Roadmap to Completion

As mentioned last week there will be no Ero Hunters update as I'm on holiday. However, that doesn't stop me from updating you about future content while I'm on the train to Syracuse.

Remaining Mechanics

Let me start by saying that you can always add more mechanics to a game. Unfortunately that eventually results in a shambling corpse of features, so it's important to end somewhere. I think both the overworld and combat mechanics are in a good place, and the only two main things I want to add is:

Closure: I plan to have two endings. First there's a normal ending - which can be achieved in multiple ways - and unlocks the Flevo sandbox island. And then also a true ending which involves going to Flevo and defeating and catching avatars of the Goddesses and performing some sort of ritual. These will be boss encounters like in Ero Dungeons, though without the surrounding custom dungeons.

Overworld Actors: These are the same as the Dungeon actors but on the overworld. These are required to make the above work and add some flavor and reason for exploration to the islands.

Originally I also planned to have a rudimentary dialogue system, but I'll probably handle that using those title cards that pop-up. Working around the possibility of losing Ada and Artemis would cause to much scope creep.

Additional Content

With mechanics out of the way I can focus on filling out the existing content. In particular:

Equipment: There's still a significant lack of equipment, some things like armor/gags/blindfolds/jewelry/piercings... still only have a few token items and the armor sets of 4 of the deities are still missing. I've been filling out the equipment data and have more than doubled the amount of equipment by now. It will still take a while before it's all drawn and implemented though.

Laws: The current law system, where different laws are similar between races and offer minor incremental benefits, was a placeholder. I'm currently reworking it so the vast majority of laws has interesting and unique effects. For example, Dryads can get a new beacon building, more flexible lumber camps, automated wood from citizen, a unique breeding mechanic using grafting, a way to ignore grain fertility, ways to make vine ropes useful for non dryad/alraune, and neither of the paths enforce restrictions on your core playstyle (except the supremacy path still limiting population tier to Citizen).

Dungeon Actors: Currently there's a system for handling dungeon actors (i.e.,curios) but it is only used for the dollmaker. I'll try to port some of the ones from Ero Dungeons to this game.

Descriptions: Equipment, Laws, Deities, a lot of things still need descriptions.

Fights: The miniboss encounters, as well as the general outfits of enemies, were still written before most of the gear (and roles) were in the game. These need to be reworked.

Steam

As you know, I plan to release Monstergirl Hunters - the SFW variant of this game - on Steam. The Steam review takes a lot of time and requires additional work. There's a lot of screenshots, random descriptions, and a trailer that need to be made. And even then, there are many moments where you shouldn't release on Steam, such as during sales or fests.

So, even after the game is finished, it'll sit in the waiting room for a couple of weeks probably.

Polish

While in the waiting room, I'll focus on minor polish that doesn't fundamentally change the game (or require Monstergirl Hunter censorship).

QoL: There's still a lot of quality of life improvements that can be made. Including but not limited to an improvement of groups to allow them to handle trainings, or a better flow for role changes.

Bugfixing: Speaks for itself since obviously subscribers on Patreon/Subscribestar will have access to the full game a significant time before it's officially released.

UI: Not only visual improvements, but also what is called "juice". You may have noticed that some UI already uses those slide in animations that make everything look a bit smoother. The tutorial even has a cute Ada face as a decorations. Vanity flourishes that you wouldn't find in Ero Dungeons.

Visuals: Currently, the artist is working on visuals for the world map. He's also going to update the tilesets that are used in the game. The placeholders are adequate though, so that isn't a release blocker. There's also still a ton of breeding textures that need to be done. Fortunately, now that I've hired an artist, these can be made asynchronously while I work on the pre-production of the next game.

Pre-Production

I have started the pre-production of the next game. This is about the same stage as Ero Hunters was in during the script rework which was backported to Ero Dungeons. I'll expand on the game in next week's devlog, though I can already tell you that the name starts with Ero, contains two parts and ends with a plural noun.

I'll probably start working on it in earnest, and providing playable versions, once the development of Ero Hunters slows down once all remaining mechanics and additional content are in.