HentaiWriter

Well-Known Member
Game Developer
Jan 30, 2017
1,229
2,142
How many times has this been delayed now lmao
Quite a bit, but we've also noted that the last thing we want to do is release the game unfinished and Cyberpunk everyone who's waited on it so long.

We're pretty close to being completed though, so it'd be even more of a shame to push it out the door without the final few months to get things in order after all this time, even if it continues to make our debt worse since the Patreon's continuing to go down in backers.

Once it's done though, we'll put it out; no one wants it out more than us, considering all the other games we want to make, but we're not about to just kick it out unfinished for a cash grab and at the cost of player enjoyment.
 
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HentaiWriter

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Game Developer
Jan 30, 2017
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#25 December 8th progress report.png

Weekly Progress Report #25 for Future Fragments

DISCORD
-
STEAM -
TWITTER -
FREE DEMO -
MORE PLACES -

All links are for those 18+ of age and older only.
 
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leotort

Newbie
Jan 20, 2018
26
76
I just want to say that I really hope you don't release the game for free just because of a delay. I thought it was a rash decision when it was announced. Delays happen, and I would rather have a good game be delayed than have a shoddy game release early.

It just doesn't make much sense to me to deny not just you but everyone who worked on the game potential income for not meeting an arbitrary deadline.
 

HentaiWriter

Well-Known Member
Game Developer
Jan 30, 2017
1,229
2,142
I just want to say that I really hope you don't release the game for free just because of a delay. I thought it was a rash decision when it was announced. Delays happen, and I would rather have a good game be delayed than have a shoddy game release early.

It just doesn't make much sense to me to deny not just you but everyone who worked on the game potential income for not meeting an arbitrary deadline.
Yeah, we're definitely not going to release it for free, don't worry: we agree fully with this, it was definitely a dumb thing to do and you'll never see us promise something that stupid again.

Going forward with future games too, I don't think we'll be giving release dates until we're like 95% of the way there, and even then it'll only be within a vague 6-month span or maybe even just "in this year" or something like that.

Probably the biggest mistake we made was repeatedly trying to promise release dates, and just underestimating how long it'd take to get stuff right/the way we wanted.

how many people make this the game?
Credits November 2020.png

This is the current credits for the public electric demo, although the voice cast list for the full game is at least four times that long nowadays.
 
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HentaiWriter

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Game Developer
Jan 30, 2017
1,229
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We're sorry to say, but we're going to have to push the release of Future Fragments to March 2022, because we'd rather release a complete game than pull a Cyberpunk.



More information's available at the link up above, but the tl;dr is:
  • We're aiming for a March 2022 release: we'll have a specific day to announce once we've gotten closer to March
  • We are estimated around 95% done with the game as a whole; you can play from the start to end, minus the True Final Boss
  • The main things left to be completed are the True Final Boss, Gold Databank screens, the remaining H-scenes, about half of the game's dialogue, all remaining voicework, and bugtesting
  • The voice actors need time to record due to the holidays; this is entirely on me as the writer though, not on them, as they didn't get the script early enough to finish before the holidays
  • The game will still cost $20 USD at release (and it will have regional pricing, so most other countries will get it for cheaper)
  • Patreon has not made enough money for to keep us afloat since early 2021: so, there is no possibility of us "milking the game to make more money".
As always, if anyone wants refunds and you backed on Patreon, feel free to ask.

We'll continue to post progress reports here weekly, of course.
 

dragonsix6969

Active Member
Apr 26, 2019
753
497
you have 5 people in your team 1 of them is key(more precisely 3), maybe you have to cut something ? if you do not have enoght time again, I do not mean as a like cyberfart many classic games cut out someting cool stuff, or you just do not name the months , only the year release and when you are sure, say the exact date release
 

smithsmithsmith

Active Member
Aug 16, 2018
576
1,338
you have 5 people in your team 1 of them is key(more precisely 3), maybe you have to cut something ? if you do not have enoght time again, I do not mean as a like cyberfart many classic games cut out someting cool stuff, or you just do not name the months , only the year release and when you are sure, say the exact date release
I'm getting a weird sense of deja vu, it's almost like they already responded to your point about release dates. Relax dude, if you really doubt their sincerity then take them up on the refund offer. It's something they've always been very forthcoming with whenever there has been unexpected delays even from early in development and if you're not a supporter then why are you even worried?
 

HentaiWriter

Well-Known Member
Game Developer
Jan 30, 2017
1,229
2,142
you have 5 people in your team 1 of them is key(more precisely 3), maybe you have to cut something ? if you do not have enoght time again, I do not mean as a like cyberfart many classic games cut out someting cool stuff, or you just do not name the months , only the year release and when you are sure, say the exact date release
We've already cut out a *lot* of stuff we had planned for the game, actually. To copy-paste this from a previous list:

THINGS BEING WIPED ENTIRELY;
  • Talia's Databank Responses
    • We felt that these were an overall detriment to the game for three reasons;
      • First, with the Values system, if the player picks say, to respond to all events with anger or hatred, it would be pretty weird if she responded to a Databank with positivity and optimism.
      • Second, with the new ability to read Databanks wherever you want, and with the way the game's programmed, you're unable to trigger her responses if you're outside of that room, defeating the whole point of that collections system.
      • Third, the responses, while helpful at first, would quickly turn into "hand-holding" the player through the plot, to the point of looking down on them/patronizing them, as if the player isn't smart enough to understand the plot or what they've just read.
  • One Tier of True Endings
    • Originally, the endings system checks your highest-point "main" Value in the Values system, then mixes it with the Sexuality value, and out of 4 possible amounts (below 0, 0-50, 50-200, or 200+) you'd get one of 4 very different variations for your Value-based ending.
    • The problem was that endings that were below 0, way above normal (200+), and in the middle all made sense; however, having two "in the middle" (0-50 and 50-200) endings just made no sense. The endings kept ending up similar in writing which is what happens when you try to do a "down the middle" ending, and the point values were close enough that it may not really feel like something the player was "going for" or "expected to get" based on their actions too.
    • So, we removed 1 ending per value, taking the total # of "true endings" down from 28 to 21, and as a result we feel the endings are a lot more "logical" for what you would be expected to get and very different from each other as well.
  • Second way to win for Fire/Ice/Electric/Earth/The End bosses
    • There was going to be a way that you could defeat these bosses by thinking outside of the box; for instance, you could use your Freeze Shot on the Electric Boss to super-cool its processors, allowing it to shut itself down by effectively overclocking it.
    • We took this out because it would just be a lot more bugtesting and programming work to add in a feature that very, very few people would be likely to discover.
      • This is a mechanic that we MIGHT bring over to Faye's game, but it hasn't been decided yet, so for now we're just leaving it as "deleted".
  • Cutscenes Viewer
    • Unless some sort of miracle happens, we're likely going to cut the ability to re-watch cutscenes in their entirety just because of the huge amount of complexity it'd take to place Talia in the proper place, have the flags be triggered, reload the game up to where you need it to be, bugtest that, etc.
      • We will still of course have a gallery where you can view all the animations, CGs, endings, etc. in the game, as that's a considerably less time-consuming effort.
THINGS BEING MOVED TO FAYE'S GAME;
  • Secret Bosses
    • One of the core reasons all of these things I'm about to mention are getting moved to Faye's game is not only to allow Future Fragments to come out sooner, but we also wanted to give Faye's game some extra added content to set it apart from Future Fragments (besides all the other stuff we already have laid out for it).
    • We were originally going to have "secret bosses" in the game, one per level, where they would be sort of "mini-bosses" that you could fight to gain access to something important per level.
      • We realized though that with Talia's limited offensive kit, making anymore bosses for the game without having them feel repetitive or derivative would be fairly difficult, while keeping to the standard we'd been sticking to of bosses having lots of attacks and abilities and all that, as Talia has to still be able to fight them and there's only so much she can do.
    • However, with Faye's wide range of abilities, having high-intensity secret bosses for her would be no problem, so we felt it'd fit much better over there.
  • Visual Flashiness Upgrades
    • We had plans to add a lot of high-flashiness things visually like flashy slashes, explosions, sparks, etc. to the game to give it an overall extra layer of polish visually.
    • However, with how much work Triangulate already has art-wise, we decided to instead add this to Faye's game.
      • This wasn't just because of Triangulate's workload though; we also realized that such flashiness doesn't fit Talia's game too well given that it's more of an "adventure" game than a balls-to-the-wall action game, whereas such flashiness would fit perfect with Faye's game where you'll be running around quickly and fighting lots of enemies.
    • We will still of course be doing some lighting upgrades and a few important visual effects and such to make some things more clear for Talia's game.
  • Set Boosts
    • This was something that we were going to do for Talia's game much earlier on where you would get specific boosts for equipping 3 specific powerups, but as development went on, we realized it just wouldn't fit the game well anymore.
      • (Notice how all the powerups are themed in sets of 3's? That's a remnant of that.)
    • So, we've moved the concept to Faye's game, which works much better since in her game you won't be picking up powerups traditionally, you'll instead be getting boosts from enemies in a manner similar to say, Borderlands, with a skill tree and all of that stuff, so having specific sets of skills enabled would give you an entirely new, unique skill.
----------------------------------

Then, on top of that, we've got this list of stuff we have planned to implement after release because it's just not feasible to get it done before release, but none of it is core, main game content:

  • Adding in "skip cutscenes" feature that just skips everything BUT actions (flags, camera, movement of characters, etc.)
  • Put in "auto play" feature for cutscenes
  • Have huge aura around infected rebel to show when you're getting close, if you make noise
  • Update GUI for powerup equipping upon picking up
  • Art and programming for Vie's Gallery
  • Spice up the "values" points appearing so it doesnt look so bland
  • Insert Talia "AFK" sprite animation, and come up with audio for it
  • Add in "databank connections" at the top of the databank collections menu
  • Add in vanishing platforms for Ice Boss and new visual effect + SFX
  • "Hard Mode" special maps DLC
  • Speedrun mode
  • Boss Rush mode
  • "Pause Effect" for Charge shot hits on enemies (and potentially Talia and regular hits too)
  • End-level PoV animations and background/monitors for it
  • Cheat codes (keyboard sequence based)
  • Have some sort of thing in the game to give the player an extra question/event near the end of the game if the player is true neutral in all 7 values and on the good ending path
  • Have last used purple crystal break on Ice Boss if the fight is too easy
  • Add "help window" or "commands window" to editor for users so they can remember commands/what buttons do
  • Add in option to mute voice acting specifically
----------------------------------

We also can't just "cut" people: audio is integral to the game, as is writing, programming, level design, art, animation, and so on.

Everyone is also mostly done with their own content, so cutting someone or cutting their content at this point would make no sense.
 

dragonsix6969

Active Member
Apr 26, 2019
753
497
smithsmithsmith
man, if i want, i respond, if i want, i wont respond, I just expressed my opinion, if they want, to put at least 2040 or 2060 or at least infinitely at least early access for God's sake, I was just wondering why they always move release date , you will be just as in movie "idiocracy" scene with a prostitute, it's ok for you? but not for me, I'm 100 percent relaxed.
 
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Zeddy

Member
Jul 27, 2017
154
342
We also can't just "cut" people... Everyone is also mostly done with their own content, so cutting someone or cutting their content at this point would make no sense.
That doesn't stop corps like Activision Blizzard. Why pay people when you can fire them. /s :HideThePain:

For those that might get nervous about the cut content list, I'd recommend not dwelling too much on it. I guarantee that a lot of people's favorite games have more cut content or changed ideas than people realize.

I look forward to buying the game, and hearing about those fat loans getting paid off.
 
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Shirafune

Well-Known Member
Jun 6, 2017
1,985
2,924
  • Cutscenes Viewer
    • Unless some sort of miracle happens, we're likely going to cut the ability to re-watch cutscenes in their entirety just because of the huge amount of complexity it'd take to place Talia in the proper place, have the flags be triggered, reload the game up to where you need it to be, bugtest that, etc.
      • We will still of course have a gallery where you can view all the animations, CGs, endings, etc. in the game, as that's a considerably less time-consuming effort.
Does that include the replay gallery? or the H-Cutscene gallery? or whatever would not allow us to view sex scenes?
 

HentaiWriter

Well-Known Member
Game Developer
Jan 30, 2017
1,229
2,142
That doesn't stop corps like Activision Blizzard. Why pay people when you can fire them. /s :HideThePain:
You say /s but the attitude of "don't pay the people who make your content" or "pay them very low" is way too prevalent nowadays which is really sad. I'd rather make just enough to get by on and make sure everyone gets paid fairly than rake in loads of cash and everyone gets paid bare bones.

I look forward to buying the game, and hearing about those fat loans getting paid off.
Same here man, same here. Thanks a lot for sticking with us :)

Does that include the replay gallery? or the H-Cutscene gallery? or whatever would not allow us to view sex scenes?
That's specifically referring to the ability to view all of the 250+ cutscenes with the probably 1,000+ variations in the cutscene viewer.
We'll still have a viewer for sex scenes and cutscenes with sex scenes, as well as CGs and any other sex-based content.
 

Bawwaow

New Member
Sep 25, 2017
1
0
Out of curiosity, have you considered on releasing the final game in any other platforms in addition to Steam? I'm not familiar with even fraction of the hoops that come from releasing the game on different platforms, but GOG has started to host some adult games too lately.
 

HentaiWriter

Well-Known Member
Game Developer
Jan 30, 2017
1,229
2,142
Out of curiosity, have you considered on releasing the final game in any other platforms in addition to Steam? I'm not familiar with even fraction of the hoops that come from releasing the game on different platforms, but GOG has started to host some adult games too lately.
Yeah, absolutely, we're already on Steam of course, and:
  • Gamejolt -
  • FAKKU -
  • Denpasoft -
  • DLsite -
  • itch -
  • Patreon -
And we also plan to be on:
  • Nutaku
  • JAST
  • MangaGamer
  • DMM
Plus, we'll just be directly sending it to people if they don't want a key anywhere else, and we'll still looking for more sites to sell it on too.
 
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HentaiWriter

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Jan 30, 2017
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#26 December 17th progress report.png

Weekly Progress Report #26 for Future Fragments

DISCORD
-
STEAM -
TWITTER -
FREE DEMO -
MORE PLACES -

All links are for those 18+ of age and older only.
 
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deekinftw

Member
Mar 22, 2018
293
155
  • Cutscenes Viewer
    • Unless some sort of miracle happens, we're likely going to cut the ability to re-watch cutscenes in their entirety just because of the huge amount of complexity it'd take to place Talia in the proper place, have the flags be triggered, reload the game up to where you need it to be, bugtest that, etc.
      • We will still of course have a gallery where you can view all the animations, CGs, endings, etc. in the game, as that's a considerably less time-consuming effort.
Why not just record the cutscenes, save the recordings as .mp4 or .webm files, then have the game call the video for whatever cutscene?
 

HentaiWriter

Well-Known Member
Game Developer
Jan 30, 2017
1,229
2,142
Why not just record the cutscenes, save the recordings as .mp4 or .webm files, then have the game call the video for whatever cutscene?
Because the game would be around 50-100GB of videos alone at that point, given that there'd need to be roughly 20 or so hours of video :p

Also, just setting up a navigate-able menu would be a nightmare: you'd have something like

  • Cutscene #1 (John, made up name), Tab #1
    • Cutscene #1, Tab #1 (when Kindness is +10 or above)
      • Choice picked: "Don't help them close the door"
      • Choice picked: "Do help them close the door"
    • Variant from speaking to Bob (made up name too) before choices appear
      • Choice picked: "Don't help them close the door"
      • Choice picked: "Do help them close the door"
  • Cutscene #1, Tab #2 (second attempt)
  • Cutscene #1, Tab #3 (third attempt)
    • Killing John after talking on third attempt
  • Killing John before talking to him, while Violence is at highest value currently
--------------------------

Not every cutscene is this complex, but a good deal of cutscenes are more complex than this. (In the first level alone, there's 6 or 7 cutscenes that have 10+ variants).

For example, here's this one, with some things omitted as to not have spoilers shown: each "tab" is a variant of the cutscene.

The average complexity of cutscenes though, multiplied over 150 cutscenes and 120 databanks... it'd be a bit of a pain to scroll through and tab through to say the least.
 
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