The Hunt--UPDATE 26DEC--v0.20.9 (source code released!)

[wetcardboardbox]

Love the flavor of your writing, if you'll excuse the pun

Also flummoxed as to how one eats the bear, but I'll keep trying!

[Marzseaz]

The mini-updates have stopped for now, but that's because I'm hard at work on v0.16. I'm planning to overhaul the current encounter system, and throw in a few other goodies to keep you guys entertained. Stay tuned!

[Marzseaz]

My computer died, so I've been unable to work on this for a little while.

The good news is that I'm up and running again, and the combat system now functions! The final and hardest step is to actually write all of the content I need.

[Marzseaz]

UPDATE!

CHANGELOG v0.17 (19/01/2017)

Added hyperlinks to objects with the 'use' command
Massive Overhaul of the encounter system
Overhaul of the player capacity growth system
Added a secret!
Minor bug fixes

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Thanks for the support everyone! This update lays the groundwork for a lot of future updates. The encounter system isn't perfect, but it's closer to what I envisioned when I started this project.

The actual content of the game hasn't changed massively, so to compensate I've added one *big* secret to the 'endgame' for you guys to find. You'll need a little luck. Let me know if you find it, and what you think.

There's still a lot for me to fix in the current area, but for the next update I'll try to focus on adding a little more content for you guys to explore, probably in the form of a new test area. After that I'll work on the technical aspects a little more.

Let me know if you spot any bugs.

[Nouvi]

I do believe I found the secret.... and it's a very nice one. Only downside would probably be...

Spoiler: show

...that responses hardly seem to actually matter, aside from truth/lie response to first question. Very fun ending either way though, hypno vore is rare enough as it is.

Bugs I found:
-Downloading the file, then running it seems to be *very* broken in terms of spawning creatures, at least the salmons gives me "error: spawn message not found" HOWEVER, using file->save, then loading the save seems to fix it...partially.
-Size alternate spawns doesn't seem to happen - not once did i see any large/small variants appear this time.
-Snowdrift doesn't seem to be cleared up properly if you use it to move the boulder, making it reappear in somewhat broken code when you reenter the room.

[Marzseaz]

Spoiler: show

Yep, you got it, glad you liked it! The questions don't mean much yet, but I'm hoping to figure out a way to make them more relevant. I'm open to suggestions!

There are probably a lot of bugs that I've missed, since I had to overhaul a lot of the code. I'll fix them ASAP, but I should probably get some sleep right now.

EDIT: Who needs sleep? Some of the bugs were pretty simple to fix, so I've gone ahead and done that. The snowdrift bug is still being elusive, though...

[Njux]

Looks like you broke the white tailed doe.

[Nouvi]

The snowdrift bug is still being elusive, though...

Ugh....right. I'm an idiot. A&O when posting bugs, provide as much detail as possible... so, detail coming here, what shows up for me is

Code: Select all

A {object:intro_rapids_overlook_scenery_snowdrift:Snowdrift} sits precariously on the edge of the overlook.

Actually, I think it breaks because because there's no longer a snowdrift present there after dislodging it, for the link to refer to.

Really minor, I understand, but better fixed than annoying haunt I would assume.

[Marzseaz]

Not minor at all, and thanks! I think I've fixed the snowdrift bug now, and several other bugs. Something strange happened with the white tailed doe, so I had to restore her to a previous state. Her encounter text is basically the same as the rabbit for now (although with different vore scenes), but that'll be fixed soon.

Apparently my QA skills are not the best. I think what might be better, in the future, would be for me to upload two separate games, one that is a 'stable' build and one that's a work in progress.

Thanks guys.

[Marzseaz]

Ack! I arrived home today only to realise I'd made a big mistake with the latest version of the game.

To avoid mistakes like this in the future, I've created a second link in the first post, one for the 'development' builld of the game (buggy but more content) and one for the previous version of the game ('less' buggy, but also less content). Apologies for the delay!

[Talon13]

I'd love tot est this! But I'm still waiting for alternative vore. Vanilla oral is boring to me x3c

[Fevix]

I'd love tot est this! But I'm still waiting for alternative vore. Vanilla oral is boring to me x3c

This. It's a nice mechanic but I'd love to see alternatives.

[Marzseaz]

There's been a lot of demand for other kinds of vore! Basically I'm trying to set this game up to be flexible to accommodate things like that in the future, but it might be a little while.

There are two potential complications. The first is feature creep. The mechanics of the game need to be simple and easy to understand, but provide enough depth to be fun. If the game tries to do too many things - mechanically or story-wise - then it's hard to execute anything well. I certainly want to accommodate a range of interests in the future, but for now I'm aiming to execute one thing well.

[QuickDeath007]

Don't worry about doing anything that would slow you down and cause problems for you. Better to focus on what you know you can do well, and to get the game closer to a full release than to stumble over yourself trying to implement things you don't like and don't know how to write. I'm glad you want to please everyone even if it's close to hard limits, many people won't go anywhere near things they don't like. Personally, I would recommend starting a topic where people can submit fully written scenes for things you haven't gotten around to yet, and you can decide if they meet your standards. There's no need to force yourself to write something you don't like, and if you want to put things in that don't quite mesh with what you enjoy to please us, then it'd actually probably be better for all parties if you let people submit scenes instead. I can tell you that it can get pretty obvious when someone is forcing themselves to write a scene they don't enjoy, and you'd probably start to resent the work.

Speaking of feature creep... perhaps something for the wolf?

Spoiler: show

If beating the wolf requires intimidation... perhaps expanding on that a bit. A certain size proves you are the wolf's equal, and not worth a fight... but if you devour the bear before intimidating the wolf? Perhaps that 'tags' your character with a trait once absorbed. Wolf sees you, and realizes "holy shit, this thing swallowed a bear whole!" marking you as it's better. From there, you get the option of getting it to submit entirely. For now, that would mean getting to eat it, but perhaps at some point in the distant future, getting a unique animal to submit instead of flee or fight lets you take them as a pet or something? In this case, the wolf being a unique, singular encounter. A pet could serve a few purposes, either getting non-fatal prey scenes from it, aid in hunting prey for yourself, or even acting as a "life," if you fuck up an encounter, you can let the pet die in your place. Or not. Some people like fucking up and getting ate.

[Marzseaz]

Exactly. The game is still in it's very early stages, so I don't want to get ahead of myself.

As for letting others submit content is something that I'm considering, but since scenes aren't necessarily straightforward text (each encounter can, within reason, have it's own rules) it's a little harder to create guidelines. It also raises issues when it's comes to ownership. The Hunt will always be free, and I don't see that being an issue any time soon, but in the distant future who knows?

As for the wolf, that's something I'm working on for the next update! Progress has slowed thanks to work and life, but I'm still plugging away when I can.

[QuickDeath007]

All perfectly legitimate concerns. But I truly think that letting people submit scenes would be genuinely helpful. Gives you time to focus on the crunch of the game, and fluff for unique encounters, such as bosses or important NPCs and such. As such, allow me to address your concerns.

Not all scenes will require special rules. Using current content as an example, you catch a deer. Right now, you only have one option, and if we want more options, we'll have to wait and hope you put in more options. Or, you open up to letting people post scenes in the hopes you'll approve, someone writes something good for the Deer that you've yet to implement, such as unbirth or CV, and you put it in so you can turn your attention to something more important. No need to take scenes that require new characters or such. If someone wants to write a scene a bit more complicated, such as multiple choices, or even a branching path(For example, defeat/catch a generic human, followed by choosing to oral, CV, or unbirth, or even let the NPC devour you, then followed by choosing to digest, release, put off the decision until later,), or a new NPC, well, I suppose they're free to post the completed scenes as long as they understand that detailed work like that is far less likely to be implemented.

Guidelines are simple really. If you want an option that you don't get yet with a given prey/pred, you can write the scene for that option and hope you meet the quality standards for that scene. And since these are guidelines, and not rules, they can be much more flexible. If you want to write something for a unique NPC rather than the generic NPCs, or something complicated and requiring more work to implement, you do so knowing the guidelines state they are are highly unlikely to be accepted.

As for the latter concern, regarding ownership, that is an issue I would have never considered, but I can definitely see why it could be a huge problem if mishandled. I am uncertain as exactly how to handle it, but it is definitely not insurmountable, and I can think of a few things that might help. One, any donated scenes you receive can be labeled in game as placeholders until you either can write it yourself, someone makes a better scene, come to a permanent, irreversible decision as to whether or not to try and make a profit, or until you can make some sort of agreement with the person who made the scene, likely involving paperwork and signatures and lawyers, though maybe not. Such an agreement would likely either them be signing away the rights to the scene in exchange for a free copy of the game if sold for a profit, or a small share of said profits proportional to their contribution. I'd recommend coming up with some sort of chart to serve as guidelines. For example, a scene of unbirthing a rabbit would be... .1% of net profit? Something involving math to compare that one scene to the rest of the game's content as well as the work you had to do to code it in. Or even better and probably less complicated, if anyone submits a scene and you use it for any amount of time, they'd get a free copy of the game if you end up charging for it.

All of this assumes, of course, that you change your mind in the distant future and charge money. I find that very few people ever change their minds when planning to release free stuff, and those that do almost always end up making critical commercial failures. Ultimately, all this is mostly just a safeguard. You almost certainly won't ever charge money for this, but in the unlikely event you do, you have something in place to make sure you don't get in some form of trouble. I personally recommend the latter, simpler method.
Either way, it'd also be a good idea to list any and all contributors in an easily accessed credits page.

[Marzseaz]

Yeah, if I do ever accept submissions, then I'll need to write up a thorough disclaimer about how people can expect their content to be used, and guidelines for how to submit it.

Oh and I think my previous post was poorly worded, but The Hunt will always be completely free. I'll never charge to download the game. The only scenario I can think of where I would accept money for this project would be from donations. That's not something I'm considering right now, because I feel like the game needs a significant amount of work before it's at an acceptable standard. In that scenario I doubt I could redistribute the money effectively, and I'd feel uncomfortable profiting off the work of others.

Anyway, that's something to worry about in the future, if this project ever gets that far.

[Marzseaz]

UPDATE!

CHANGELOG v0.18 (10/02/2017)

Added a second inventory panel for eaten objects
Added a trapping system for rabbits and salmon
Added more dialogue options for the wolf encounter
Fixed stomach adjective error

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This update has been a while coming. Unfortunately now that 2017 is in full swing I have less time to work on this project than I'd like, but I'm pushing to do a little work on this every day. A lot of you asked for more content to be added to the wolf encounter, so that's a large part of this update (now with three new endings!). The fight also uses the new trapping system, so have fun experimenting. Both the wolf and trapping have a long way to go yet, but it's a start.

Thanks again for the support!

[Marzseaz]

Oops, fixed a few major bugs in the latest version, like being unable to regurgitate eaten animals.

[bobert1234567]

Does anyone have a hint towards swallowing the bear?