begrove
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Update on The Pill Progress
🕑 Added 2020-01-24 05:28:48 +0000 UTCHi all,
I figured I'd post an update on The Pill to let you all know where the latest version is it since with me having December off it has been a while.
(If you tl;dr just skip to the last question)
Are you still working on it? Yes I most certainly am!
What's been happening? What I've been doing since the last update is attempting to optimise the experience by changing a lot of "call scenes" to "change scenes". What this means is that the game will use that opportunity to unload all the current assets and load in new ones.
The way it is currently built the entire character arc loads in all at once at the beginning of a play-through (or a time reversal pill). While this makes for a more seamless playing experience, it's a lot for the game compiler to load at once.
The problem really comes from the fact that the game engine I use "Virtual Novel Maker" is designed for exactly that - virtual novels that go from a to b with maybe 1-2 alternate branches along the way. Anyone who has played The Pill knows it's a lot more circuitous than that, and exists as almost a closed circuit.
Some of you might have experienced this as the "black screen" that you get when trying to start the game. On older computers this can go on as long as 40 seconds between loads (or can fail entirely, especially on older macs).
I'm hoping to solve both the current loading issue and future proof the game as it gets bigger and requires more content to load.
That sounds dry! It is.
Anything else going on? Well because I know "rebuilt the backend" is pretty boring for you good people I'm also writing 2-3 arcs to add to Trish's story. So doing those in conjunction with each other is sadly taking some time.
Is there any good news? Yes. Yes there is.
Between the end of Feb and mid April I have time off from my contracts (which is literally made possible because of you awesome Patrons) which means I can work 100% of the time on The Grove content. To put that in perspective that last time I had that amount of dedicated time is when I first built The Pill.
I'll be revamping the patreon site slightly (with a new *voiced* intro animation that I just need to finish off with sfx and audio) and put a lot more time into The Pill, if possible finishing Trish and releasing a third character.
Beyond that I have plans for a second game and am learning code for a new gaming engine to achieve that. Whether that will be realized during this time is yet to be seen.
If you have any other questions let me know in the comments!
Comments
B.E. Grove
M&M kind of fell to the wayside as the monthly rewards kept getting bigger (plus Midweek Mammaries and The Pill). I do intend to return to it, if nothing else than to wrap it all up. Can't leave Hayley a bimbo forever =P
B.E. Grove
There were a couple back in the day that were specifically built with BE in mind - one where fruit fell into buckets and the choice of fruit had different effects. It was called "Tumble BE" I believe. Another couple called "BE Bouncy" and "BE Zapper" were released around the same time with the simple premises of inducing BE while the lady bounced on a trampoline and got zapped respectively. There is one game I come back to occasionally called "Fetish Master". It has BE as well as an assortment of other fetishes (preg/cowgirl/lactation etc). It's mostly text with some sprites but fun nonetheless. Not sure where any of these are hosted anymore, but some google fu might get them for you. In the BE Discord server they often bring up the game "Omega Labyrinth" that has a lot of BE in it, but I haven't played it myself so can't comment on whether it's any good. Looking at the channel there actually seem to be a few flash/java games that feature BE (link for discord here: https://discord.gg/5wCacM) so you might find something there. As for direct comparisons to The Pill... well I haven't found any yet, at least in terms of animated growth. If you find one let me know!
B.E. Grove
And I look forward to making it. ;)
B.E. Grove
Me too ;) It feels good writing for her again, I feel like she has more unexplored potential than the more fleshed-out (heh) Belle does right now.
B.E. Grove
Having a loading bar would be a big help to give people a gauge on whether it's all working. Ironically if you build the game for web it automatically has that loading bar because it's expected to take longer to load. There's already a feature request for it but I'll add my 2 cents to the game engine creators about it too.
B.E. Grove
Thanks Joey :D
DL-PL-TS
Also are you still working on Magic and Maces?
DL-PL-TS
Do you know of any other good breast expansion games or good games with lot's of breast expansion in them?
DL-PL-TS
I look forward to more content on the Pill! :)
AlwaysGrowing
Can not WAIT to see what Trish can get herself up to...
KasaneKun
I’m so glad that a fix to the loading issue is coming! If I could make a suggestion, I think the inclusion of a loading screen showing a progress bar or some little animation would smoothen the experience. Load times become much more bearable when I know how close it is to loading or that it at least hasn’t crashed.
limpdeagle
can't wait to see how big my girly trish gets. keep the good work dog!!! always know i appreciate your work
