Progress Update- steady technical progress (Patreon)

My adhd is very intense today so apologies if this post ended up a mess ;-;

What's being worked on?

In order to make p*netration a solid mechanic, I was laying groundwork this week. I wanted to move quickly into linking up animations to show off, but ran into an engine problem. 

First, I needed a good system for grouping and linking game objects (body parts and toys) together. This would be used for multiple p*netration- for example, a toy inside a toy, alongside another bare toy, stuffed into an orifice. And also for the act of p*netration itself- an orifice plus a p*netrator. So there needs to be groups, and groups inside groups.

Plus the debugger needs to be able to view, make, and manipulate groups on the fly.

That all works now. Yay!

An issue came up that I wasn't expecting- the display message buffer (a very technical topic I've talked about in the past) was getting screwed all the heck up. If you're interested in a rant, and me losing my brain fixing it, check out the last stream (linked in previous posts).

That works now too. Also yay!

I'm very satisfied with the progress. But since it's engine progress and not visual progress, I feel bummed about having nothing but text to offer y'all.

And yeah, that's it. It's the annoying kind of progress- gradual, solid, and boring.

Q&A

How close to done? Check my release checklist for an idea of where we're at. P*netration is a huge step toward completion, so it may be valid to try to base a timeline off of how quickly this feature goes. I'm hesitant to make estimates. Sorry, I'm not trying to avoid an answer but I've learned that my guesses are never even close to correct and it's irresponsible of me to start throwing numbers out there.

Can large p*netrations/relaxation result in lasting gape? Yes! The technical mechanics are beyond my capacity to explain atm, but there's short-term, and also long-term "resting" gape. Seeing pulsing/winking while gaped would be excellent as well. I'll try to implement that but can't guarantee it'll make the initial feature list... just depends on how hard it ends up being to hook up. I'll be able to show and talk about this in more detail when animations are linked up ^^

Could multiple instances of the game run on a single set of save data at the same time (multiboxing)? Uhhh... I'll have to investigate this. If it's simple to make it work then I don't see why not. The save data is only read at startup anyway. This is a low priority though, so I'm sorry if it ends up not being at thing!

... and that's all for now!

My brain is struggle. This state used to be my every day, so it's kind of refreshing to have a bad adhd day and think "whoa I can't do anything right now". Cause like, normally I'm actually a lot more capable than this. I wrote most of my previous game code in this terrible state and I'm shocked I ever made anything at all. Seeing my progress from this perspective is strange, unpleasant, but also encouraging.

Something I've noticed even when having a difficult time is that I'm just quietly confident in my work. The engine is solid, if young and incomplete. The mechanics aren't done yet, but can be thoroughly tested and reliably improved. I used to be scared with each update that I wouldn't know if I could do the next step. Now it's like "okay today my brain is ass but the game will be fine".

Personal growth has gotten me to a point where I can live my life with hope and clarity. Professional growth (as in improving programming and project management skills) has gotten me to a point of confidence in this and future projects. I didn't used to think I was capable of any of that.

The fruit will bear out when this game is released. Up until that point none of my growth will mean anything for the people waiting to play the actual game. So my top priority is still releasing it as soon as possible without compromising on its solidity. I'm impatient but confident in the current progress.

Since y'all have followed me a long-ass time and a surprising number of you continue to read these posts and give thoughtful and meaningful comments, I wanted to share what's on my scattered mind. 

Thank you for supporting my silly overengineered horse simulator. You people are amazing. Merry christmas, and happy holiday shenaniganery to you all!

<3