Release Dates

Patreon: January 4th <- Now Available!!
Public: February 2nd <- Now Available!!

New Content
-2 new Emotes; one for chasing the player, and one for failing to catch the player
-Monsters can initiate sex with player (beginning of Monster r*ping player system, will need a few animations however)

Changes
-Economy fixes
-Debt payments are now scaled based on the Player's Rank, with F being more forgiving. This gives the Player some time to set up, and choose to go at their own pace near the start of the game, as the Debt will not jump too much until Rank starts increasing
-Each Rank has a minimum and maximum debt payment amount which scales over the course of a year
-Monsters which require a higher Rank to obtain will yield more expensive Cum
-Things like potions sell for more
-Changed the sell value of many items, increasing the value of items that either take longer to obtain or require further progress in the game
-Changed every reference to "Stats pass" to read "Mentorship"

Bug Fixes
-Fixed a glitch which was causing the wrong prices to appear in the shop for some items
-Stylist fixes
-Fixed the glitch at the Stylist which was giving females a cock
-Fixed a glitch at the Stylist which made all Futa penises the max length
-Fixed a glitch at the Stylist which was flashing the penis size between a low number and where it was currently being dragged on the slider
-Fixed a glitch at the Stylist where switching from female or futa to male caused the player to become invisible
-Fixed the Colour Picker at the Stylist; at certain resolutions the picker was offset from the cursor, making certain colour selections impossible. Color selection now relies on cursor position, and the picker is strictly visual and snaps to cursor regardless of resolution
-Fixed a visual glitch in the stylist which would display the shirt colour picker when it should have been hidden
-Autocleaner fixes
-Autocleaner Filters now function as intended
-Added filter for "Plantable" items
-Fixed a glitch in the Autocleaner which could allow non-filtered items to enter the filter list, but would still be targeted occasionally, resulting in some strange behaviour
-Fixed a bug with 3rd Person camera during sex
-New Monster Detail HUD now properly displays in Player Mode

Patching in some non-working things.

Dear Players:

I've recently put together my own Discord channel, and it should become available, so if you normally use it, try logging in, I'll be in the channel often, and I look forward to working with you all to create a good community.
Meanwhile, the Discord link has been placed at the top of the store page for easy access.

Address: http://Discord

Liujiajun
January 5, 2024

Happy New Year! We hope everyone stayed happy and healthy over the winter holidays! Let’s go over 2023 and our plans for 2024!


Before getting into 2023 in review, let’s go over December quickly! As per usual, our focus was on cutscenes, interiors, and animations. We also worked on some bug fixes and updating Gamemaker! As we are now tackling larger cities, we’ll save an overview of the city and it’s interiors after they are completed. In the meantime, here’s a look at one bug we’ve fixed:

This gif is too big for Steam

Did you know that if you happen to be in an interior with camera movement that if you entered into the main menu and returned it broke? No? Neither did we. It was a bit of a surprise when we stumbled upon this. Most interiors are made such that a camera isn’t needed, but in this case one was! A quick check in the menu for something led to… well… this. But it’s fixed now, so all’s well that ends well.

We also spent time this month upgrading our development machines (they were 10 years old) and the Gamemaker version from Feb 2023 to Nov 2023. A few important things came out from this:

1. This bug from October 2022 is now fixed. This was one of the major blockers for the demo update since we use that feature of the engine quite extensively. We didn’t want to release an update that could randomly crash.
   
2. Between the development machine upgrade and the Gamemaker engine upgrade, Gataela’s compile times have dropped from 10 to about 1:30 minutes. What a huge improvement!
   
3. We are also now able to build YYC (native) for machines because of the bug fix. This means better runtime performance on machines.

Gamemaker has a number of build-related changes coming in the future so likely things will continue to improve as we upgrade over time. This largely means that development time is spent developing instead of waiting for things to compile.

And that’s it for December!


Now let’s talk about 2023! And man, 2023 was a thing. Lots of exciting things happened, but there was a lot of interruptions and difficulties. Let’s go over some of the highlights and see what we accomplished!




The first big thing was completing the overworld! That was back in Feburary! Wow! We’ve gone through since then and added interiors for nearly all of the cities – we are left with half of Ziacia and Olvia (those two big cities in the south of the map). Once those are done nearly all maps, and sub-maps for the game will be complete! Kinda. We will still have to add NPCs and such but, well, that can’t be done until the maps exist.


Another major focus for the year was adding Main Story Quest cutscenes and skits. These are the main meat of the game. We spent a lot of time working on these and finished adding all of the skits, and most of the cutscenes! We also did some general cutscene infrastructure improvements.




Lots and lots of time was spent on working to improve the turn-based battle system. In particular:

• We doubled the number of enemies, created their animations, and their alternate palettes & added them to the game
  
• We rebalanced and increased the number of skills to account for the change in enemies. We also identified balance gaps in our player skills (ex. Foresight and Triage)
  
• We began creating VFX and SFX for the new skills (& adding them to the game)

Other improvements and work include but aren’t limited to:

• Improving ambience effects
  
• Improved map/room/level loading times from 7 seconds to 0.3 seconds
  
• Added a splash screen & new animals and wild life
  
• Dungeon & puzzle design
  
• Various bug fixes

Now lets get into what we’re cooking for 2024!

Generally speaking we’ll be doing more of the same with adding content and putting everything together. Our year will focus on cutscenes, maps, battle systems (turn-based and debate) and general bug fixes and performance.

In the short term (3-6 months), this means:

• Finish adding all of the MSQ
  
• Finish adding all of the city interiors
  
• Finish adding all of the Kickstarter backer houses
  
• Finish implementing dungeon puzzles/mechanics (including UI changes)
  
• Create & add more turn-based battle skill VFX & SFX

And looking beyond that (subject to change):

• Adding NPCs, animals, treasure, etc. to the maps
  
• Rebalancing Debate battles & related facts/evidence/side quests etc.
  
• Map visual upgrades (ex. the water shader)
  
• Performance and bug fixes as needed
  
• Demo update? Beta update? Who knows.

So with all the being said, thanks for reading and have a good start to 2024!

Hello from the Lies of P Team.

We would like to thank all of the love and support our residents have shown to the Winter Holiday Edition Bundle.
In appreciation, we have decided to re-release the Winter Holiday Edition Bundle.

We hope you enjoy the remaining winter with this Winter Holiday Edition which includes the Lies of P base game, Deluxe Edition Upgrade, and the Digital Soundtrack.
Be sure to not miss out on this special occasion which will only be available until January 16, 18:00 (PST)

Thank you.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/37060/Lies_of_P__Winter_Holiday_Edition/

- Minor Bug Fix

Hello again, Survivors!

Until now, the Dev Notes have mainly focused on gameplay. This is partly because the redesign is mainly aimed to fix linearity issues and elevate the “strategic” value of the game, and because the overall design focus was on gameplay.

However, the changes in gameplay direction will inevitably impact narrative design. As we aim for a closer cohesion between the narrative and gameplay, a reevaluation of the overall narrative tone became necessary.

We plan to share more about the direction of the narrative changes after the gameplay is more concrete. However, before that we must first introduce our main theme: “Humanity.”

This “Archive” series of our Dev Notes will talk about the central theme of our narrative, “Humanity,” and look back on the attempts we made to convey it.

First Attempt: “Companions who act according to their will”

When we chose the theme of “Medieval Apocalypse” for our game, we asked ourselves, "What is the charm of an apocalyptic theme?" Our answer was, "Depicting the extreme suffering of humans in dire situations and the process of overcoming it."

In an earlier Archive post, we introduced a prototype where companions “move automatically.” The intention was to depict companions experiencing fear, fleeing, or behaving in unexpected ways as a game mechanic.



This version did have its charm and there was a certain energy that was felt when observing “NPCs that act according to their own will,” much like watching characters in a simulation game.

While going in this direction didn’t match the fidelity of pre-scripted dialogue and a precisely written script, the game’s uniqueness was still felt.

In a previous post, I summarized this version from a gameplay perspective, stating, "It was more annoying than fun, and it turned into an experience more like a hack-and-slash." but there were deeper discussions and considerations before we reached a decision.

There was even talk about going in a direction closer to real-time sim games like Rimworld, while still trying to preserve the charm of this version! We went as far as prototyping in this direction.

However, if we wanted to express this simulation not just as “watching trolls” but as a “human simulation” as intended, the core of the game would have to really narrow its focus. If we went to such an extent, the project would have moved far from the original intention, leading us to the conclusion that it was not the right path.

Second Attempt: Presenting Direct Situations and Creating “Choices”

As the overall gameplay shifted more towards Turn-Based Tactics, the issue of how to handle “Humanity” in this direction arose. Simply following a predetermined story was not the narrative direction we desired.

The most “orthodox” method would be to present various choices, like in the CRPG genre, and implement corresponding reactions. However, considering the size of our team, we deemed it impossible to go this way.

So, the method we attempted was to provide choices limited to the core objectives of each stage, and the progression of the stage would change based on the results.

While it was impossible to give choices within an intricate story like CRPGs, we believed that focusing on a few key tactical stages would be manageable.



Let's take an example from the narrative within the Tavern map in this version.

• After the previous map ends, the allied companion, the “Monk” character, falls ill with fever, but the players have no medicine.
  
• While searching for medicine, they arrive at the Tavern and encounter the Innkeeper, who is nursing a woman suffering from the same kind of fever as the Monk.
  
• The Innkeeper knows the location of the medicine that can cure the woman but explains that they can't obtain it due to the “Pestilent” (the name of the Infested at that time).

After accepting the Innkeeper's plea, he offers to guide the player party and joins them. The player must then move through the Pestilent to reach the back room of the inn, where the medicine is located.

Upon reaching the location of the medicine after a battle, the player is presented with a choice. Take the medicine to cure the illness of the Monk or return the medicine to the Innkeeper as promised.


In a typical RPG quest, it would naturally be considered the right action for the protagonists to return the medicine to the NPC and receive an appropriate reward.

However, considering the theme of an apocalypse and assuming the player could lose an actual ally, taking the medicine is not necessarily the wrong choice.

If the player decides to take the medicine, a violent confrontation with the Innkeeper ensues, and the player can choose to kill him and leave with a sense of bitterness or escape from the map without killing him (using methods like stunning or utilizing defensive barriers).

On the contrary, if the player chooses to keep his promise by returning the medicine, the relationship with the ally “Monk” character deteriorates. The player is posed with the question, "Is a promise to an anonymous human met for the first time more important than the life of a companion who has journeyed with you so far?"

There is no “right answer” given by us. The intended experience was for the player to choose the direction they wanted, considering their situation. We also aimed to balance the mechanical “advantages/disadvantages” inherent in each direction.



This way also had distinctive features aligning with the narrative we wanted to convey, and we found it appealing as it explored a theme we thought wasn't widely covered in the games to date.

If we had persisted going in this direction, we could have potentially created an experience of “conflict and choices in extreme situations,” similar to what you might find in games like This War of Mine.

However, in the current Early Access version, all these elements were eventually removed. The honest reason is that the development required much more time than we initially anticipated.

In the next post, we will provide more detailed examples of the issues we were facing with this attempt and introduce the direction we are currently contemplating for the narrative.

Until then, see you next week!
REMORE

Masters of the Book!

We’re the Flint development team, and today we have another set of updates to share with you all. But before all that, we hope that you are all having a great start to the New Year!

2024 has started with a bang here in Korea, and we’ve been hard at working making sure that ASTRA: Knights of Veda lives up to the expectations that you have for it.

In this Developer Update, we're excited to share with you an array of convenience features and graphical enhancements, building upon our last developer update focused on combat. While it's impossible to cover every new addition, we're spotlighting the most significant ones. We aim to provide detailed information about these key updates, ensuring you're well-informed about the latest enhancements we’re making to the game.

We have heard quite a bit of feedback that players would prefer to tackle the nightmares of Planis with their friends and allies for their first playthroughs of the game.

Throughout the FGBT, in order to team up with other Masters of the Book you first had to clear a stage alone in order to unlock the co-op experience for that stage. Our latest changes allow you to team up with others from the start, allowing you to invite friends of any level to join your party and help out on your adventures.

As world level differences were somewhat of an issue when trying to party together, we’ve removed the cool time when switching between world levels. That said, you can still only lower your world level by a maximum of 1 level.

We’re also opening up both Veda’s Nightmare and Sealed Prisons for party play too, allowing you to bring your friends and guild members along for the ride.

We recognize that controlling your character in town is different to how it is in combat and that has resulted in a less satisfactory experience for some players. We’ve made it easier for you to express yourself in town with the same transformation functions that you would have during an adventure. We’ve also added the ability to run in town as well.

Many players have expressed frustration with the pop up window that appears when you skip a cutscene that offers rewards.

We’ve restructured the rewards previously linked to the story cutscenes and incorporated them into dungeon completion rewards and related achievements.

We’ve also added a “Do not show warnings again” option for all alerts, streamlining your playthrough and minimizing interruptions.


Many players mentioned the fatigue that comes with item farming.

So to help combat that fatigue, we added Hero Shoes. By fusing Adventurer’s Shoes and some gold, you’ll be able to create Hero’s Shoes. Hero’s Shoes allow you to get multiple runs worth of rewards in just one outing.


We’ve added an Options menu to the title screen where you can adjust graphics and sound settings. You can also use the Options button (exit button) during combat to change the options you need on the go.

We’re making a lot of improvements to the UI and UX of the game. Many players expressed their frustrations with the party settings, so we’re making changes to the UX to make it more intuitive and easier to change and manage your parties.

Certain rewards, including achievements, required you to claim each reward individually. So we added a claim all function to make it quicker to get your rewards, and get back into the action.

For convenience, we’ve added a feature that allows you to take screenshots that hide the UI.

Later game stages can have complicated layouts which can make it confusing to navigate. A new footprint effect has been added to all maps, including these complicated ones, to highlight your path to the next objective.

More information has been added to the stage failure screen, which highlights areas where you can improve your team and gather the strength to continue on.

A new function has been added that will allow you to automatically equip the best gear that you have earned on your adventures, making it a little easier to gear up your characters, and allow you to focus on making them stronger.

There was overwhelming feedback in regards to the repetition of phrases such as “You are not ready” and other notifications during battle, so a new option has been added that will allow you to turn them on or off in the settings.

The following names for weapon types or unclear categorization have been fixed as follows to clear up any confusion they may have caused. (Please note that the localization of these weapon categories may be different in the final version.)

• 1H Sword & Shield → Sword & Shield
  
• 1H Axe & Shield → Axe & Shield
  
• 1H Club & Shield → Club & Shield
  
• 2H Sword → Sword
  
• 2H Greatsword → Greatsword
  
• 2H Axe → Axe
  
• 2H Club → Club

Knights Missions are the daily quests for ASTRA: Knights of Veda. The initial response to these missions was that the rewards for the missions were all the same, while also being unrewarding.

We have therefore increased the value of the rewards offered through the Knights Missions, as well as differentiating the materials offered through different quests.

Calydon Dungeon has also seen improvements. Originally it had a very simple pattern with long spawn times for the monsters to appear.

The monsters within the dungeon will now carry the attribute of the region they appear in, and will come in greater numbers at a more consistent pace.

We’ve also made them less time consuming and more rewarding to play.

We’re working on all of the above and more.

There’s a lot of content in the works, including guilds, gifting, a Knight of Veda birthday system and more. We’re also polishing the Arena and working on adding new modes.

Make sure that you check out our next Dev Update, where we’ll be talking about changes to the economy, increased rewards and more!

We can’t wait for your adventures to begin.

ASTRA: Knights of Veda Development Team

This week is a very minor patch. We've reverted the changes we made to showing opponents dice rolls, so it's back to normal.

To participate, simply join our Discord server and write a review on the Steam page! 📝

The first 50 people who DM me on Discord a screenshot of their review for Raining Blood: Hellfire will get a FREE key for my other game, Citrus Rampage! 🍊💥

Hurry, don't miss out!
It doesn't matter when you wrote the review!
You can even write it now!



https://store.steampowered.com/app/2147530/Raining_Blood_Hellfire/