Faustto

The new character stage 2

Here is the after growth state of the new character coming next update.

Hope you like it ;)

If you haven't seen the first stage, I posted a bit back: https://www.patreon.com/posts/some-more-art-in-113417678

A little WIP look on the Academy city and the new style of buildings

Here is a few screenshots on the layout and the currently made houses in the Academy city. Keep in mind this is a very early stage and there will be many more buildings. Sadly, as this update has taken way too long, I will release the whole city in two parts - outskirts (in the upcoming update) and the centre + Academia (the update after). This is too as I want some special stuff to happen in the story, when the Academy is entered, which will take quite a while to develop.

Hope you like how it is coming along and if you have any ideas for changes and overall what you would like to see, I will be happy to hear!

Thank you for supporting the game!

Growing Explorations v1.1 DEMO 1 for GC tier

Hello, Growth Connoisseurs! As you may have seen in the previous post, I have made a demo for you all to try! I hope you enjoy it! Here is a link to it:

https://mega.nz/folder/wi40SaZA

I will send a password for the folder to you all in a DM. The reason I am doing it this way insted of an itch page, is because this will be easier to manage.

Growing Explorations v1.1 DEMO 1

Hello everyone!

As this update will be probably the biggest the game has ever had, I want to have parts of it tested. With that said, I will release a few DEMO versions with new features until everything is done. You will be able to play them by pledging to the Growth Connoisseur tier.

I am well aware there won't be much people who will play it, but I want to have at least some feedback on bugs and the new features.

That said, in this release there are quite a few changes included:

• Abilities have been reworked - now you need mana in order to activate them (activation key is now Q). You gain mana by hitting enemies or receiving damage. With this, I have seperated the magic attacks from the skills - now you can use a magic hit whenever you want by pressing Right Mouse Button. This will consume some mana though.

• Multi-artist support has been added - you can now choose which artist's portraits you want to see (Vlision or Azazellz)

• Inventory - a very requested feature. For now there is only one shop (Elaria), from which you can store items. More items will come with the next relese. (Inventory is opened by [I] and Player info has been rebound to [P])

• A few shadering stuff has been added to make the game look a bit better

• QoL changes to menus and other parts of the game

A release date for the full update is still not set. I want it to be done by the end of this month, but will have to see how the hardest part goes - the Academy City.

Thank you for the patronage and I hope you do try this demo version!

Some more art coming in the next update

Hello everyone! As the update is coming closer to release, more art is getting done, so I want to share some more of it with you all. As you can see, Elaria has been remade. The blonde girl is a new character which is coming with the release. She will be encountered in the story and will have a growth sequence too, which I don't want to spoil as of now.

I can't guarantee a release date as of now, but I am hoping to have the update done by the end of this month. This update is quite big, with some system changes and new features such as the inventory and interactive cutscenes.

Also, I want to mention, that the player sprites won't be reworked by this release as there is quite a lot of them (and there isn't enough budget as of now). I am hoping to have them remade by the update after.

Now that there is constant way to supply art, if there is relevant funding, I am hoping to have a new race added every 2-3 updates. Thus, I want to thank all of you who have been supporting this project thus far!

Some more art from Azazellz

So here are the portraits for Fjora and Maya coming in the next update. Fjora has had a major outfit change, in order to fit the game's world better. Hope you like the!

Development update

Hello, everyone! There has been quite a lot of new stuff I have been working on and I want to update you all on how it is going.

I want the next version to have quite a bit more content, so I have begun implementing a new cutscene system as well as more story quests. There are also some new characters coming to the game so stay tuned!

A complete ability system rework is coming! As previously, magic damage was quite annoying to use, now you can choose to either use physical or magical. There is also now mana in the game, which you charge by a few ways and will be needed for using the race ability.

Multi-artist support has been added, which lets you switch between Vlision's renders or Azazellz's AI art. If either is missing the other will be showed.

I am also working on adding a day-night cycle for more immersion, but haven't found a good way to make it fun for now.

Academy city is coming, but I still haven't gotten to making stuff for it yet so no comment here for now.

That is about it, if you have any suggestions or feedback, feel free to comment!

Looking for a game tester

So, I am looking for someone who, wants to help with development a bit, by testing the game for bugs. As you know, I am the only programmer working on GE, thus I know the game inside out and it is hard for me to find bugs, as when I playtest, I just speedrun without much thought. Thus, if you are interested to help out with development, feel free to DM me here on Patreon or any other way you may want (DeviantArt, Discord).

Some new art coming to the game

So as I said previously, I have begun working with Azazellz, to have an alternative to portraits. Here are some of the portraits already made. The first is of Veridia, the goddess of Growing Explorations's world and the other two are for Luna's stage 1 and the upcoming stage 2. These will be present in the next update so stay tuned!

The bug should be fixed now

I am sorry for this inconvenience! The dialogue bug should be fixed now. I had forgotten to change one setting so the buttons were unclickable :-<

Growing Explorations v1.0 Release!

Rejoice! It is time for an update! This time this is the full release instead of a teaser. It comes with a LOT of changes and improvements, which I hope you enjoy.

Here are the most important ones:

• Completely reworked map - It comes with a new tileset, this one tailored to fit the needs of the game by the amazing pixel artist FinuArts! I auto-tiled the map and made it not a circular abomination like before.

• Improved Enemy AI - Yes, after all this time I finally addressed the enemies. I completely rewrote their entire AI, switching to a more complex format - Behaviour Trees instead of a Finite State Machine. They are now smarter (kind of) and not as annoying as before.

• Stats upscale - All game statistics have been increased tenfold. This is to make the game more satisfying when seeing the big numbers pop up, as well as to make a more precise way to measure power.

• Fixed combat - it should be a bit smoother now

• Spawning has been completely revamped - now enemies have certain regions they will spawn in and have a limit to how many can do so at the same time. This will help with swarms, as previously, a lot of people complained of being ambushed by a ton of monsters.

• Menu updates - some style improvements as well as a new one. There is now a monster encyclopedia, you can see by going in the quest menu (O), then pressing (I) or clicking on the 'i' symbol on top. You unlock each monster's stats when you defeat them for the first time and you see them there.

• Autosaves - the game now autosave every 3 minutes or so. You can load the latest autosave from the main menu 'Continue' button

• A lot of QoL changes - some include new particles and UI and menu improvements

• Bug Fixes - Loading didn't load the last few quests properly; Leveling up sometimes bugged out your choice; Fear effect from Luna made you fly with light speed etc.

This is mostly for what has changed. I know it looks like a small amount of content, but I assure you there have been a ton of under-the-hood changes to improve the experience. Also, the art form AzazellzAI will come with the next update as a toggleable option to switch between.

With that said, I hope you enjoy the update! Here is the link as usual:

https://faustto.itch.io/growing-explorations-early-access/patreon-access

A little taste of AzazelzAI's art for the game

This is the goddess of GE's world. This is an early stage image and there will be a ton of changes to it, but just for a reference to you when voting.

Would you like to see AzazellzAI's art in game?

For more info refer to the last post, but in short, as Vlision can't make renders for a while, would you like to see AzazellzAI's AI art be an alternative artwork style in the game?

The future of Growing Explorations' character art

As I have mentioned before, Vlision, the guy behind the renders of GE has had a problem with his SSD, and all the render files for the game are gone. He is working on redoing them, but as this will take a very long, I have decided to start commissioning a great AI artist, AzazellzAI. Here are his deviantArt and Twitter, if you want to check his stuff out. He makes very good images and I enjoyed working with him on a commission recently (I will post some extra content regarding this in a few days). The game will still have Vlision's art, but you will be able to switch one to the other and vice versa. I hope you all like this change! I will be making a poll for you to give your opinion on whether this should happen, or should I stick with Vlision only.

I made a post with some of his WIP art as of now. To help with your decision on the vote!

The update is coming soon

Hello everyone! I have been working on Growing Explorations and I am proud to say, that by the 9th, the next update would come. There are a few things to polish left so it is reasonable to think of that as a deadline. Also, you might be dissapointed, but there will not be new growth in the next update. This is cause, as I mentioned before, Vlision had an accident and can't work on the project. This is a sad fact, but I am hoping that the next release will have some to show. Stay tuned!

Growing Explorations v1.0 Anniversary Version - Early Development

So, here we go! Another 'release'! I will begin with saying, this version is very buggy, as I rushed it for release near the game's anniversary. I will release the full version when the new tileset is done and I redraw the map.

So what is new? To be honest not a ton has changed. This update contains mostly QoL fixes and reworks of the previous update. No major changes have been made, thus far. Even so here are a few things I have reworked:

• Saving has been changed a lot - now you can finnaly go back to the main menu after starting a game. There is also an autosaving feature. You can load the latest autosave from the continue button in the main menu.

• Combat has changed again - now it is not as clunky as in the previous update

• Particles! - there are now particles pretty much everywhere - when you attack, when you dash, when you use your ability and so on

• Damage has been rescaled - every statistic has been increased x10. Also defence and resist are now percentile based reduction instead of a flat one.

• Changes to spawning are in progress - Enemies now spawn in zones instead of a random spot near you. This is because when the new tileset is done, I will make the map be a drawn one instead of generated randomly. Currently spawing is really buggy and does not work as intended, but will so in the upcoming fix patch

• Menu changes - I have changed the style of some interfaces to suit the game better

So what is bugged? As I mentioned, spawning is quite hectic right now, but will be fixed shortly. There are also a few issues with enemies not attacking and some animations for the player not working properly. I will fix all these then the full release is out.

Anyway, thank you for your patronage and I hope you stick around to see what is coming pretty soon!

Game link as always here:

https://faustto.itch.io/growing-explorations-early-access/patreon-access

Growing Explorations 1st Anniversary

It has been a year! A year since the first release of Growing Explorations! As such there is a need for celebration. Sadly, as I am currently away from home, I cannot release what I have prepared for the occasion. I will be back by the end of the week, so expect something to come!

As for progress on the game, there has not been too much. I am currently fixing old spaghetti code as well as adding settle stuff like particles and QoL features. As Vlision hasn't fixed his computer problems fully, the next update will probably be smaller and more gameplay-focused, instead of growth or artwork centered.

The new project, I have started working on is currently quite in early development, but I will make a small demo release, hopefully by the end of the month.

All in all, thank you for supporting the games, and look forward to the anniversary release!

Growing Explorations v0.5.1

So, as you all seemed to not like how the new combat worked, I have changed it yet again. It is quite a dramatic change yet again, but it should feel better at least. The main thing is that now you need to charge the attack in order to hit. Basically you can't just click, you need to hold the attack button. With this, continuing to press the attack, you can perform consecutive attacks. I have also made some changes to the dash mechanic with this - it now activates on SHIFT release instead of press. This is so you can time it with attacking better.

In any case, I hope you like the combat better now. If you have any suggestions as to how to change it or feedback, I will be glad to hear!

https://faustto.itch.io/growing-explorations-early-access/patreon-access

Do you like the new combat system?

Some people have complained about combat being too unfun, I want to gain feedback in order to know if a change needs to be made. Thus, I would like to know if you like the new combat or not?

More on the concept of the new game

I want to talk more about the new game I am developing, about which I talked in the last post. Because of this, I advise you read it first.

The game centers around the Adrenae, a human-like race living in a deep, lush forest. The most notable difference between Adrenae and humans is the physical disparity between genders: males are generally weak but possess magical abilities useful for fortifying the village, while females are exceptionally strong and agile.

Due to the scarcity of food in the forest, the least valuable males and weakest females are exiled to an outcast village, effectively doomed to die. This harsh practice ensures the main village maintains a strong gene pool. Many tribes exist, each with its own culture, but this practice is universal among them.

As for the player's role, you will take on the character of a male deemed "invalid" due to an unidentifiable ability. Banished from the village, you are sent to the outcast settlement. Filled with a desire for revenge against those who abandoned you, you find yourself among people incapable of challenging the main village.

However, one day you accidentally discover that the consumption of your bodily fluids (yes, this game will be NSFW) significantly accelerates muscle growth in females. Armed with this knowledge, you devise a plan to overthrow the villages and establish your own kingdom.

This is a more weird concept compared to what I have done with my previous games, so I don't know if you all will like it, so I am hoping to hear your feedback!

A new game is approaching ゴゴゴ

As I have mentioned in a previous post, I have begun work on a new game, which will be patreon exclusive! I want to talk a bit more as to what this game will be like.

First of all, unfortunately, Vlision's PC suffered an SSD failure, which resulted in the loss of all GE's render scenes and slowed down development. Since he will be recreating everything, I’ve decided to work on this project independently to keep things moving forward.

Because of this, I will be using Stable Diffusion to generate sprites for the characters.

With that said, if any of you are good at using stable diffusion, feel free to hit me up if you want to contribute to the development.

What will this new game be about? Imagine a township management game where you are the leader of a village nestled in a forest. Your task will be to expand your village and fend off rival tribes. The concept is somewhat similar to a game like Godhood.

Due to specific plot reasons, there will be a scarcity of males in the village (as in all my games), resulting in females taking on the physical labor. This will lead to their growth and development as they shoulder these responsibilities. I won't delve into the world-building details here, but if you're curious, keep an eye out for an exclusive post on Growth Connoisseur where I'll discuss it in-depth.

I have begun work on the game, but because I am using Godot 4.2 instead of 3.5 it will take me a bit to get used to it, but I hope to have a first release by the end of July, if everything goes right that is.

Thank you for your support and I hope you stick around to see this game!

Coming in the next update

With version 0.5 out now, work on the next update, 1.0 begins. That said, I want to talk about what will be coming with it. I would also want to mention, as I will be busy for the whole month of june, the next version will be a bit smaller in content compared to the last few. So here are some of the stuff coming:

• World gen rework - I have requested a new tileset for the game, so the world will become more beautiful than before. It will also not be randomly generated like previously, as I want to start making cities come sooner or later

• Story - I don't really know how much of the storyline will come, but at least a few more quests will be released. I wanted to finish the first chapter, but as it currently stands, that will have to wait

• Growth stages - this depends on Vlision's spare time, but there will be a new stage for Luna, who will get a small story around her

There is going to be a vote for new biome for the Growth Connoisseur tier, so you can also look forward to that.

This is what I have in mind for now, I know this is not a lot of content, but I hope you will enjoy it when it comes! As always thank you for the support!

Growing Explorations Version 0.5

Hello, everyone! After yet another long wait, the new version of growing explorations is out! There have been many major changes to different game systems as well as a ton of artwork. Here is a breif overview on what has changed:

• Levelling rework

• Attack speed stat

• More props

• Menu info

• Slime rework

• Wolf Rework

• Minimap

• New textures

• Cutscene implementation

• Combat overhaul

• Orc race (only up to stage 3)

• UI changes

• Swing animations & hitboxes

• Better Quests

• QoL changes

• Bug fixes

The orc race has been fully implemented, but there were some clipping issues with renders as well as a skill bug at the upper stages and as we didn't want to postpone the release any more, we decided to release the update now and make a patch later on.

Also, as the past few updates have each taked 2-4 months to make, we have been contemplating on making smaller but more frequent updates. This will sadly not be possible for the coming update 1.0, as exams are coming for both me and Vlision, so the update may yet again take a while, for which I am sorry in advance.

Anyways, I want to thank you all for sticking around through the drought of content and I hope you enjoy this update!

As always you can find the game here:

https://faustto.itch.io/growing-explorations-early-access/patreon-access

A status update

So, yet again, I want to talk about the delays. This time, I want to say, that we are actually really close to finishing the update. Most of the coding has been finished, only thing now is the renders for the orc race. I am hoping they would be done by the end of this month, so by early May, I am hoping we would be ready for a release. I am really sorry for the little to no content on here, but it has been rough with exams, which is why the progress has been slow.

With next update, the Growth Connoisseur tier will receive demos for each stable WIP export of the game! I will also be releasing a form application for beta testers in the future, as they have been becoming more and more needed with each update, because I pretty much know the game inside out, so I can't really feel it like others do.

Another thing I want to mention is, that this summer I am hoping to release a side game, which will be like a one time release, with no huge updates to it like Growing Explorations'. I will talk about it more in the future, but I will just say it will be a patreon exclusive project. I hope you are excited to see that! (This does not mean development on Growing Explorations will stop!)

All in all, I want to thank you all, who have been supporting this game development journey of ours and I hope you like what is coming soon!

FMG Sequence 2

Here is a little sequence by Vlision! I know it has been a while since the last one, but I hope you like it!

Growing Explorations v0.5 DEMO

After quite a bit of development, on the special occasion of a 1 year of development, here is a demo of the coming version!

Here is a brief synopsis of the changes:

·         Levelling rework

·         Attack speed stat

·         More props

·         Menu info

·         Slime rework

·         Minimap

·         New textures

·         Cutscene implementation

·         Combat overhaul

·         Orc race stuff - ability, traits, no renders/sprites yet

·         UI changes

·         Swing animations & hitboxes

As always, here is the link:

https://faustto.itch.io/growing-explorations-early-access/patreon-access

1 Year of Development Celebration

One year ago, on 22 March 2023, I and Vlision decided to start developing Growing Explorations (not since release). It has certainly been a bumpy path, but as we acquired experience, we made this little game project larger and larger with each update. I know updates have been very slow and I am very sorry for that. This is mostly because of my and Vlision's university schedules, which have been very demanding thus far.

On this occasion, I want to thank all of you, especially, those of you who have been supporting us even through the drought of content. A new update is coming soon but before that I want to release a DEMO for patrons to lay their hands on before the finalized version.

Version 0.5 introduces a large abount of system changes as well as tons of new sprites and a new race, which is currently included in the demo, but doesn't have any renders yet. To see more about what has changed, check out the demo version post.

Backgrounds

So here are a few backgrounds for a cutscene coming in the next update. They are all AI generated, but I hope you like them!

Some WIP stuff

Here are a few sneak peaks of the new version:

1) The slime's sprites are getting updated! I hope you like them!

2) New leveling system! Here is a screenshot of how it looks right now. The whole UI as you see it now is very WIP so things will change, but if you have any suggestions I will be glad to see them!

3) An updated statue from the previous post. It looks quite a bit better now, as it was quite sloppy previously.

Progress on the game

It has yet again been a while! I am sorry for not updating you on how development is going! Honestly, for the past month, I haven't really worked on the game, because of my exams. With them now gone, I have the time to push out content for the next version. I will also make more posts on here as it has been pretty dry.

Now that I am back, I am hoping to have the next update done by mid March. I am sorry for not being very consistent with updates, but as I am a university student, it gets quite hectic a few times a year. With that said, I am hoping to release a total of 5 updates this year, but I guess it will depend on how free I and Vlision are