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OneEyedGhoul
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- Apr 27, 2019
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Actually that is a good point. Dev change it to Neon PInk for extreme identification
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- Feb 9, 2020
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Will be handy for the dark shopping mall durind operation.Actually that is a good point. Dev change it to Neon PInk for extreme identification
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Mostly because it looks cool and edgy — like those badass special ops guys, or something along those lines. But if you want a lore-based explanation: since HOWL was formed from former police special forces operatives, they might have kept their uniform.
That's quite a rewiev
Well, I'm glad you appreciated these aspects. Moving forward, I plan to focus more on expanding their presence in the game - since as it turns out, reinventing the wheel and introducing unnecessary new features proved counterproductive.
I’ve been reflecting on this too. In the original 2022 draft, the story was supposed to begin with a classic helicopter crash – with the player already infected by Nox, just unaware of it. The opening would’ve shown the MC chatting with his team mid-flight, everything seeming normal… until Another abruptly yanks him out of this "dream." He’d then wake up in a wrecked chopper consumed by Nox, forced to locate his squad to escape the crash site. I don’t recall exactly why I scrapped this – likely because it felt too clichéd or resource-intensive to implement. Instead, I rushed out the current prototype version to gauge player interest.
As a non-professional writer (my credentials extend to mediocre school-era fanfics), I can’t craft a perfectly paced narrative. A slow-burn intro would’ve been ideal, but I grew up on games that dropped you straight into the action – no ambiguity about your role or goals. But, even at this pace, there’s a mountain of content left to implement.
Regarding squad dynamics: players rightly suggested adding off-duty activities to deepen relationships (especially with Elina as a primary romance option). The challenge is balancing this without devolving into a human dating sim.
Right now, I’m at the stage where the encounter with Sparkle will reveal to the MC’s squad that he’s been interacting with hybrids and possibly even has immunity. For example, command might create a special unit for establishing contact with hybrids, where someone like Clara would be responsible for researching the MC and the hybrids. Otherwise, I’d have to separate the MC from his comrades in every update just so he can interact with new (or old) hybrids. Of course, this is a major event that will significantly impact the story’s development. But like I said before, the alternative is the main hero constantly "disappearing by accident" like Princess Peach in Mario.
For now, I still have time to make a final decision, and I’ve already worked through this idea in my head. But I’m still not entirely sure what the best way to handle it is.
Wow, I never really thought about that. It sounds awesome and meaningful—if the story were more linear and we observed the protagonist's life almost from the outside, without interfering too much in the process, that would've been the perfect approach.
Yes, this is one of my favorite game series. I drew a lot of inspiration from it while working on the core concept. It’s also about operatives carrying out various missions, acquiring alien technology, and using it against their enemies—though the more powerful they become, the more they start to resemble the very things they’re fighting.
I spent the most time on this particular feature, and now I kinda regret it.
Thanks. I hope I can somehow break this cycle.
- Feb 9, 2020
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Thank you for the review and feedback. I’m fully aware that not everything here is perfect, and I truly appreciate the high level of trust and expectations placed in this project. I’ll do everything I can to meet them.
Just focus on the story and lewd, you'll be fine. Just don't try to be a AAA game dev's and go crazy with puzzles and sandbox. Most players here don't want those. It barely affects the playing experience. Those are not meant for AVN, esp if you're a team of one. It's feasible if you have a team. It's better for your wallet and stress level to keep it simple and basic. Just ensure the story is nice and you'll get ton of supporters
- Oct 29, 2021
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Another year of my life has passed — thank you to everyone who spent it with me. I’ve decided to take a short break until August. At the start of the month, there will be two polls for the "Monthly Wallpapers." Around the same time, I’m also planning to create a channel on the Discord server where I’ll stream my game development process and host casual text chat.
The last update was a month and a half ago...
- Jul 12, 2020
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There's literally a fucking dev post posted above your own dumb post?
- Nov 20, 2017
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And on a scale for zoner's behaviour between 1, who is the least unique/abnormal one and 10, who is the most unique/abnormal one, how would you rate Ysfqq post?
Assblasta9k
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To be fair, I personally laughed at his response. But that says more about me than Maviarab
- Oct 29, 2021
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Hello. This is a small public announcement regarding the current state of development.
First of all, I would like to share that some changes have happened in my life. I moved closer to my family, and now work doesn't take up as much of my time. I'm still trying to find a balance to be able to dedicate time to all the necessary things. As it turns out, this is... quite challenging.
Regarding the progress on the new version, a fair amount of work has been done recently. As I mentioned before, I decided to completely suspend the development of new features and focus on classic VN storytelling. There might be small segments with "point and click" elements (like the moment with the campsite and talking with teammates in the very first version), or I might do it through a simple choice menu. This has already allowed me to produce more renders than were in the previous version, so there should be enough content in the end. Regarding the content itself – from this point on, I am focusing on interactions with hybrids and Nox monsters (which is the reason the vast majority of people came here in the first place). In version 0.05, our two mysterious friends will return, and a new hybrid will also appear, whom you can sort of "recruit." There will be more horny and sex scenes (with the infected-mannequin and with Melisa), although it's still too early to talk about animations, but I think well-made static scenes are a good start. Also, the new version will contain some scenes that particularly impressionable people might find quite intense. Though, how many people are there these days who can be shocked by cruelty in games?
The release cycles are ~6 months so far. Last one was in July. So I wouldn't expect something before December, maybe even early 2026.
Dark T-Rex
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- Apr 8, 2023
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Hi there, new Dev notes here.
Work on the project is still ongoing, and here’s the current breakdown of key segments I’m using to track progress:
— Road to the mall (all renders complete)
— Encounter with prospector inside (all renders complete)
— Action segment: Infected battle sequence (all renders complete)
— Sex segment with solo female Infected (on hold for now)
— Sex segment with Melisa (all renders complete)
— Meeting Sparkle and interacting with her (meeting is done, interaction will be made in future so 50% ready for now)
— The fallen helicopter scene
— Evacuation to base
Lately, I’ve made quite significant progress in terms of the number of renders, so this version might end up being one of the largest I’ve ever done. Working on full-fledged sex scenes turned out to be quite interesting, even though there aren’t any super beautiful angles or cool animations yet. But it’s a start, isn’t it?
Amidst all the work, I unfortunately haven’t had the energy to implement additional rewards for patrons, like special wallpapers with characters and all that. It’s just that I’m a very “single-task” person - if I’m focused on one thing, it’s incredibly hard for me to switch to something else. Because of this, I just can’t get around to making renders of the characters from the previous poll, even though it probably wouldn’t take more than a single real-life day in total. I absolutely hate myself for it, but unfortunately, there’s nothing I can do about it. So, I’ll most likely rework the rewards on Patreon and Boosty into something else that’s more integrated into the game’s development. Maybe a poll about which character to create a romantic storyline for in the new version? Or which character to make a sex scene with. If you have any ideas on this matter or examples from other projects, I’d be very grateful if you’d share them.
To compensate for the lack of animations and add more dynamism, I’ve started using something like a “motion trail effect,” where multiple images are combined into a single frame. Despite seeming time-consuming, in my opinion, it looks far more interesting than just blurring the character and shaking the camera horizontally.
(Sparkle dodges a shotgun blast)
(HJ by Melisa)
Another issue that came to light just recently - turns out, all this time I've been creating renders with an artificially "brightened" image on my monitor. For some reason, the built-in Windows photo viewer and Photoshop were opening them and artificially increasing the brightness, which made them appear darker in the game compared to how I saw them. Some people wrote that certain scenes looked way too dark, and I thought maybe something was wrong with their brightness settings or that "it was intended." But as it turned out, it was an oversight on my part...
My main goal is to create the most atmospheric renders possible, conveying a sense of darkness and confined space. And at the very least, the characters (or at least their silhouettes) should be distinguishable; otherwise, the main point of some scenes gets lost. So, after correcting the color and switching to a different image viewing program, I'll go back through previous images from earlier versions and increase the brightness where it's really needed.
(I enjoyed creating scenes with Siena so much - every time, I got a real kick out of her emotions. Personally, I'm still more inclined towards the neutral path with Another, but damn, it's just so much fun working with this blonde devil)
So, as always - thank you for your support and attention to the project. After the frankly unsuccessful previous filler version, I want to make 0.05 better in every aspect and, hopefully, push the game forward so it becomes a bit more noticeable.
Given the increased free time and the speed of creating renders, I believe there will definitely be enough content to publish new Dev Notes more often than once every couple of months.
So stay tuned for updates, and see you soon!
Uranus_
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- Dec 13, 2019
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good to see some news.I love this game.
Dark T-Rex
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From time to time, I create custom renders with other characters to stretch my fingers and learn something new. Yesterday, I saw a cosplay of Makima in a latex suit and felt so inspired by it that I decided to create something with her.
Render made by me, edit by "vegas"
Original render
A bit late, but all that sounds like good news... just one thing about animations: There are plenty of REALLY good AVNs without animations, and as a rule of thumb, it's best to not waste time doing mediocre ones when you can be doing more amazing renders... it's all about the choreography, really. That's my two cents anyways... good luck!
- Feb 9, 2020
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Hey guys, I'm currently looking for people to collaborate with on this project. If you're interested and want to put your skills into practice, here are the main details: https://f95zone.to/threads/looking-for-writer-python-programmer-and-proofreader.275380/
Dark T-Rex
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Hello, and welcome to new Dev Notes. Today, I'll share the development progress and news that has happened since the last update.
Work on the project continues. Here are the current key points for the new version that I'm using to track progress:
- The road to the shopping mall (all renders ready)
- Meeting the scavengers inside (all renders ready)
- Action segment: fight against the infected (all renders ready)
- Sex segment with a lone infected (cancelled, replaced by an optional sex scene with Siena as a reward for cooperation in the crashed helicopter scene)
- Sex segment with Melissa (all renders ready)
- Meeting Sparkle and interacting with her (all renders ready)
- The crashed helicopter scene (all renders ready)
- Evacuation to the base with two variants, depending on whether the player chose to support the corporates or soldiers in version 0.03 (environment ready, renders ~80% complete)
I recently upgraded my VRAM, motherboard, and CPU, and now I can comfortably work with more complex and detailed scenes. Most importantly, the time spent loading the viewport has been reduced to about ten seconds. This is CRITICALLY important because most of the work happens there. You constantly have to check how the light falls, reposition its sources, and verify the final result, as even characters' emotions can look drastically different depending on how shadows fall on their faces.
So, I'm very happy that the upgrade has significantly sped up work on the game's visual part (and I'm also glad that no issues arose during the hardware installation that could have led to data loss or loss of completed work). Therefore, I'd like to extend special thanks to everyone who supports the project financially - this not only motivates me to continue working on the project and devote more time to it but also allows me to improve my computer for more efficient work. Remembering what I was working with back in version 0.01, I could never have technically achieved what I'm doing now.
In late October, I started looking for people to help with the project. Since then, two proofreaders, a programmer, and a writer have responded, all of whom will be able to contribute starting from version 0.05. I'm also currently in contact with someone I've known for a long time — he's helping me outline the main story arc and provided some great suggestions on how to make the encounter with Sparkle in version 0.05 more logical. We've already planned the events for version 0.06 and chosen a new "villain of the week," who will be a hybrid, so I'm feeling very positive about our collaboration.
At the very least, the writing and text quality should become much better than before. Many players have commented on this, and if I were a native English speaker, I would also find it difficult to read the mediocre "direct translation" text. Fortunately, the quality of translators, including AI, is improving at a rapid pace and now delivers quite decent results.
I'd also like to mention that I'm planning to revamp the reward system on Patreon/Boosty because, in its current state, it simply isn't working. I initially designed many rewards assuming I would have ample free time to implement them and, just as importantly, the desire to create extra content. However, it turned out that I now want to focus entirely on game development and create rewards for patrons that organically fit into the development process.
Here are the specific changes that will definitely be implemented:
- The time between early official releases will be significantly reduced from weeks to just days.
- Beta builds for "Nox Chosen" patrons will remain for initial text/new feature debugging. WIP (work-in-progress) content will likely be moved to a lower tier.
- The main monthly polls will vary in content and influence certain aspects of the game's development. For example, people will be able to vote on which character to include in a sex/erotic scene or a full romance route, which fetish to implement in the new version, which character to add, and so on.
- The classic "monthly wallpapers" will no longer be graded by level of "explicitness"; there will only be one version of the image. These pictures will be created mostly depending on whether I feel inspired or not, and will represent erotic/sexual "what if" content. For instance, what if you could grope "Another" during your very first encounter? Or what if the sex scene with Melissa wasn't limited to just a blowjob?
Alright, that's all for now. I'll be posting short development status updates in the dev-updates channel on my Discord server, so keep an eye out for news there.
Thank you to everyone who supports this project, follows its progress, and awaits new versions. I understand that the gaps between versions are very long, and I'd especially like to thank you all for your patience. I believe I'm now on the verge of achieving the optimal development status - where I can dedicate the maximum possible amount of time and energy to the project without a high risk of burnout.
So, thank you for your attention, and I'll see you around.