Dev Blog #89 – Plague Inc.

Greetings everyone!

I’ll be blunt: This month, no, this year has been an absolute health disaster in my home. My new, beautiful home that I moved across the country to claim and settle down in has turned into a breeding ground for ALL THE SICKS… I mean, I told everyone this would be the house I die in, but I thought I had another, I dunno, year or two! Kids got dental work, got an infection, got another infection, wife caught it, school shut down, I got it, I got it again… and then AGAIN!

I’m still a bit in the dumps, but I think everything has finally ran its course… Silver lining, pretty sure I’ve met all my insurance deductibles for the year!

So, all that being said, I’m gonna keep today’s update short and sweet for everyone. Let’s get to it!

Update 3.2.2 Progress

In light of the aforementioned afflictions I’ve been working extra hard this week to make up lost time on this month’s update. It’s looking like everything is still on track in terms of the main content I wanted to get done this month, so that’s good!

The focus of this month’s content is adding new and revised interactions with John to the game for players going down the Dom John route. Last month’s update added new interactive scenes with Diana, as well as a new escorting system, and this month’s update will continue right off the back of that. Upon completing all of Diana’s training scenes, you’ll get thrown into a rather precarious situation with the Big Bad Dudebro himself! While this scene will serve as a taste of things to come later down the route you won’t be left completely wanting. Reaching this point in the route will unlock a brand new ISS sequence with John in a location many have been wanting to see him for a long time now!

Additionally, John’s bathroom scenes at the office have been completely reworked into the new ISS format to allow for more dynamic interactions you’re already familiar with, as well as a few brand new ones. Those wanting to go a little further with the guy than what’s been available thus far should be pleased.

Other items of note for the update:

• The removal of Diana’s original interactive scene has had the unintended consequences of also removing one of the more consistent sources for players to tank their willpower
  • Diana’s new ISS will update one of its routes to allow for non-submissive MCs to take a submissive action
  • A new Saya event is being added early in the game to allow you to choose a rough starting willpower
  • Other sources of controlled willpower manipulation are being explored
• Gender templates have been added to character creation to allow for quicker starts with less clicking
• The requirements to initiate John’s Dom path are being tweaked to be more clear and accessible
• Groundwork is being laid for converting Penny, Ava, and Dakota’s existing interactive scenes to the new ISS format
  • Though they likely won’t make it into this update
• Nearly all of the reported issues from Update 3.2.1 have been addressed

Coming and Going

There’s a couple odds and ends in terms of game-related items that didn’t quite fit in the above section, so I’ll touch on them briefly here.

First the going. In an effort to save on resources, I will soon be ending support for saves older than Update 6.2.1. This won’t be happening with this month’s update and there will be ample warning before the change is made. To prepare, all you need to do is load and older saves into the current public build and save your game again. Expect this to happen in next month’s update and, again, I’ll do my best to ensure everyone is well-notified.

Now for a couple things coming down the pipe! First, if you haven’t seen it yet, check out the front page of the Patreon site for an updated roadmap for this year. Remember that nothing is set in stone, but with how things have been working out recently I think it should hold fairly strong. A couple features, such as wardrobe and artwork update, don’t have a set implementation time frame and will be added in where appropriate.

Finally, I will soon be making piecemeal base image pack downloads available. Put another way, I’ll be splitting the base image pack into chunks based for the most part on folder names. Basically, if over time your image pack has fallen out of sync somehow and all you’re missing are a couple images from the pics/player folder, rather than download the entire ever-growing base image pack again you’ll be able to simply download an up to date “Player” folder. Simple enough! I still need to clean up some redundant images and whatnot, but making this available is high on my priority list.

Concerning The Writing Contest

Friday (tomorrow!) is the last day to get your pitch in for the writing contest going on right now. You get submit your pitch HERE and have a chance at getting it added to the game as a new scene. We have a solid amount of entries so far and I’m excited to sit down and narrow down our potential winners.

Once the best entries are selected by our questionable-at-best judging panel, the community will get to vote on their favorites starting on Tuesday, February 18th!

That’s it for today, I told you it would be a short one. I’m off to go find a lozenge and brew some more coffee before getting back to hammering away at Update 3.2.2! As always, thank you all for your incredible feedback and support!