Things have been hectic during the past two weeks, to say the least. The domain has been down due to a domain transfer that took a lot longer than expected. The previous site was hosted by Weebly, and although they do provide a backup feature, that feature unfortunately does not save blog posts and comments. This means that all previous posts and comments are lost. After learning this we immediately switched to using WordPress instead.
Another unfortunate thing about the domain holdup was that it coincided with the release of Play with Us! Episode 1. Although the timing of that was obviously extremely bad, we felt that we didn’t want to delay the game simply because the site was down longer than expected.
This new domain will ultimately enable us to distribute our content in ways not previously possible. Patreon is awesome in a lot of ways, but rolling out content to backers is not one of them. Navigating the various creator posts can be a nightmare, especially when the posts start piling up as they now have. In addition, this new domain provides us with the ability to host our own games.
The launch of Ep 1 of PWU has, overall, been successful. The game is currently hosted by Newgrounds and Gamcore and has been played 290,000 times as of today, being online for 16 days. Not surprisingly, a few new issues were discovered after launching the game, and the first few days post release were completely dedicated to fixing issues, patching and providing downloadable versions of the game. Work has already started on Ep 2. I’m currently busy finalizing the model for Anna while creating an interactive voyeur scene (as requested by backers). Those of you that have played Emily: Sister Attraction might remember peeking through the keyhole while Emily was in the shower. I’m working on something similar for Ep 2 with the noticeable difference that the scene will be fully interactive, and that there will be a clear action-consequence mechanic.
Work on Homecoming has also continued. As previously mentioned I’m currently in a “phase” where I experiment a lot with the engine, basically trying to push the limits of what it can do. It’s still too early to announce what this will look like in-game, but those of you who have played the January build might have experimented with trying to access Victoria’s computer. It involves discovering her password through a password recovery system that is based on random events. This means you won’t simply be able to look up the password in a walkthrough to access the content on the computer (which currently consists of 40+ blog posts chronicling Victoria’s time in Paris). I was fairly happy with the puzzles I created in the first game, but for the sequel I want something different and something more complex.
I wanted to get the site up as quickly as possible, so you might notice some sections that don’t look good or are completely missing. As I work on restoring the site, a huge thank you to all of you have played Episode 1 of Play with Us! and provided us with feedback. And of course, to our backers who enable us to keep making free games.
See you soon!