RPG Patreon Ci-En Fantia RPG Maker [Ason] 蒼キ光と魔剣の鍛冶師 / The Shimmering Horizon and Cursed Blacksmith

[Ason_oaneashi]

Currently your weapon's weight is the sum of its materials and I feel like a forged weapon should weigh less since you're (presumably) getting rid of all the impurities.

Mm, I agree with the guy above. I feel like forging weapons should reduce their carry weight.

Maybe not to the base weight value because that'd be overpowered... so like 50% or something. Maybe there could be an upgrade that does this?

Hmm, these are good feedbacks, it might take some time do develop this function. But we will consider to reduce the weight for forged weapons!

For convenience, Ason's previous (completed) game: https://ulmf.org/threads/ason-sakyu...abducted-and-made-a-cumpet-rj-re201762.13268/ (crafting/exploration BF RPG with 'daily life with succubi' bits)
Also noteworthy:
[referring to late 2020. Unconfirmed afaik.]

If I had any suggestions:
- a public demo would really, really help promotion. One will be required for DLsite anyway
- consider a separate, R16(just ecchi) release; there is much demand for quality roguelikes on Steam

R18 content requires a Steam login not to be filtered out. I'll definitely buy the R18 version as soon as it's out, but more people will be aware of your work with 2 versions.
I'll be looking forward the final release either way.

Thanks for posting our previous game!

- Thanks for reminding us. We do plan to make a public Demo when the game is done to a certain point, and we will also use that demo of an older version for DLsite.

- Yes, we do plan to have a R16 version (Or maybe even a PG rated version?), then also make an official R18 patch somewhere. It’s for avoiding the Steam’s Review system, and having the “Adult Only” tag could possibly hinder our exposure.

We are trying our best to finish the game by 2020, one part is that every team member is having 9-5 job, and working on this game on free time. The truth is that is quite taxing on the morale and enthusiasm. And the other part is we don’t want to rush this game and half ass it. No matter what happen later down the road, we will try our hardest to make the game great!

It's not like that; for one thing, I have a debit card and use it for my purchases, and while I'm sure Patreon would accept my debit card, the problem is I'm on a tight budget right now with car and phone payments, not to mention how much I just spent on Christmas shopping. I appreciate your concern though, so thank you.

Damn bro, we totally get it, life is really hard, and our team can really relate. As some of the team members are having hard time paying our bills too, but we are still trying our best to make this game as indie development team.

There will be something that might help you to still get a taste of our game in future though. When the game is done to a certain point, we are planning the release a free demo of an older version to the pubic.

We won’t be able to release the newest version as free demo though, because it wouldn’t be fair to our supporters.

Great game so far, I like how crafting system gives some strategic element to what to make depending on the situation. Being able to enchant weapons with item effects is also pretty cool and opens up the possibility for some interesting mechanics.

The erosion over time mechanic can be a bit punishing though, I know it is probably there to put pressure on the player to progress but sometimes I feel that I get screwed by RNG because the portals can spawn far away causing lots of erosion just running around looking for them. When entering the forest area I often have >70% erosion even after not getting knocked down and having brought the rate reduction upgrades.

Thanks for liking our game so far!

Other than putting pressure on the player, the erosion is also part of the story, which we will introduce later.

We will add “Rest Spots” in the future, and players will be able to choose to teleport back to the base camp or continue the adventure. And we will also add potions that lowers the erosion percentage.

We are also thinking a way for easier way finding, so players can find the next floor faster.

Thanks for your reply!

 

[BigJohnny]

Hmm, these are good feedbacks, it might take some time do develop this function.

Here's a question: will enemy girls only h-attack you if you're down at 0hp? Maybe it would be better if they rarely could hentai the player while the player is still standing. As it is, you have to go down to see the juicy parts.

Also, I don't know if you realistically should be aiming for 2019 release. The year is almost over (not to mention nobody wants to work on Christmas and New Year) and it could be better to take your time. Granted, I have no idea how much of the game you've finished.

 

[Ranos]

Here's a question: will enemy girls only h-attack you if you're down at 0hp? Maybe it would be better if they rarely could hentai the player while the player is still standing. As it is, you have to go down to see the juicy parts.

Also, I don't know if you realistically should be aiming for 2019 release. The year is almost over (not to mention nobody wants to work on Christmas and New Year) and it could be better to take your time. Granted, I have no idea how much of the game you've finished.

As far as i've seen, yes, the girls only H-attack you when you've hit 0 hp. Having them H the player while the player is still standing may have balance issues, as the H-attacks will rapidly increase erosion, and any climaxes happening during the H-attacks spikes erosion further (i think at least 10% or more). Still, this idea has some applications, as maybe this can be implemented on certain "elite" version of the girls? like when you reach much harder or deeper parts of the dungeon, or as a toggle-able option like normal mode vs hard mode. Heck, you could even have it as a toggle-able option from purchasing from the soul shop.

 

[Tenma]

Aye, I think that idea sounds good. If it's further balanced out by rarer/expensive items that remove corruption. It's just a bit of extra work though that maybe could burden the dev team.

 

[Ason_oaneashi]

Here's a question: will enemy girls only h-attack you if you're down at 0hp? Maybe it would be better if they rarely could hentai the player while the player is still standing. As it is, you have to go down to see the juicy parts.

Also, I don't know if you realistically should be aiming for 2019 release. The year is almost over (not to mention nobody wants to work on Christmas and New Year) and it could be better to take your time. Granted, I have no idea how much of the game you've finished.

The truth is, it's really hard to develop that concept, because it would break the "tempo" of the game. But we are planning to create a "memory mode" (name is still TBD), and in that mode, player will be able to rewatch some juicy stuff again.

We are trying our hardest to release the official game by the end of 2020, not 2019. But if you were referring to the Demo v0.05, then we are working our ass off to try to release it by mid month this month.

As far as i've seen, yes, the girls only H-attack you when you've hit 0 hp. Having them H the player while the player is still standing may have balance issues, as the H-attacks will rapidly increase erosion, and any climaxes happening during the H-attacks spikes erosion further (i think at least 10% or more). Still, this idea has some applications, as maybe this can be implemented on certain "elite" version of the girls? like when you reach much harder or deeper parts of the dungeon, or as a toggle-able option like normal mode vs hard mode. Heck, you could even have it as a toggle-able option from purchasing from the soul shop.

Aye, I think that idea sounds good. If it's further balanced out by rarer/expensive items that remove corruption. It's just a bit of extra work though that maybe could burden the dev team.

Yes, we did consider having some elite girls to have H attacks while the protagonist is not at 0hp, but we are still trying to wrap our head around as in how we are going to implement that.

We actually also wanting to have some H actions to be shown in pixel art right on the map instead of having a cut scene like we are having right now. But we had to cut it out, unfortunately... It just not a feasible work load for our current team. We don't have the time and enough support to have that.


Thanks everyone for your feedback!

 

[BigJohnny]

We are trying our hardest to release the official game by the end of 2020, not 2019

Oh, good, I misread what you said.
As for rewatching scenes, rewatching just isn't the same as when the fun organically ensues through gameplay.

 

[Strange]

The truth is, it's really hard to develop that concept, because it would break the "tempo" of the game. But we are planning to create a "memory mode" (name is still TBD), and in that mode, player will be able to rewatch some juicy stuff again.
[...]
We actually also wanting to have some H actions to be shown in pixel art right on the map instead of having a cut scene like we are having right now. But we had to cut it out, unfortunately... It just not a feasible work load for our current team. We don't have the time and enough support to have that.

If it helps:

Spoiler: *about ecchi situations*

You're probably familiar with MaidenSnow Eve, as well as with

You must be registered to see the links

works (Lust Grimm and the Lust series).

Maiden Snow worked a lot with status ailments (aphrodisiac, restraints, etc.) to induce difficulty and sexual situations. However, this led to much complication; player-wise for ailments management, dev-wise for balancing.
This might not be suited to a "scavenging" roguelike like your title, which will be very hard to properly balance, no matter what.

Lust Grimm (not a roguelike) used a simple

You must be registered to see the links

to reflect the current arousal of the main character. That approach might be easier to implement:
Most monster girls could have an occasional 'naughty' move with a simple cut-in, while a few could specialize into seducing MC to helplessness.

An arousal bar and simple teasing skills (targetting the MC/player's mind) could be a way induce naughty situations with minimal work involved:
- an animation, a text line and a cut-in zoom on your beautiful art.
Some traps could also help - RNG messing with you is the bread & butter of roguelikes after all.


If by any chance you know of the old indie game BFRogue, it made full use of two bars - temptation/mind and physical arousal - to give each girl a unique personality and challenge.
Along with various traps and random events, each run was a new, fresh experience. On top of that, mechanics were simple enough, so balancing was easier on the dev.
It might be a good source of inspiration just in the unlikely case you hit a head-aching roadblock.

Spoiler: *about memory mode*

Obviously sex is not the centerpiece in The Shimmering Horizon - unlike Succubus Cage (Basket?) and its BF.

You could however recycle its BF mechanics in a kind of minigame.
For example, if MC defeats 20 Amazons (or defeat an Amazon in a very challenging way), it would unlock the Amazon in a memory room where MC could engage in BF with her.
Winning the fight once (linking to/sychronizing with her soul) would unlock a small boost, new area or ability, and her full gallery of course.

Succubus Cage made great use of simple animations to make the BF lively, while using very few images. The amount of work needed would be greatly reduced, since you already know the system best.
That might help towards satisfying the H-gamers who are in more for the Hentai and less for the game.

These are just ideas that might be of interest in your next brainstorming session - though I'm sure they're nothing you haven't already considered.
Either way I hope you reach 5000+ sales (make that 10000+) by next Christmas!

 

[Ranos]

Hmm. Thinking of ideas, heres something you could possibly consider adding. The option to increase exp gain/drop rate/soul gain into the soul shop, possibly as a purchasable option. It would make sense as a gameplay perspective, and give the option to make your game easier/harder according to people's various skill levels at the game.

One possible idea could be an upgrade with something on the idea of "Alluring soul" , in which you make your own soul more alluring, increasing Exp/drop rate/soul gain by a large amount, but with several drawbacks. Like increased erosion rate,increased damaged taken, chance of monster girls knocking you down while you're standing. Sort of like a high risk/high reward type of thing.

I was thinking of something like, toggleable only when outside the dungeon, in the soul shop.
Alluring soul level 0: No effects.
Alluring soul level 1: Exp/drop rate/soul gain x1.5, 10% chance of monster girls knocking you down when hp is below 25%
Alluring soul level 2: Exp/Drop/Soul x2, 30% chance of monster girls knocking you down when hp is below 35%
Alluring soul level 3: Exp/drop/soul x2.5, 50% chance of monster girls knocking you down when hp below 45%
Alluring soul level 4: Exp/drop/soul x3, 70% chance of monster girls knocking you down when hp below 55%

Also, you could implement some additional quality of life upgrades to the soul shop as well, a option to permanentely increase exp/drop/soul gain, at much lower rates, but much higher soul costs.
Example:
Exp gain +10% (2000 soul), exp gain +20% (3000 soul), exp gain +30% (4000) soul
Drop rate +10% (2000 soul), ect ect ect..
Soul gain +10% (2000 soul, ect ect ect..

 

[Overlurker]

Okay, can you give us the ability to re-forge or repair the weapons using excess materials we have, I always find my bag full for whatever reason.

 

[ThatWeirdGuyWithaWeirdHat]

I find the inventory space too small even for something like this. 50 slots at start should be much more reasonable. That way you don't have an annoying as hell inventory problem immediately at start.

 

[Ason_oaneashi]

Oh, good, I misread what you said.
As for rewatching scenes, rewatching just isn't the same as when the fun organically ensues through gameplay.

Yes we understand they are different, but the game functions still need to be complete, and we thought most of the player would want that element.

If it helps:

Spoiler: *about ecchi situations*

You're probably familiar with MaidenSnow Eve, as well as with

You must be registered to see the links

works (Lust Grimm and the Lust series).

Maiden Snow worked a lot with status ailments (aphrodisiac, restraints, etc.) to induce difficulty and sexual situations. However, this led to much complication; player-wise for ailments management, dev-wise for balancing.
This might not be suited to a "scavenging" roguelike like your title, which will be very hard to properly balance, no matter what.

Lust Grimm (not a roguelike) used a simple

You must be registered to see the links

to reflect the current arousal of the main character. That approach might be easier to implement:
Most monster girls could have an occasional 'naughty' move with a simple cut-in, while a few could specialize into seducing MC to helplessness.

An arousal bar and simple teasing skills (targetting the MC/player's mind) could be a way induce naughty situations with minimal work involved:
- an animation, a text line and a cut-in zoom on your beautiful art.
Some traps could also help - RNG messing with you is the bread & butter of roguelikes after all.


If by any chance you know of the old indie game BFRogue, it made full use of two bars - temptation/mind and physical arousal - to give each girl a unique personality and challenge.
Along with various traps and random events, each run was a new, fresh experience. On top of that, mechanics were simple enough, so balancing was easier on the dev.
It might be a good source of inspiration just in the unlikely case you hit a head-aching roadblock.

Spoiler: *about memory mode*

Obviously sex is not the centerpiece in The Shimmering Horizon - unlike Succubus Cage (Basket?) and its BF.

You could however recycle its BF mechanics in a kind of minigame.
For example, if MC defeats 20 Amazons (or defeat an Amazon in a very challenging way), it would unlock the Amazon in a memory room where MC could engage in BF with her.
Winning the fight once (linking to/sychronizing with her soul) would unlock a small boost, new area or ability, and her full gallery of course.

Succubus Cage made great use of simple animations to make the BF lively, while using very few images. The amount of work needed would be greatly reduced, since you already know the system best.
That might help towards satisfying the H-gamers who are in more for the Hentai and less for the game.

These are just ideas that might be of interest in your next brainstorming session - though I'm sure they're nothing you haven't already considered.
Either way I hope you reach 5000+ sales (make that 10000+) by next Christmas!

Thanks for your suggestions!

We did think about some of the concept you mentioned, but it would increase the development time, and some of those are actually hard to implement.

To implement those concept seems rather simple, but it’s actually hard to match up the quality with our current game, at lease it would significantly increase the development time. Say if we want to add BF, the voice acting needed for the characters would grow by tenfolds, and also to the BF text and translations too.

There are others cool stuff we want to add to the game too, but with the current support on Patreon, those are just not feasible ideas. However, if we can reach the current goals on patron, then we will consider opening new goals to add new features such as BFs. But for right now, we really have to focus on completing the basic core game. Or elese the game will never be finished.

Thank you for your blessing! We hope we have good result from DLsite and Steam too!

Hmm. Thinking of ideas, heres something you could possibly consider adding. The option to increase exp gain/drop rate/soul gain into the soul shop, possibly as a purchasable option. It would make sense as a gameplay perspective, and give the option to make your game easier/harder according to people's various skill levels at the game.

One possible idea could be an upgrade with something on the idea of "Alluring soul" , in which you make your own soul more alluring, increasing Exp/drop rate/soul gain by a large amount, but with several drawbacks. Like increased erosion rate,increased damaged taken, chance of monster girls knocking you down while you're standing. Sort of like a high risk/high reward type of thing.

I was thinking of something like, toggleable only when outside the dungeon, in the soul shop.
Alluring soul level 0: No effects.
Alluring soul level 1: Exp/drop rate/soul gain x1.5, 10% chance of monster girls knocking you down when hp is below 25%
Alluring soul level 2: Exp/Drop/Soul x2, 30% chance of monster girls knocking you down when hp is below 35%
Alluring soul level 3: Exp/drop/soul x2.5, 50% chance of monster girls knocking you down when hp below 45%
Alluring soul level 4: Exp/drop/soul x3, 70% chance of monster girls knocking you down when hp below 55%

Also, you could implement some additional quality of life upgrades to the soul shop as well, a option to permanentely increase exp/drop/soul gain, at much lower rates, but much higher soul costs.
Example:
Exp gain +10% (2000 soul), exp gain +20% (3000 soul), exp gain +30% (4000) soul
Drop rate +10% (2000 soul), ect ect ect..
Soul gain +10% (2000 soul, ect ect ect..

Those ideas sounds interesting too, we might consider them.

Okay, can you give us the ability to re-forge or repair the weapons using excess materials we have, I always find my bag full for whatever reason.

I find the inventory space too small even for something like this. 50 slots at start should be much more reasonable. That way you don't have an annoying as hell inventory problem immediately at start.

We are currently fixing the inventory slot issue, please wait patiently for our updates.


Thanks for all the feedbacks!

 

[jasons1994]

honestly if you want your game to get big you should atleast release a public demo...

 

[Fenko_I]

honestly if you want your game to get big you should atleast release a public demo...

Ah here we go, Mr. big brain J over here with sound advice, why not release a free public demo?

Maybe because they have a patreon page that says if you put in just 5$ you will get to play and test their latest demo?

releasing a "free" public demo while the game is in its current under-developed state would do more harm than good and not only that it would also piss off all current paying members who actually gave their money to get their hands on an early demo access.

TL;DR

I strongly disagree with that, the game isn't anywhere near ready to be getting a public release, maybe when the dev team has more funds and a better idea on what they want to do.

 

[BigJohnny]

honestly if you want your game to get big you should atleast release a public demo...

We do plan to make a public Demo when the game is done to a certain point, and we will also use that demo of an older version for DLsite.

 

[goodolrub]

will the game have multiple endings?

 

[jasons1994]

Ah here we go, Mr. big brain J over here with sound advice, why not release a free public demo?

Maybe because they have a patreon page that says if you put in just 5$ you will get to play and test their latest demo?

releasing a "free" public demo while the game is in its current under-developed state would do more harm than good and not only that it would also piss off all current paying members who actually gave their money to get their hands on an early demo access.

TL;DR

I strongly disagree with that, the game isn't anywhere near ready to be getting a public release, maybe when the dev team has more funds and a better idea on what they want to do.

I am just saying...look how much under the witch developer and succubus convent grew after they released a public demo...not many people know about this game.

 

[Strange]

For Pete's sake, read what the dev's representative said.
They're currently sorting out how to implement the mechanics they want in their game; that's too early to have a public demo - meant for promotion - out.
But they do provide videos (with actual gameplay) and public spoilers on their patreon. They're serious devs with a release date in mind, not some con artists who would release a hurried 0.1 to have it reel in nincompoops for years.

Spoiler: As for the examples:

UTW only has to show less than 5mn of video (glorified as a game for some reason) after the time & money graphtreon.com knows
Succubus Covenant has 0 pulic posts on their patreon. That's as much as I know, and I don't wanna know more thanks to that.

In contrast, Ason is a company with a (pretty good) game already under their belt, actively demonstrating what they're currently working on.
That doesn't make them 100% trustworthy oc, but they at least proved they know there's money to be made by actually completing and releasing a game. Best argument I can think of.

Demos take time & effort, actually delaying the release, unless the dev needs playtesters (AKA Patrons) for feedback. I'd rather have the game come out 1 month earlier, and no demo at all xD

 

[Fenril]

*Rolls eyes*

I'll just leave this here.

 

[BluFalcon]

The game is very fun. I don't know if I missed it or not, but I would like a storage box available in the church or by the campfire where I can store items I don't plan on using / want to stockpile.
Also maybe in the future, have some sort of "Girls only" setting when I don't wanna deal with bats and goblins and wanna uh... well...

Anyways, game is fun. Has a lot of promise. I agree with earlier sentiments that the developers should only release a public demo when they feel they have a product that properly shows off and leads to what they want their final vision of the game to be.

 

[Passerby4554]

Ok, seeing as my friend's comments (the ones being vague about links) are about to get my account banned, he is SO not going use my account anymore. I really need to stop letting friends use my accounts on sites. So, to everyone who thought I was asking for links, I apologize and assure you that my future comments will be clean and concise to the rules.