[HTML5]LEWD (Alpha1 release up!)

[Youcouch5]

Hey impound, mind giving one of those keys to me? I would sure appreciate it. If not, then no worries, i'll wait for a key of my own then i suppose

[kartera]

I would like to try LEWD too. Hower i cannot send you a message. :/

[decimad]

Hey impound, mind giving one of those keys to me? I would sure appreciate it. If not, then no worries, i'll wait for a key of my own then i suppose

I'm waiting for half a year now - every time he gives out keys I'm just too late.

[impound258]

Huh, I can't send out inboxes yet, guess I need to make a few more posts before I'm allowed. Anyhow, the 4 extra I have this month have been spoken for. So as soon as I can inbox people I'll send them out

[Sadako]

Alpha2 release

Well damn, this took longer than I hoped. There were a number of new issues coming up in the release candidates, and since I couldn’t make the May release I wanted I decided to hold it back to at least get some more content put in it.

Everyone with a LEWD account created before March 1st, but after the last batch of free keys that were given out with the Alpha1 release, (9,560 people) has been given a 2 use key for main server access, including those who already have a key from being a Patron. So you can use it for main server access to play this release and also give the other use to a friend or whoever.
I will give out a key with a bunch of uses like I did with the Alpha1 release in a few days. Can’t give out too much as I need to stagger the server load, and want to see if there are any new bugs reported by some of those thousands that were given a key first.
You can also get your own key, as well as access to the test server, and support the game by pledging to our [url="http://www.patreon.com/lewd"]Patreon[/url]!

Please note: The game still requires a browser/computer that supports WebGL in order to travel to other planets/stations. I’m planning to add a more low-fi solar system display in the next update that will work on potato devices.
There also may be issues for those with spotty connections. That one is going to take a few months to fix, but yeah I’m aware of it, and sorry to those that have such issues for the time being.

There are hundreds of changes and additions since Alpha1, so I can’t list them all, but to summarize briefly:

• The mini android and goo container which you can find just from walking around now have some content. Like most everything, there is still yet a lot to be added. I’m especially happy where the goo one is going, though. There’s tons of things that weren’t possible before with how that one works, though still a long ways to go with it.
• New “relief station” in the Outpost, with art.
• Traveling long distances has been changed to use a public shuttle, with some narrative, instead of just poofing to different places.
• When you don’t meet the requirements for a dialog option that’s disabled for you, there is now generally a hint on hover/select as to what you are lacking.
• Many scenes which were large blocks of text all at once have been broken up.
• Lots of editing work, placeholders filled in, new options all around, including…
• A lot of the current content has been expanded, namely in the Wilderness Research area, including a number of NPCs having some conversations about what you’re currently doing. The Station and Outpost also have more content, but there is still a ways to go with them.
• Most content that’s too unfinished or pending a rework (Harpy, for example), is only on the test server for now, but there is still far more content than was previously in the Alpha1 release.
• Recoded movement entirely. You can now move diagonally and many issues with movement and interpolation were fixed by this.
• You can now create characters with non-unique names. Sorry to those that were getting an error trying to make “Slut” before~ Your account name must still be unique.
• Lots of little improvements and additions to the site.
• Improvements to the tools, such as being able to add/edit maps more easily.
• Character saves on the main server have been wiped. The save format has changed, hopefully to facilitate not needing to wipe them again, though I’m not 100% certain yet.
• Updated the writing team tryout application so that it’s easier to keep concurrent with the updates to our internal, private dev tools. That means the tryout application is back up, yes, and I’ve updated the jobs page related to it. There were some bugs with the previous application that have since been fixed on the internal dev tools and this brings it up to parity so those bugs are fixed on the tryout application as well.

The next update will come MUCH sooner than this last one has taken, though I don’t have a lot of game client enhancements and features planned for that next update before the lower end solar system display. It will largely just be new content and gameplay improvements. Larger changes like caching, precaching, a new UI/UX, and role playing features will be coming later and likely not with the Alpha3 release.
I’ll probably seem rather quiet from me over the next month as I need to work on the server that handles my httpd and a few other things, and have a lot of real life stuff to tend to, and some time to relax. But writers will still be working on content on the test server. As always, you can get an idea of what’s added/changed on the test server from the [url="http://www.playlewd.com/tracker.php"]Dev Tracker[/url].
This release simply took a while for many reasons, such ironing out all the issues that came from porting the prototype to the new engine and making a better foundation for the game to follow. Now that things are largely stable, things should progress much more smoothly.

[Sadako]

Here is a key with 300 uses to gain main server access: ALFA-2TWO-0REL-EASE
Redeem it on your account page.

We could really use your feedback and reports of any bugs that you encounter.

[Sadako]

Alpha2 hotfix2

Thanks everyone that pointed out issues, particularly Leethar.

This is a pretty huge update, but I’m still calling it a “hotfix” since it’s really just bugfixes that ideally shouldn’t have been in the previous update. It is now live on both servers. Make sure you clear cache or do a hard refresh, as most of these are client fixes and I haven’t implemented any version control yet.

This key can be redeemed on your account page up to 300 times to grant main server access to the alpha: ALFA-2TWO-00UP-DATE

• Fixed dozens of content issues: there were minor story issues with Lia; finned had some improper replacement getter; repeated goo use had some unclosed psuedocode; amphib herms were missing a getter for their assigned name; shuttle no longer becomes broken when reloading the game from there; female taur missing some clothing checks; repositioned male taur; plantgirl ambush should no longer assume you’re completely topless/bottomless after just taking the outerlayer of clothing if you’re wearing multiple layers
• Fixed dozens of wording & grammar issues: finned, goo, female taur
• Fixed an engine issue that would show dialog options when only the first conditional was passed, yet properly didn’t resolve it on the server end, enabling the player to select a dialog option which they don’t pass which thus leaves it unresolvable. Affected the Lia repeated attempt to use an injector/capsule on her, and likely many others, which should be fine now.
• Fixed an engine issue that would show dialog options when only the first conditional was passed, yet properly didn’t resolve it on the server end, enabling the player to select a dialog option which they don’t pass which thus leaves it unresolvable. Affected the Lia repeated attempt to use an injector/capsule on her, and likely many others, which should all be fine now.
• Unmet conditions for a revealed dialog option now show a list of all the conditions.
• Automatic text replacement now only happens when the selected variable getter outputs a string. “your libido” will no longer erroneously change to “your 80”.
• Fixed cum/squirt not being flagged to be normally bare, thus it would sometimes output “bare cum”.
• One of the plantgirls encounters is removed from the main server as it’s just too unfinished/unplayable for now. (it’s still on test)
• Adjectives/noun lists in character descriptions are now parsed better, avoiding issues that could come up from inputting double commas, or having a trailing comma.
• As descriptions are generated in each scene, they’ll become more concise as they go.
• Rewrote and brought back the missing feature that would describe clothed parts. It was bugged and describing everything as if bare. The new descriptions output also favors concise descriptions after repeated outputs.
• As long as there is more than one noun or adjective for a body part, descriptions will no longer be the same exact one repeated one after another.
• Made some changes to the way the game attempts to automatically detect that some content should be removing some clothing or uncovering some body part(s). This very well may have made some new issues where some content temporarily removes clothing when it shouldn’t (if you find such a bug, you’ll see weird writing with it describing bare parts with other writing around it sounding like it’s clothed).
• Stats should summarize correctly now, with the bonus stats from Traits rolling into the base stats and giving the correct total where appropriate.
• All character saves have been cleared, just in case there is left over messed up stuff causing problems. There wasn’t a sane way to refractor the stats fix, too.

Known or known-ish issues:

• Top/bottoms description may have issues when it comes to multiple layers? Might need to add a description getter to only show the outer layer, or something.
• Issues sometimes come up with there being duplicate references to item instances, making an item unequipable. Similar issue may make the client output bare or clothed descriptions when your character should be topless or bottomless and such. I think this is rare and usually there’s no problem.
• Gail needs a complete rewrite, pretty much. Can’t just take her out because she’s integral to a lot of progression.
• Eggs don’t get cleared out when clearing a save? Not confirmed. I need to rework that whole system, though, to be more object oriented.

If you find more issues, please post them on the forums, and with steps on how to recreate them for the more major ones that aren’t just writing issues. Please don’t use the feedback section in the game to report bugs!

[flamefight]

Hey impound258, mind if i get a key as well?~

[Sadako]

If you've been registered for a while, you may already have a key on your account page.


This isn’t the Alpha3 release yet, but I wanted to release this part of the update early as it now makes the game playable for those that don’t have a computer or browser good enough to support WebGL.

It should start with the fallback CSS3D renderer and automatically switch to WebGL if you have support for it. And you can toggle between them in the settings to use whichever you prefer.
There are also various efficiency improvements to both the building of the star map initially, and the WebGL rendering.

The CSS3D renderer may still be slow for some, as it’s entirely CPU bound, especially if you have other programs eating up your CPU, but that’s what I’m going with as I can keep a reasonable degree of parity to how the star system is displayed for consistency.


I'm also changing how the writing funding works, effective August 1st, so Patrons' money is more effective.
Previously, I assumed I'd be able to keep an active writing staff with the money involved, and I split 50% of the Patreon funds based on how much was written, but there wasn't enough to encourage writing more when there weren't other writers to compete again. My assumption was that if someone is getting paid $60 per thousand words, I could easily find someone to add onto the team and split that to $30 per thousand words... but apparently not.
Now, that 50% goes into a reserve. Writers are paid a base $15 per 1000 words from the reserve, and the rest is paid as a bonus each quarter if milestones are hit and a small bonus to their previous content so they can still earn significantly more to share in the success.
This way, such as right now, where I don't have enough writers making enough content, that money is there in the reserve to fund getting a lot more content added once I do find more good writers.

You can read the entire update notes here: http://www.playlewd.com/blog/?p=741

[Sadako]

The entire update post is too unreasonably large for a forum post.
See this blog post for the complete update notes, and images and such!

Sorry it's been slow the past few months. Holidays, and only having one writer on the team, makes things slow, but we're chipping along.
We're working on the Alpha3 release. If you just have an account registered with the site, you should get a key for that.
After that release, assuming there's no major issues, the next release will be public and keys won't be required anymore (Patreons will still get the benefit of test server access and such that we develop on)

This update to the dev tool also affects the writing tryout application tool.


One of the major additions in this update to the dev tool is highlighting to the "psuedo-code" that the writing part of a scene uses.
It's one of the many updates which makes it easier to add content to the game, and edit the current content, to speed things along in the future - especially once we have more writers working on it.

[Sadako]

In addition to getting the game polished up more for the Alpha3 release, I've been working on polishing up the site itself better.
One thing that's been pointed out a few times, is that the old dev tracker page was a bit of a mess. Especially at times when there's a lot of updates, and especially when one bit of content/scripting is updated repeatedly in the same day.

Instead, it now consolidates repeated edits and groups them by the day, so it should be easier to read.
I also added something so I can easily add messages here, since it only automatically tracks changes to game content but doesn't track things like engine changes, client changes, site updates, and so on. (Eventually, I'd like it to automatically list client changes, but the game server and web server are greatly separated, at the moment) That way I can make small updates where you'd expect to find them when they don't warrant a new post on the blog right away.
The other update is for probably the most asked question about the game: how much content is in it?

The main page of the site now shows an automated tally of just how much.
The Alpha2 release was ~154k words of content.
On the test server, there is a bit that needs to be deleted and isn't actually playable, so really that number is about 5-10% less than what it shows there, but suffice to say: we're looking at at least 50% more content in the upcoming Alpha3 release over Alpha2.
Really, perhaps more than double the content when it comes to some content getting rewritten or removed and replaced. So I'm happy about that, even though I wish we were at this point much sooner.
After the Alpha3 release comes (probably March, as I'm confident I can get the new programming needed done by then, but content being polished up is more iffy), the first open beta release - as in, no more keys needed to play on the main server - will come soon after. I will just be seeing if things are as bug free and polished as I hoped, and I just want to make a new UI and social features (for those that play multiplayer) for the Beta1 release that follows after Alpha3. So, much less to do than had to be done between Alpha2 and Alpha3, thus Beta1 shouldn't take nearly as long as Alpha3 has been taking.
Originally I wanted around half-a-million words of content in the game for the first open release, but that's just not feasible now without making people wait longer. Fulca has added quite a lot the past few months, and I'll be adding more after I get this programming done, but we simply need more writers. Hopefully, it'll be easier to get more good writers on board when the game is open and easier to get into.

After Beta1 comes, we'll get to adding more content including more planets to visit, and other areas on the current planets you can explore, hopefully with more writers on the team. I'll be getting to adding personal player ships, and another feature that's going to remain secret until I get close to finishing it.
Content will also be moving from the test server to the main server faster. We eventually will have less milestone releases like Alpha1, Alpha2, Alpha3, Beta1, and so on, and the main server will just have bits and pieces transferred from the test server as they are considered ready. It's not intended to have the main server be outdated as it is now, it's just how things are at this stage in development.

Getting there, but still a ways to go.

[Sadako]

Hey, everyone. I don't have good news.

I decided to suspend the Patreon and have it not charge the Patrons monthly for May since I couldn't get hardly anything done with LEWD this month, and Fulca added a lower amount of content this month than usual as well. Plus there's enough money in the writing fund from previous months to pay him anyway.

I've just, I don't know. My computer was running really slow. Profilers and debuggers seriously slowed it down. It was extremely frustrating fixing some bugs that needed to be fixed, and those last updates I did to speed up the tools. It's really been burning me out I guess.
This month I was working on getting my new PC set up, so that's at least one problem out of the way, but I'm sure I'm not going to be able to motivate myself as well as I did before when I was working 100 hours a week on the engine and tools.
It's just gotten less fun for me. Fixing bugs, adding extremely complicated technical features, all the polish. Things taking longer than I hoped, that's a big one. I need to work on something new and fun again which'll mean less time for LEWD.
But that was mostly the plan, pretty much? I made this engine and tools so anyone can add really varied content and different game systems so a number of people can contribute to expand the game and content without me having to do much at some point. It's roughly a year behind schedule now, is the problem. I wanted to have a free release out by now, which would hopefully attract more people to want to help make content for it and grow it into a big game with millions of words of content. And to potentially make the engine available for others to make their own games. That's still the plan, it's just way behind schedule.

The worst thing has this viscous cycle of how I probably could have gotten a lot of fun other stuff done that I'd enjoy doing more, but I haven't been hardly doing. I feel like I should be working on LEWD, can't motivate myself to, and thus I do nothing at all instead of doing something else constructive when I really enjoy making things. So I might have to force myself to take more of a break before I get Alpha3 and the free public release to follow out. And don't get me wrong, I like LEWD a lot and it's a game I've really wanted to make ever since I made that prototype. There's just been so many stumbling blocks that have demotivated me, sadly.

[Ungawa]

Hi, I just saw you update this game and it sounds like you're burnt out. Do you have any other alternative projects that you're doing outside of this one? Sometimes, in order to get the creative juices flowing, you should work on something a bit different to do different things for you.

Seeing some of the older posts, I would say that you want to take a look around at other games and how they got successful (besides CoC and TiTs) to see how you can be motivated to your own game. Linking up with other people for sharing of ideas may recharge you. Don't do it all yourself.

I hope that helps and good luck in this. I gotta see what's been changed around...

[Sadako]

Hi, I just saw you update this game and it sounds like you're burnt out. Do you have any other alternative projects that you're doing outside of this one? Sometimes, in order to get the creative juices flowing, you should work on something a bit different to do different things for you.

Yeah. There's other things I could have been doing that I'd have more fun with, that I wasn't doing because I felt I should have been working on LEWD but couldn't motivate myself to... I also need to work on my car and some other stuff.
I think after I take a real proper break, I can hopefully get back into working on LEWD more. At least enough to get an open release out, even though there's a good deal more features I could still add after that like player ships.

Seeing some of the older posts, I would say that you want to take a look around at other games and how they got successful (besides CoC and TiTs) to see how you can be motivated to your own game. Linking up with other people for sharing of ideas may recharge you. Don't do it all yourself.

Well I did try looking for help.
I think once I have it freely available for anyone to jump in and play, it'll be easier to find people interested in helping make content for it. Right now it's just not at the point I want it to be where everyone gets their first impression of it, if that makes sense. I want to do a few more updates and fix up and add some more content before that.

Compared to some other games, other than CoC/TiTS, it does have a good deal of content. 285k words. But compared to CoC, not quite so much. And CoC got all that content from lots of people working on it.