State of the Union: I Put My Bones In It

Hi folks, been a while eh? Not since- JUNES?! OH MY GOD So quick how've you been? Good? Oh that's good LET'S GOOOOOOOOO

As per usual, lets go over the stuff that we're doing, general news and other fee-fees like that, starting with the big stuffs.

Thrallworks

Boy oh boy. This sure has become a thing.

For its pains, progress is good! I got some mechanics sorted out that I want and am looking at how to do some others (some of which will be cont-ro-versial~). The character art's coming along too and when it's properly spruced I think I'll be in a good spot to write up the new opening section I've planned out to lead into the orientation.

We're still talking on the order of months, but not so many as I'd feared, maybe like 2/3. Building assets is always the slog of content creation and the headway made's been fine; it's just a matter of sorting pipelines so that some of the fiddlier stuff (like setting up models for live2d export) can get done faster.

What Else?

Volition

I've been rolling on my 'do stuff' chart, and lo, one of the things that cropped up was 'plan Volition Chapter 2'

So, I did! Or I did a good chunk of it at least before needing to move on.

I'd say it's not a priority, but I think that beside Thrallworks- and perhaps more than TW- Volition is a product people really enjoyed. So I dunno. I'd like to ask some of my higher-up patrons how they feel about it, but any call for 'Hey do you want content' is never not met with a 'yes', so for now, I reckon the priority is still Pony-game as the secondary, THEN maybe Volition after.

But if I keep rolling 'Volition' on my spare-time to-do list, then...

NO, PONY GAME!

Okay alright, pony game.

Unlike Volition, this one's planned out in stats and in I'd say mid-level strokes, and it's currently being designed to fit into the Thrallworks game proper to get the most bang for buck out of it.

Rather than be vague with this though, I thought maybe it'd be fun to go over a few of the concept screens and some concepts with you!

Character select is pretty straightforward, nothing surprising there (and you patrons have already seen the 'designed' version of that screen). In the multiplayer version, this will be something like a round robin, where everyone picks their pony in order. I'll probably start everyone off with the same statline too, rather than the initial swings ponies start out with, just for the sake of balance.

After picking your pony though, you're to pick your team!

Now in the Thrallworks game, this is actually going to very different, as being a pony's 'sponsor' is one of a few Ventures you can get involved in, and requires (like Pet Ownership) a permit/licence in order to be one. And as these teams are pre-established, it'll actually be 3 teams of your choice booking an interview with *you* to see if you're a good fit for the team or not.

For the multiplayer turn-taking version of this (I do not have the coding chops to make this a full online multiplayer, but one GM selecting stuff or hotseating will work fine) I'm going to make the amount of teams adjustable, as well as switching the unique traits of each racing team off or on. For the porpoises of the discord game, I think I'll keep it straightforward and have 2 balanced teams.

Oh, right, before all of that (or somehwere), you'd also select which cup and/or league you're going to participate in.  I mean, who doesn't like Mario Kart?

But I'm on the fence about this feature. Even aside from the extra work it proposes, it also means there's a distinct choice being made of have specific tracks as opposed to randomly generated ones. I'll probably end up having a mix of both, but still, this bears thinking about.

Skipping ahead past some BORING screens we get to- OH WAIT this isn't 'State of the Pony'! I guess we'll save all of this stuff for a proper Pony post. Lets move on! Apologies!

The Movement - A Fashionable CYOA!

Yeah so I've also started running a lil' CYOA story for my fantasy world, I'll be putting up the first couple of intro pages up publicly soon. It's basically just a bit of fun I thought we could have over here, making choices to corrupt various ladies into sexy devotees of a spirit-goddess. The usual.

This'll be updated fortnightly, and $10 patrons get to pick the options. The current poll I'll run first past the post, but future ones I'll run like my normal ones, where the poll is more like 'setting the odds' and I roll for it, making some options more likely but keeping all options open.

Progress on something more vidya-gamey in this universe has halted though I'm sad to say. There was always a rough idea of what we wanted to do, but we didn't really have the time to shape up one consistent idea that was simple enough to act on, so for now I think it'll be about sticking to worldbuilding things such as this and sitting on the assets to use in the future as these smaller, funner activities help inform future decisions and see what people would be interested in doing.

Just so y'all know, the main things thought of were:

• Cult-simulator, where you're a faction in a city and trying to undermine/gain sway over key figures in it.
• You're a lady sent to a village to acquire some pre-influenced students who you're to take into Yi Lin's light...
• A game where you're a physical fitness trainer and take on a student to make her SWOLE and FIT and SUBSERVIENT (this one had the most work put into it, with a few different stat-systems designed and a narrative arc planned out)
• A game where you're a living shrine who spawned into a mountainside and lure girls to reside inside you, using their spiritual offerings taken through sexual awakenings to add new rooms to yourself and new, decadent attractions...
  

If any of those sound particularly juicy to you, lemme know! Or even better, talk about it on muh discord. :)

Commissheses

(Haha can't put up an image for this one because they're all smut)

Still working on the Dossiers (I picked up one more than I should have), and I've got some sfw stuff I need to do for Christmas too, so I'm pretty rushed.

Rather than Dossiers though, probably the next commish slot is going to be another Thrallopedia collection- either Gladiator or Praetorian. Probably Gladiator. I mean it needs to be done, right?

What else?

Uhhh whatever I roll up to do! I've got some stories half-written up, got some more fanart smut to do...

Any you?

Me? Oh I'm good, I'm good...

...

Well I could do with less friends, family and pets dying, but y'know. All you can do is laugh and break down a little HAHAHAHAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Ahhh anyway some funerals later we're here. I'm feeling strangely alright, motivated, and am doing more stuff outside of this smutlife too. I figure that in the coming year I'll be working a lot to improve muh art and see about getting more out of the wider world, outside of this lewd loifye. 'Cus it's short ya know, loiyfe, and these years probably shouldn't be entirely spent doing something you can't tell your closest friends and family about and would make you a social pariah and undateable by all but those on...I dunno. Fetlife? Where do people even go to date in this scene we're all in?

Not that I'm going to leave any of this unfinished mind you; and I'm not the type to suddenly SNAP and delete everything I've ever made. (At least...not yet....fufufufu...) Though I do think I need to set some clear end-points for some things, and maybe get a little brutal/pragmatic with other things.

Beyond all this, I'm on discord a lot so feel free to join the server and talk with people there. We still do games too, on the on-and-off, along with sketch prizes. Fun fun fun.

And with all that said, thanks for sticking here for the ramble and for all of y'all's continued support! If you've any questions or if there's any content you're looking forward to or would want to see come back or any of that, feel free to say in the replies below! More than happy for a conversation in the comment sections, bad as I am about just reading messages and not responding for a few days. I'll be better, as will we all.

Cheers!