I must confess, since a year ago, I find myself looking less and less forward to the next MGD version
Many new interesting features, better implemented, yes. However, actual content was much more VN than BF-oriented; what's more, 'new' girls are either freaky, dominatrixes and/or predators. The findom/nutritional imbalance/slaver easter bunny doesn't help either.
No sweet, awkward and overwhelmingly cute girl (like Trisha, or even Kotone or Mika in their own ways) in sight. Tabitha excluded, she's one bat for my belfry.
I meant to ask, would that be the new guideline we should expect? I understand catering the needs of players with... less wholesome? needs, but I kind of miss the 'old school' MGD, with a new cutesy girl every other month.
I can't exactly blame you given the progress speed and the recent content additions not really being your thing either.
I doubt the labyrinth will really do you too much in regards to favors there either. Unless you like Beris? But as is she's still only VN type content.
But generally characters are still going to be fairly varied moving forward, there's no real guideline for character types.
Once I finally get out of the freaking time consuming black hole that is Venefica's content.
At least Jora got some new wholesomey content in that regard.
Well, I was wrong. We're now 4 months in with no meaningful updates to the game.
Please take this to heart a bit: your work is great, but you're suffering BADLY from scope-creep. I understand that adding new areas and the like takes a substantial time investment, so do all of these side-tweaks and changes. It's been over 3 years since this topic was posted, and I've watched since the day that you first made this project known, but as of late it seems like you really have just hit a wall and are satisfied just to go back and tinker with things that could very easily wait. You're taking so long icing your cake that the cake itself is getting stale
I have no doubt that you have many reasons and can explain your motivations, and could just as easily wave this off as the complaints of a demanding fan, but literally all that I'm asking is that you please take stock of your development plan.
Part of the problem could def be considered feature creep. On top of bug fixes and other kind of needed QoL and modder/creation tools.
At least one of those months I was also basically dead in the water, cause of seasonal depression of something dumb like that, the one where it was just the Elly content/ status report updates and they were very paltry. Which didn't help with me not exactly being great at writing her to begin with.
I've also had the issue where I don't think I'm taking proper breaks either, so I'll end up stuck in the 'I should work' then I don't really get work done or rest, which doesn't help for crap either. xD
But I am still getting stuff done, just, not nearly as much as I'd like, or really in the directions I want in some cases.
Cause I've still basically got the same dev plan. I just need to get through the darn pandora's box that was the Venefica quest line. I really shoulda just made it a cute side area and not an actual thing. But way too late there so I hope for the people that like her content the payoff to the ending will at least be worth it.
So yeah I'm again not really happy with things.
Going to be another update before the end of the month but that's basically just gonna be bug fixing. Cause there's been quite a bit.
Since we're all sharing opinions here, I'll do so, too. No meaningful updates? A matter of perspective; I prefer fleshed out characters to blank slates and/or cannon fodder, for what it's worth, I don't mind the fact "main plot advancement" has taken a backseat, one way or the other, I've always got more content to enjoy with most updates.
I mean, I think have been happening in regards to progress, but I know exactly what he means. xD
By all means I know people are still enjoying the updates as they come and go, but I'm personally not really happy with how things have been moving. Which is kinda what I said back then too if I recall. >.>
So overall it's been kinda ech for me.
Now, I'm someone who is extremely biased toward Venefica and, generally, femdom-oriented stuff… so, I'll have the courtesy to shut up about the mistress with bunny ears, for the most part. Loved the latest expansion (I'm proud of my skills with stealth-oriented games like Metal Gear Solid and you managed to make me have no shame about getting caught while sneaking around, pat yourself on the back).
I just want to say this: as far as I'm concerned, I can guarantee that I'm always looking forward to more from MGD, regardless of it being a whole new location, new character, or character expansion. This game is a perfect mix of two things I love: BFRPG and good humor, I'm still enjoying the ride, even though I've also played this game since the early stages of development.
Again, for what its worth, you'll have at least one player of your game who is always satisfied about whatever you end up adding, but if I may echo a suggestion… try to strike a balance between main content and extra bits, out there there are at least a couple of games that ended burying themselves in side stuff, secondary plots, the main story had been discarded and folks eventually lost interest in them; I'd hate to see MGD follow the same fate.
I'm glad you're enjoying the game still!
But yeah I definitely want to focus on main story/progression for a bit once all this is out of the way finally.
I'm not quite sure how I feel about it and I'll probably ramble a bit. I still like this game a lot, but I've been skipping updates for a while because I like having a chunk of content to get through. I don't really want to play an update that has maybe an hour of stuff to go through that's just a continuation of last update's hour of stuff. The next time I play will probably be when Venefica's stuff is completed, and I hope the main story starts taking focus again afterwards. I look forward to the capital the most but I think there's still the labyrinth before that. I think it's pretty troublesome for the dev because a lot of people's characters are probably over-leveled and already done with all the content the game has right now, so when a new update comes out they finish it up quick. That's part of the reason why I just create a new character pretty often.
Yeah that's not a bad way to be in general for game updates anyway imo.
That aside I do think I could still be doing way better than I am currently for progress and content amount. xD
And as mentioned in the bit above this yeah I really wanna focus on the main content path again, holy crap. xD
I think if Threshold doesn't already have notes with a loose outline on how many places/dungeons are going to be in the final version of the game, he should probably take a couple nights writing that out. This is my opinion, but there should really be an armature of a completed game already planned out (not necessarily executed 100%), and all the extra stuff can be added here and there after some of the important bits are done. Maybe a new area update with a substantial bit of main plot and a couple sidequests packaged in the same release, followed by one or two sidequest-filled updates in whatever areas he wants. Right now the side-content has taken over. Then again, I think some of the backlash just might be from lack of transparency. Maybe people on the Patreon get more info. I'm in the Discord, but there's a lot of chatter in there to swathe through to get an idea of things coming and even then I'm not completely sure if Threshold really mentions too much about what is being planned. Either way, I'm giving the benefit of the doubt and assuming that this whole roadblock is just because of surprise coding issues needing to be solved, delayed art, and COVID-19.
I do in fact have a bunch of notes for the games outline, as well as some stuff kicking around my head. Along with location enemy types and perpetua's continuations.
I know when I get to the capital that's probably going to be another time sink. Though for the main location path more than anything.
Yeah my transparency is weird and inconsistent tbh, sometimes I'll outright say everything I'm doing and othertimes I'm just dead silent, I should probably get better about that.
Coding hasn't really been too much of an issue aside from the occasional stubborn bug, and tbh art doesn't really slow me down too much if it's delayed, I'd do the labyrinth with no art, though I'm trying to get all of them art for the launch of it, not sure if that will happen though.
I don't really thing COVID's affected me too much either? Though I did mention a few other bits earlier in this post that did cause me issue.
But I do think roadblocks might be a good term? Last few month have been kind weird.
Last update wasn't exactly all I wanted it to be or done as fast as I wanted but I'm still content with what's in it. Have been moving at a better clip than before so I think things should be normalizing.
And cause COVID I wont be seeing family this year for holidays so I can work more! Which prolly isn't a healthy thing to do/think but it's prolly what I'll do. xD
I def do need to pace myself better and take proper days off tho. Running myself into the ground and still going so I can get an update done 'sooner' hasn't really worked well I don't think. Which has happend on a few occasions. Which kinda just compounded with other issues.
Basically it's all dumb and I wanna get crap done.
As far as the characters go, I just like the idea of hundreds of debt-ridden adventurers sailing off to a distant land and having no idea what they're getting into. I like the idea that most of the monster girls are probably stronger and can do whatever they want with you. I also like the idea of improving strength to beat them, talking to them, and developing relationships (romantic or not) and even meeting monstergirls that you don't have conflict with at all! So I guess I like both but still have a leaning preference towards them asserting themselves on you. There's a >>
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<< that was made in the Discord that I just did that pretty much illustrates that the ones I like the most are usually the ones that are considered the most dangerous. So that was kind of interesting to think about. I'll post my result in a spoiler. Interested in seeing other's as well.
RIP mimic.
And why bulli Mika?
You know maybe I should make a teir list for characters I think need content updates. xD Though given I want to get on with the main story stuff finally I really wont have time to act on anything I show off (or have said prior in regards to that for a while).
