Eromancer

Hey everyone! Apologies for the lack of updates here!  While I've been meaning to post more frequently here, please keep in mind you can get the latest and most in-depth news via Patreon!  I give a major monthly progress update for $3/mo patrons, as well as weekly technical updates including artwork and previews for the Inner Circle tier.  At any rate, here's a high level overview of the major happenings with the project! Malise and the Machine v0.0511 Release I definitely dropped the ball on this one, as I should have made a post about this when it happened.  On October 31 we released v0.051 of MATM, and soon after v0.0511 was released.  This update featured all the remaining artwork for Neon's Tactical Frame armor type, as well as a bunch of bug fixes and performance improvements made by AltairPL since the release of v0.05.  If you're interested, you can get it instantly here via Patreon by pledging at the $3 tier!  In addition, the ar...

Hey guys! Great news.  The Patreon gods have heard my cries and have entered us into the beta for their new charge upfront feature! For new patrons, this means you will now get instant access to the digital rewards for your tier via the Patreon feed. No more private invoices, no more waiting until the end of the month for your pledge to clear, etc. Basically, this is a much cleaner solution for everyone, and will allow me more time for development as opposed to sending out rewards manually. As always, you can find the Patreon page at http://patreon.com/eromancer Please let me know if you have any questions about it! - Eromancer

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Hey everyone! V0.05 of Malise and the Machine was released on September 21st via Patreon.  If you missed out on the release and are still interested in checking it out, please email me at eromancergames@gmail.com and I'll give you details on how to get your pledge to me! Here are some additional changes that made it into V0.05 at the last minute.  For the rest of the change log, please see this post . Improved the loot screen UI Improved the layout of the Save/Load screen Added mechanics for learning skills from devices called ‘Glyphs’.  Malise now starts with full HP/SP Fixed a continuity error.  Neon will now have high lust/broken armor after the Fleshfather scene. Thanks again for your continued interest in the project! - Eromancer

Hey guys! The release for V0.05 has changed slightly to September 15 so that we have some additional time to better test it. Below is the expected change log for V0.05 for anyone interested . I locked in Patreon pledges for the release today, but as usual you can message me if you missed the pledge deadline and I'll send you details on how to get a pledge to me. Content Added the ‘Tactical Frame’ armor type for Neon. Added approximately 100 portraits as well as the sprite artwork for Neon’s new armor type. Added a new skill for Neon compatible with her new armor type. Replaced the puzzle area in the Breeding Zone with a more straightforward series of exploration-centric maps. These maps were created with and show off the power of TK’s new 3D map editor, and they also do a better job of setting up the main story than the puzzle area. Replaced the Access Tunnels Entrance map with one created using TK’s 3D map editor (over time we will replace all existing maps with improve...

Hey everyone! We're aiming to release V0.05 of Malise and the Machine on September 10! This means that Patreon pledges will be processed at the end of August / beginning of September.  This will be the last update before we switch over to the new campaign model (unless Patreon for some reason hasn't rolled out the instant charge feature for all creators yet).  This will likely occur sometime in October. Progress Update Work on V0.05 is going great, and all of our work is surpassing the quality I could've expected.  Naturally, we'll be down to the wire as far as getting in everything we want to, but at this point I'm pretty sure that's the price for pushing our creative limits.  Here's a quick rundown of the major accomplishments since the last post: We released an interim build for Inner Circle patrons on August 3 that contains a preview of Neon's new outfit in action and AltairPL's map overhaul framework.  We received a few bug rep...

Hey everyone! Progress is going smoothly for V0.05, and I wanted to briefly stop in to tell you where we're at with things! Eromancer: Artwork Progress All 45 general poses/variations for Neon's new outfit battle portraits were wrapped up earlier this month!  I've taken a break from the new outfit artwork and am working on a story H scene currently.  It's gone a little slower than expected but I'm continuously trying to improve the possibilities I can manage with this artwork style, and I'm happy with the results so far.   AltairPL: Map Overhaul Progress I got to test out the latest version of AltairPL's map overhaul just yesterday and the performance improvements were pretty incredible.  In V0.043 I would get about 70 FPS standing around in the Access Tunnels B5 hub map (with the FPS cap raised).  In the version with the map overhaul implemented, I got 110 FPS. The biggest objective of the overhaul however is to simplify map creation, and it...

Hey everyone! If you remember I posted a survey recently asking for your opinions on the proposed Patreon campaign format changes. If you missed the post, you can check it out here . I also posted a survey on Patreon asking for patrons' feedback to gauge whether or not they think we should make the changes. You can find the results of the surveys below: 1. Patron Survey Results 2. Non Patron Survey Results The patron survey results speak for themselves, with nearly 90% of those that responded recommending we change our campaign format to monthly (with the reduced pledge tier costs) + add the charge up front feature. The non patron survey results take a bit more analyzing. Basically, approximately half of the non patrons that responded said they would be more likely to pledge to the campaign if it was in the monthly format with the reduced pledge costs. Though the sample size is small, it's a very promising result since very few answered that they were less likely to ...

Hey guys! So, due to an initial favorable response from patrons, I wanted to get some feedback from you. We're currently considering some major changes to the Patreon campaign structure in an effort to simplify the process for new patrons, attract new patrons, and to remove some of my campaign related workload in order to give me more time to work on development related things. Patreon is rolling out a feature called "Charge Up Front", which will allow us to utilize the Patreon feed for all releases. This would greatly simplify our release process, allow patrons instant access to their digital rewards, and also be much more intuitive for new patrons. Unfortunately, this feature is only available to (the vastly more popular) monthly campaigns, so it caused us to reconsider whether we could give the same or better experience to our patrons while benefiting from this new feature. To accomplish this, we would significantly change the pricing for pledge rewards. This wou...

Hey everyone! It's been awhile since there was a legitimate progress update, so the following is my effort to hit the important points of the past month or so without making you read a novel about it. EDIT: Just kidding, it turned out to be a novel anyways. Spring Cleaning Complete! Well, it's summer technically, but as I think I mentioned in the previous post I was making a huge effort for the first few weeks after we put out the last patch to put optimizations ideas into effect that had been stacking up for awhile. This is especially important since TK was coming on board full time and it'd only make sense to reorganize things before teaching him processes and such. We now have complete cloud integration, meaning TK and I share all of the art related files and 3D libraries and receive updates to each other's work in (nearly) real time. It took over a week to upload and sync all of the necessary files. We've moved to a new chat client for development...

Hey guys! Earlier this month we posted a survey on Patreon with 11 questions designed to learn more about our audience, as well as to get feedback on certain key topics about the game. The survey was for patrons only, however we ended up getting nearly 500 responses and some valuable data. I figured I'd show the results from that survey along with our interpretation of the data. The results are highly favorable overall, and show that a lot of issues people had with the early versions have pretty much been taken care of. I'll go ahead and present my thoughts on the results question by question, along with some of my reasoning for asking the question in the first place. Question 1 : http://i.imgur.com/0sIVM8i.jpg What's Question #1 tell us? This question was asked to get a grasp on where the audience was coming from. I wanted to know if the people giving feedback were more or less likely to have a knowledge of modern games outside the H genere or if their experienc...

Hey everyone!   Big post here, but I want to mention up front that this is a free patched version that we are sending out today to everyone that received the original V0.04 release.  Please note that your saves from V0.042 should be compatible with this new version. This updated release is intended to fix the issues that were present in V0.04 and serve as a solid foundation to begin work on V0.05.  Note that while we do intend to relocate the fuse puzzle to a different portion of the game where it can be better utilized, that won't occur until V0.05.  You will however see some improvements to it that will be present in its later form.  A previously unmentioned and somewhat significant addition however is an improvement to how "Wait" battle modes operate.  We've added a prototype system for a button (SHIFT on the keyboard) to pass time while using one of the three "wait" battle modes.  Simply hold the button/key during a character's turn and time wi...

Hey everyone! Malise and the Machine V0.04 was successfully released on Patreon on May 16!  I want to apologize for the lack of updates here, but we were incredibly busy with this release.  I just finished up the artwork PDF pledge reward for this release last night (which now totals 236 pages), and still have more rewards to send out.  If you missed the pledge deadline on Patreon for this release, or simply don't want to use Patreon but are still interested in checking this version of the game out, please email me at eromancergames@gmail.com and I will give you details on how to get a pledge to me. In case you didn't know, news updates show up first (and sometimes only) on Patreon, so if you are interested in the project I highly recommend that you consider pledging at the $1 tier to unlock the news feed! I also apologize for any misconceptions, but Patreon releases are still for paid patrons only unless specified beforehand.  Another public demo in the futur...

Hey guys! I'll get the bad news out of the way up front.  We need a few more days to finish up V0.04, so I'm projecting that around May 10 it will be ready.  I'll be sure to update you on our progress though, as it may be before or slightly after that.  We have to stick to Patreon's procedure of pledges being charged at the beginning of the month, so that means that pledges still have to be in by around April 29 (to be safe) when the paid post goes live.  Pledges will still be charged around May 1. Progress is actually going great, it's just that there are more remaining art assets required than I can accomplish in the remaining days before May 1 (even working 18 hour days).  I'm down to having to finish a couple of sets of sprite animations, a few more maps and random graphics, and from then on out it's basically balancing / filling the maps with items and loot / adding dialog (the framework for the events is already laid out, and the story artwork sce...

Hey everyone! I just finished the latest print design for the upcoming Patreon release in May. For this release I've been working a lot on stepping up the artwork quality by incorporating more environmental lighting (when necessary) and improved shading/ambient shadows while still maintaining the art style we've established for the game.  This latest print shows that off a bit (you can compare it to the earlier version I posted here back in January and see what I mean). Also, in case you haven't been checking out the Tumblr page recently, I've posted a couple of gifs showing off some artwork from V0.04!   Check them out here and here !

Hey everyone! The next release of Malise and the Machine will be on May 1!  Pledges should be made on Patreon   before April 29 to guarantee that your pledge is processed and that you receive your rewards. The release will include but not be limited to the following features and content updates: A continuation of the main story featuring a new area and the addition of Malise to the party. New story H content A new enemy that is fully H-compatible with both characters A new boss encounter Enemy armor damage Animated battle backgrounds Side-scrolling maps It's been a little while, so I'm sure you all are interested to hear what we've been up to and what's in store, so get ready for one of those lovely wall of text posts! What's new?  So, the public demo was a pretty huge success in that we received a lot of attention as well as an influx of new patrons. So much attention in fact that it completely paralyzed us for a couple of weeks while we re...

Hey guys! AltairPL has put together a hotfix for some of the issues that you've helped us find with the public demo!   You can download the standalone files for the patch here: https://mega.nz/#!uJd3yAjA!SWRrgIRKRG70vRNayAJiPUI-MpHArwATfkvVrq8_7UE To install the hotfix, simply place the files into the game's 'Patch' folder in the main directory. To download the full public demo with the hotfix pre-installed, refer to the public demo release post and follow the download instructions: http://www.patreon.com/posts/4412674 The changelog for the patch is as follows: Fixed rare crash on the Tetra menu screen Fixed rare crash when holding enemy is killed during auto-struggle Fixed rare ATB glitch related to breaking hold with auto-struggle Fixed a glitch where the guard + damage character portrait would be displayed inappropriately Reorganized Options screen to improve readability

We're proud to present the first public demo for Malise and the Machine! You can download the demo at the following address: https://mega.nz/#!TZkBkDxL!jTmJD0kWaptB0yGH69CPM_plEqnJrGJo0rnZckQ6jzE NOTE : The above link has been updated to the V0.0352 hotfixed version released on February 18, 2016. Remember, this demo is meant to be shared! Share it, post it, seed it, stream it, whatever! System Requirements If you haven't played the previous releases of MATM, then PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING! Malise and the Machine utilizes the RPG Maker VX Ace engine.  To play, you must install the RPG Maker VX Ace RTP (run time package), which you can download and install for free from http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/download/additional/run-time-packages (click the blue button at the bottom of the page to download). It's highly recommended that the first time you start the game you make a critical adjustment to the RPG Maker VX Ace settings to vastly improve performance of t...

I just wanted to stop in and announce that we'll be releasing the first public demo on Valentine's Day (February 14)!  WAIFUS FOR ALL! You'll be able to find the demo right here on this blog, so check for a post on February 14. As mentioned previously, the public demo will feature the Access Tunnels content from V0.03, but with both characters in the party.  All enemies with H skills will be H-compatible with Malise.  In addition, AltairPL's menu overhaul will also be in the demo. In other news, we've been working nonstop (quite literally, 13-19 hour days) on getting content ready for V0.04 to be able to release it as soon as possible.  My apologies for not squeezing in time to make regular update posts these past few weeks, but we do have a lot to show off.  Expect some bigger posts in the coming weeks! - Eromancer

Hey all!  I'm just stopping in for a second to say I've posted some new artwork on Tumblr ! Work on the story has wrapped up for this cycle, and all things V0.04 are now moving full steam ahead! - Eromancer