Alright, cards on the table, this is probably the last post I'm going to make here. If I do have a source other than Patreon for information about my new game, it's going to be a new blog that doesn't have a long history of Shield High all over it. But let's make it a happy one yeah?
Unfortunately the title kind of gives away what's going on. My new game, Luxrior, now has it's first release that I'm confident enough to say isn't just a combat demo. It's kinda still just a combat demo though, but it's got some lewd content (two whole scenes, wow) and enough gameplay there that I think it's more than JUST a concept demo.
There's lots more to come of course, so if you aren't following me on Patreon, or have it bookmarked or something, you probably should do that now, since things are finally moving, and I'm feeling real good about this new project.
You can check out the Patreon broadly here (so you can bookmark it or whatever): https://www.patreon.com/PuddingGames
And the specific post about the release is here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/luxrior-v0-0-01-36231045
Thanks for all your support over the years regarding Shield High. I wouldn't have even considered this project, let alone gotten it vaguely off the ground without the continued support of those of you who still tell me you loved the game even after it was abandoned for so long. While it's not quite the same, I hope that Luxrior will be just as exciting to you all.
Pudding Earl.
Tuesday 21 April 2020
Thursday 27 February 2020
News and Stuff
So! Been a while obviously, but there's things moving once more and I wanted to post here to let people know what's going on. First off, I've started work on a new game. It's currently in a very early demo state of only half of the game, but it's coming along, and I expect to have something nice to show you in a few weeks. As such, I'll be re-opening my Patreon, and returning to monthly billing. Once Patreon stops fucking me about I'll be making a similar post there.
Before I get into what the game's gonna be, I'll address the question I'm sure everyone is gonna ask. "Why not just go back to Shield High?" It's a valid question, I know a lot of you really like Shield High. The answer is...there's a LOT of baggage there. Lots of bad design decisions that I feel obligated to follow after, and lots of expectations on what you can do. Coming back and trying to present a scaled back version feels wrong, but coming in for another fresh run at it with everything that's wrong with it feels equally bad. So I'm just gonna put it all aside, and try and make something that captures the overall SPIRIT of Shield High, without any of the issues. Also without the god-awful name that will only return Marvel fandom when Googled. That was a disaster too.
So what's the game? Essentially it's going to be a Grand Strategy/Tactical Battle game about Magical Girls. You'll be playing as a Magical Girl in a large turf war/battle royale type game between a small pile of Magical Girls. There'll be options to romance them for lewd content, or if you actually beat them in a battle (without them running away) you can enslave and lewd them that way. Or, y'know, get beaten and enslaved yourself. It's a Shield High spiritual successor, of course you can be a slave. There's also going to be shadow creatures to battle to farm experience, and likewise if they beat you they'll lewd you too. I'm planning on having a lot of options to toggle what lewd content you can and can't see, so while it'll be an F/F focus, there'll be other stuff that you can add or remove at your leisure.
Also, I will be abandoning my "graphics are the devil" hill, and I've got some help making actual, proper, original lewd images and UI elements for this game. So far we've only got a character base and some buttons, but god damn is the base nice, and the buttons are very cute (though a bit small, but we're fixing that).
And since I'm sure you're all wondering where we're at right now, on the discord (https://discord.gg/zBhqsHt) I've got a link to the (very poor) combat demo I put out a week and a half ago. In the time since I've basically "finished" the combat system, and I've started transitioning the game out of it's demo form towards a more future-focused content implementation system. Once that's done, I'll be adding in some basic lewdness, and preparing it for an actual initial demo release for you all. Expect it...sometime in the middle of March, by my best guess.
Until there's more news!
Pudding Earl
Before I get into what the game's gonna be, I'll address the question I'm sure everyone is gonna ask. "Why not just go back to Shield High?" It's a valid question, I know a lot of you really like Shield High. The answer is...there's a LOT of baggage there. Lots of bad design decisions that I feel obligated to follow after, and lots of expectations on what you can do. Coming back and trying to present a scaled back version feels wrong, but coming in for another fresh run at it with everything that's wrong with it feels equally bad. So I'm just gonna put it all aside, and try and make something that captures the overall SPIRIT of Shield High, without any of the issues. Also without the god-awful name that will only return Marvel fandom when Googled. That was a disaster too.
So what's the game? Essentially it's going to be a Grand Strategy/Tactical Battle game about Magical Girls. You'll be playing as a Magical Girl in a large turf war/battle royale type game between a small pile of Magical Girls. There'll be options to romance them for lewd content, or if you actually beat them in a battle (without them running away) you can enslave and lewd them that way. Or, y'know, get beaten and enslaved yourself. It's a Shield High spiritual successor, of course you can be a slave. There's also going to be shadow creatures to battle to farm experience, and likewise if they beat you they'll lewd you too. I'm planning on having a lot of options to toggle what lewd content you can and can't see, so while it'll be an F/F focus, there'll be other stuff that you can add or remove at your leisure.
Also, I will be abandoning my "graphics are the devil" hill, and I've got some help making actual, proper, original lewd images and UI elements for this game. So far we've only got a character base and some buttons, but god damn is the base nice, and the buttons are very cute (though a bit small, but we're fixing that).
And since I'm sure you're all wondering where we're at right now, on the discord (https://discord.gg/zBhqsHt) I've got a link to the (very poor) combat demo I put out a week and a half ago. In the time since I've basically "finished" the combat system, and I've started transitioning the game out of it's demo form towards a more future-focused content implementation system. Once that's done, I'll be adding in some basic lewdness, and preparing it for an actual initial demo release for you all. Expect it...sometime in the middle of March, by my best guess.
Until there's more news!
Pudding Earl
Monday 19 November 2018
Shield High Roleplaying Game
Hey everyone!
Sorry for the absence of posting/content, I've been focused on other pursuits of late, and getting a job I hate. So much, in fact, I've decided to try and chase a new bit of work doing professional GMing. My original plan was to start off exclusively with a Pokemon game, however a short joke with my wife about running Shield High as a roleplaying game actually turned into a very serious idea, and so here I am posting to announce...
You can now sign up for a proper Shield High roleplaying experience! I've posted all of the information on Roll20, which you can find here: https://app.roll20.net/lfg/listing/138666/shield-high-your-story
However for those of you who hate clicking links, the long and short of it is, it's $25 per person for a 4 hour session, with a minimum of 3 people per session, and maxing out at 6. The system will be different to the one from the game, as quite frankly pinning down balance in my combat system is about as hard as pinning down your opponent for any meaningful amount of time. Instead I'll be using Cortex, a nice narrative system with a very simple dice system.
You'll be playing as first years in a potentially AU Shield High, where trios aren't quite...trios, since I could have 4+ players and I don't want to split you across groups if I can help it. Jessica will obviously be non-canon, but ideally every other girl will be present. It's obviously going to be an adult game, there will be some lewdness going on, though the frequency of being enslaved is going to be decreased in comparison to Jessica's Story.
If people are interested in trying this out, you can throw a comment on this post, respond on Roll20, just like...email me, or jump on the discord and chat about it. I will be giving fans of the game preferential treatment for placing you into games wherever possible.
Hope to hear from some of you!
Pudding Earl
Sorry for the absence of posting/content, I've been focused on other pursuits of late, and getting a job I hate. So much, in fact, I've decided to try and chase a new bit of work doing professional GMing. My original plan was to start off exclusively with a Pokemon game, however a short joke with my wife about running Shield High as a roleplaying game actually turned into a very serious idea, and so here I am posting to announce...
You can now sign up for a proper Shield High roleplaying experience! I've posted all of the information on Roll20, which you can find here: https://app.roll20.net/lfg/listing/138666/shield-high-your-story
However for those of you who hate clicking links, the long and short of it is, it's $25 per person for a 4 hour session, with a minimum of 3 people per session, and maxing out at 6. The system will be different to the one from the game, as quite frankly pinning down balance in my combat system is about as hard as pinning down your opponent for any meaningful amount of time. Instead I'll be using Cortex, a nice narrative system with a very simple dice system.
You'll be playing as first years in a potentially AU Shield High, where trios aren't quite...trios, since I could have 4+ players and I don't want to split you across groups if I can help it. Jessica will obviously be non-canon, but ideally every other girl will be present. It's obviously going to be an adult game, there will be some lewdness going on, though the frequency of being enslaved is going to be decreased in comparison to Jessica's Story.
If people are interested in trying this out, you can throw a comment on this post, respond on Roll20, just like...email me, or jump on the discord and chat about it. I will be giving fans of the game preferential treatment for placing you into games wherever possible.
Hope to hear from some of you!
Pudding Earl
Tuesday 23 October 2018
CROSSPOST: Big Important News Post
So I just made a big ol' post on Patreon, but in case people only read here/for when that post is gone, I'm just gonna post the whole thing here as well.
"Hey Pudding Earl, where's that next update?" I hear you all probably asking. WELL.
I'm still working on it slowly but surely. Haven't been particularly motivated, so it's dragging, but it'll get done when it's done. The motivation comes in stops and starts and right now it's a stop but I know myself well enough to know the moment I try and look at doing something else there'll be a big surge of motivation to write some more.
But that's not the news. No, the news is I've decided to delete the Patreon. I'll leave it up for like...a week? Probably? Just so people can read this update and not be confused when it vanishes, but after that...poof, gone.
That doesn't mean I'm abandoning Shield High again, I do like it, and I do want to finish it one day. But Patreon doesn't actually help with that. If anything, it makes it harder. When I started the Patreon it was because I was under the impression that perhaps having some financial incentive to update would make me want to work harder. It uh...it did the opposite of that. It turned what should be a project of passion that sometimes results in a paypal donation into a flailing business venture led by someone who has no idea what he's doing. While an update before Patreon would be rewarded with a download count and some comments, a nice, feel good moment, now it was met with money. A...very small amount of money. An amount of money that wasn't worth the time spent on it.
Which isn't to say I don't appreciate the support! Chatting with folks on the discord is great, it gets me excited to work on things again, and the comments left asking questions or pointing out how I messed up horribly are lovely too. Those things are priceless. And Patreon, in some ways, puts a price on them. And that's not healthy for me, for my passion, or for my dealings with you.
The second side of things is it puts a sense of urgency on work that doesn't help either. I feel like every day spent without finishing some part of the game is a day that I've failed. And that stress makes the next day a bit harder to drag myself into working, and so the problem just compounds on itself and...I don't need that in my life.
So, what does Patreon being deleted mean for you, my dear fans?
Well uh...I'll post updates on the blog instead I guess? I'll have to remove the Patron rooms on Discord too. Other than that, not a lot. I'm pushing Shield High back down to being a hobby project instead of my main project, but since it was being put off in favor of hobby projects anyway some days, that doesn't mean anything. All that changes is I'll have a new main project to be working on.
See you all back on the blog!
Pudding Earl.
P.S. To everyone who pledged to get early access to something then deleted their pledge in less than a month. I saw every single one of you. And I remember. But I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed.
"Hey Pudding Earl, where's that next update?" I hear you all probably asking. WELL.
I'm still working on it slowly but surely. Haven't been particularly motivated, so it's dragging, but it'll get done when it's done. The motivation comes in stops and starts and right now it's a stop but I know myself well enough to know the moment I try and look at doing something else there'll be a big surge of motivation to write some more.
But that's not the news. No, the news is I've decided to delete the Patreon. I'll leave it up for like...a week? Probably? Just so people can read this update and not be confused when it vanishes, but after that...poof, gone.
That doesn't mean I'm abandoning Shield High again, I do like it, and I do want to finish it one day. But Patreon doesn't actually help with that. If anything, it makes it harder. When I started the Patreon it was because I was under the impression that perhaps having some financial incentive to update would make me want to work harder. It uh...it did the opposite of that. It turned what should be a project of passion that sometimes results in a paypal donation into a flailing business venture led by someone who has no idea what he's doing. While an update before Patreon would be rewarded with a download count and some comments, a nice, feel good moment, now it was met with money. A...very small amount of money. An amount of money that wasn't worth the time spent on it.
Which isn't to say I don't appreciate the support! Chatting with folks on the discord is great, it gets me excited to work on things again, and the comments left asking questions or pointing out how I messed up horribly are lovely too. Those things are priceless. And Patreon, in some ways, puts a price on them. And that's not healthy for me, for my passion, or for my dealings with you.
The second side of things is it puts a sense of urgency on work that doesn't help either. I feel like every day spent without finishing some part of the game is a day that I've failed. And that stress makes the next day a bit harder to drag myself into working, and so the problem just compounds on itself and...I don't need that in my life.
So, what does Patreon being deleted mean for you, my dear fans?
Well uh...I'll post updates on the blog instead I guess? I'll have to remove the Patron rooms on Discord too. Other than that, not a lot. I'm pushing Shield High back down to being a hobby project instead of my main project, but since it was being put off in favor of hobby projects anyway some days, that doesn't mean anything. All that changes is I'll have a new main project to be working on.
See you all back on the blog!
Pudding Earl.
P.S. To everyone who pledged to get early access to something then deleted their pledge in less than a month. I saw every single one of you. And I remember. But I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed.
Monday 24 September 2018
It's now here...for everyone!
As promised, the patch is now live for everyone, so I'm here to post a little reminder that that's a thing, and throw you a link to the relevant Patreon post.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/shield-high-0-69-21482980
That's the link, it has all the details on what's new there. Obviously there's a whole slew of bugs, and I'm working through them in between writing as I hear about them, so please comment here, there, in an email, or jump on my discord and give me a shout there. I'm on basically all the time. And just for good measure I'll throw the discord link in one more time for those who missed it last time in the post.
https://discord.gg/zBhqsHt
Until I post a musing, which I'll try and do soon-ish? This one will be Shield High related I promise.
Enjoy!
Pudding Earl
Monday 17 September 2018
It's here! For Patrons at least
Shield High 0.69 is now out on the Patreon. For those of you who haven't pledged(I don't know why you wouldn't, I'm not charging you right now it's literally free early access and discord badges) you'll have to wait until the 24th to get it. I'll make another post about it then with more details.
Until then!
Pudding Earl
Saturday 8 September 2018
Shield High 0.69 coming in the next week!
Well, as the title says, 0.69 should be coming next week. It'll be Patron exclusive for a week or two, but not too long, since I appreciate not everyone is a Patron, and this is the first update in like, over a year. I finished writing the last scene for the new story arc today, so tomorrow I run tests, and then I have two or three days of wondering why it's all broken. After that, it should be up.
But before I post it, I wanna set expectations, and explain why I'm doing the things I'm doing. So first off, 0.69 isn't the miracle patch I want it to be. It's an additional story, some combat re-balances, and the beginning of a change in how actors are handled. They haven't all been ported to the new system, but every update I'll do a few more, and all the new characters going forward will have that change.
So now the question of why. Why am I pushing out an update I'm apparently not happy with? Well, because I spent the past week making excuses and not working. And it's become apparent to me that when I don't have a deadline, I just don't get shit done. So I'm pushing what I've got, and using that expectation to start posting more updates. The goal will be to make 1-2 stories per update, depending on how much tempo I can build up on my writing. With luck it'll be enough to turn over a story a week, and I can settle into bi-monthly updates.
And finally, a note to anyone not a Patron. Consider becoming one. I'm not charging for this update. I'm not charging for any updates until I hit a certain threshold of money per update. Before that point, with taxes, it's not worth the extra effort of recording the income, and having to save the money for taxes. So for the moment, being a Patron is just...free stuff.
Not gonna commit to a release date, but I'm aiming for Thursday at the latest. We'll see how that holds up.
Pudding Earl
But before I post it, I wanna set expectations, and explain why I'm doing the things I'm doing. So first off, 0.69 isn't the miracle patch I want it to be. It's an additional story, some combat re-balances, and the beginning of a change in how actors are handled. They haven't all been ported to the new system, but every update I'll do a few more, and all the new characters going forward will have that change.
So now the question of why. Why am I pushing out an update I'm apparently not happy with? Well, because I spent the past week making excuses and not working. And it's become apparent to me that when I don't have a deadline, I just don't get shit done. So I'm pushing what I've got, and using that expectation to start posting more updates. The goal will be to make 1-2 stories per update, depending on how much tempo I can build up on my writing. With luck it'll be enough to turn over a story a week, and I can settle into bi-monthly updates.
And finally, a note to anyone not a Patron. Consider becoming one. I'm not charging for this update. I'm not charging for any updates until I hit a certain threshold of money per update. Before that point, with taxes, it's not worth the extra effort of recording the income, and having to save the money for taxes. So for the moment, being a Patron is just...free stuff.
Not gonna commit to a release date, but I'm aiming for Thursday at the latest. We'll see how that holds up.
Pudding Earl
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