Zaggy Norse

Build 0.5.5

A smaller build that addresses some of the stuff I wanted to deal with in 0.5 proper. Not at all critical to replay, but important for me to set up 0.6 onwards properly.

• Reworked Ta'kom interaction on Day 1.
• Added missing BG for Zef sex scene.
• Reworked various parts of Babbelas route to improve his voice.
• Lowered the intensity of the Babbelas sex scene to leave room for the future.
• Miscellaneous grammar and spelling fixes.
• Added a new s...
  2023-05-30 17:11:19 +0000 UTC View Post

Poll: Suri Character Design

Alright! Let's design Suri :) Tanu's provided a lot of options, so I've annotated the attached image to make sure it's clear what I'm referring to. Vote for whatever you like :)

Character Design: Suri

Suri has been a favourite since he showed up, and I'm thrilled to show off his design. His uniform is based on that used by some very fancy game farms here :)

For Footman tier and up, I'll be posting the poll to nail down the specifics of his look soon as well, so be sure to vote on that. The sooner he's finalised, the sooner I can start getting art of him :D

[CG] Ta'kom in the Wild

If you've exhaustively played all branches in 0.5, you might squint your eyes at this one since it doesn't seem to match any existing scene. And you're right! This is for a an upcoming rework of a Ta'kom scene that I was never entirely happy with. This CG, however, I'm very satisfied with. Enjoy :)

[CG] Paardenrust, I am *in* you.

Flax's fated arrival, gorgeously rendered by cbh!

Stretching Paardenrust's muscles: 0.6 and beyond

With build 0.5 complete, it's time to look to the next phase of Lord of the Manor. I've been working towards this specific moment in the game for a long time (longer than I thought I would, certainly, but better late than never) and I'm very excited to sink my teeth into what comes next. Without spoiling the end of build 0.5, it's enough to say that Flax's expectations about his holiday have now been thoroughly upended. Things will be very different for him going forward—and not only from a...

Build 0.5.2 (bugfix)

This release fixes a few points where internal comments were showing as dialogue.

Build 0.5.1 (bugfix)

This build fixes a crash near the very start, if you choose not to go to the party with Rav (so if you're past that point, you don't need to redownload this).

Kierie: Lordling of the Manor

Kierie (or, to call him by his full name, [redacted]) is next in line to be the eponymous Lord of the manor. And what a fucking cutie. He'll be a central character for the game, so you'll have lots of time to learn what he likes, doesn't like, and really, really likes...

Build 0.5: "Tripping on !nabas"

And there we have it! The biggest new build to date, and definitely the most important (as the ending will make clear). Things change a lot from here on out in Paardenrust, so I'll make a separate post to talk about that.

This build is complete; all routes go as they should, they contain all the branches I intended, and the ending conveys the necessary information. However, due to an incredibly difficult month, I had to sacrifice a few secondary things to meet my self-imposed deadline. ...

March 2023 progress update

Hello everyone. Let's chat.

Work on the 0.5 build has been going very well. Bit of a speed bump this week due to just...so many things (fuck you, life), but I intend to get back in the saddle soon. It will land before the end of the month, no doubt.

The first CGs are starting to come in, as you would all have seen with my misallocated post earlier this week :P They're looking terrific.

Not much else to say. 0.5 soon! Get hype.

Zaggy

CG preview: "Tostsi's Fun"

We've not seen more of Tostsi since the opening, but he will crop up again later for sure. Stygimoloch has provided these three options for a CG of him during one of Suri's branches. Vote on whichever ones you prefer :)

Xhenxe character design poll

(Repost because I fucked up the poll settings)

I posted this art last month, but I didn't run a poll to choose his ancillary design points. His body type will be the more thickset one, so this poll is only for the other elements. As before, pick whichever ones you'd like or not like freely :)

Daddy Ta'kom

You've already met Ta'kom, though definitely not making a good impression. You'll meet him again in 0.5, and perhaps this visual of his significant daddy assets will change your opinion of him~

CG art style

So, as the collection of character designs grows, it becomes possible to start getting CGs done. Just for those who may not be familiar with VN parlance, CGs are the static fullscreen art pieces that you get at key moments, typically after reaching key points in a route.

I have no intention of having the characters and their sprites done by anyone else except Tanutanuki, but the CGs are a different matter. Initially I'd planned for her to do those as well, but it was never really finali...

February progress update

Hello everyone. Time for another progress update.

The new job (and RL) has been less intense than I expected, which has meant I've been able to keep up with my writing. As of today the word count is a smidge over 222k words; 0.4 clocked in at 160k. So another chunky update coming your way. I expect to add another 15k or so and to then be done; editing will add some more as it always does. So this will end up as the biggest update ever - and hopefully the last of that sort for a long whi...

Pausing billing for February

I'll be pausing billing for February after all, because I'm pretty sure I'll have to spend it dealing with my gran's estate and funeral. So 0.5 will be pushed to March.

January progress update

Oh. Hey there. Are you going to wear...? What? No. Nothing. You look fine. Let's get into it.

You've seen some of the new art already, of course, and isn't it just lovely. It will be wonderful seeing the full slate of characters in time. We'll see some sprites before that, too, and depending on which chars they are I might even put some into the game already.

On the writing side, it's been a terrifically productive year to date, and I'm keeping up the momentum. I expect to be done...

Xhenxe: Warthog Daddy

This is such an interesting character (and not just from a story perspective). He's gone through the most species changes of anyone, starting off as an antelope before transitioning through three or four others before I settled on warthog. In retrospect, this is absolutely the right fit for his personality, and I'm really pleased with the design. As I'm certain you all will be too :P

And in case anyone's concerned, he will have the more musclegut body type option. There's no question. 2023-01-16 10:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post

Werner Design Poll #2: Accessories

This poll covers the extra detail options that Tanu suggested on Werner's desgn. I'm going to do them all in one poll because else it feels like it's just too many polls otherwise.

Vote on whichever options you prefer, or if you don't care either way, skip the relevant options.

I have independently chosen not to go with the tattoos, partly because that's a ton of extra work to do each sprite, and partly because it doesn't work with hair.

The voting will be open for 7 days. 2023-01-09 07:18:59 +0000 UTC View Post

Werner Design Poll #1: Hairstyle

This poll references the Werner character sheet I recently posted, which I've also attached to this post.

So Tanu has provided a few default options for Werner's hairstyle, and now you get to choose which one he'll have :) Feel free to vote for multiple options if you can't decide. The options below correspond to headshots 1, 2 and 4 on the ref sheet (reading left to right and top to bottom).

If you have ideas for other styles, please feel free to comment or like others' comments;...

Werner the buffalo

Werner is the chef at Paardenrust, of course, but has clearly not fallen into the trap of tasting his own food too much.

Also: titties.

2023, here we goooo!

Hello all. Hope you had as relaxing a holiday as possible - and may even a little more still to go. Let's talk about LOTM and 2023 :)

I've been picking away at the writing, but it's not gone as well as I'd like despite my pace resuming reasonably well, so I'm not gonna get it done by Jan. I'm going to aim for Feb instead. However, January will still be a billed month as I will post the latest art (do you like himbo buffalo and daddy warthogs?). In addition, for the appropriate tiers, I ...

December progress update

Hey. Hi. Howdy.

So, let's take stock of the last month or so. Wheeeew. Kinda wild. Firstly, on behalf of South Africa, I'm sorry about Elon. We messed up there. You have our permission to deport him.

Secondly, still dealing with my family situation. It's tough adapting to an amputation at any age, let alone when you're over ninety. But we've figuring it out. Hopefully next year there will be more people able to assist and I can stop being the main guy there, because I'll have bigg...

November status update

Hello all, from a lovely rainy summery South Africa. What pleasant weather. How's the biting, interminable cold where you are? Sounds wonderful. Don't die.

Not much to say this month. As I mentioned on Discord, my progress on 0.5 hit a road block in the form of family responsibilities. A very elderly relative has needed intensive medical attention for the last few weeks, and it'll likely continue for another month at least. Only two of us are in the same city as her, so we've had to div...

Revisiting erotic scenes

At some point in the future (not in 0.5, at any rate) I'll be adding an option to let you easily revisit any erotic scenes you've unlocked. This will work like any typical VN gallery option (which I will also have, separately, for CGs): you'll have an option on the menu to see a collection of all erotic scenes, and can click on unlocked ones to replay them. Locked ones will not give away spoilers.

This will persist across saves, so you'll be able to unlock them all over time; it's anywa...

October progress update

Hello everyone.

So work is proceeding well on the new build, helped in no small part by it feeling so different from the last one that I am experiencing a great wellspring of creativity.

The main goal for this build is to stand in tonal contrast with the previous one by having Flax spend a bit more time by himself, doing his history thing by exploring some more areas of the manor and town, discovering a few more intriguing things - before ending the day with a big character blowou...

Guest writers and Extended Content

Hello all. Happy spring! Unless you're going into winter, in which case still happy spring, but ironically.

I'm trundling away on build 0.5, but today I want to discuss two aspects of the game that I've not brought up here before: guest writers and Extended Content. Related, but different.

Guest writers

This is pretty much what it says on the tin. While I am of course writing the vast majority of the content, I know a lot of other great writers. In the ear...

Ta'kom Ironhoof: Dad Says Hi

We've not seen most characters yet, as you know, but that doesn't mean there's not art to conceptualise their eventual look. And this one of Ta'kom certainly conveys a lot about him, wouldn't you say? He may not have won you over with his current in-game attitude, but I feel this might persuade some of you to give him a second chance.

Route voting

Hello again. Look at that sun. Was it always this bright? Someone should do something.

Today, as I gather my energy to begin work on the next release, I wanted to discuss route voting. It's not something that's cropped up much yet, because what we've seen so far still falls under character introduction, and so I have specific info that I need to convey for each one right now.

But as the game opens up to involve all characters fully, that'll change. I discuss this in much more spoi...