Dear Subverse and StudioFOW Fans,

We’re happy to share some good news for you this month. As promised, development did ramp up and we started the year in good form. In fact, the next update for the game will have not 2, not 3, not 4 but all 5 remaining devotion quests going live at the same time!

HUNTRESS
Travel to the over-exploited homeworld of the mawsus which is currently experiencing an ecological disaster of sorts. Help the Huntress take revenge on Hackdivision Corp, led by their nefarious CEO Slobby Nodick. Partake in an underwater battle for the first time in Subverse’s history and save our beloved squidgirl’s planet!

TARON
Taron wants to open up the greatest museum of smutty artifacts in all of Prodigium – the Smithsbonian! Help Taron “extract” some rare sex toys from one of the most closely guarded Imperium vaults in all of the galaxy. Engage in a dogfight with her old squadmates as the fate of the Smithsbonian hangs in the balance!

SOVA
Sova’s on the hunt for one of the rarest forms of liquor in the universe – Rusty Rim’s Cornhole Moonshine! Join her on an epic adventure to track down one of the last few remaining bottles of this deadly concoction from the bowels of Nu Vegas.

ELA
Ela wants to reward all her fans with the greatest masterpiece of her career, and she enlists you to help organize (and participate) in the event! Join her across a nebula-trotting journey as she makes her way towards the infamous Hotel Clitz!

BLYTHE
This quest is just too crazy to even describe, and I don’t want to spoil anything. I will just say LOVERS OF LORE, HERE WE GO

Update 0.9.0 is scheduled for the end of March, so you don’t have to wait too long for all the goodness!

Here’s the specifics of what the team have been working on this month

Moneyshot

I’m back channeling my inner dommy mommy, and she wants her revenge fuck badly..!

Sometimes ones specialty can help set the reference and pace of the rest of the shots for other animators to assist. So with my aid, they can also find their inner dommy mommies and create a spectacular cinematic for you to witness.

Manski

Working on the 1.0 release cinematics continues on the animation front, lighting, VFX, fluids and even some emergency rendering.

Massimo Decimo Meridio

This past month, I have been working on several cinematics and boss Space Combat animations! A surprise for all of you is ready to be released!
I enjoyed so much every task I have been assigned to and I am ready to pleasure you with a new great piece of animation regarding Taron ;)

Yagskie

For this month, I’m working on some catgirl content! Enjoy this intimate moment with the Captain!

Mendez

Hard at work on polishing up the devotion quest cinematics, so lots of lewd dirty work for you all to enjoy when it’s released. Here’s a little teaser for Ela’s latest shenanigans.

Hungry JJ

Hello,

Since the last post, I have continued developing the remaining devotion quests. I managed to tackle a few combat missions and more interactive sequences. I enjoyed working on these devotion quests and the former as each quest has its own unique environment and gameplay. Usually there is something about each one that catches me off guard story wise that generate creative ways to develop the game. Getting 5 out at once is a big ask, but I’m glad we’re on track.

Samantha Flowers

Hello everyone,

I’m reaching the final stretch of my tasks on the visual novel scenes for the devotion quests! Blythe’s quest has been a very fun creative challenge. Lots of new lighting effects, one in particular is rather psychedelic! Thanks, Dallick!

I also got to fulfill some casting director related tasks this month; it’s always a treat when the VA’s are eager to assist me in fulfilling the smaller side roles that appear throughout these quests. Making sure these bit parts sound great is an important part of the process of making the Mary Celeste crew shine.

Billy Grande

This month my journey through revamping Prodigium’s hundreds of event planets has concluded, and I’ve been working on rebalancing some Grid Combat aspects that needed some extra care.

WTX

Though this month I mostly focused on the waifu outfits (which I don’t want to spoil just yet) I also go to set up a couple more cinematic environments, some of which were built earlier in development and needed a few touch up and tweaks before their in-game reveal.

ErinTheSketchy

Hi guys!
So, I've made that cinematic and now Sova is ready to explode. I'm under the desk now, just in case. I think I'll stay here for a while hehe bye now.





See you next month!

Bis bald,
Till Eulenspiegel

Dear Fans,

We enter a new year full of new challenges, and the team is eager and rested to take them on!


The animation team took some time out this month to do some much-needed promo work. We felt it was healthy for them to have a change of pace and work on something a bit more challenging on a creative level, after the constant grind of DQ scenes. They will return to finish off the remaining cinematics next month, and we anticipate them to complete all work on the game in the summer. There will be some exciting news in the future as we near this date, so please keep an eye on the studio’s discord!

-DC

Hungry JJ

Hello,

Recently, I have been focusing on Sova’s final combat mission and Taron’s adventure sequence. Sova’s combat mission will have a unique enemy type to interact with and Taron’s sequence will showcase the environment more than the previous clickable sequences have.

Samantha Flowers

Hello everyone,

As usual, it has been a busy month for me, but even more so than usual! As I steadily apply the SFX for the cinematics that roll in, I’ve also been working on polishing the visual novel segments of the upcoming devotion quests as much as I can. Small details, like making sure the characters' eyelines are pointed at one another, can go a long way!

Also, because I’ve wanted each devotion quest to feel more personal/unique to each character, I’ve still been carefully selecting new music tracks that would speak well to each storyline. By the end of it, I imagine the jukebox is going to look quite full…

Another interesting task, I got to write some fun new dialogue for my favorite nikith, Taron! (Milly, I apologize in advance!) You’ll all hear it once you complete her “heist”!

…Last but not least, SOVA HAS 14 MINUTES WORTH OF SPOKEN DIALOGUE FOR HER DQ!?

Billy Grande

Wishing a Happy New Year to all, full of Subverse! Besides working out the combat mechanics for the upcoming Devotion Quests, I’m continuing my spaceship trip through the Nebulas, visiting the Event Planets and assessing what our crew could do to assist.

WTX

Starting off the new year by modelling yet another waifu outfit, this time using Taron as a base model.

ErinTheSketchy

Hi everyone, happy new year!
This was another creative month, working on graphics, storytelling material and more. A lot of things are happening behind the scenes and, let me tell you, the team is all fired up!
Here is a glimpse of what's coming soon.

Tibor

Hello, this is Tibor.

The last few months was a gradual intensifying and isolated work - isolated, as not in prison for creating obscene adult material for innocent computer users, but isolation from a task allocation viewpoint - the tasks are mainly related to the C++ source base.

• Performed work that relates to users' experience, execution time, module loading, event management, video compression and many other more, relatively low level tasks.
  
• Work on a massive game-play improvement by finalizing and integrating the Devotion Meter.
  
• Added a new, well tested, industry standard event management library to decouple currently interconnected modules and fix several very problematic reference hell originated problems.
  
• Fixing issues from the codebase that create bottlenecks both at development and runtime.
  
• Ongoing work on scalability and extendibility that required further fixes. That means we shall have the ability to release free add-ons such as clothes, language packs, etc. following release 1.0.
  
• Restructure the whole code base and refactor our Software Bus implementation, so all the above can happen in more efficient manner.
  
• Fixing bugs.
  
• Finally rolling out a frontend & backend system (Streemster) that will allow us to serve our less fortunate German, South Korean, etc. users who are unable to obtain Subverse via any other commercial channel.

We are entering the final phase of the software development and project. The work ahead of us is exciting and professionally fulfilling. Thanks again very much for your support that makes it possible we can deliver this project.

In the meantime, you can still buy or send as a gift the game for the reduced Early Access price. The final, 1.0 version of Subverse will be a greatly improved gaming experience and a transformed game compared to the current form. The price of 1.0 will be a lot higher. Early Access buyers will have access to that improved game too, by default. .

More info, design and technical content will be at my blog more frequently as we are entering the final phase of the project.

Take care all and talk soon!

Tibor


See you next month!

Bis bald,
Till Eulenspiegel

Dear Fans,

We hope you’ve had a great holiday season! Here’s what the team has been working on this past month.

Moneyshot

I am finally crafting my magnum opus.
I will need to be left alone in my basement and only resurface once it is complete.

Send no help.

Manski

I’ve been primarily working on re-lighting some upcoming sex scenes but I can’t show spoilers, so my screenshots may be boring. My tasks have also been about adding visual effects, fluids and other details to help the remaining clips come alive. Lastly, I’ve also been tweaking animations, fixing clipping and animating lipsync.

Massimo Decimo Meridio

Well, first of all, you must know that I am REALLY excited to compile this DevDiary!
I’ve been working no stop on Cinematics BUUUUT (guys it’s BUT - not BUTT) I found some extra time to delight you with a couple of new Pandora animations including a character that for sure will drive all of you crazy ;)
Im keeping the mystery, like always, yes, because I am bastard inside XD
but I’ll give you some tips, I hope you’ll find them useful…

- Everything I write has reason to be written, so read carefully and between the lines, even if it looks empty xD -

In the first picture, all I can tell you, and it’s already a lot, is that… Yeah… There are tentacles and wings…

Yagskie

Finally done animating some bonus extra stuff with Killi! Here are some of the screenshots. And most of all, Happy Holidays everyone!

Mendez

Having finished up Taron’s devotion cinematic, I’ve been getting set up for some exciting new tasks. Before that gets off the ground though, I’ve moved to start up on Ela’s devotion cinematic, which has some interesting stylistic hooks that I’m looking forward to working with.

Looking forward to being able to talk more. I think you’re all going to like it.

Hungry JJ

Hello,

After the recent update, I got started working on the next set of devotion quests. We are shooting for 3 devotion quest in the next release but depending on how things progress we will release another 2 characters again. So far, the flow of the devotion quest has been configured and I am now currently working on Taron’s space combat mission.

Samantha Flowers

Hello everyone,

Though the holidays are quickly moving upon us, we remain vigilant and busy on these devotion quests! I’ve been re-recording the SFW portions of Sova’s quest (the original files were from 2020 and absolutely not up to current par), as well as working on creating hundreds of new VO events in FMOD, spanning across 3 different devotion quests. It’s important I build the necessary sound libraries very early on in the development of any given quest, so that other team members can reference them and build upon their own tasks that require them. This also gives us more time to make changes and to solve potential problems, such as a mission feeling too long or too short in a test run.

Also, not to be overlooked, more cinematic SFX design! A little bit of space ship flybys, a little bit of sex, all very Subverse.

Billy Grande

Once again, you will find me working on the boss fight mechanics for the upcoming Devotion Quests, as well as the concepts for the interactive sequence sections in them.

WTX

This month I’ve been busy on few different tasks, helping out the team with specific model tweaks and refinements, as well as doing some material and texture work that'll come in handy in the future.

I also go to revisit this fancy hotel room that I’ve put together no too long ago and make it, well… considerably less fancy.

ErinTheSketchy

Setting the pace for the upcoming content, already working on one slideshow cinematic -which is too early to show- and various graphics.




See you next month!

Bis bald,
Till Eulenspiegel

DEVOTION QUEST – KILLI
If your devotion level is high enough, you can talk to Killi onboard the Mary Celeste’s bar and initiate her devotion quest.
DEVOTION QUEST – FORTUNE
If your devotion level is high enough, you can talk to Fortune onboard the Mary Celeste’s bridge and initiate her devotion quest.

• Updated Killi’s equipable “Crimson Cuntbeards Patch” stats. Now increases damage and mobility but reduces armor.

• Fixed issue where Killi’s equipable “Crimson Cuntbeards Patch” could cause her primary attack to not work.

• Devotion Quest dialogue sections currently are listed under Sidequest with the Intro/Outro tags when replaying archives from the Captain’s Quarters.
  
• VFX Poison sometimes lingers after the unit who had it is destroyed in Grid Combat.
  
• Some instances of speech bubble VO still playing during the end mission screen.
  
• Not all anomalies in Navigation update visually after a specific event takes place. WIP.
  
• Clipping issues during dialogue sections for some newly introduced characters in Fortune’s release.
  
• Some characters' animation pose transitions are not in place yet during dialogue sections for this release.
  
• If multiple enemies are stunned, when it is their turn, the arrow above their head still renders even after their turn has passed in Grid Combat.
  
• Visual bug, when a mantic reaches max level of 40 a white icon will appear the first time you enter the lab, as if there were more levels but goes away after selecting another mantic.
  
• Mission log filter inconsistency if you filter out finished missions, then filter out on Nebula’s, the filtered Finished missions will be in the list again.
  
• Waifus active, passive and ultimate icons do not always render in the same order from Locker room to selection screen.
  
• Visual bug, unlockable abilities/passives not showing up or showing as locked in the Laboratory or Selection screen after the character has reached required level (some known characters Napholeon & Chodestool passed level 30).
  
• Character upgrades based on level are not fully implemented for all characters.
  
• Imperium’s Shocktrooper Purify status remains on character after Shocktrooper is killed.
  
• Visual bug, if a unit has shield and armor and receives damage while the preview damage animation is happening on the health bars, there’s a chance it will show shield or armor remaining on the bar when there is not after the attack (In most cases remaining shield but in the character info it will show zero shield as intended).
  
• Alt-Tabbing potentially can cause the game to crash, especially during areas of the game where high loads take place.
  
• Report stating Rekall's passive can cause a softlock if an enemy counters with low health and dies from Rekall’s passive.
  
• 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.
  
• Physics on dangling pieces such as tentacles or hair (i.e. Huntress or Killi) may clip through the character's body or rapidly vibrate during dialog sequences.
  
• 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.
  
• Completion percentage counters in Navigation are a WIP and may have some inconsistencies.

• Grid Combat equipables are currently disabled during devotion quest.

Dear Fans,

Here are the latest diary entries from the team as we head into a busy holiday season. We are aiming to release the next update with a target of 12th December.

Moneyshot

What you’re seeing here, apart from naked Killi, is the physics asset for her.

A few particular scenes involved clothing, not shown to avoid spoilers, and they were creating the greatest headache of this year for me. I believe I have mentioned a lot of the time as an animator, you find workarounds when something doesn’t turn out the right way.
Clothing physics needs to settle down for a few moments before render, since they start from their originally modelled position. So in this case she was bent over making the clothing reach high above her. But the clothing needed to rest on her back. With the huge cylinder sticking up in the air, the clothing could safely slide down onto the back and not down to her feet, hiding her treasure.

Manski

This week I'm working on a couple of safe for work cinematics in the distant reaches of the Prodigium Galaxy.

Massimo Decimo Meridio

This last month I’ve been working entirely on Cinematics!
I’ve been switching between Lily, Killy aaaaand Demi, which is giving me a lot of fun while animating her!
I won’t be too detailed about it 😏
I’m not feeling particularly bad anyway 😂 so I’ll let you admire a couple of pics! What’s happening in there? Well, keep your imagination high!

Yagskie

For this month’s diary, I finished animation on Killi’s devotion quest. She and the captain were having fun inside a room full of treasure!

Mendez

This month has seen the start of Taron's devotion quest cinematic begin in full. Once more, I can't share much about it due to potential spoilers but I think it's shaping up to be pretty intense and fun!
Also, pin-up work continues at a steady pace and I've started working on the images for Killi now.

Hungry JJ

Hello,

This past month has been busy with all the new things added to the next devotion quest release. I managed to complete the mini space combat mission discussed in the last post as well as the Grid Combat mission. The Grid Combat mission has a mini faction based on an existing faction which will have some new attacks. Currently I am tackling the last clickable scene for Fortune and there are lots of bright lights!

Samantha Flowers

Hello everyone,

Recently I've been getting to do what I do best, which is collaborate with the VAs on some freshly recorded content. Our beloved Captain, Steve Hamm, has returned to the booth for a very tender scene with the Huntress- a piece of her devotion quest that got revised along the way in development, since we decided the original script wasn't warm enough.

I myself have also just finished recording for Sova’s audiotape content and her devotion cinematic! Time for some 🎵riiiicolaaaaa🎶

BillyGrande

A very productive month for me, as I keep working through the changes in the Event Planets system, as well as giving the enemies not only their skillsets... but a voice as well? Well, at least one of them.

WTX

This month I got to work on another outfit concept: the classic virgin-killer sweater. It was quite fun to make and honestly a bit more challenging than I initially thought. In the end I think it turned out great.

ErinTheSketchy

Another creative month for me too. One of my favorite parts is that I keep working on the new outfits, like the one WTX presented the previous month. If you are curious about the background work behind the amazing modeling, here is a part of the direction sheet for the outfit currently in development, and more specifically the color exploration.






See you next month!

Bis bald,
Till Eulenspiegel

Dear Fans,

We’re working on the next set of Devotion quests, which will feature the fiery Killision and the sexy Fortune.

Moneyshot

I present to you, the cinematography.
The whole set of cameras used for a particular cinematic, but in an empty level.

During the blocking phase of a cinematic, the cameras quickly pile up and look like this mess.
One camera for each scene is better in the long run, since with one camera for the whole cinematic, you have a lot more things that can accidentally alter the look of a different scene. Alter the exposure in scene 8, and forget to add a key for it, the previous 7 shots would be wrong and you only realize until you’re several scenes ahead.

This could also just be fool proofing measures for fools like me, we’ll never know..!

Manski

This week I’ve been animating some NSFW scenes, and adding visual effects and lighting up environments for SFW cinematics such as these.

Massimo Decimo Meridio

This last month I've still been working on the next batch of devotion quests with the addition of extra cinematics such as the F3N1X landing on various very exciting environments! It's always a pleasure dealing with solid/static objects, in which only the applied physics can make the difference between realistic and fake!

Now I’ll directly dive into the animation process of one of the most complex but appealing, enjoyable and sexy Cinematics that we’ve prepared for all of you!
Guess who I’m talking about from the sneaky picture I've taken ;)

Yagskie

As of this month, I’m doing some finishing touches on the last few of the Pandora scenes.

Mendez

Another month, another devotion quest. Currently focused primarily on Fortune’s devotion quest climax cutscene and moving on to Taron’s next week.

Got off a call with DC a couple of days ago about some last-minute changes we’re making to Taron’s scene and I had the dumbest grin on my face when I heard about it. I think it’ll be a hoot.

Also, since I can’t show anything from these scenes due to spoilers, here’s another little pin-up.

Hungry JJ

Hello,

Lately I have been working on Devotion Quest missions for the next two characters Fortune and Killi. There are two Space Combat missions and one Grid Combat mission. We also have some more clickable lore sequences and a new minigame you can all experience.

Samantha Flowers

Hello everyone,
Hope you are all having a great month of tricks and treats!

I’ve been getting to work with the voice cast again, most notably on the Audio Tapes; an unlockable sound file reward for the player as they level up their favorite crew mates. They range from sweet to spicy, and require quite a bit of care, from both a performance and SFX standpoint.

And of course, I’m still hard at work on the visual novel scenes.

Billy Grande

This month I've been working on fight mechanics for the upcoming Devotion Quests, going over the specifics of the interactible background sequences, and developing the first stages of change for our Event Planets.

WTX

This month I began work on a new outfit for the waifus, starting with this gothic themed lingerie designed by ErinTheSketchy.

ErinTheSketchy

Hello again! Always here, you can find me under the pile of creative tasks. This month the list included some concept art, an idea of 3D, lots of graphics and a new cinematic!





See you next month!

Bis bald,
Till Eulenspiegel

DEVOTION QUEST – DEMI
The first devotion quest is now playable! Talk to DEMI onboard the Mary Celeste to begin her journey towards transcendence. Please note your devotion level has to be at least 30 to start this quest and have reached the completion of Blythe’s story.
DEVOTION QUEST – LILY
If your devotion level is high enough, you can talk to Lily onboard the Mary Celeste’s laboratory and initiate her devotion quest.
NOTE: As outlined in DevDiary 26, the DEMI and Lily devotion quests are now fully playable but the reward cinematic will only be released in its entirety in version 1.0 

• Fixed issue where the anomaly Aelfric would get stuck on the loading screen.
  
• Fixed issue where Lily’s hair was purple during the Grid Combat tutorial.

• Devotion Quest dialogue sections currently are listed under Sidequest with the Intro/Outro tags when replaying archives from the Captain’s Quarters.
  
• Clickable items during room navigation sometimes become out of sync and can no longer be clicked, may require level restart.
  
• VFX Poison sometimes lingers after the unit who had it is destroyed in Grid Combat.
  
• Some instances of speech bubble VO still playing during the end mission screen.
  
• Not all anomalies in Navigation update visually after a specific event takes place. WIP.
  
• Clipping issues during dialogue sections for some newly introduced characters in Fortune’s release.
  
• Some characters' animation pose transitions are not in place yet during dialogue sections for this release.
  
• If multiple enemies are stunned, when it is their turn, the arrow above their head still renders even after their turn has passed in Grid Combat.
  
• Visual bug, when a mantic reaches max level of 40 a white icon will appear the first time you enter the lab, as if there were more levels but goes away after selecting another mantic.
  
• Mission log filter inconsistency if you filter out finished missions, then filter out on Nebula’s, the filtered Finished missions will be in the list again.
  
• Waifus active, passive and ultimate icons do not always render in the same order from Locker room to selection screen.
  
• Visual bug, unlockable abilities/passives not showing up or showing as locked in the Laboratory or Selection screen after the character has reached required level (some known characters Napholeon & Chodestool passed level 30).
  
• Character upgrades based on level are not fully implemented for all characters.
  
• Imperium’s Shocktrooper Purify status remains on character after Shocktrooper is killed.
  
• Visual bug, if a unit has shield and armor and receives damage while the preview damage animation is happening on the health bars, there’s a chance it will show shield or armor remaining on the bar when there is not after the attack (In most cases remaining shield but in the character info it will show zero shield as intended).
  
• Alt-Tabbing potentially can cause the game to crash, especially during areas of the game where high loads take place.
  
• Report stating Rekall's passive can cause a softlock if an enemy counters with low health and dies from Rekall’s passive.
  
• 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.
  
• Physics on dangling pieces such as tentacles or hair (i.e. Huntress or Killi) may clip through the character's body or rapidly vibrate during dialog sequences.
  
• 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.
  
• Completion percentage counters in Navigation are a WIP and may have some inconsistencies.

Dear Fans,

Here’s what the team’s been working on this past month, in preparation for the next game update launching this week.

Moneyshot

To avoid some spoilers all I can show is the behind the scenes of working with clothing.
The clothing assets are baked and defaults to the standard nude model.

Can’t wait for you to see these cinematics, and see if someone can guess which shot this was!

Manski

After months of working on cinematics, I went back to a relatively simpler task of animated smut. Things get freaky here tho, but I can't spoil it until release.

Massimo Decimo Meridio

This month has been incredibly challenging, switching between Cinematics and Cinematics! Despite I can’t talk too much about it until release, I’ll let you have a look at this beautiful and emotional piece of a shot! Where is it from? Well, Stay tuned ;-)

Yagskie

For this month’s project, I worked on some devotion quest movie content. It’s good to be back doing what the studio does best.

Mendez

Been working on probably the biggest and lewdest thing I’ve done so far for StudioFOW, which is super exciting! Certainly climactic in more ways than one. I think it also includes some of my best character animation I’ve done so far.

While I can’t show anything from it or talk about it much just yet, I have also been working on some pin-ups of the girls to use for the revamped progression system (yes, they send you selfies of themselves)

Hungry JJ

Hello,

Since my last post, I have been focusing on the Devotion Quest system. The plan is to release two quests per update. Devotion Quest will comprise of dialogue sections, combat and a brief clicking minigame that provides some additional lore tidbits. One quest focuses on Grid Combat with some unique tile layouts and combat and the other has a lengthy Space Combat mission. Visually the Space Combat mission will look much different and provide a lot of lore.

Samantha Flowers

Hello everyone!

Are you looking forward to making your favorite crew member’s dreams come true? I’ve been hard at work setting up the new VN scenes for the devotion quests. Each girl wants to journey to a unique location, so I’ve been experimenting with different lighting scenarios to match the new planets!

I’ve also been sound designing for the cinematics to appear in DEMI’s and Lily’s quests. Some of these cinematics are quite tender, from the atmosphere, to the music, to most importantly the spoken dialogue, so I’m hoping they’ll provide some warmth to your hearts. The animation team really put in a great shift. The most interesting challenge I’ve faced for this content was creating 3 unique voice effects for DEMI’s creator. Excited for you all to hear it soon!

Billy Grande

Besides tackling the details of the Captain's new adventures alongside Lily and DEMI, I've also devoted myself to the fight mechanics and enemy kits in said devotion quests, to make sure each feels unique and thrilling.

WTX

Recently I got to go in and give a few of our yet unseen environments a final detail pass. Among then was this cluttered mess of a bedroom, somewhat inspired by the dwellings of your typical, neck-bearded, internet forum user. Needless to say I felt right at home.

ErinTheSketchy

Hi guys!

The last couple of months were exceptionally busy in the most creative way! Besides my standard work for UI and testing, I've worked the storyboard, shots and image editing for a lovely backstory cinematic, made quest-specific graphics, a couple of 3D assets, pin-up photo samples... That's only for the content already announced btw ;)
Overall, the team is on fire and we are getting sexier by the day!





See you soon!

Bis bald,
Till Eulenspiegel

Dear Fans,

Hope everyone is having a great summer! Since the release of Blythe, the team has been hard at work on the remaining narrative content. With our next content release just around the corner, we thought it would be time for a “creative catch-up” with the game director, DC and the designer Billy Grande, as they lay out what’s in store in the near future.

NEXT RELEASE

We’re happy to say that the next major content update will be launching at the end of September. This update will contain the playable devotion quests for DEMI and Lily. For those that need a quick refresher, Devotion Quests are lengthy narrative-driven missions that conclude the romance arc for the characters. Upon reaching devotion level 30 and having gone far enough into the main storyline, you will get a message from your companion to go visit them onboard the Mary Celeste. This optional (but highly recommended) quest will then begin. In line with the tradition of CRPG’s, if you’ve been paying careful attention to the romance dialogue up to this point, then you’ll know that each of the girls has a particular problem that they’ve alluded to – and guess what, during the devotion quest you get to solve that problem for them! Each of these quests will lead you to a new location in the galaxy, and much like the recruitment missions, has some narrative content interspersed with boss fight gameplay along with some new surprises!

Once you’ve completed the devotion quest mission, the big reward will be a 4+ minute, contextual sex scene in the format of a short film, created by the talented animators of StudioFOW. Please note that for the Early Access version of this quest, we will NOT be including the full film in the update, it will only play a short teaser before fading to black. The full cinematic will be included in the game files of the 1.0 release client. We’ve done this because we really don’t want these cinematics ripped and then uploaded to sites like Xvideos and Pornhub before the release of the full game. From a dev and business standpoint, it feels really bad to have worked on something so hard, putting all the blood sweat and tears into crafting something epic and character-specific, only to have it reuploaded to some porn site after a day and spoiling the conclusion of the romance for everyone else. We’ve had to endure a trend with people ripping the Pandora stuff already and we don’t want a repeat of that for what is arguably the best sex content in the game. Therefore players wanting to see the full experience, you are better off waiting until the 1.0 release where you can play through the Devotion Quests AND watch the Devotion Cinematic the way it was meant to be intended.

FUTURE RELEASE SCHEDULE

Our current development pace looks to be about 40 days per quest, which means that we should be able to release 2 quests per content update. As mentioned above, DEMI and Lily are up first at the end of September, at which point (probably in the next diary) we will reveal who the next two girls to receive their quests are. Once all Devotion Quests are released, we can then go back and wrap up the main storyline and final boss fight for the 1.0 release sometime next year. It doesn’t really make sense to progress with the ending of the game just yet (final chapter) until all other content is in, because of the spoiler drama related to having the conclusion of the game out there. It’s like if another notable RPG that recently came out Early Access had their Act 3 included in the early access, it would be kind of weird. There should be some mystery left for last, right?

SAVE FILES

At some point towards the launch of 1.0 next year, save files will be wiped for technical and practical reasons. Simply put, with the amount of overhauls and revamps going into the eventual 1.0 client next year, it would make the previous saves incompatible. The game has evolved a lot during its early access (and will continue evolving) so a fresh playthrough for 1.0 is highly recommended for the best experience. We will notify you ahead of time when the save file wipes will be happening.

JUICY BITS - OVERHAULS / FIXES

Once all the supplementary narrative content like Devotion Quests have been released on Steam and all of the story (bar the final chapter) is intact, we will commence on the systems overhaul piece by piece. As stated in previous diaries we do have a strong vision for the game, and currently it is not meeting our high expectations. With that in mind, we also have to be smart and realistic about the overhauls to be attempted. There are limited resources and time available, and we MUST launch 1.0 next year for the financial viability of the project, so we do have to prioritize certain systems over others. NOTE: The order of these improvements are subject to change, and not everything may make it into the 1.0 build.

PROGRESSION

Besides making progression for all waifus more streamlined and less grindy, we plan for leveling up to feel meaningful and be something to look forward to, with perks and surprise gifts. The first order of business will be a Progression Hub screen where you can track the devotion level (a streamlined, all-encompassing xp bar). Besides the existing rewards like trophies, we’re also adding several new rewards along your journey to the cap of level 40. These include:

AUDIO TAPES

The voice talent has recorded over 2 hours total of brand new, hot dialogue for this system which includes everything from sweet little “I miss you” notes to full-on-filthy JOI’s for you to fap to. The tapes get steamier as you level up, and may also include some surprising revelations about the characters. Each character will receive 5 tapes total which can be played in the Captain's Quarters at your leisure once unlocked.

PIN UPS

No Captain quarters is complete without some sexy pinups of your favorite waifus, so the girls have made sure you are covered! Expect to see some tasteful, old-timey pinups adorn your rewards screen as the girls fall more and more in love with you.

HAIR/COSMETIC STYLES

We’ve been experimenting with different hair/eye combos for the girls, and we’re pleased to offer some of this customizability as part of the progression system. For those ladies without erm…hair, don’t worry we haven’t forgotten about you! Being able to tint your very own squid-girl must be every cephalomaniac’s wet dream, surely?

UNIQUE EQUIPPABLES

Part of the Grid combat tweaks as well, but we thought it would be a nice touch for each waifu to have their own unique item to equip in grid combat, to change up their playstyle ever so slightly. These thematic items come with a bit of lore and makes wielding them a bit more meaningful!

OUTFITS!

Yes we will have outfits in the game! We’re going to be pushing hard to make sure they are all Pandora-compatible in some form, so that you can enjoy the fruits of your progression during the sex scenes. As part of the reward for completing the girls’ devotion quest, AND reaching the final tier in our revamped progression system we will be awarding a special lore-specific unique outfit to the waifu in question. We will share more details on outfits in later dev diary but rest assured it is one of our highest priorities after narrative content is iced.

MANTICS

And finally, we want to minimize the pains of level discrepancies, so as part of the new streamlined progression we will look into a system where we average out the mantic levels so that you don’t have to painfully level each of them one by one, and they are always relevant and ready to fight.

DEMI PROGRESSION

Our companion from the start, DEMI, will have her own unique progression, as hinted at in our earlier Dev Diary, as an intimate way to help her reach her full potential. Along that journey, her improved capabilities will come with several Quality-Of-Life improvements we really wanted to introduce.

DEMI's progression will include Augmentations, upgrades to her systems that can be found throughout Prodigium and will act as breakthrough items for her level-ups. Our vision for this is to have an engaging and more intimate way to progress DEMI's devotion levels, rather than just calculate them on a weighted average.

While the Augmentations themselves will not carry an immediate gameplay benefit beyond bringing DEMI closer to the Captain, they will contribute to a bigger plan; every few levels, DEMI will provide bonuses such as boosting XP gained for other waifus, increasing the navigation speed and efficiency of the Mary Celeste, reducing upgrade costs, and some nifty customization options.

TARON'S SHOP

Economy is a bit of a mess right now as a result of not having enough gold sinks. We want to make spending TEK/BIO/Credits worth it, so towards the end of 0.9 we will look into adding a fluff shop where you can buy some collectibles and random items.

EXPLORATION/PLANETS

The final part of the overhauls will be tying the new progression system into the navigation module. Gone will be the placeholder events currently populating the planets, and in their place will be meaningful, contextual content that makes exploring Prodigium an exciting prospect, instead of a chore. We will have an entire diary dedicated to this very important goal, and try to explain the philosophy behind our proposed redesigns. This will probably be the very last thing to get overhauled as it is literally the glue that will hold the game together, so stay tuned!

GRID COMBAT

With General Blythe and her combat prowess as the vanguard to our vision, we're looking forward to tuning up the skillsets of allies and enemies, in a way that makes their abilities impactful while remaining faithful to their style and character. This includes the specifics around DEVA mode, enemy tactics and target priorities in combat. Our vision is for party choices and strategies to matter and for Grid Combat to be as engaging and exciting for you to experience it as it is for us to design it!
As our first priority to Grid Combat revamp, we will be reviewing the combat tempo and how that affects both allied and enemy units. This includes a revamp in Initiative and turn order in general, as well as making targeting a more thought-out process for our enemies (making room for tanking and healing to be viable tactics).

After securing that our baddies perform up to our expectations, we’ll be revamping our biggest outliers in our mantic roster, making sure Trisha, Equicox and other less favored ones receive some love as well, and bringing all mantics to a uniform capability that you will enjoy playing through, no matter your choices.

DEVA mode is something that will be revamped after these changes, so that we will be able to accurately calculate risk vs reward. At the moment, especially in later levels, we acknowledge that combat is heavy-hitting and fast-paced, so removing two very capable allies for three turns while the enemies pile on is quite difficult. Once the overall tempo of Grid Combat is determined, it will be easier to set the rules for DEVA mode.

We’ve also made plans for generic equipable items, as well as consumable items, that can change the tide of combat to a way that suits you better. Healing, defensive and offensive upgrades and incurring special buffs and debuffs will greatly increase the variety in feel between two missions.

Specifically for Devotion Quest encounters and boss fights, we’re putting extra effort on making sure each of them is a unique experience, mechanically as well as narratively.

SUPPLEMENTARY BACKER-CONTENT

Studio 69, a special DLC nightclub event, for KS backers will be launching with the 1.0 version of the game.

REMAINING PANDORA SCENES

There are still a few straggler Pandora scenes to come, both to even out some of the girls who’ve received less love (looking at you Taron) and to finish off some SpaceWhale kickstarter requests. These scenes will be sprinkled into future devotion quest updates, or the 1.0 release client.

UI REVAMPS

We are going to be continuously updating the UI as we get closer to 1.0 and systems get overhauled. These include but are not limited to

• Further improvements to quest log UI

• New and improved UI for all the leveling-up and devotion related screens

• Captain's computer UI

• Revisions to make the access in all areas of the game faster and easier

DIALOGUE SYSTEM REVAMPS

You will see improvements to the earlier visual novel scenes, as we retroactively apply what we’ve learned over the years to the legacy content. You can see these improvements starting with our next September content update.

TLDR

The plan is to release two devotion quests per content update until we finish all quests. Following that, we will release the remainder of the main story and the progression system revamp. The 1.0 client will include some minor overhauls alongside the conclusion of the main storyline, and is targeted for release in 2024. We will communicate more indepth about overhauls in the future once we wrap the devotion quests.
We understand that it’s been a long journey, and luckily the second half of this year is absolutely jam-packed with excellent games to keep you entertained. It’s a bit of a blessing in disguise to have so many excellent titles showing that they are worth the wait, and we hope to be one of those titles too when we launch our 1.0 next year. By then hopefully the skies will have cleared and we can find a good nesting spot on the shoulders of these AAA titans! In the meantime please remember to get involved with our Discord and leave your feedback there.

See you next month!

Bis bald,
Till Eulenspiegel

NEW WAIFU – BLYTHE
Help Blythe out of a pickle and she may repay you in her own way.


NEW BLYTHE NSFW SCENES
The Blythe update comes with 28 new Pandora scenes for the sexy warlord! She is also available in Gallery mode!


NEW SIDEQUEST
Three new side quests have been added to the game.


NEW ONBOARD DIALOGUES
All your crewmates have new dialogue onboard the ship to reflect the latest exciting developments!

• Glitch line on top of Entering Screen (Pandora and Gallery) fixed.
  
• Reduced Raenos Mercenary’s initiative in Grid Combat.
  
• Yahgot’s anti-stun passive now working in Grid Combat.
  
• Yahgot now has skill icons in Grid Combat.
  
• Added a UI SFX when the alert speech bubble pops up on screen.

• Fixed issue where a barrel spawned on top of a hole on Tandov scenario in Grid Combat. This caused the game to crash if targeted.
  
• Fixed issue where Kino news segments required a specific gameplay event to update the news. I.e. progressing the story to the next section or speaking with a waifu onboard the Mary Celeste.
  
• Fixed issue when clicking on the Jukebox or Gallery, then exiting screen back to the Bar, DEMI appeared on the far table in a T-Pose onboard the Mary Celeste.

• VFX Poison sometimes lingers after the unit who had it is destroyed in Grid Combat.
  
• Some instances of speech bubble VO still playing during the end mission screen.
  
• Not all anomalies in Navigation update visually after a specific event takes place. WIP.
  
• Clipping issues during dialogue sections for some newly introduced characters in Fortune’s release.
  
• Some characters' animation pose transitions are not in place yet during dialogue sections for Fortune’s release.
  
• If multiple enemies are stunned, when it is their turn, the arrow above their head still renders even after their turn has passed in Grid Combat.
  
• Visual bug, when a mantic reaches max level of 40 a white icon will appear the first time you enter the lab, as if there were more levels but goes away after selecting another mantic.
  
• Mission log filter inconsistency if you filter out finished missions, then filter out on Nebula’s, the filtered Finished missions will be in the list again.
  
• Waifus active, passive and ultimate icons do not always render in the same order from Locker room to selection screen.
  
• Visual bug, unlockable abilities/passives not showing up or showing as locked in the Laboratory or Selection screen after the character has reached required level (some known characters Napholeon & Chodestool passed level 30).
  
• Character upgrades based on level are not fully implemented for all characters.
  
• Imperium’s Shocktrooper Purify status remains on character after Shocktrooper is killed.
  
• Visual bug, if a unit has shield and armor and receives damage while the preview damage animation is happening on the health bars, there’s a chance it will show shield or armor remaining on the bar when there is not after the attack (In most cases remaining shield but in the character info it will show zero shield as intended).
  
• Alt-Tabbing potentially can cause the game to crash, especially during areas of the game where high loads take place.
  
• Report stating Rekall's passive can cause a softlock if an enemy counters with low health and dies from Rekall’s passive.
  
• 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.
  
• Physics on dangling pieces such as tentacles or hair (i.e. Huntress or Killi) may clip through the character's body or rapidly vibrate during dialog sequences.
  
• 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.
  
• Completion percentage counters in Navigation are a WIP and may have some inconsistencies.

• Equipables for characters in Grid Combat are a work in progress and may not work as intended. In addition to this, we are considering moving the equipable items menu to the character selection screen where choices can be made right before battle.