Devlog 30/7/26 - Out for testing!

​After literal months of work (on and off - I've had so much other work to do in this time as well...), the latest phase of the game is now out for testing. We've got a testing group of supporters who will be running through the game and feeding back issues they find. So, for now, what's in this latest update?

Combat

Combat has completely changed from the current version. The current release has combat literally being running up to an enemy and punching or blocking. It's basic and has a lot of error where an enemy could capture you while you were attacking them. This was shit.

The new version brings in some Action RPG elements. Triggering a combat opens a Combat Zone, and everyone inside it has access to takedowns, special moves, and other options, with the more powerful options locked behind an increasing gauge. Functionally, this means now that enemies finding you and initiating first can immediately access either a strong combat or takedown move. On top of this, each character has two sets of abilities to choose from: Fight or Fuck. Aggressive enemies will Fight while aroused enemies will try to tease you.

The core of the combat system is in pace, and is easily expandable to add future actions, which will hopefully tie into the new sex system in one of the future phases.

Climbing & Swimming

Climbing has been added, so player and enemies can climb up and over various obstacles or climb certain cliffs, and swimming has been improved so now enemies don't run around on the bottom of the lakes.

Other Stuff

Shops have had a bunch of fixes and changes, so now we have specific shop types. Enemy AI has had improvements, The save system has had a minor overhaul, and there's been big changes to how enemies react to combat.

The biggest change to enemy behaviour now is that while sound attenuation is now set up (if a wall is in the way, the sound is quieter), it's turned out to be a bit hit or miss. The solution was to add several validation layers for hearing the player. Now, we have the attenuation, but if that gets heard, they then do a distance check for a path to the sounds source. This means if you have two corridors next to each other with a  connection miles away, the enemy will do this distance check. Physically they are within 10m of the sound, but their path takes them to the end of the corridor then back down which would be 500m of travel. It's over their hearing range so it gets ignored.

This also comes into play with Combat Zones, where in a dungeon and enemy could be in the zone but the path means leaving the zone. They just never get registered into the combat.

Testing Cycle

Right now, the game has gone out to the testing group. This is expected to take a week or two for playtesting, then bugfixing before it goes back out to testing again. The key here is not to eliminate every bug (though that would be nice), but to eliminate the bugs that break the game. Once we do a few rounds of back and forwards, the game will be marked as stable and released for Patreon, Subscribestar and Purchasers. Full public release will be roughly a month later.

What's Next?

We're now in a bit of downtime between phases. Normally I'd start on the next phase, but ideally we want the game version to stay relatively fixed until at least public release. This means any changes I make now need to be inconsequential. To start with, I'm taking this time to go back to the Plant Traps and try to get them working again. They've been on a backburner for ages, so it's time to get them back in the game.

Once we're into Public Release, the next phase is a smaller one than normal. mostly housekeeping. The game models and textures don't reflect the actual models and textures very well, so I'll be focusing on improving them, adding some options to them,  as well as setting up stuff like Control Rig for the next phase.

We'll be doing an update to UE5.8 to give access to new terrain and animation tools, and trying to work Motion Matching into the movement system to make things feel snappier.

Once that phase is done and dusted, we're into another huge phase: Sex System. I expect this to be a really big undertaking, and hopefully the prior phase will have set the groundwork to make it marginally more straightforward. The Sex System phase is:

• Struggle System

• Animation Builder

• Sex System

• Fluid System

• Updates to takedowns

• Tutorials

• Player Apartment

The sex system stuff is pretty interesting. I want to get this game set so it has infinite customisation, so the key component here will be the animation builder. The idea is that the game will ship with default sex animations, but I'd like to build a system where players can build their own sex positions and animations using some basic posing tools in-game. The idea would be that players can save and share these animations to a dedicated sex savefile which will then give them access to them in the game.

I don't know if this will be possible, but I'm excited to try it. The best part about it is that if it does work, all the in-game default animations would be built using this tool, so anything already in the game is possible for players to build as well. 

Equipment Fundraiser

Finally, we're doing a bit of a fundraiser to improve our hardware. Currently, we have two computers. The main development rig was top of the line 9 years ago. Now, it struggles badly in Unreal. The second one was mediocre 10 years ago. It doesn't even have a GPU. This one is being used for Blender, and even then we had to drop down to Blender 3 just to get it to run without GPU.

The plan is to try and raise the money to, eventually, get two proper development computers. For now though, the plan is to upgrade the Dev rig with a new GPU and nvme SSD, then the current GPU can get passed down to the second computer so it expands functionality a bit more.

The second stage of funding will be to replace the main dev rig, using the nvme ssd and GPU in it, then the full current dev rig will be passed down allowing Sam to be able to do Blender, texturing and actually run unreal well enough to be able to construct levels and do basic testing.

The final stage will be to replace the second computer. We want to get equipment up to a decent dev spec but in a sensible progression that doesn't mean spending shitloads of money.

We've got some stuff coming up in the near future, but as a starter, we're offering other ways of supporting us.

BuyMeACoffee

https://buymeacoffee.com/saltandchilligames

Want to just donate something towards continued development of the game but don't want your name in the game or to deal with patreon or Subscribestar? We take donations with no strings attached.

https://buymeacoffee.com/saltandchilligames/extras

Hall of Heroes

Pineridge has had the Hall of Heroes added. It's buried under the Old Town and has nameplates for all the previous competitors who made their mark on the Running of the Wolves. it should be noted that anyone supporting us on Patreon or SubscribeStar will automatically have a nameplate added based on their supporter levels.

Nameplates can be bought at Bronze, Silver or Gold tiers and will be in-game when the next update is released.

5 Min Sketches

Want to support us, but want something fun for your money? We're doing 5min sketches. All we need is a reference or brief description of what you're looking for. Will it be good art? No, probably not. Will it be value for money? Also, most likely no. Does it support us and give you something weird to treasure? Fuck yes.

We'll be running streams for development again soon, and 5min sketches will be done during them. We'll provide schedules for which streams will cover your specific sketches.

https://buymeacoffee.com/saltandchilligames/e/561543

Finally...

Thanks for the continued support, follows or just downloads of the game. This phase has taken a huge amount of time to get to this stage, way more than originally planned. During it the combat system has bee rebuilt from scratch 3 times trying different things. I've completed two different large coding projects. At this stage, hopefully things will start to speed up a bit. So thanks for following along and lets get this game finished!