MeshiSoftworks

Thoughts on What's Going On

Well, I'm not surprised this happened, just a bit sad.

I'm sure most of you have heard the news by now, but for those that haven't, Itch io has delisted all 18+ content from their search and users' libraries, including VT. This is coming after an ultimatum from payment processors, who are acting at least partially under pressure from an Australian conservative christian group.

There's not really much I can do about this, but worst comes to worst, I'll be moving onto aryion and ...

Outfit Spotlight: Angry Bunny

A costume Sampo was goaded into wearing by Cornucopia, though there's no way Corn thought she would actually put it on. Despite normally holding strong morals, it seems they've been eroded by the Frontier, and the prospect of being rewarded with heaps of food for dressing up was enough to put her over the edge. Ever mindful of her low status, she hopes that by convincing the Commander to let her eat more of the other Vessels, she can absorb some of their strength and move up the ranks herself...

Vessel Tactics v0.13a (Second Anni Hotfix)

Just a quick fix for a few major issues.

NOTE: For existing mods you MUST reimport them and use the new reformat speech button in the hamburger menu on the lobby in order for them to work!

Changelist:

• Game no longer crashes if trying to display a save file where units have digested prey

• Can now leave your secretaries belly in lobby

• Rapidly assi...

  2025-07-13 23:36:37 +0000 UTC View Post

Vessel Tactics v0.13 (2nd Anniversary)

The 2nd anniversary update is finally finished! It took more than an extra two months, so thank you so much for waiting!

NOTE: For existing mods you MUST reimport them and use the new reformat speech button in the hamburger menu on the lobby in order for them to work!

Changelist:

• Added new outfit for Cornucopia

• Added new outfit for Sampo

• Corn...

  2025-07-13 06:40:53 +0000 UTC View Post

Update on the Update

Progress has been going well, but given how much old code I redid for this build it's still incredibly buggy and not at a point where I want to release it officially yet. If you want to help with the bug testing and check out the new outfits, however, you can go to the beta-testing channel in the Discord and take a look. If you have not entered the discord before, you'll need to connect your patreon account to your discord account and it should invite you automatically. Thank you so much for ...

Almost done!

Hey everyone, you may be wondering where the weekly posts have been. I was planning to release the update some time last week, which turned into this Monday, which turned into today, but in any case it is on the verge of being done now. Basically just want to say, don't worry about the missing weekly posts, the build's on its way!

General Update: 06/16/25

Just a quick status update, development's getting back to normal after the detour with Corn and I am very excited about what's coming up next after this build is finished. I've been working on character concepts for a bit more than two years now and have quite a few ready to go, so now that I'm more into art and have a paper cutout style that's pretty quick to sketch with it seems like a good time to start getting those ideas down on paper. Most will probably be simple proof of concepts like ...

Slump Defeated (Corn Spoilers)

Well, that was an embarrassing detour. The new strategy worked, though! The first thing I did after the last post was to go and finish Corn's art without holding back this time, and yeah, I can see why I was upset with myself for cutting it short. On the one hand I was absolutely right, there is no reason for the game's art to have shading this detailed, but on the other hand maybe I just had to know what I was capable of before continuing. I'm not really sure how long it will take to draw in...

Dev Journal: Slumps May Be Good Sometimes?

Hey it's me again, back with some more game dev psychoanalysis as I know that's the hard-hitting content you want. Feel free to skip this one if that's not interesting to you, but if it is I think the issue I'm talking about today isn't unique to me and may even be somewhat common in creative work? (I also don't have much else to talk about this week.)

I've been working on peeling back the layers on my slump- trying to figure out what the cause behind it is. With all the ...

General Update: 05/26/25

Well, at this point I've got no choice but to admit I've hit a slump. There's nothing to worry about, development is continuing, it's just lost time and I'm still making slow and steady progress each day. I probably just used up too much energy rendering Corn's love handles, but I'm still happy I did and I think you will be too. I do think that will become less of a problem going forward, since this time I really put a lot of effort into improving my art and in the future I just need to k...

Dev Journal: Everything in Moderation

Well, as you can see the build's still not done yet, but I wanted to go back to doing a regular post this week anyhow. If you're wondering where it is, I realized I've been getting bogged down by perfectionism again, so I've been thinking about what I can do to stop that from happening. I mean, I like being a perfectionist and it's always a quality I like seeing in other people, but it is NOT a good fit for game dev. Good way of self-improvement? Yes. Consistent and on-time production? He...

Corn Art Complete

Alright, it took a while, but I'm very happy I spent the extra time on this. I'm excited to be done and be able to show her off soon, but I'm actually way more excited to draw my next character now that I've got all this experience under my belt. I have to work on the game too of course, but I'm going to make a serious attempt to work more art for characters into my dev time each week. Either way, I definitely will not be waiting another year and a half to draw one again.

Speaking of t...

Corn Art Update

Well, I really did think I would be done drawing Corn's new outfit by now- and honestly I could have been if I'd just stuck to drawing her the way I originally intended to. What's actually happened is that my art has been improving a ton as I draw her, so even if it's not the best use of development time it doesn't feel right to not take that as far as it can go and make her look as good as possible. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to ask you to bear with me for a while longer, but if I ...

General Update: 04/28/25

Not much to report today other than to check in later this week for the proper update. The goal's still "late April" so we'll see if I can sneak it in by Wednesday. In other news, I had to spend most of the day today dealing with a plumbing issue at my house. I'm not sure how much more time it will eat up, but potentially expect more delays due to it. Thank you so much for your support, and I absolutely cannot wait to show you the glow-up the girls have received in their new outfits! (Par...

Vessel Tactics' 2nd Anniversary!

Thank you so much for following Vessel Tactics for another year! Two years ago today this page was launched, and it's been a wild ride since then. Work has been slow going and a bit bumpy at times, but here and now I'm so excited about the future of this game I can barely contain myself. I'm not just saying that either, between the team expanding and my own improvements as a developer, this project has never been in such a good state. All of that would be impossible without your help, so ...

General Update 4/14/25

As promised, another short update today. I really don't have much to add except that work continues and the date remains late April, next week or later. The fun stuff coming next build is also locked in, so I can confirm this build will have some new content. Thank you so much for your support, and I'll see you then!

General Update: 4/07/25

     
    Work continues! Here's quick peek at the new modding interface, which will be much more straightforward, allow you to double back and redo things if you make a mistake, and, most importantly, will allow the creation of custom colliders for each character. That doesn't just apply to modders, now that I have a modular way of adding hitboxes I can also...

Writing applications closed

Just a small update on the search for a writer, thank you so much for all your applications! I had a lot of fun reading all of your work and seeing all the different interpretations of the character, and there were some really great submissions in there. Sorry if you were interested in the position but weren't able to make it in time, still feel free to send in your work if you do end up finishing!

Feature Preview: Sex

    After immense fan demand, Vessel Tactics' most anticipated feature is finally being announced! In this new update from MeshiSOFTWORKS, Vessels are voracious for more than human flesh. Go on dates, gift them their favorite objects, and feed them your other love interests to raise their affection level, then watch the magic happen. Be careful- you'll need to tactically manage your energy levels if you want to keep your harem happy -or face the consequences! Not to fear, ...

Writing Prompt

    Thank you so much for all your applications! I had a lot of fun reading your work and chatting with some of you, honestly I've been blown away by how big the response has been. To make sure I don't miss anyone, I'm posting the prompt here for anyone to check out here. Whether you applied before or just want to give it a shot now, feel free to message me however is most convenient, and likewise no worries if you change your mind.

    In around ...

Character Preview: Gleipnir

    An agent working for the organization "Unison." On paper, Unison acts as a quality control and brand management group with the goal of ensuring that all Vessel manufacturers operate 'as one,' meeting company standards of quality and morals. This is more or less accurate, Unison acts as the ever-watchful eye of the megacorp, tracking Vessel activity across the globe and intervening any time something which may harm the brand appears. However, a visit from Unison doesn't...

General Update: 03/17/25

    Welp, I'm still at it! To be honest I was trying to rush to get things done, but at this point I've blown so far past my estimate for this update anyway I'm just going to give it the time it needs to be finished to my satisfaction.

    As a reminder, this is the big hump update where my goal is to finish fixing all my old code and finish modding, the stomach system, etc. for the foreseeable future, so there's not going to be much new content ...

Looking for (Assistant?) Writer!

    So, I've probably mentioned this before, but I am not a big writer. It's something I've been trying to get more acclimated to, since I'm the type that wants to do everything themselves, but after once again spending several days fighting my writer's block and losing, I think it's time to face the music. Therefore, I'd like to ask if there's anyone in the community with writing experience that would want to join the team and help out!

What I would be lookin...

Dev Journal: Monster Girl Recruitment

The Problem:
    Monster girl (MG) recruitment is something I haven't had a clear plan for up until now, but I think I've arrived at a method that will not only work mechanically, but also incorporate some fun scenarios that we may not get a chance to touch on otherwise.

    In this game, Vessels are your main units. They're easily accessible through the gacha and have skills that are meant to complement each other and the pla...

Dev Journal: Character Design Practice

    The other day, I figured out a better way to approach character designs. Up until now, all my designs have been done entirely through black and white sketches with any colors coming in at the end. The thing about that is, not only does that mean I wasn't designing with color in mind, it was very time-consuming for me to figure out the pose and what form I wanted the design to take. It also meant most often Don was the one who had to put in the work trying to figure out...

Dev Journal: Fixing Unintuitive Mechanics

    There are a few mechanics in the current game that are bothering me, whether that's through player feedback or just feeling that they're annoying when I play the game myself. I have a few plans for how to fix them, so hopefully these will be some good changes coming in the near future.

Digestion Countdown:

    The way the countdown works right now is very simple, the first prey takes 3 turns to digest, the second ...

Dev Journal: Doing Skin Shading (In Krita)

    I actually made this guide for another artist last week, but I figured I would post it here as well as it may be helpful to others, too. This is a blending process that I took from working with charcoal, where you continue to blend in new layers atop each other to give your work an increasing amount of definition and depth. This guide is specifically for Krita, if you're using another program its blending brushes may function differently so you may need to experiment a...

General Update: 02/05/25

    Kind of a follow-up to last week's post- I don't think I've done any proper rendering since I finished Avalon's so I decided to do something quick yesterday to see if I still remembered how. I have to say, I forgot how fun it is, it's definitely something I want to start doing more regularly. With Avalon, I got really invested in doing soft shading, I think to the detriment of the final piece, so in the future I'd like to keep my skin shading similar to this and work o...

General Update: 1/27/25

    I've been drawing a lot again recently- in particular, trying to plan out the next character I'm going to draw myself. I need to be careful with how much time I spend on art, since I'm an incredibly slow artist, but I've been itching to draw one for a while now, especially since I've gotten much better since I drew Avalon. The next wave of MGs are on their way, too, though I wouldn't expect to see much about them still for the next few weeks or so.

 ...

Steam Page is Live!

    Vessel Tactics' store page is now live on Steam! It's a bit barebones at the moment, but the important part is we now have confirmation that Valve supports anime girl vore. Normally I'd ask for wishlists here, but honestly given the type of game this is I expect a lot of people won't want to parade it around their friends and family, so if you can it's greatly appreciated and if you can't, no worries.

What does this mean for Vessel Tactics?
&nbs...