nearnfar

9/18 Roadmap

As I mentioned in a mid-week update, the roadmap for last week went well, with all of the ancillary work on both rooms pretty well buttoned up and my attention turning toward the various dialogue passages that will be coming out of the new rooms (similar to the dialogue with Meloni in the conservatory if you've run across that in your plays). This week is just going to be focused on continuing with said dialogue passages. I don't know if I'll be able to wrap them up fully by the end of the we...

New Character Art!

Here's a wonderful new piece of character art for the game, done by the fantastic PyraDK. You can find them at Patreon.com/PyraDK and DeviantArt.com/PyraDK

This is one of the few remaining characters yet to be added to the game (expect her around version 1.5.0). I won't spoil her name, as there's a bit of mystery around that as you may have already discovered.

Look forward to meeting her in the future and maybe letting her tempt you with some naughty wishes!

Future Projects?

With work on Enter the Expansion Mansion now over half finished, I'm beginning to think to future endeavors. I know my next game will be a customizable interactive JOI meta story based on a short snippet I posted a while back on Reddit.

After that, though, I'm unsure. I have several good workable games ideas that range from interactive fiction to more game-like projects.

I also have ideas for some pure, non-interactive fiction, which is the reason for this poll.

Would you li...

Discord Update

Hello dear Patrons!

Work continues on the roadmap items for the week at a great pace. I see no issues with getting to where I want over the next two days.

What I really wanted to update on is the poll I put out regarding a Patrons-only Discord server for my projects.

There was a decent bit of positive interest, but less than 1/3 of Patrons voted in it, so my takeaway is that interest is there, but it's not overwhelming.

To that end, a Discord server will happen, but I ...

9/11 Roadmap

Got to everything on the list last week... kind of. I actually started on the items in reverse order, so the upstairs exploration is still in process, but the initial interactions downstairs are finished! So, basically the same amount of progress, maybe more, as planned, but on different items. I'll call it a win.

This week will be focused on:

1. Finish upstairs exploration passages

2. Add in wife mood interaction downstairs

3. Begin dialogue prose downstair...

15,000 plays!

I'm a few days late to this milestone, but I just wanted to say how surprised I am that Enter the Expansion Mansion has now seen over 15,000 browser plays on itch.io. When I first started work on this game, I would've been amazed to see 100 plays, and now here we are with over 60 Patrons supporting its development and over 15,000 plays of the game!

I can thank everyone enough who has helped and is actively helping make this game happen!

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

9/4 Weekly Roadmap

Hello everyone!

I had a crazy busy week and weekend with real life stuff, but I was able to get done what I had intended just before it all went nuts. The two new rooms are added into the game at this point.

Next up, I'll be focusing on fleshing out the contents of those rooms, so here's the plan for the week:

1. Add exploration passages to upstairs room.

2. Add initial character interactions to downstairs room.

3. Begin adding exploration passages to downstairs ...

8/28 Weekly Roadmap

Alright!

1.2.1 was released close to a week ago, I've taken a breather and rested up a bit since, and I'm ready to hit the ground running on 1.3.0. This update will focus on finishing the upper floor and adding in the servant's quarters off the 1st floor foyer. These two rooms need to be added at approximately the same time due to some interconnected interactions, many of which will sadly not be available until after the following update is completed. Still, this update will finally add...

Version 1.2.1 Released!

So... I messed up and totally forgot that I had started messing with some work on a room for the next update, so here's Version 1.2.1 released in what is absolutely a new record time between versions. This one has only the minor fix of that one door on the second floor that led to a half-finished coding mess.

Apologies for the double release. I'll make sure to keep track of what areas I've begun work on, going forward.

Here's the slightly cleaner release for the day:

2023-08-22 23:12:15 +0000 UTC View Post

Version 1.2.0 Release!!!

Alright everyone!

It ended up taking a bit longer than I originally hoped, but I've added quite a bit into the game for this update. I'm not going to say that this version is bug free, but I've run through plenty of times and I've addressed everything I've found. If you find anything weird, don't hesitate to let me know via the bug report form here: https://forms.gle/MHVc3x492VBPnB3M6

In version...

Discord or no?

I know it's pretty common for creators to set up a personal Discord server these days for Patrons. With Expansion Mansion becoming much more complex with each update, the though occurred that it might be nice to have a central place for Patrons to discuss various paths and secrets. This could become even more useful in the future as I add more games to my portfolio.

So here's the question: Do you guys actually want a Discord server dedicated to my Patrons? It would be pretty much limite...

So... Many... Bugs...

So many. Soooooo maaaaaaaanyyyyyyy!!!!

I'm fine. This is fine. Everything is fine.

Seriously, though, debugging is chugging along.

8/21 Roadmap

I've been working on testing and debugging the game for a few days now, so it's another short and sweet roadmap this week.

1. Finish debugging

2. Release V1.2.0

And that's it!

Super secret 8/17 update

Psst...

This is just between us, okay? Don't tell anyone.

I might have finished the roadmap already... And that means all that's left for 1.2.0 is testing and debugging.

It'll be our little secret.

8/14 Roadmap

Well, despite nature's best attempts, I survived last week and was able to do at least the basics of what I intended to do.

This week, I should have a bit more time to work, so I've got the following items planned:

1. Finish prose for new lore feature. (This is the biggest item of the week )

2. Add new item.

3. Rework 2 expansion sequences to function with new item.

If I can get those items accomplished, all that will remain will be the debugging and release!

8/10 Update

I'm limping along!

Power has finally been restored after the storms, and I've mostly finished fixing up the limited damage to our home and property.

Or Internet has been spotty at best since the power returned, so that's no fun and also making things more difficult.

However, the big news is that I've been busy for the past several hours today and have managed to knock off both of the roadmap items for the week!

Storm or not, I'm still on track!

I do hope to get a...

8/8 Update

If you're in the US (or particularly obsessed with local US news for some reason), you may have heard about some bad storms leaving "millions of Americans" without power... Yeah, I'm one of them.

Going on 24 hours without power and having to spend a lot of extra time cleaning up from the storm. I hope to get at least some work done this week still, but it will entirely depend on how quickly my power comes back...

Sorry for the downer update, but wanted to let Patrons know that thi...

8/7 Roadmap

This past week was a success. I finished up everything on the roadmap and even got farther along on the conversation prose than I anticipated.

This coming week will be another busy one in real life, and the next step of development is a lengthy one, so this week's roadmap is short and sweet.

1. Finish new character conversation prose.

2. Begin work on lore feature prose.

The lore feature has a whopping 15 passages to write up, so it'll take quite ...

8/2 Quick Update

Note: this update never got published yesterday. (Oops.)

I've already knocked the first 2 items off the roadmap for this week. The new room is in, and the lore feature has been coded (though the prose for that will come later, probably next week).

Starting tomorrow, I'll begin work on the reduction sequence, followed by the conversation prose for the new character I've already added. Should go just fine.

As a sneak peek for what's left to do for 1.2.0 beyond this week's road...

7/31 Roadmap

I did manage to finish both new expansion sequences as I hoped last week. I also got the initial character interactions for the new character. So, we're back on track after the week of craziness.

I do expect the next two weeks to be fairly busy for me IRL, as I prep for some fun vacation stuff. That said, I will certainly be fitting in some more work on version 1.2.0, without a doubt.

The size of this update is rapidly growing in scope, as I'm seeing that many of the new things I ...

7/29 Quick Update

Roadmap item 1 for the week is complete!

I just finished up all the initial interactions for the new character (that took a lot of work compared to previous areas. The game is getting far more intricate with each new area/character/story branch). Tomorrow, I plan to write the prose for the two new expansion sequence in 1.2.0.

I'll talk more in Monday's roadmap post, but this week will be a bit busy, so I'm not certain how much will be done on the game, but it'll definit...

A Little Tease

Work is going well on 1.2.0. Real life is fairly busy, but I'm squeezing in work on the conservatory on the daily. In the meantime, here's a commissioned image to whet your appetite. It's directly related to the content I'm adding literally right now.

7/24 Weekly Roadmap

Well, last week derailed a bit. You'll notice that I never posted updates regarding finishing the new character interactions, expansion sequence, or work on the upstairs bedroom.

That's because I sadly never got to finish those planned goals for the week. The crazy IRL stuff I've been dealing with off and on for a month finally came to a head and ate up about 4 full days last week and over the weekend. Thankfully, it looks like that's really, truly done and I can not lose anymore days t...

7/19 Update

Yesterday wasn't super productive due to that thing I had thought was done. Yeah, it wasn't done. IRL nonsense has been haunting me for weeks now.

That said, the week is still on track. I've finished item 1 of the roadmap and have added in the Conservatory room itself.

I'm well into adding the new character and interactions.

I'm hoping to finish that up tomorrow and get a good start on the next expansion sequence. That should mean that I'll be right on track to start on the ...

7/17 Weekly Road Map

Hello Patrons!

Add mentioned before, it's Monday, so I'm putting up a road map for the week. Here's what I plan to accomplish:

1. Finish the Conservatory room.

2. Add in new character and initial interactions.

3. Add 1 new expansion sequence.

4. Begin work on upstairs bedroom.

I anticipate at least one more week of work after this week before I'm ready to launch 1.2.0, so expect to see that late July or early August.

I hope to get a good amount done t...

V1.2.0 Begins!

I've spent the last half hour starting on the Conservatory, which means V1.2.0 is underway! There's a lot more work to be done than there was for the last minute update, but the good news is all that real life nonsense I had to juggle for the past 2 weeks is finished! And I have a 3 day weekend!

I hope to see this version release working 2 weeks, hopefully sooner!

There'll be lots of new expansiony goodness in this version!

Stay tuned for more updates and a new roadmap on Mo...

Version 1.1.1 Released!

Hello, my awesome Patrons!

A tiny hurdle is jumped with the release of 1.1.1. This is a tiny update that includes:

+New mood interactions with the wife's "scared" mood.

+New "demo end" screen.

+Minor backend improvements.

You can download the new version at this link:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/fj0jl...

7/13 Update

Welp, I've finished the rough work on 1.1.1. Now I'm moving on to testing. If I managed to not break anything this time, I should be able to roll it out later today or sometime tomorrow.

In the interest of managing expectations, I want to stress again that this is a VERY minor update, hence why it's not 1.2.0. It's just some added mood responses from the wife and a reworked Demo End screen (that's a little more fun, in my opinion).

The real fun will be in the next version update.<...

Where to go next in V1.2.0?

Work for 1.1.1 should wrap up this week, with V1.2.0 starting by the weekend. So where would you like me to focus my efforts next in adding new areas?

Update regarding updates

Yep, this is the update update.

You guys were were very clear from the poll that you'd much rather me only update when there's something to actually say, which works great for me.

So, here's the plan. I will post a weekly roadmap on Mondays with a couple of bullet point goals for the week. I will post an update if a goal is met or if the overall road map changes, but otherwise, no daily updates.

It's a day late, but here's this week's roadmap:

1. Complete new mood inte...