PRE ACT 3 DEV LOG!

Oh hi guys. Been a while xD

THE FOREST OF LOVE - Currently

ACT 3 IS COMIN. Final builds are looking solid! Tons more content from Act 2, and SOOOOO MANY REBUILT SYSTEMS. In fact, the Itch release of Act 2 might be so old that the entire back-end of the game has been redone. Some areas, probably a few times over lmao.

We will have a real update in terms of what's new... I think...? Maybe not? honestly it's so fuckin' much it'd be a hassle to even compare/contrast what we've done over the past 3 years. If y'all haven't hopped on to play a patreon build, there's gonna be a ton of new stuff to see and critters to meet.

Anywho I just wanted to drop a message here to let y'all know it's comin hella soon. And to tell you that moving forward, things won't be like the act 2-3 wait again xD.

THE FOREST OF LOVE - The Future

Act 4 art content is entirely finished, and is the next thing to be added to the game. AND Act 4 is actually hella short. And we won't be redesigning things or making new bugs for ourselves while doing so xD (well, beyond the normal amount). There's a couple new systems to add, but they are pretty small.

AND BEST YET. For Act 5 - I'm gonna care WAY LESS about keeping stuff secret. Act 4 has a lot of like, intrigue/unexpected shenanigans that I don't want to reveal beyond what I have so far. But once the campaign is "done" (that's Act 4) - i don't give a shit xD Act 5 has a ton of fun shenanigans, but it's a lot more episodic. Stuff that will be a lot funner to STREAM and SHARE. And I don't have to concern myself with spoiling some big plans or anything.

In addition, while Vixel's been refactoring, rebuilding, bug hunting, and just overall catching up on technical debt - I've been pushing ahead with design docs and assets for Act 5 stuff too. In addition, we've got some minigames we've been cooking up, AND working with other devs to help ease the load from Vixel. We've only got one in a workable state so far, but I'm hoping to work with others over the next few months, and hopefully everything lines up to have a TONNNN of stuff available as soon as Act 5 is started.

THE FOREST OF LOVE - The Past

It's been 7 years.

Wow.

The amount of things we've learned is insane, the amount of things we'd tackle completely differently is... 100%? This kind of game is even horrible for a monthly build or early-access sort of model on SO MANY accounts. I could literally write a book about this.

Game Dev is hands down some of the hardest shit for a small team to do. For sure we bit off a lot more than we could chew, and it's been a learning experience every step of the way. HUGE thanks to anyone who's ever supported us. This would've absolutely crashed if we did this any other way. But this way let us charge ahead, fall on our face, pick up the pieces, figure shit out, and keep going. This is probably one of the absolute best environments we could've hoped for to be where we are now.

THE FOREST OF LOVE - AND BEYOND

The goal for TFOL was just to be a free game for folks to be able to see we are serious devs capable of making cool shit.

NOOOW it's kinda turned into a bit of a magnum opus, but we still wanna make OTHER cool shit. And with y'alls support, we have been able to explore some other avenues. Including:

Horsin' Around: Part 2 - Yep. I thought it'd be funny as fuck to go from a 2-bit single scene visual novel to a fully fledged 3D game. This has been going well but it's a world of new stuff. My friend Sprout is helping me develop this one. But I've taken a lot of the things I've learned from TFOL's development into this. Trying to make as many good decisions as possible to avoid insanely complex systems, yet still maximizing fun and shenanigans.

TFOL Mabel Sex Toy! - YEP. I've sculpted lil fun fuckable designs for... well about a decade now. But only recently have I found a manufacturer that was ABLE TO PULL IT OFF. And holy SHIT did they pull it off. Mabel's been a pretty resounding success, and we're happy to be looking into making more toys.

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Please be aware. These side projects are pretty minimal to my time. Horsing around is mainly re-using 3D animations I've done anyways. Or when I do animate for it, I'm pretty dang quick. Sculpting for toys can be done in a few sittings. More time is needed to dial in the sample, but that's more on the manufacturer's side. I just send messages here and there. Projects like these don't change my art output for TFOL. In fact they can help give us a boost of cash to help compensate Vixel's sanity during his endless bug hunt sessions xD.

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Anywho, that's about it for the update! I've always wanted to run these things as transparent as possible. But between working on stuff all day and being tired, not having a great amount of things to reveal for updates, the constant war on adult content, AND UH WELL I GUESS JUST THE STATE OF ALL SORTS OF SHIT - It's been pretty rough. I'd like to do better, and I'm hopeful that with some of these things changing (mainly the things we can reveal for updates) - it'll be a lot better environment for me to make posts and stream. 

NOT GONNA LIE. "MAKING POSTS" IS A HUGE PAIN IN THE ASS. Not because it's a pain to make the post. It's a pain to post to like, 12 different places. They all have different text limits. HTML/Mark up. Image size limits. Image TYPE limits. It's fuckin SOOOO annoying. The internet has been a hot fuckin' mess and it's only been getting worse to deal with xD

That said! Personally, if I can get back to streaming relatively regularly, then at least I'll have a time and place to be consistently reachable. Y'all could have the option to drop in and see how dev is going yourselves etc.

I may also just give up on some other sites and mainly focus on one for my own sanity.

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OK that's it for real. I'll be slappin' together some Act 3 Promo stuff and we'll be launching these builds :> Gotta see if Vixel wants to compile a "what's new" thing xD Like i said, the amount of changes is borderline unhelpful for the general public playing this, but it'd be a massive flex, that's for damn sure lmao.

Thanks again for all y'alls time, support, and encouragement!