Well. Just spent the last few days completely redoing the combat system. Why? Because the old one just wasn't any fun.

Still on track, as is Tentacle Prawn. Just getting ready to set everything aside next month to dive headfirst into designing our first platformer.

We may be getting a new level programmer for Dinosaur Cousin Squad, so look out for that update soon. If that happens, we don't yet know how it would affect the current workflow/schedule. Best case scenario is it clears up time and stress so we can work on Furry Shakespeare 2, but that's not even really a thing yet beyond a first draft of the script.

It's literally still snowing here, but sure.

First off, it's really ridiculous that we finally got out the final Army of Tentacles. Yes, Unicorns is coming later, and Tentacle Prawn technically counts as a spin-off in the same way that the Mythos games do, but for all mentally stressful purposes, the trilogy is over.

Yes, that feels weird, considering the series began in 2016 and the recodes are still being worked on. Army 3's recode now only has 20 Arguments, and even though we're working on Dinosaur Cousin Squad exclusively after March ends, not working on any other projects is going to free up time to finish those.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1082690/Army_of_Tentacles_Not_A_Cthulhu_Dating_Sim_2
Next up is Tentacle Prawn, which is a mix of Paper Shakespeare/Army of Tentacles.....



Internally, we've been referring to it as Army of Tentacles 4, even though it's... really not an entry in the main arc. It has.... stuff in it, and it really is a true mixture of the two worlds, but it is its own thing entirely.

It's going to go live early April.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1727790/Tentacle_Prawn_Actually_A_Cthulhu_Dating_Sim

Hey, everyone! Army of Tentacles: (Not) A Cthulhu Dating Sim 2 is out now because my hotel internet works! Happy Valentine's Day?

I feel like I should write a larger post, but I've been in the air for six hours.

The last game in the storyarc that started six years ago and meandered and survived due entirely to whimsy is finally here!

The AoT 1 recode was put on hold, but now it should be starting up again next week. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1082690/Army_of_Tentacles_Not_A_Cthulhu_Dating_Sim_2/

"This month" means February.

Army of Tentacles 1's redo is about 50% complete. All of the side quests are finished. Brain fog is not helping my productivity, but I'm doing about two quests a day, plus a quest a day on Army of Tentacles 2.

I know I originally set the release date for February, and then March, but if they both are ready by the end of January, they might be both launching then.

Don't worry. I fully realize my workload as well as my current state of being/mind/health, so it might not happen.

Army of Tentacles 3 is a different story. It's a lot less restrictive than Army 1, both code-wise and VO-wise (because there is no VO). We thought about adding VO to the game, but ruled against it, as that would be money we need for Unicorns and Dinosaur Cousin Squad, and the game's plot relied on a lack of VO.

The biggest change to Army 3 is that we are cutting down the number of Arguments for a leaner, faster experience. With the DLCs, Army 3 has a whopping 70 Arguments to Army 1's, what, 20? I don't yet know how that is going to translate into quests yet. Some quests might be merged with others, I don't know yet. A lot of the Arguments were not even related to quests, and those may be the majority that go. Another feature that is going to take some busywork.... Army 3 has a large party, and it'll be interesting to see what skills change, what stay the same, and what have fun new uses.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2153400/Scientifically_Accurate_Dinosaur_Mating_Simulator_2022_American_Revolution_1775__1786

Plus, a few release dates have shifted due to a very nasty flu. Not sure if it is Long COVID or just a really despicable bug.

AoT 2 is now March, and we're still debating when Tentacle Prawn will come out. It'll either release same month as AoT 2 or Rainbow Unicorn Island. We're trying to find a balance between financial sense and thematic sense.

No one could have predicted this.

Oh, and Dino Sim 2022 is droppig next week. Could be Monday, could be Friday. Or Tuesday. Or the other two. Just in time to miss Christmas as well as Christmas Eve. Blame the Gregorian Calendar and the constant shift of yearly dates for that chestnut.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2153400/Scientifically_Accurate_Dinosaur_Mating_Simulator_2022_American_Revolution_1775__1786
Oh, and a 2023 treat....


So, later on in 2023, the oft prophecized recode is happening..... the code for both Army 1 and Army 3 broke. The Steam versions still work. So that's the good news. If you buy it this sale, you will be buying a working game. It's just the versions on our end that need to be fixed. Which ultimately means that there will be a patch to both games later on down the line.

I want to make it clear that both games work perfectly fine on Steam. If you were planning on making any purchases of the game or DLC this Winter Sale, feel free to do so.

When the newest update to the engine that we use hit, it scrambled our 2016 Code bases brain. Without going into lengthy explanations, the base code for Army 1 (Utahraptor) was written in such a way that, if you push one domino, the whole thing is gonna crumble. We were young and inexperienced. Shit happens.

While Army 3 came out pretty unscathed, it still uses the Argument/Word Battle code. So we need to redo it as well.

The good news is that both games will have fresher, better code. We will be keeping as much as the base game intact as we can. We're also going to try our best to keep the file size to the same as what it was, even though we'll be adding a few new baubles. They will include:

• Updated Word Battles: Stats and abilities will now have a bigger impact on how they play out.
  
• New Army Units and Art: We'll have actual art for the Army units.
  
• New Level Up/Upgrade screens: For a better, clearer idea of how you're going to shape your army of monsters for the new endgame Invasion.
  
• Updated Shops and Stats
  
• Redone endgame Invasion system
  
• Redone DLC pathcode
  
• New UI

Those patches will hit sometime (hopefully) early this year, with Army of Tentacles 1's patch going up before Army 3.


Our first platformer - made in GameMaker Studio 2. While we were going to shift the release dates for our current 2023 crop to get this out before Summer Sale, the version of base code that we got earlier last month still needed a fair amount of polish, and we didn't want to have our contractors work through the holidays. Our current investors were cool with the shift, but since it's going to need more time to cook before we can really start work on it, we're going to try to clear our slate of current investor projects before working on this one in full.

Earlier in October, we had split up into two teams: Team Army of Tentacles - working on Army 2, Tentacle Prawn, and Unicorn Island - and Team Cousin Squad - working on Dinosaur Cousin Squad only. But because Dinosaur Cousin Squad has shifted, Team DCS has now taken up a new project that will also be officially announced next month:

While Tentacle Prawn is the game where we detail the relationship between our Lovecraft and Shakespeare worlds, Furry Shakespeare: To Date Or Not To Date Cat Girls? 2 is going to be a more standalone title that deals specifically with the various Furry Shakespeare tales we've been telling so far. For instance, we have an entire group that actually deals with keeping the spirit of the holidays alive. How do they fit into the overall lore? Do they also go to the same college for royalty that everyone else does? What about the Spooky Scary Halloween Spooky Times and Historylands crews? Those are retail jobs. Why do those exist in this world?

But the most important question of all: can you date a Monarch Butterfly?

Originally, Spooky Cat Girls? was going to be the canon sequel to Cat Girls?, but.... well, not anymore, obviously.

Happy holidays.

A bunch of products are on sale. Yeah, we know iot is not the official Autumn sale, but better late than never.


Last Christmas, I started working on a non-VN with input from my cousins, and the restrictions were that I had to do whatever they gave me, within reason. So now the Velociraptor has Telekinesis and the Pterodactyl has the water levels.

It's going to be our first platformer, and our first game in a new engine. No idea when the store page is going up. Our 2023 slate is a bit packed, but we've got a good schedule and we have managed to fit everything in without burning ourselves out.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2219720/Furry_Shakespeare_Dashing_Dinosaurs__Sexy_Centaurs_Winters_Tale_2