Zaggy Norse

Build 0.4: "Horse Humour"

FINALLY.

Very glad to get this out, for many reasons. The main one is that it's been promised to you guys for like a year, and you deserve some more Flax in your lives.

It's also been something of an albatross around my neck since I first had to start delaying things last year. Not that anyone said it that I know of, but I hated the idea that I might seem to be one of those devs who fades on a project when things get tough. I'm so into this thing I can't even tell you, and that's ...

August progress update

Heyo!

So, clearly, I didn't hit my goal of releasing this past weekend. Got sick with something that knocked me into bed for a couple days, and that threw everything off.

The good news is that this weekend is a long weekend for me. Four days. If that's not enough time to do it, nothing is. So, keep your eyes peeled next Tuesday!

And for interest's sake, the build's at 152k words now, and it'll almost certainly crack 160k before I'm done. That's a more than 50% increase in wo...

Build 0.4 release goal

Hellloooo! Happy weekend, and blessings upon your house and kin.

I'm finally ready to commit to a release date for the next build, and that date is 31 July! I'm still writing, but all I have to finish up is the very last scene, which I am planning to do this weekend. Then I will spend two weeks editing all fifty thousand words and slap some backgrounds in there and press it in all your sweaty, quivering paws.

50k is a huge amount to edit, so worst case I might end...

July progress and art update

Hello fair patrons. You all look lovely today. Especially you, Angela. I love what you've done with your hair.

I'm happy to report significant progress on 0.4 since my last post. I found some exceptionally fun stuff to dig into, and I got quite carried away honestly. But that just means more content for all of you. I am still going to deliver that build this month, though exactly when depends on how much I end up adding to the final section that I'm doing now. Sometimes things get real...

Paardenrust: Valley of Stories

SPOILER WARNING: This post goes into some detail about how the core portion of the game will be structured and how players will interact with it. It includes some minor spoilers. If you want to experience everything through playing the actual game, skip reading any of this.

The text commences below the cat.

So, the one thing most people know about VNs is the ...

June 2022 progress update

Hello all! Hope you're well. I sure am; the writing has been flowing freely, which feels wonderful. I even found time to push out a little story recently, which you can read https://www.sofurry.com/view/1857902 here if you've not seen it.

On the LOTM side, I continue to make solid progress on 0.4. Two of the four outstanding paths are close to complete. I am expecting to wrap it all up this month and then relea...

Progress update, May 2022

So! With writing underway once more, and the releases rejiggered as in my previous post, I'll start making one or two posts a month just to let you guys know what I'm working on and how it's going.

My current focus is to finish up the threads left hanging in build 0.3.5, namely the Babbelas, Zef and Jags introductions. They'll each give you their perspective on things as they flesh out the world (and maybe sh...

Fighting fit

Well, almost. Eye and surrounds are still very bruised and there's stitches all over, but the surgery was a success, so from here out it's just recovery. By the end of the month or so I should have full vision back, although it's already noticeably improved from what it was.

So I will soon be getting stuck back into the game! I will finish off the scenes I started last year, plus some extra bits, and release that without billing to cover the November bill I still owe you all. Then onwa...

The board is set. The pieces are moving.

I finally have a date for an operation to excise this hateful tumour in my eye, which means that by the end of April it will all be done, including recovery. The doctor is confident it'll go smoothly, but one can never be 100% sure with these things. Nonetheless, even if the one eye does not function correctly afterwards, the other one is going to be a-okay, which means in May I can finally carry on working on LOTM. With that goal in mind, let's actually talk about the game for the first time...

Chugging on

Still waiting on final results from the doctors. Biopsies and such. But in order to not make me feel ignored, Life has ensured I got a nice dose of Covid in the meanwhile. What a great year this is so far.

Needless to say, not getting any work done on the game at the moment. Or much of anything, really. Will see where things are in two weeks from now. Hope you're all doing well, at least :)

Another life update

I'll be extending the no-bill period into March, and also moving the restart of my work on the game to then. I've been diagnosed with a small tumour in my eye, and that needs a whole lot of medical stuff in the next few weeks, plus some weeks of recovery time after that, during which I'll not exactly be up for activities that need focused vision. Hopefully that's all there is to it, but biopsies will show if there's more needed. I'll make sure to keep not charging until this is all over. Very...

Life update

Hello to 2022, and hello to all of you! Just another post to update you on what's up with me.

I am still hoping to be able to resume work in Feb as planned. Most obstacles have been addressed, at least temporarily in some cases. One last curve ball is needing to go for a barrage of medical tests for something I thought was minor and may not be. But I should know more about that in the next few days. If that ends up needing surgery then I may be out of action for February as well, but th...

"Need": A Christmas Story

As a small thank you for everything this year, I managed to put the finishing touches on a small story that's been hanging around my list for months. Enjoy :)

Keywords: gay, stallion, anthro, human, outdoor, cum, musk, hair

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The horse had not mated all season.

As the days grew shorter, his body thrummed and his mind grew clouded. His actions became torpid, every decision lethargic: weighed down by the heavy, endlessly t...

State of the Game, 2021

Hello all. As the year closes up shop and I get some time to myself, I thought it'd be nice to reflect on the year and how I think the game's done, as compared to my expectations at the start. It's very long and not especially cheerful at the end, so don't read it if you don't want to see how the bread is baked.

Successes

After a period of pre-planning and organising in 2020, 2021 was the first year I wrote full-steam on the game. It wrapped up at just over 110,00...

Fan art: Flax and Dalarius

It's perhaps a bit disingenuous to call it "fan" art, since Dalarius is one of the Patreon characters, but it'll do :) We've not met Dal yet (in fact, he's the very next character we'll meet), but he is the mayor of Paardenrust. When he's not being a very horny boy.

While it's obviously inevitable that Flax and Dalarius will get up to shenanigans, these pieces merely represent potential options :) Apart from the toy one, which already played out. Dal's just been keen to imagine the futu...

More cuts. New plan.

Yet more power cuts this week, so...<dead horse.webp>. It's a fucking mess. I've made nowhere near the headway I wanted this month on anything, including the game, since most evenings are a write-off and there's just been an unendling slog of mentally taxing emotional and professional issues on top of that. It's the most stressful time I've had since the pandemic started, and that's saying something.

So I've decided to rejigger my plans. There's nothing to be gained from pushing s...

Ongoing power issues

Hey guys. Just wanted to keep you abrest of some stuff in my life. Power cuts in my country have just been upgraded to 8 hours a day for at least a week, with the possibility of more, due to a bunch of shit I won't bore you with. This naturally severely impacts all my work, including LOTM. So I am not sure how much writing I'll get done on it this week. I may end up having to push the 0.4.5 build out a week into early December, but that itself is complicated by a move that will hopefully occu...

Build 0.4: "Horse Humour"

Access for Coachman, Valet, Butler tiers: Immediate

Access for Footman tier: 7 November 2021

Access for Hallboy tier: 14 November 2021

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Hello! I'm pleased to make this month's build available: version 0.4, codename "Horse Humour".

This "tick" build takes us to over 105,000 words, and also expands on the previous build with new backgrounds and a full round of editing for all 30,000 words added since 0.3. Ma...

Build 0.4 on Monday

Hey all! As mentioned on Discord, I had power cuts all this week that interfered in my work on build 0.4. It won't be ready on time for tomorrow as I'd planned for, but luckily the next day is a holiday here for voting, so I'm gonna get that done early and then spend the rest of the day finishing up the build. So expect it on Monday evening instead, with the usual "tick" build complement of 15,000 new words, a full editing pass over the last 30,000 words, and backgrounds :)

Circling back: the writing & editing process

So with the game set to exceed 100k words in this month's update, I thought I'd make a post about how I approach the writing & editing process for such a massive project. Warning: rambles ahead.

From the start, I've framed everything I do in LOTM in terms of the writing. It's the part I control the most, it's the part I have the most experience with, and it's the part that makes or breaks the game. The art is, to me, very much secondary; a reward that you get for reading the thing, ...

Build 0.3.5: "Ossicones"

Access for Coachman, Valet, Butler tiers: Immediate

Access for Footman tier: 10 October 2021

Access for Hallboy tier: 17 October 2021

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Hello all :) After the break of August, I'm pleased to bring you v0.3.5! This "tock" build adds 15,000 words, largely focused on introductions for three new characters: Babbelas, Jags, and Zef (which you may have met before, but if not, you'll meet him in this build). There's a fu...

Armpits: how do they work?

So as I introduce more characters, I regularly have to decide: do they have armpit hair? Now, I personally can't get enough of pit hair, but it's sometimes weird on characters that have fur. So what do you think? How should I approach pit hair on characters?

Note that I can still have musk without hair, so it's more of a descriptive/art thing than a blocker for any musk fetish you're hoping for on Werner :P

Cock It Up #4: Nabo

You know the drill! How does Nabo's dick look?

(Old) Zef

So as mentioned in a prior post, Zef changed species from a klipspringer to a giraffe. Tanu was busy working on his design around the same time, but she'd put him aside due to difficulties making him be at once a smol boi and also a buff monster. So while his new design is being worked on, she finished up what she had for his old design and sent it through. It's still really good, I'm sure you'll agree.

Not one to waste, I'm considering using this either for a side character to fill in ...

Cock It Up #3: Jags

We'll meet Jags in the next build, but for now, all you really know of him is that he's an aardwolf. The aardwolf is an interesting animal, a sub-type of an already interesting group, the Hyaenidae. Closer to felines than canines, they share many canine attributes due to having evolved to fit that nice in Africa, a continent otherwise almost devoid of indigenous large canines apart from wild dogs.

All of that to say: they've got strange dicks. Caniform to some extent, with the same tape...

Cock It Up #2: Werner

Our next contestant on "Cock It Up" is Werner! Handsome and shy, he loves long walks on the beach and letting anonymous strangers choose what his penis will look like.

Same idea as before, though you'll note I've omitted equine as an option. It's common on many bulls, but given the proliferation of equines already in the game, I felt it would do him more justice to have a different look.

As always, if you have a different idea, drop a comment and let me know :)

Cock It Up #1: Suri

Good evening everyone! As the game planning continues, a key milestone has been reached: choosing the penis style for some of the characters.

For the majority of the characters, their penis is already locked in (either because their species has a well-known type that fits, such as the equines, felines and canines, or because they're Patreon-tier characters and their owners have chosen for them). But there are still five characters whose dicks are undecided: Jags the aardwolf, Nabo the r...

How does this even work? (spoilers)

This post contains spoilers for future builds and indeed the direction of the game as a whole, so if you don't want to know what I have planned for that, don't read this post :)

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For the rest of you. SO.

It may appear that LOTM is a regular sort of dating VN that plays out over a handful of consecutive days, with the player able to take actions on each day that are excl...

Build 0.3: "Scary Painting"

Access for Coachman, Valet, Butler tiers: Immediate

Access for Footman tier: 8 August 2021

Access for Hallboy tier: 15 August 2021

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Hello! I'm pleased to make this month's build available: version 0.3, codename "Scary Painting". OoooOOoooo...

This "tick" build takes us to over 75,000 words, and also expands on the previous build with new backgrounds and a full round of editing for all 30,000 words added si...

August plans & next build

Hello all. Just a short update to mention a few things.

Billing will not happen during August, as previously mentioned on Discord. I will be using the month to do a bunch of admin work around the art (spreadsheets for all the poses and expressions and whatnot) to allow Tanu to work as effectively as possible, as well as some additional plotting for the main characters to round out a few thematic ideas I've had knocking about.

I've had some inconsistencies in the past about when I ...