we will be ready for release. Touching on the previous update, we are setting the release date of the Fortune chapter to December 19. Originally we were targeting November but the team is still operating at less than half the manpower we started the project with. Finding new people with the level of talent required for a project of this scope before the holiday season is proving challenging, so we are rolling with what we have for now. This means delays are inevitable, and it will continue to mean delays into 2023 unless we are able to bring industry-proven talent on board. Whilst operating with a skeleton crew is not ideal, the core animation team continues to carry on the torch from the StudioFOW days, making good progress on the sex scenes and cinematics. Ultimately these long-time team members are ensuring the most important parts of the game receive loving treatment.

Moneyshot

The cold darkness of November is only safe with Blythes warm embrace.

Been hopping between ending cinematics, some spacewhale Pandora scenes and helping out with some VFX shenanigans. Sometimes you get a scene that you dive deep into that claims a piece of your soul. The result is a piece of art.

Manski

At the time of this Dev Diary entry, I'm working on finishing up the videos of Fortune's Ultimate Attacks to overlay during ground combat. Her moveset implies heavy amounts of hacking.In order to convey this, the attacks involve a lot of VFX and somatic moves to perform her “spellcasting.”

Massimo Decimo Meridio

This month I had an outstanding opportunity to create an animation from scratch based on my personal taste! And here it comes a combination with the Huntress and the Captain! But I won't say too much ;)

Yagskie

For my November's animation work, I did some 2-on-2 tag team action! We are trying to use more combinations in Pandora, and this was one of them.

Mendez

I've been finishing up some proof of concept stuff and got to try my hands on in-game combat animations for one of the new mantics.

Also spending time setting up some more ideas for possible scenes whilst admiring Blythe's abs on a regular basis.

Hungry JJ

Hi,

Lately I have been focusing on finishing up the Grid Combat Requital units and new Mantics by finalizing the characters abilities, passives and triggering VFX. In addition to this, we have entered a testing phase, so I have been working on reported bugs.

Samantha Flowers

Hello everyone,

This month I have been working on finalizing sound work on Pandora, and the new upcoming mantics, Itchy and Cicalo.

Behind the scenes I've also been compiling VO assets and laying the ground work for the main story mission's script for engine integration for a later block.

Not to be overlooked of course, I have continued working on the visuals and lighting of DIS. Yes, the bloom is getting reduced. More importantly, we can see the characters now have black outlines, similar to what you're used to seeing in Pandora.

WTX

Bit of a blast from the past, this month I got to flesh out and expand on some previously seen locations. What will happen there, stays there (but I'm sure we all will find out eventually).

ErinTheSketchy

Lights! Lights everywhere! So many little lights!
Almost there though *:) The VFX for the new characters should be ready any time now and although I see lights everywhere, it was a nice experience and I might have discovered a new passion.
Did I say lights?

Bangkok ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

I did a breakdown of the remaining design tasks for Subverse to get it across the finishing line. From it, I've focused on a couple of important ending boss fights that are key to the overarching story and on mechanics centered around the core gameplay. I want to continue fixing and polishing the core gameplay while still dishing out sex-related content for your viewing/playing pleasure.

Fowchan

Hello my darlings!

I have more news from the community & happiness front - we are currently looking into the much requested merch! We are targeting things like T-shirts, hoodies, posters and stickers along with partnerships with various big artists for character designs in the like. We’ll make another announcement when we get closer to launch. ♥

Tibor

Hello distinguished Subverse users. If you are interested what I am up to, I have summarized a few things in a blog post at https://tibor.blog/2022/11/30/mini-q-a/.


See you next month!

Bis bald,
Till Eulenspiegel

Happy Halloween everyone and stay safe out there!

Please check out our new features overview video for an indepth look at what’s coming up in Subverse’s next major content patch in November!

Video Update SFOW

Without further ado, here’s what the team’s been working on during spooky season:

Moneyshot

I’ve been honing my predatory skills and can see in blue, green and orange.
Lighting, post process and optimizing Fortunes pandora scenes so that even the mushiest potato can witness the greatness. Enjoy!

Manski

Animation is currently one release ahead, so this month I've returned to Pandora duties, tackling scenes for the 0.7 and 0.8 updates. Going into it would spoil future content, so here's a graphical asset from the game for serious and objective consideration.

Massimo Decimo Meridio

I finished a bunch of grid combat animations during October and I moved back to Pandora to work on some future waifus!

Yagskie

For this October, I've finished a space whale sex animation! The next phase is to add some voice over before lip synching and lighting.

My next project for this month is another threesome scene of Captain, and Elaisha sex animation.

Mendez

I've been working and lurking behind the scenes experimenting and working on a few proof-of-concept things for some ideas that we're playing with. Apart from that I'm also about to get my hands dirty with in-game character animations for the grid combat game play for the first time.

I've been wanting to try my hands with fight scenes for a long time so getting to do a few combat animations is pretty exciting to me. I was tasked with Cicalo’s kit and I managed to finish it up this week.

PROGRAMMING

Hungry JJ

Hello,

Since the last update, I have been learning and working on more areas of the game. Primarily I have been focusing on character integration during story sequences, PANDORA scene integration and Grid Combat gameplay.

With the addition of 2 new mantics, 2 new GC missions, the Requital faction, sidequest characters and Fortune, I have been able to work with some members on the team more and some that I hardly cross paths with workwise. Gratefully, everyone on the team past and present have been supportive by providing documentation or scheduling a quick meeting to assist get a grasp on these new areas.

Samantha Flowers

Hello everyone,
I have been hard at work re-adjusting the post processing and lighting for all the visual novel scenes from THE VERY BEGINNING of the game, all the way up to our latest upcoming update. It has been a new learning experience for me, which is great, since it feels like it's been a long time since I last learned new things about the engine! Please check out our end results. I hope this might inspire some of our players to revisit their unlocked scenes in their archive menu!

ART & MODELING

WTX

This month I worked on a couple of interactive maps, most of which will be an integral part to the devotion quests. Among them is this cool underwater scene which I had fun putting together.

ErinTheSketchy

The graphic design needs for this block are already covered, so this month I've had the opportunity to work more on testing and VFX creation while I'm getting more familiar with the back-end processes of the game development! #creatingmagic

Bangkok ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

While keeping up with the implementation of designs that revolved around a few boss fights, I worked and still working on the finalization of the Waifu-oriented devotion quests gameplay flow. I will be finalizing many of my designs in the upcoming month as I enter the final run.

Some of these designs include:

• Grid and Space Combat Updates
  
• Dating System Updates
  
• Reputation System Updates

Fowchan

We are excited to announce the Fowcade will be returning in it’s previous glory sometime late November! We are launching with Valheim (lots of requests for this) - All other servers will be done on a popularity basis! If enough of you ask - We will do! (PVE Ark sounds fun, amirite?)

Tibor

To keep it short here and if you are interested in more details about what I am up to I created a blog post at https://tibor.blog/2022/10/31/start-working-on-the-devotion-meter/


See you next month!

Bis bald,
Till Eulenspiegel

Hi folks,

Apologies for the later than usual diary, we’ve had a tough summer with several members leaving abruptly, which put us in a rather difficult position to try and recover lost ground. These things are part and parcel of working with a software team and a project of this nature. The good news is that with production of the next chapter now in full swing again, we are working towards the game's completion as planned, and now it is time to share everyone’s hard work with you all.

Moneyshot

It’s difficult to talk about what I’ve been working on this past month as most of it contains spoilers..!
But there’s been a lot of lip syncing, fleshlights, semen. Learning a new skill as well.

I grow as a defiler.

Manski

This week I'm working on dating animations for the next waifu. Dating isn't really her forte so expect a lot of awkward glances and fidgeting.

Massimo Decimo Meridio

After working on various sex scenes for the past couple of months, I have been assigned to some really entertaining Grid Combat animations featuring a unit known as the Requital Commando!
I'm enjoying it so much!!
We also have a new upcoming girl that will melt down your eyes, but, no spoilers :P

Yagskie

FOWers!
For this month, I'm almost done animating an important recruitment scene, giving our mystery girl a taste of the FOW treatment! I’ve been asked to make this one especially rough, which is my speciality!

Mendez

I've been spending these days working on a variety of things like more lip-syncing, scenebuilding, and of course some of the dirty stuff that makes up Pandora.
Most of all though I've been busy blocking and animating a few cutscenes for the next couple of updates.
My favorite part of the work I've been doing lately is to get the different cutscenes to hit the right emotional chords in each scene. It's just a lot of fun seeing these types of things come together. Can't wait for you all to see it in game.

Brunka

I've been hopping from one task to another lately, whether it's for a cinematic, a pandora scene, or spraying cum everywhere. All that I can say to you coomer that is reading this, is to prepare to see some badass waifus in the upcoming update.

Hungry JJ

Hello,

Recently I have been working on the next space combat main quest mission and the new co-pilot’s attack. The mission will take place in an underground facility with some light stealth gameplay and a mini boss fight. In addition to this, I have been integrating the next set of devotion trophies and icons for the new characters throughout the game.

Samantha Flowers

Hello everyone, it's been awhile! Happy to report I have been hard at work on the soundscape of this block's cinematics, which sadly I can't go into detail due to spoilers, but I've been enjoying the variety, jumping between open blustery landscapes, and the many busy, bustling interiors.

Of course, not to be overlooked are the upcoming visual novel scenes. With the Mary Celeste crew becoming so large, it has been quite a challenge to set up and fit so many bodies with extremely varied shapes and sizes within the boundaries of our frame.

WTX

This month I got to work on a few more cool sci-fi environments and backgrounds, including this high-tec 'vault' which will be part of one of the upcoming story beats. Can't yet say what will be housed within it, but it's something to do with butts. ;^)

Portsman

We worked on getting some additional skins working, such as ones with different hair colors. I also worked on a tan lines feature for the nude meshes.

ErinTheSketchy

Now that all the essential graphics for the upcoming block are ready, I'm working on the new UI screens that will come along with the future gameplay improvements! There are a lot of things coming up and it's a challenge to avoid spoilers, so for now I want to share with you a sneak peek from the concepting process of the updated victory screen.

Bangkok ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Till the half-point of this block, I've designed:
- Two wacky new mantics.
- The Requital units' ability kits that aim to bring a rather tricky set of encounters.
- A challenging 1v1 Grid Combat boss fight between two of my favorite Waifus.
- Three of the seven Waifu Devotion Quests that you guys can soon play once you've progressed a fair bit on their redesigned devotion meters.

Also, all Waifu Grid and Space Combat ability kits are ready for implementation, so hang in there!:)

Fowchan

Hello everyone, Fowchan here!
I have a few updates for community based shenanigans!

First of all, I am currently working on getting the Fowcade back up and running! Various servers for various fun for community games!
We are also looking into doing community game nights!

Second, we are currently looking into using Discords new forum system to help break some channels down further, allowing greater control of where you post your smut.

Third, we are aiming to bring a regular schedule for our v-babes! I can't share much more information then that for the moment being, but be sure to keep an eye out for more updates on our standard channels!

我们的中国客户，我们尽快会发布一个更新。谢谢您的耐心等待。

Tibor

Following a very long sick leave due to Covid and post-Covid problems the doctors gave me a green light, and I will be back on the 30th September to help the programming team. Please check out my latest blog entry at Tibor's Blog if you are interested in more team related, personal and technical information. Thanks very much for your support!

See you next month!

Bis bald,
Till Eulenspiegel

Hi folks,

Here is our latest update with a Q&A format featuring some of your most popular questions. Hopefully it will be an interesting read!

A message for our Chinese community:
大家好，我的小可爱们!

我想谈谈对众人为中文翻译的担忧。
我们正在拼命工作着把游戏完成。您们永远在我们的心中。
我们游戏工作室里的人都很感谢您们这一段时间的耐心，我们还希望能给您们最好玩的游戏经验。
我们的中国关注者对我们非常重要，而且我们很感谢您们在这发展时期继续支持着我们。

尽管如此，我们因不跟我们最大的粉丝群之一沟通而表示道歉，我们希望您们能原谅我们。

此时此刻，我们在寻找一个自愿汉英的翻译者帮我们发布公告之类的贴子。我们更情愿一个会说英语的中国人。

若觉得您认为您能协助我们，请给 fowchan@streembit.com 发个电子邮件。
有客户服务工作经验者尤佳考虑。

Thank you
谢谢您们的主意，
此致敬礼



Q. How do you come up with the names of the characters?

A. These were decided very early on, even before the script as you know it had been conceived. It’s a combination of personal experiences, mixing and matching famous names/characters or simply just finding a cool name and putting a bit of a twist on it! A lot of what inspires us or amuses us personally, goes into Subverse’s thick plot load, and the names are no exception.

Q. Who’s the next waifu?

A. No spoilers just yet, but to be fair there’s not many candidates left to choose from!

Q. Are there any planned orgy scenes with the waifus?

A. In order to have the realtime scenes run smoothly, we have to adhere to some technical limitations of the engine. Through research, we’ve found that keeping the scenes to 3-4 waifus maximum is the most optimal course of action.



Q. Do you plan on adding a wider array of environments for the pandora scenes?

A. It’s low on our list of priorities at the moment as we are working hard on making sure the story and the existing scenes look as good as possible. Once we have delivered the main course, we can always go back and look at whether or not this is possible.

Q. What is the process of creating a manticore? What inspires designs? Does one person finalize designs, or is it a group effort?

A. We are inspired by interesting concept arts of creatures, that’s usually the starting point. After that, the modellers talk with the director and they try to come up with a 3D sculpt. The cocks for the mantics were very much a group effort, since we had to go through a lot of concepts and put it to a vote. The female members of the devteam were especially vocal during these challenging deliberations! We hope to share more about this very unique process in a future showcase!

Q. Will our boy Dallick get any ass at somepoint?

A. Poor Dallick, the best he can hope for is someone to sit on his face. His best days are behind him and he can’t really compete with the Captain

Q. Can Taron purr?!

A. Pet her gently and find out!



Q. Do we get to see Demi's nipples?

A. For the low low price of 4,999,999 spacebux you too can purchase the nipple addon for your commbott! Call now!

Q. Is mantic evolution still going to happen?

A. It’s low on the priority list right now

Q. Will we ever be able to replay missions?

A. As discussed in a previous dev diary it takes an insane amount of effort to make every story mission replayable. Right now our focus is on finishing the main story and this would divert resources away from that.

Q. Are you planning on expanding the breadth of tactics in Grid Combat and if so, how?

A. The answer is a resounding “yes” and there are a few ways with which we are attempting to do so. First and foremost, you must understand that we are not seeking to create a hardcore grid combat system, but rather something more simple to pick up and learn. As such, we are prototyping the following ideas;

1. Slightly elevating the complexity of the grid space within each fight, for instance introducing destructible AoE hazards, or a pseudo cover mechanic.

2. Adding equippable and consumable items to our Waifus in the hopes of increasing the options within the playstyle space.

3. Especially for the last four (4) Waifus, the designs have been thought out with utmost care to ensure that their kits bring unique flavors to Grid Combat playstyles.

4. The same goes for the latest Mantics.

5. If we have time at the end of 1.0 we would like to go back and give the older waifu kits a spit and polish as well.



Q. Will you implement any designs that increase replayability in Space Combat?

A. We are aware of the repetition space combat brings to the overarching experience. However, the progression system is not in place yet so it is magnifying the problems of repetition. Once the progression system is live we are actually thinking of a big addition that you will most definitely enjoy. Thank you for your patience!

Q. What is the design philosophy behind the Devotion Quests?

A. Above all, each Devotion Quest must be emotionally impactful, as story-wise the Devotion Quest is the final chapter of a Waifu’s story, the climactic arc of her personal journey. Due to this, we want each boss you’ll encounter during these special missions to be truly different and memorable. Each quest is tailored specifically for the waifu so a tremendous amount of work is going into them.

Q. Will we see more of the Drinking Minigame introduced with Sova's patch?

A. Yes, we are planning to have more of this in the future, with a few competitive tweaks as an extra bonus!

Q. Will there be any more minigames?

A. We'd really love to. We will need to complete the main story before we can give a definitive answer to that.



Q. Are you going to allow for in-depth scene interactivity in Pandora?

A. For everything we do we need to consider the manpower limitations and engine limitations that come with developing something of this scope. We put a lot of effort to into the Taron scene but based on the increasing scope and additional resources required we won't be pursuing any advanced interactivity for now.

Q. Why the 5 Factions in Prodigium? Were these chosen specifically for a reason?

A. We wanted the factions you encounter to be both politically important to Prodigium, as well as integral parts of the story. The Dreadfleet are a common nuisance across the galaxy, and they tied in to Killi’s storyline. Plus space pirates are just awesome, so they had to be one. The Kloi terrify even the Imperium so we wanted to showcase their military for this reason. The Imperium had to be a faction as well since they are the “big bads” of the plot and it wouldn’t make sense to never fight them. The Requital are tied in with Blythe and also a major power player in Prodigium. And of course the Fuccbotts, who admittedly have not had their time to shine yet but soon will.

Q. Can you tell us anything about how the Requital plays in grid combat?

A: For the Requital, we approached it slightly differently, with them introducing a vast array of specializations to the playfield and working tactically, in unison, as a kill-team. Do not underestimate them! They might come in low numbers, but their combined abilities can decimate the field.



Q. What is the creative process behind your boss fights?

A. First and foremost, it is all about invoking a certain sense of emotion, such as claustrophobia or sheer fear. It is also a chance for us to show you the different locations within Prodigium and the dangers they are littered with. Creatively playing around with established mechanics and introducing small, newer ones is also something that motivates us. Honestly, our systems and mechanics library have been built in such a way that they can be mixed and matched with a rather beautiful potential. We look forward to maximizing the potential with each and every update. And of course we are also huge fans of pop culture themes, so if we are given the chance to do Fifth Element memes, we will!

Q. How does the team feel working in an explicit project such as Subverse? How's the culture?

A. Culturally the core team responsible for animation and creative direction has been working together from StudioFow days. While we have added new personalities and talent to the team to allow us to deliver Subverse, we kept our healthy attitude for making sure we always deliver for the fans.
Explicit content means that we have to take a different approach to some business processes, like recruitment and marketing as conventional means and channels are frequently not open to engagement with an adult themed title. This means we rely heavily on the goodwill of the fanbase and the StudioFow fans who continue to support our creations. One example of the curious ways things can be dramatic, was our US trademark application which triggered a storm with US online commentator Tim Pool! Subverse is now trademarked in the US, our biggest market.

Q. Why revamp the progression system?

A. We feel that something more streamlined will not only birth a far more rewarding experience but also allow players to embrace their preferred playstyle (Waifu). Furthermore, it will also allow the team to work more efficiently on the progression system.

Q. Will the DEVA form offer more?

A. We are looking into expanding the powerplay playstyle the DEVA form offers, whilst remaining within scope, of course.

Q. What’s the vision regarding an in-game shop?

A. We do want to put it in, it’s just a question of when. The entire endeavour is not particularly challenging from a technical standpoint, but we need to make sure that the value to effect ratio is well thought out.

Q. Will Mary Celeste join the space fight?

A. We really want to, however, if this magnificent beast is to join the fray, it would require a lot of extra work! And right now we have to put all our manpower into improving the sex and finishing the main story.

Q. Will the game go on sale during Early Access?

A. We are looking into the possibility of a sale at some point before Early Access ends!

Q. There seems to be more reports of Game crashes, should players worry about this?

A. As the game is developed and more content is added we are making more time and investment to ensure a stable codebase and that our internal testing is thorough before new updates. There are some instances which could be the cause of crashes for players even if the published build is fully reliable.

• Players who have implemented mods on the game will potentially need to wait for their mod update from wherever they got it. Subverse is not officially supplying mods during early access.

• file saves or pirated file saves can equally cause crashes in the software.

• limitations of the players PC, which could be due to many different scenarios outside of the scope of the team.

What we are committed to is continually improve and maintain the codebase for Subverse so that it will be as reliable as possible through early access and to full release. We appreciate hearing details on bugs and issues which is certainly one of the benefits of Early Access players, which we are grateful for.

Bis bald,
Till Eulenspiegel

https://youtu.be/bSchW1voKOQ


CONCLUSION OF THE SOVA ARC
Sova’s recruitment storyline comes to a conclusion on planet Teatakanya, as you partake in one winner-takes-all championship bout in the Teelee Fighting Championship.


NEW SOVA NSFW SCENES
New scenes have been added in Pandora for Sova containing a wide variety of fetishes, alongside a new foreplay video sequence that will play automatically as you progress through the story.


NEW NEBULA – YETI
All of the Yeti nebula is now accessible for exploration. We will be updating the planets and progression system in a later patch so please treat most of these as placeholders for now.


NEW UI ADDITIONS
More of the UI has been overhauled including a complete revamp of the Gallery UI, with interactive preview materials.


NEW EQUIPPABLES SYSTEM
We are trialing an equippable system for grid combat, which will hopefully add some flexibility when deploying waifus. Please let us know what you think and how we should improve upon it!


DEVA MODE FOR REST OF CREW
DEVA form should be unlocked for all previous waifus now (provided they reach level 20) along with some balance changes to the system.


NEW MANTICS - PERVEDILLO & LAMARSE
Two additional mantics have been added for players to discover and recruit to the team.


MORE MUSIC TRACKS
A few new songs have been added to Grid Combat gameplay.

• Improvements to the lip flap system during dialogue sequences.
  
• Updated Sova’s idle animation in the Locker Room onboard the Mary Celeste.
  
• Added 3 new poses to the Gallery. Ela “Kloi Please”, Taron “Rawr” and Taron “Furball”.
  
• Added explanation of Clear Input Cache under Settings/Controls tab. Primarily required between updates if there are issues with key-bindings.
  
• Added character level visibility on the character selection screen during Grid/Space Combat.
  
• Reduced the amount of asteroids in Huntress Fight 2 second phase.
  
• Added wave data to random scenarios in Space Combat.
  
• Added warning that player will embark on a long quest when starting a new waifu storyline. This currently is only applicable for Elaisha, Taron and Sova quest.
  
• Added completion percentage counters to galaxy, nebulae and systems in Navigation. Note: This is a WIP and there are currently some inconsistencies with how they update. Some known areas are Doochi-Kabana, Tychedemus and systems where there are unknown missions or sidequest that have multiple encounters where the mission is unknown until the required one is completed.
  
• Replaced previous controls prompt with help box in Navigation.
  
• Sex scenes that take place during dialogue story sequences no longer play the idle pose before the sex scene. New sequence is foreplay cinematic then sex scene. Idle scene will display as before when replaying.
  
• Redesigned gift icons for Fashionable Boots and Illegal Narcotics.
  
• Added Socialite status effect/icon “Bitch Please”.
  
• Texture memory optimization pass.

• Fixed issue where exclamation marker was still visible after completing one section of a quest that spans more than one anomaly in Navigation.
  
• Fixed issue with indicators not rendering in Space Combat when the larger ships spawned for the Scoundrel faction.
  
• Fixed issue with Tibold’s ship in Grid Combat where there were broken active tiles.
  
• Fixed issue where there was invisible blocking from lancer attacks.
  
• Fixed issue where New Mantic tag missing for Equicox & Rekall when onboard the Mary Celeste.
  
• Fixed some cinematics where no subtitles were rendering or displayed inconsistent text.
  
• Fixed issue if character is talking while exiting the gifting screen, the voice can still be heard.
  
• Fixed several issues with clipping on some PANDORA scenes.
  
• Fixed several issues with lighting on some PANDORA scenes.
  
• Fixed several issues with animations on some PANDORA scenes.
  
• Fixed several issues with texture & post processing on some PANDORA scenes.
  
• Fixed several issues with focus and framing on some PANDORA scenes.
  
• Fixed several reported physics issues during dialogue sequences.
  
• Fixed several inconsistencies with the text during dialogue sequences.

• Low texture resolution rendering for some users during dialogue sequences throughout the game.
  
• Some users reported odd textures when loading Ela and Taron in PANDORA and Gallery.
  
• Framerate drop can cause Mary Celeste to shoot out of the jump-gate in Navigation.
  
• Bridge projector fails to update the color scheme throughout Mary Celeste consistently. This will be fixed in later builds once all nebulae are unlocked.
  
• Physics on dangling pieces such as tentacles or hair (i.e. Huntress or Killi) may clip through the character's body or rapidly vibrate.
  
• Yellow/White screen flashing artifact during space combat when using the FXAA aliasing method. Most likely due to the lens flare and or high bloom values.
  
• On rare occasions, an unintentional song plays during some areas of the game.
  
• On rare occasions, clicking the Help button in the dialogue section of the game can remove the help text but can't be re-enabled until restarting or starting a new scene.
  
• Potential stuttering when playing back cinematics for some systems. Note there is an option to disable 4k videos from the graphics tab under settings. This has improved performance for some users.
  
• Reports of performance issues on some Space Combat random scenario maps.
  
• Animation in You’re Mine Now scene needs finalizing.
  
• Replay icons and navigation icon concepts are a work in progress, inconsistencies are known.

• Sova’s quest will resume the next time the navigation button is clicked. In the full release there won’t be a break to explore navigation.
  
• Optimizations have been made that should help with low texture resolution during dialogue sequences. Please let us know if you have seen an improvement.
  
• Currently equipables are associated with the completion of random scenario missions and waifu levels. If you have completed a mission that would have dropped an equipable, it will display in the locker room. Note: Once an equipable is acquired a short tutorial will play when you return to the Mary Celeste on how to equip them.

Hi folks,

We will be releasing Part Two of the Sova update on July 25th on Steam, with GOG following shortly after. The update will conclude the Sova chapter and make her a fully fledged waifu onboard the Mary Celeste. The rest of Yeti nebula will unlock, as will 20+ new Pandora scenes, two new bosses, 10 new cinematics and a Gallery overhaul!

Moneyshot

I have spent most of the month working on cinematics but primarily doing lipsyncing passes on Sova’s Pandora scenes. The screams still echo within my brain cavity.

Gladly I got to end the horror by posing some sweet and silent gallery poses.

Manski

I worked on the dating animations for Sova. She's a very energetic character, dripping with sarcasm and booze, so I tried to match that aspect with the body movement in her animations.

Massimo Decimo Meridio

In the past month Sova was in my sights! Extremely happy with her, especially in the cinematic where she smashes some poor guy’s head like a melon!

I'm also super happy to be working with my second favourite character in Subverse coming up after Sova!
How hot she is daaaaaham! Can you guess who it is?
I've already made 2 animations for her! So enjoyable giving her a personalized animation!
Can't wait to see the final result!!

Yagskie

I've been assigned some top secret content that I can’t talk about!

Hint: It involves dicks going into butts

Mendez

I'm going full steam with content for characters in the 0.6 update after Sova!

I've been helping out a little with finding any issues with character models and been posing up a few ideas for sex scenes in the process. So far I'm quite happy with how they're turning out, so I hope you'll all enjoy them as well when they get released!

Brunka

I've been rubbing a lot of stuff lately, mainly pussies. Still waiting for a genie to pop out.

Hungry JJ

Hello,

After finishing setting up the flow of the game for the second part of Sova’s release, I began working on the second big space combat mission of Sova’s storyline. This mission will call back to the Keisterstation mission, and require the Captain and Sova to defend a very important entity. Other than that, I have been fixing some small bugs here and there from last release and assisting getting Sova ready for the Gallery.

Prof. Bang Dev

I'm prototyping a technology for changing the character's in-game looks, and also working on the cinematic visuals.

For an upcoming cinematic scene I have to update and advance with the aura effect I made for Celestina (and Deva). This effect is basically using the original character's mesh surface 32 times, tessellated and using a transparent surface, each layer offset just a little bit further from the original mesh and using a bunch of VFX trickery to make it look like a moving flame aura.
It's a very resource demanding effect, so it's perfect for these cinematics which are pre-rendered.

Mrs. Mankrik

After finishing up the lip flaps for the dialogues and relighting some of the scenes with DC, I crammed all of the new PANDORA scenes into the game, along with the Gallery poses, and now I'm working on getting Sova's gifting animations in. We will continue to relight and improve the dialogue system as production progresses

Timmeh

Some of you may have noticed the new Mary Celeste UI changes. I've been spending some time improving them even more, letting players see if areas have new interactions before going into those areas of the ship.

There's also two new mantics coming in the July 25th update, Lamarse and Pervedillo.

Discussions on how to overhaul grid combat with HentaiKouhai and Bangkok took place. Equippable waifu items - a small part of the overhaul - will arrive with the intent on expanding these items in later releases accompanied by other parts of the overhaul.

HentaiKouhai

After the release of the previous content patch, I've been working closely with Timmeh and Bangkok to implement Sova's long-awaited match in the TFC! Alongside this, we've started the discussions and the accompanying implementations for a very much-needed revisit to grid combat. Some elements of the planned revamp to grid combat have made it to Sova's TFC match and we hope that these building blocks that we will fully flesh out in the upcoming updates can make grid combat a bit more enjoyable in the future.

Samantha Flowers

This month I've been working on setting up the sound design for Sova's juicy new Pandora animations, as well as the main story's cinematics. Let's just say one of them required a LOT of VO...like, a LOT a lot.

WTX

My work this month was solely focused on overhauling the Grid Combat maps. Prof. Bang and I worked together on bringing the maps that were given a detail pass by our Art Director (plus a few new original maps) into the game, and make sure they look good and run smooth as Sova's bottom.

Portsman

We spent some time deciding what Sova would wear for her royal "duties". DC wanted an Ayane inspired butterfly ribbon on the back (of course) so we integrated that along with a healthy dose of Jasmine inspired baggy trousers.

ErinTheSketchy

And, guess what, new UI! This time I've made a cosmetic and functional attack on Gallery. It's now easier to preview and navigate, scroll-free, and nothing stands between you and your waifu -- especially text! Special credit to Prof.Bang and HungryJJ for their work on the filter and background half-screen preview.

Bangkok ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

It is no secret that while the base design of Grid Combat has established a sturdy foundation, these sequences need embellishment. The entire system is going through thorough revision cycles as we return some of its elements to the drawing board to update the experience. For this upcoming July 25th update, I’ve been working on delivering a small list of buffing equipables for each Waifu with the end goal of driving forth the players’ need for Grid Combat playstyles.

The progression system within Subverse is getting a massive revamp, as the current dual-meter method is less than rewarding and, quite frankly, bland. We want to give you substantial incentives while grinding through the levels and earning your chosen Waifu’s affection. The design of this new, singular meter, filled with motivating rewards, has taken most of my time during the past month, and I can’t wait for you to receive it.

Tibor

Out of work, recovering from COVID, Post-COVID health issues. Hope to be back this week and contributing as much as possible to make the game better .

See you next month!

Bis bald,
Till Eulenspiegel

NEW FOREPLAY RECRUITMENT SCENES
Foreplay cinematics have been added to precede each waifu’s recruitment scenes. DEMI, Lily, Ela, Killi, and Taron all received cinematics.


NEW LIP FLAP SYSTEM
During dialogue scenes, all characters’ mouths now move if they are talking. Some characters are still a work in progress and may not move perfectly in line with the dialogue.


NEW STORYLINE – GRAND CHAMPION 
Meet Princess Sovalin Maliana and get started on her journey towards becoming Prodigium’s greatest cage-fighter. 


NEW NEBULA – YETI
5 Systems will be available to explore in this story update, all located in the brand new Yeti nebula.


NEW UI
The Quest Log UI has received an update that provides additional filtering. You will be prompted with a very brief tutorial when opening the Quest Log for the first time from the Bridge onboard the Mary Celeste.


The Mary Celeste UI also received an update. When hovering the room buttons, an icon representing each activity in the room will be displayed for more player feedback.


NEW SUBTITLES FOR CINEMATICS
Subtitles are now available when watching cinematics in game. You can toggle this option on or off from the Settings menu under the Gameplay tab.


NEW MINIGAME
During Sova’s story, we’ve added a new WIP minigame. This is an experimental rhythm-based experience. 


NEW MANTIC - REKALL
We’ve added a new support melee mantic for players to discover and recruit to the team.

• Main story missions and side-quest missions are no longer replayable from the replayable mission screen, only random scenarios can be replayed.
  
• Added new status effect icons in Grid Combat.
  
• Added status effect icons to the details panel in Grid Combat.
  
• Updated Kloi Warden portrait icon in Grid Combat.
  
• Added new portrait icons during the character selection screen and speech bubble prompts during Space Combat gameplay.
  
• Added more variants to Taron’s special attack VO line in Space Combat.
  
• Removed the news desk from the news studio during dialogue sections.
  
• Removed scroll-box slider on speech bubbles and increased space to fit text.
  
• Nudged Speech Bubble prompt over in Navigation to provide more room for anomaly text to be read when interacting with an event.
  
• Added new activity icons to UI while onboard the Mary Celeste. 
  
• Optimizations to several grid combat maps
  
• Overhauled several Grid Combat maps visually 

• Fixed issue where enemies sometimes faced the wall in Azzorion’s fight in Grid Combat.
  
• Fixed issue where Azzorion looked the wrong way during attacks in Grid Combat
  
• Fixed issue with Azzorion’s icon changing to a mine when dropping a mine in Grid Combat.
  
• Fixed issue where DEVA transformation SFX was not associated with SFX volume channel.
  
• Fixed inconsistency with Jawz ultimate heal ability not applying to all targets in Grid Combat.
  
• Fixed issue where Napholeon & Producer shield caused units inside to appear as silhouettes in Grid Combat.
  
• Fixed issue with indicators not rendering in Space Combat when the larger ships spawned for the imperium faction.
  
• Fixed clipping issue with Killi and Taron PANDORA scene.
  
• Fixed issue where Taron’s thong on the trophy wall was casting shadow incorrectly.
  
• Fixed issue with Captains texture causing the star tattoo on his back to not render correctly.
  
• Fixed several typos reported.
  
• Fixed weightpaint-related issues in some of Elaisha’s Dialogue Scene idles.

• Exclamation marker is still visible after completing one section of a quest that spans more than one anomaly.
  
• Low texture resolution rendering for some users during dialogue sequences throughout the game.
  
• Some users reported odd textures when loading Ela and Taron in PANDORA and Gallery.
  
• Framerate drop can cause Mary Celeste to shoot out of the jump-gate in Navigation.
  
• Bridge projector fails to update the color scheme throughout Mary Celeste consistently. This will be fixed in later builds once all nebulae are unlocked.
  
• Physics on dangling pieces such as tentacles or hair (i.e. Huntress or Killi) may clip through the character's body or rapidly vibrate.
  
• Yellow/White screen flashing artifact during space combat when using the FXAA aliasing method. Most likely due to the lens flare and or high bloom values.
  
• On rare occasions, an unintentional song plays during some areas of the game.
  
• On rare occasions, clicking the Help button in the dialogue section of the game can remove the help text but can't be re-enabled until restarting or starting a new scene.
  
• Potential stuttering when playing back cinematics for some systems. Note there is an option to disable 4k videos from the graphics tab under settings. This has improved performance for some users.
  
• Reports of performance issues on some Space Combat random scenario maps.
  
• Animation in You’re Mine Now scene needs finalizing.
  
• Replay icons and navigation icon concepts are a work in progress, inconsistencies are known.
  
• Animation clipping on several older Pandora scenes. These will be fixed in 0.5. 
  
• Killi’s tailband is still missing, it will be fixed properly in 0.5

Sova will not be available to gift items in the Bar in this release, this will be added during the second update (0.5) of Sova’s chapter, along with her Gallery, Foreplay, and Pandora scenes.

Hi everyone! Here is our April 2022 update. Let’s hear what the team have to say about their daily struggle of working on titties and ass for a living.

Moneyshot

I have worked on two extremes of Sova’s sex scenes this month which has a nice contrast to the way you animate. From the softer foreplay to showing off her race’s stretchy anatomy. No Sovas were hurt during this process.

Idles and cinematics have also been one of my priorities. The idles have been my favorite ones to animate to date, I really must like the color blue I guess..
And the Captain takes a literal spin in the F3N1X in an obligatory space battle cinematic.

Manski

I've been working on a cinematic of Elaisha's. Like with other cinematics, I began by sketching a storyboard. Once the storyboard got approved, I posed characters (i.e. blocking) to test how it all looks in practice. More angles and scenes were added when I miscalculated timings or had to better sync overall momentum to Elaisha's theme song. Towards the end, I also added lights to the scene. Since Elaisha is an upbeat character with a darker edge, I tried to use shadows to elicit suspense.

Massimo Decimo Meridio

In this wonderful month I have been put through the ringer known as Sova's Pandora animations, and actually I’m really enjoying animating her. Her different proportions are a new challenge! I have also finished one of the most difficult animations, which was a kissing one.

Yagskie

Lately I've been thinking, most of my siblings are already professional lawyers, architects, and doctors... and look at me... a 3D porn animator! But hey! If my work helps make Subverse better, and our wonderful community enjoy the content, I am happy to be a 3D porn animator.
Anyway, as of this April, I just finished animating this Sova scene that’s waiting for approval. I call it “Sitting on Cap's Lap and Taking a Huge Dump on Him.”

Mendez

Apart from getting to know Sova in a few Pandora scenes, I'm also being brought into the flow of creating animations for in-game dialogue scenes. It's a bit of a different workflow since parts of the character movements are driven by code but I'm really getting the hang of it!

Brunka

Lately, I've been working on a bunch of Pandora animations with our small and blue waifu, Sova. Ever since I started working with her, my mind has been corrupted. I see an adorable blueberry and nothing else.
Oh, I've also been introduced to fluids and now I know how to make people squirt.

Attila von Fock

I'm having more tentacle time this month, there is no limitation in terms of ideas with tentacles. Dealing with tentacles is very challenging for an animator yet interesting at the same time.

Hungry JJ

Hi there,

Just like last time, after each story section release, the main goal is to sequence the next set of gameplay events to take place during Sova’s story quest. It is a collaborative effort dissecting the script and turning into a playable experience for the user.

In addition to this I have also started working on the next Space Combat bossfight. Not sure if I can say this but it involves a character that you may have encountered already that rhymes with the word funtress. 😊

Prof. Bang Dev

Alcohol consumption will take a big role in one of our upcoming experiences, so I did what I must, and made a liquid in bottle shader.

I think it was Half Life Alyx that popularized it, but overall, it's a basic and fun little thing that can help users understand exactly how much liquid is in those beer bottles.

It's more important to know than you think!

Mrs. Mankrik

I have been working on creating a minigame for the next block. In the minigame, the player will have to attempt to outdrink Sova in the form of a rhythm game. It was a challenge to get the difficulty right, since I'm used to playing rhythm games at high difficulties, but we hope players of any skill level will be able to enjoy this minigame.

Timmeh

With the start of this new block I've been going over some more quality of life changes within grid combat. It will now be possible to see chain reaction effects within the preview damage, it will also be easier to see how some AOE's will affect the ground around them even if no enemies are on those tiles to preview the damage itself. With this comes some minor optimizations when targeting.

I've also been looking into reworking out level scaling as currently some characters scale so poorly at the later levels that they simply become unusable, this will require some extensive testing for balancing which will likely lead to some more changes in later blocks.

HentaiKouhai

Hi all. Since the start of the block, I've been working mostly on the grid combat stuff, along with our internal testing team to iron out some of the bugs that we found. I've also started to contribute to some of the space combat missions and a little bit on navigation. Recently, I've been working closely with our game designer for the grid combat implementation of a certain blueberry shortstack that'll bonk the living daylights out of her enemies

Samantha Flowers

A very important criticism I saw amidst the release of the Taron block was concerning the lack of participation from previously recruited crew members, and lack of group oriented interaction in general. Well, I'm very pleased to report that is not the case for the Sova block! This patch is going to be jam packed with characters, new and old, a bit more akin to the writing found in the Elaisha patch.
I've also been hard at work rehearsing and doing retakes for Sova from 2020 to 2022 to try to get things RIGHT and earn my place in walking alongside the absolute powerhouse that is our cast. I hated my performance before, but I'm feeling much more confident about it now, so the experience and practice is paying off!

WTX

This month I had the opportunity of putting together the Teelee Arena (or Teerena, for close friends). It's your standard MMA style octagon, but with a sci-fi twist! Here I was able to put Erin's sponsor logos to good use and have Professor Bang's crowd asset give the map a bit more life.

Portsman

I've been bullying Blythe telling her she looks cute in a bunny costume.

ErinTheSketchy

Hi guys! First of all, thank you for the great response to the previous update! It means a lot for all creatives to receive good vibes on their work and it helps reinvigorate them to keep going.
Along with my work as a graphic designer, I've recently been focused towards collecting your feedback. This has resulted in quite a few sleepless nights but its worth it to implement it into the game!
A lot of new things are going on in the game and it's exciting working on them! People, places, plot, adventure and... well... pleasure of course. Stay tuned :D

Tibor

Since I did not want to spam this Dev Diary with a wall of text, if you are interested what I am up to there are more details in my latest blog at https://tibor.blog/2022/04/27/three-steps-forward-once-step-back/ - https://tibor.blog/2022/04/27/three-steps-forward-once-step-back/. Take care of yourselves!

---

See you next month!

Bis bald,
Till Eulenspiegel

• DEVA activation tutorial is now always available if DEVA mode can be activated.
  
• Updated life bars & adrenaline markers over characters' heads in Grid Combat.
  
• Added fade animation when switching outfits on PANDORA’s selection screen.
  
• Added separators between different stats when viewing mantic/waifu stats on the Mary Celeste.
  
• Updated DEMI’s red outfit name to Code Red.
  
• Replaced Temple of Defilement anomaly with a planet in navigation.

• Fixed an issue causing a small gap to appear below and to the sides of the new Grid Combat UI.
  
• Fixed an issue when item names were too long in the inventory.
  
• Fixed inconsistencies on PANDORA cards where the border color did not match the tag Premium/Space whale and vice versa.
  
• Fixed several typos.
  
• Fixed an issue where some trophies didn’t have descriptions.
  
• Fixed issue with hovering tool-tip text getting covered by the Subverse cursor. The UI for this tool-tip was also updated.
  
• Fixed issue where EMP would not fire on Dallick’s mission if his station was not in view for a period of time.
  
• Fixed issue where changing outfits on PANDORA character selection screen caused low res textures to be displayed on selected outfit until user clicked the Launch Pandora button. Initial pop-in may be seen but should not hang with low textures. 
  
• Fixed an issue where on turn passives and status effects would activate again when using wait.
  
• Ela’s Explosive Arrow and Killi’s Vanneran Rage now properly hit barrels.
  
• Status effects are no longer applied before damage is dealt, this was causing preview damage issues with Ela.
  
• Fixed issue where there was an unlit active tile on one of the desert maps in Grid Combat.
  
• Added missing Act 3 Transition cinematic.
  
• Fixed several warnings throughout the project that can potentially cause some noticeable slow down on some machines when loading areas for the first time.

• Exclamation marker is still visible after completing one section of a quest that spans more than one anomaly.
  
• Some users reported odd textures when loading Ela and Taron in PANDORA and Gallery.
  
• Enemies can pass through walls in Grid Combat on one of the boat maps.
  
• Framerate drop can cause Mary Celeste to shoot out of the jump-gate in Navigation.
  
• Bridge projector fails to update the color scheme throughout Mary Celeste consistently with the addition of Hydra and Kraken Nebula.
  
• Physics on dangling pieces such as tentacles or hair (i.e. Huntress or Killi) may clip through the character's body or rapidly vibrate.
  
• Yellow/White screen flashing artifact during space combat when using the FXAA aliasing method. Most likely due to the lens flare and or high bloom values.
  
• On rare occasions, an unintentional song plays during some areas of the game.
  
• On rare occasions, clicking the Help button in the dialogue section of the game can remove the help text but can't be re-enabled until restarting or starting a new scene.
  
• Potential stuttering when playing back cinematics for some systems. Note there is an option to disable 4k videos from the graphics tab under settings. This has improved performance for some users.
  
• Elaisha has some weightpaint-related issues in some of her Dialogue Scene idles.
  
• Animation in You’re Mine Now scene needs finalizing.
  
• Subtitles for cinematics are disabled for this release. They will be re-enabled for 0.5.
  
• Replay icons and navigation icon concepts are a work in progress, inconsistencies are known.
  
• Animation clipping on several Pandora scenes. These will be fixed in 0.5.

Greetings, fellow pervs!

Now that the catgirl is out in the wild we’d like to take a moment to update you on the state of the game and what to expect going forward.

Without further ado, it is our pleasure to introduce our new designer, Bangkok!

My name’s Bangkok( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), and I’m the Lead Game Designer on Subverse. It is an absolute pleasure to have been given the opportunity to work on this title. First and foremost, I am an avid gamer and hentai enthusiast, much like you, and so I will strive to make Subverse the incredible experience it was originally envisioned to be. I hope I can make all of you proud and happy.

During my first two months, I familiarized myself with every nook and cranny of Subverse's design and finalized certain areas within March's patch. I can confidently say that this project has enormous potential to leave a long-lasting footprint as an authentic AAA adult experience. I am currently working on establishing the way in which to achieve this. We all know that we’re in the middle of early access, so the fans are not seeing the full picture coming together yet and there is some concern over where it's all heading. Hopefully DC and I can allay some of those concerns in this blog.



With Bangkok onboard the FOW train, we’re stoked to talk about some of the design philosophies of Subverse moving forward.

We as a team recognize that the build up to the critical recruitment sex scenes is lacking in eroticism and are too abrupt. They definitely need more fleshing out. For starters, we will be going through all the previous content and adding in foreplay videos to tie it in with what is happening. These short videos should establish some atmosphere and bridge the gap between the novel sections and the abruptness of the initial sex scenes.

The current dating sequences in the bar are also very limited with only barebones gifting being currently available. Dating your crew members is supposed to be a more intimate experience compared to the Pandora framework and it is in the process of a major overhaul. The connection between waifu and Captain is not really present in the current iteration of dating, and we are aiming to gradually implement some more interesting interactive features to help alleviate this.



The payoff for all your hard work needs to be porn. Lots and lots of porn. Titties, ass, splooge and big fat meaty balls all coming together in unholy unison. As of now, there is indeed not enough porn. But fear not, the porn is coming.

1. Sidequests not ending with some kind of porn is a crime. Luckily with the help of our inspirational artists we are going to try and remedy this in an exciting way.
   
2. Part of the overhaul of the Dating module means that it must be intertwined with sex in some way. To complete the intimate, one-on-one experience requires some intimate, one-on-one POV scenes. More on this soon.
   
3. The aforementioned foreplay videos tying the recruitment together and introducing more buildup.
   
4. The interactive scene in Taron hasn’t landed quite the way we hoped considering the amount of effort required to make it work, but we will reuse its components to give existing animations some more variety and shelf-life
   
5. The main storyline starts getting darker in a couple blocks time, so its extremely difficult to intertwine random sex scenes into it without it feeling completely jarring. Sex for the sake of sex is just going to exacerbate the problem of it not meshing with the story. Having said that, once the drama is resolved we are looking into giving the player and the waifus some much-needed downtime via supplementary story beats.
   
6. One of these beats is the Devotion Quest rewards (more on this below) which sees the return of StudioFOW’s famed cinematic eroticism within the context of a tightly-waifu-focused epic questline.

For those of you that have been talking to the ladies on the ship (you HAVE been talking to them, right?) you’ll notice that they’ve been gradually revealing more about their backstories. These stories will be carried through to their glorious conclusion with a Devotion Quest for each Waifu.

Devotion Quests are inspired by the Loyalty Missions in Mass Effect 2, where you buddy up with a specific party member and help them out of a bind. Since the Devotion Quests are the culmination of a lot of invested hours into a waifu we want to make sure they are amazing. We want to do this by

1. Giving you ample opportunity to interact with the waifu during her quest. This means talking with them, discussing the quest problems and their environments (each quest will take you to a place special to that particular waifu)
   
2. Creating an environment that immerses you both romantically and contextually. The performances of the voice talent are incredible throughout these sections. The atmosphere must match their intensity and do them justice
   
3. ROMANCE ROMANCE ROMANCE
   
4. The payoff at the end of the quest has to be amazing and cinematic, as well as feel like a seamless part of the story - something StudioFOW will no doubt deliver
   
5. Give you some cool rewards at the end thematic to the waifu for investing all that time into the romance

We are actively developing DEMI and Lily’s devotion quests at the moment and as soon as one of them is ready, we will make an announcement about the release dates.




World-renowned gameplay designer and shortstack-butt-afficionado Halfpint had some great ideas on this topic, which we are totally going to steal. In a December 12 video, he suggested that the galaxy should be reacting to the revolution in some way. Right now everything feels too static, too dead, you don’t feel like the disruptive force of change that the Mary Celeste is supposed to represent. A great idea he came up with was a simple reputation system, that keeps a track of all the battles you’ve fought against a particular faction. When you’ve killed enough Fuccbotts for example, a reward depicting a short 30 second cinematic would unlock showing Fuccbotts mobilizing to hunt you. If you slay enough Kloi, Landervoo and the council could react in some way to your extermination of their forces. Introducing reactive elements such as this will make Prodigium feel much more impacted by your actions. This is but one of the improvements we are aiming to make to Prodigium feeling more immersive.



The main problem right now (and this is a common part of narrative games in Early Access phase) is that the story is still being released and therefore the connective glue is not live yet... So what is this glue we are talking about?

1. Devotion levels being a meaningful part of multiple modules
   
2. Having a Dating system that makes use of the galaxy
   
3. Resources playing a bigger part in collectibles/upgrades
   
4. More waifu interactions with each other and the Captain across all modules
   

These elements working together in harmony will make the experience of managing your own crew feel more cohesive. But as we keep saying, our focus right now is on delivering the story first and foremost and then leaving the glue elements for later releases to tie everything together once the building blocks are in place.



Things like gold stars and meaningless grinding have no place in a supposed top-end story driven product like this. The original philosophy of the Kickstarter and the no-bullshit stance of the StudioFOW OG’s were successful in capturing the imagination of the gaming public. Introducing artificial progression elements and psychological tricks at this stage would be a mistake for the brand. Our design philosophy for avoiding the mobile trap is as follows:

1. Retool the way player performance is measured by utilizing more of the waifus and less gold stars and badges
   
2. Remove replayable story missions. Do you replay Virmire in ME1, do you replay Ostagar in DA:O? No, these are climactic story set pieces, so why would you replay Temple of Defilement, especially after what happened there? Not only does this make no sense from a narrative design standpoint but it’s a huge resource sink on the dev team
   
3. Reduce the sheer quantity of same-y missions and focus on making them memorable by increasing their quality
   
4. Introduce elements that facilitate replayability through dynamic design, instead of mobile-like repetition
   
5. Make upgrades and collectibles feel part of the world. Having to help someone or find a rare component to make your ship better should be an essential part of an RPG dealing with space exploration. We will have more on this in a later blog.

The original vision for Subverse was that it is not a sex simulator. It was not designed from the ground up to be a sandbox style sex simulator. There appears to be some misconceptions out there that this game is supposed to be the next big thing to supplant Honey Select. This will never be the case because Subverse is a story driven narrative RPG with sex. There are plenty of well-designed sex simulation games out there like Honey Select and Koikatsu that focus on endless customizability, sandbox elements and interchangeable parts. These games have mastered the art of being a simulator and have years of experience and much bigger budgets than ours. There is no point in competing with them. Our design philosophy has always been the complete polar opposite of that, and while the introduction of some interactive elements and things like outfits are planned, they will never be the lynchpin of the game.



We understand the game is not in an acceptable state for many of you currently. Quite frankly, Subverse (in its current state) is so far away from our personal standards that it’s not even funny, so there is a lot of hands-on work to be done here. This is a long marathon process and it will take time. We are not promising every single thing listed above will make it in. Subverse has a lot riding on it so we have to test every design decision internally. A lot of people are looking up to the game and we have to make sure we are delivering the absolute best product we can. Thank you to the fans for sticking with us and for reading!

DC
Creative Lead

Bangkok
Design Lead