Punished Mai: 2 Years Of Hard Work

Versus X: Hello Patrons! After long time a new chit chat is here!

Meguido: Sup everyone.

Versus X: This time we’ll talk about Punished Mai and the 2 year of hard work behind it.

Meguido: 2 amazing years I’d like to say but…. hmmm.

Versus X: Yeah! too much ‘hmmm’ but let’s begin where it all began.

Meguido: You said it. I’ll give you the pleasure xD

Versus X: Ha, ha, ha… OK so the origins of Punished Mai are on Fatbros, friends of us we worked together with. They were working on the first chapter of A Punishment of Mai (the SFW version of the game) really hard and released it freely but the response of players wasn’t really good so they decided to abandon the game. And then we appeared. ^^

Meguido: Us. The pervert minds. Yeah we shared the idea with them about them giving the license of the game and the story to us so we can make a dark theme hentai game.

Versus X: And they didn’t refused about it too much. ^^ And as a side note, as far as I know in the beginning, before even the game was named APFM they have a ‘similar’ idea of making a horror H-game but dropped it because they only works on mainstream games. Anyway, the question is that I began to work on the ‘hentai remake’ of the first chapter alone, before Meg joined VXS. I also began to promote the game on the, recently born (in that time), Kimochi… And now that i’m talking about it, I can’t remember when you joined VSX. Can you tell me when, Meguido?

Meguido: If I recall I joined near the finishing process of chapter 1. After finishing (rather abandoning xD) some personal project I had. Maybe Fatbros would have done a better job with the h-version due to them being the original creators? Hmm.

Versus X: Maybe yes… Maybe not… Who knows. The question is that this deal benefited us because we used all the resources they had and more importantly, the core gameplay was done, so we ‘only’ had to add new features. And also the little number of APFM players will be benefited, really soon, when we release the SFW version of the game. Think that the game was already abandoned when we rebuild it. In any case looks like the story they thought for the hentai version was really different of the APFM / PM Story.

Meguido: Yeah you’re right. Probably the wouldn’t have me to make the battle system a lil less of a mess xDD. Anyway to the point. I joined VXS to help mainly on the scripting/programming side (ended up doing more than that xD). But then we came to the point of announcing the project in different communities…

Versus X: Yes, promoting the game is a super annoying thing :/ but we needed that cause we decided to open a Patreon to support not only PM but other future projects. Fortunately, you joined VXS and we divided this boring part of being indie developers ha, ha, ha… So we made all the promoting stuff and launched the Patreon page. Oh and now that I remember during this time the game was featured for 1st time on LewdGamer. Then we began to receive almost 0 feedback and some destructive critiques. So we decided to begin with some changes, right Meg?

Meguido: Ha ha, yeah. Well to be honest at the beginning it wasn’t even destructive comments. It was just ignored at all levels until we posted on (the almost defunct) Kimochi. There we started getting some movement and feedback from a couple users that ended up being mods (maybe because they were the only ones giving feedback to almost everyone, showing they were really involved with that community?).

Versus X: Destructive or constructive, the fact is that we decided to make some important changes on the game. The 1st one was to add animations but in the process we ‘discovered’ the low capacity of our PCs and this led us to the most important change of the game: the change of the CGs graphic style.

Meguido: Yeah, apart from the feedback received we wasn’t pretty happy with the render quality we were achieving. So we tried adding a boost to it using another render engine. We also decided to implement animated CGs. When rendering for the first one is when we found that our dinosaur pcs were dying trying to render just one frame. We found back there some webinars about a similar process to achieve a cartoon fx using 3D models and that gave us the idea to try and achieve a mix between realistic characters (that kind of face, hair, eyes) and cartoon/cel shading.

Versus X: Yeah! And I think that this is the best decision we took during all the development of the game (unfortunately, not everyone think like me :P). This change allowed us to speed up the development of the game and also add things like animations and H-Attacks (I can’t imagine our PCs rendering those big images of the H-Attacks in realistic style). And with this change we continued the development of chapter 2 and finally released it (but the new changes wasn’t present on chapter 1 at the time). I can’t remember, but I think that the next release was the Chapter 1 update, Meg?

Meguido: Yeah. We spent some time fixing up new bugs (the neverending story lol) and decided that the next update instead of progressing with the story would be to update the chapter 1 to have it the entire game to share graphical consistency. So yeah We spent some time (can’t remember how much exactly but around one month or so) and got the new version with chapter 1 updated to the new style and added some animations to it along with H-Attacks. He he he H-Attacks rendered in a realistic style… that wouldn’t even be possible, I’m sure of it. Just take a look at how much did it take to render the exclusive artworks for our Fox Patrons. It took several days. So for the H-Attacks it would take like weeks? or even a month? bufff don’t even want to think about that lol. Also I’m in the “group” that prefers the cartoonish style we gave to the game ^^.

Versus X: And finally, chapters 1 and 2 were released and updated. ^^ Time for chapter 3… now that I think about it, the only relevant thing on the development of this chapter that I can remember was the appearance of that recurrent bug, yeah, that one that deactivates the HUD and the Battle System. We talked about it in a recent post. And now that I think on it, it’s possible that this started to happens because the ‘pirate’ that put the game to download on the internet for free, stopped to pledge because he/she didn’t like the new look of the game and he/she did not ‘release’ the chapter 3. Ok, this isn’t the only reason, the ‘born’ of this bug is on the opening Cg of this chapter. But after fixing it the reports of the problem continues. This was really frustrating… we’d have to release several versions of this chapter with different fixes and always that bug returned. But now we know what causes it so no more frustration. To say something positive of this time I’ll tell that the final portion of chapter 3 is one of the best of the entire game, in my opinion at least, is really epic on story side and on hentai content side, really love it.

Meguido: Yeah you’re right. The chapter 3 release was marked by this bug and its recurrency. This mdfk who “shared” the game made a weak favor to everyone. Not only to us but to every downloader that after playing it decided to support us and got stuck on there… Anyway, frustrations away, I’m with you, chapter 3 was one of the best story-wise. There were so many revelations that made everything a little bit more understandable. Chapter 3 was also the longest one in development time if I’m right. It also marked an important step for us. We reached a point really advanced in the progress of the game. I’d say 50% but it’s 5 chapters so it should be something like 66’6%. We were getting closer to finishing our first hentai game. Even tho the financial part of it wasn’t (& let’s be honest; isn’t) what we expected, we were still really excited to finish it. So we really focused all of our strength to give a boost to the chapter 4.

Versus X: 66’6% … 666 … I think this is a nice number for a game like PM ha, ha, ha, ha… Satanic jokes aside and leaving the financial stuff for the next chit chat (coming really soon) the truth is that reaching this chapter was really amazing and a moral boost. With all this new energy Chapter 4 came really soon. In this new entry we added a new kind of puzzle with orbs, Meguido, tell me more about these puzzles.

Meguido: Well what can I say about the new kind of puzzles? I love them and they were my idea. An idea coming from the love I have for Alundra. I really wanted to see if RPG Maker was able to handle that kind of complicated stuff. And after many lines of code, it really did! I’ve seen around that those puzzles maybe a bit difficult. But for me they aren’t lol. I programmed them and did the test for them too. And so that was the base reference I used to see if they were viable: Me as the tester XD. If I was able to pass them, then everyone could or should be able to hahaha. But then you insisted in that they were too hard and I had to add extra code to make them easier for the easy mode (I should've done the same for the new Punishment mode in the Gold Edition and make them a little bit harder :D).

So then you were in charge of testing the chapter 4 and you managed to achieve something that I think no one did ever. Explain this so everyone can know about that lol.

Versus X: Yeah! This was really ‘fun’ ha, ha, ha, I broke one of the puzzles that uses this system ha, ha, ha, not in the editor (RPG Maker) but in the game itself. And broken means broken, the puzzle didn’t work anymore and you had to find a workaround to make this work properly (even if I test it ^^).

Meguido: Yeah… It was pretty “funny” -.- But as it reads, he just broke an internal mechanism from the hard-coded engine. This means it wasn’t something from my script but from RPG Maker itself. Destroying how self-switches work. I had to override that part on script to make sure it worked even if the entire rpg maker crashed lol. And that’s the reason why I hate you as a tester hahaha.

Versus X: You mean, you loved me, right? ^^ Anyway, after this ‘funny event’ the chapter 4 was released without anymore ‘funny moments’ and after that we quickly started to work on the number 5. Work on this chapter was really hard. I made the comparison on an old post but this chapter has at least the same H content as 2 chapters. This is due to the different endings. I can’t remember anything apart from being working day and night on the CGs ^^ What do you remember of this chapter Meg?

Meguido: Yeah, yeah, “love” exactly that… Whatever, before changing to chapter 5, I’d like to add that if chapter 3 was the best one in story and adult content, Chapter 4 was the best gameplay-wise imho :D. About Chapter 5 I can remember working really hard on the adult scenes, the endings, along with the H-Attacks. But I also remember a lovely animation I made for it: Mai in the boat going to the hotel <3

Versus X: That animation is lovely ^^ And don’t know if Chapter4 is the best on gameplay but the more difficult yes :P. Now I’m wondering if anyone has ‘unlocked’ all the endings ummm... Oh also in chapter 5 there is a couple of puzzles that I like very much, my favorite is the one to open the door to the basement on the hotel... So finally after a ton of work Punished Mai was finished. After that some updates with bugfixes were released until reaching the actual version: 2.4.3. Then the new year (2017) came and we started to work on RTP Ero-Adventures and Punished Mai GOLD Edition.

Meguido: Nah Chapter 4 is not *that* hard ;). About the endings, well I don’t know how much people love this game to make their way through those many times (taking advantage of the new game + option) to get every ending. If they didn’t they all I can say is they’re missing pretty important stuff.

And yeah times has passed really fast since we finished Punished Mai, but that’s not an excuse to forget about the other projects we’re working on :@. How can you forget about Bioasshard?

Versus X: Maybe I forgot because I work little to nothing on this project (for now ^^U) But yeah what I meant is that we started to work on other projects while still working on PM. This and the number of extras took us longer than expected to release the GOLD edition. Something that you want to add about this version?

Meguido: Such a bad excuse about Bioasshard… Well you should be getting ready soon, because you will miss these days of forgetting about it he he he. (I wonder if you’ll be able to crash Unreal Engine 4 as you did with RPGM lol).

About the GOLD edition; well what can I say about that? To be honest, one thing I’d say is to everyone to consider getting it if they like PM, because this is the most COMPLETE version the game will ever have. The artbook is really a masterpiece I must add. And I don’t say this because it’s ours but because it’s what I really think. And you know how I tend to hate whatever thing I do (well maybe it’s because it was you who made it and not me that I love it instead of hating it XD). There’s also the exclusive to GOLD edition realistic artworks in resolutions above 2k. They took really a long time to render but they are pretty cool ^^.

Versus X: Wow! Amazing words coming from you ^^. We’ve made a nice review on these 2 years of Punished Mai. 2 years and PM still continues… the next release is the SFW version: A Punishment for Mai, hopefully this month, after that a possible release on stores, little updates on the Gameplay FAQ and if new bugs appears, new updates to the game…

Meguido: Yeah, hopefully there won’t be anymore unfixed bugs. It’s been a pretty short review on the 2 years tbh. We could of explained a lot more in detail but I think this is the most relevant story behind it.

Versus X: So I think it’s time for some final words. I can’t resist to ask this to you… this is more than one question but all are related: What do you think the game lacks off? What would you added if you’ve had more time or resources? Did you have any idea that wasn’t added to the game?

Meguido: Oh man, those questions :P

Well, let’s answer them in order:

1- I think the game lacks a better english translation but because we’re not english and we have to take care of it entirely, this is the best we could achieve. Apart from that I’d say the major lack the game has it’s the engine in which it’s been made. That’s a LACK (yeah in caps) in all aspects of the game.

2- I’d probably ended up remaking it from the ground up in another engine with better features and more accommodated to that kind of game system, but still in 2D, because that detail level the game has in their maps and such is something I’ve never seen, in a rpg maker game ofc but still I’ve found it to be the perfect one to give the game that dark atmosphere. If I was forced to stay in RPG Maker then the change would probably be the battle system. But I can’t think of another type of battle system that would fit as the A-RPG does in this game, right now. Probably the control scheme would be redone. There’s some different actions for the same buttons and that it’s sometimes confusing.

3- Maybe some content related to adult stuff. Like more animations and such that wasn’t added because of their complexity and lack of time / resources (dinosaur pc deserves to be here again xD). And maybe I had some more ideas for Lucy as a controllable character. But overall in story and gameplay it was perfect the way it is.

So now that I’ve answered I think you should answer too to the same questions :P

Versus X: Wow some of those things are also on my mind ^^ in any case here we go:

1- The translation, of course, is the point here ^^ even more translations to other languages. I’m not going to blame all the RPG Maker engine cause without it maybe I wouldn’t be making games right now but some little aspect of it yes like the resolution (as an ‘artist’ I want more canvas for art :/), the ability to export to other platforms and not only for PC and things like that.

2- OMG Remake the game in other engine?! No thanks ha, ha, ha And change the battle system… No. But make some balance… More horror + RPG and less Action maybe yes. More characters and more sex ^^ But more important with enough resources (AKA money) it would have been great to have all CGs fully animated (or at least the most important), Voice acting and maybe some more secrets and extra content.

3- Sex scenes: Mai (and maybe Lucy) X The Driver, Mai X the ‘Monolith’ this one almost happens but finally was deleted from my mind ha, ha, ha, more scenes for Cathe and of course more for Lucy. The problem with the scenes is where and when to add it. Other thing that was ‘ignored’ is the ‘city’ this is continuosly mentioned but never seen on the game only a little glimpse on the exterior of the mansion on chapter 3. It would have been nice to add it but the development would have become a hell.

And now, Meg, something to say about this ‘And maybe I had some more ideas for Lucy as a controllable character.’

Meguido: Nope.

Versus X: Thanks <3

Meguido: You’re welcome! Seriously tho, that’s nothing special but just adding more content with Lucy as main character, like some experiences she had since she’s been on the city way before Mai was. It was nothing too specific but just an overall idea.

Versus X: Ummm I thought a CG with Lucy and the Torturer for the GOLD edition (in the timeline this CG happens before she meets Mai) but finally discarded the idea for the reasons I mentioned above. :(

Meguido: That would of been cool. But anyway the games is finished now and even though it got some attention I think that’s not enough to keep messing around with it instead of working on new projects. Don’t you think?

Versus X: Of course, that’s why I think it’s time to finish this chit chat and get back to work on A Punishment for Mai… ^^U And RTP Ero-adventures, Bioasshard (I have to break UE4) and other surprises.

Meguido: Ha ha ha. Yeah I think it’s time too. Even though those ‘surprises’ sounds like something interesting to ask about, I won’t do it cuz we did write a lot for today :P. So this is it guys, see ya in the next chit-chat (or maybe a Meguido’s Report will come first? Hum, dunno).

Versus X: The next chit chat will be more in general (things we’ve learnt during this time or something like that) and will be here really soon. Meanwhile, enjoy Punished Mai and stay tuned here on Patreon for more news. Bye everyone.