The Tale of Ebony Floe Preview Demo Version 3
A downloadable game for Windows
Now finally available to the public is the first public release of the V3 Demo!
Play as Ebony Floe, a young freelance historical writer afflicted with an unusual family curse that makes her inflate at random times and in random ways who still has to perform her freelance writing work. Manage your Fatigue and mood as you deal with the effects of everyday life and the curse with some new changes in 3.3.0!
- Changed wall running logic so that instead of slowing down while wall running, Ebony now speeds up, which means there is now a sweetspot near the end of the wall run to get the maximum speed boost out of it! This should make gaining speed while wall running feel more fluid yet more skillful with having to time it right to get the most of the acceleration while keeping the terrain in mind to do so, and should also hopefully eliminate odd stoppage bugs that happen when jumping of as soon as you've touched the wall (which the previous system incentivized...)
- Added the ability to do stunts in the air that can give a huge amount of score if multiple are done in a row before hitting the ground! Be careful not to do the same direction twice or else you'll get disoriented. Be extra careful not to hit a wall/the ground too soon after doing or while disoriented a stunt, otherwise you'll get stunned and even lose score. This should allow for greater depth and creativity in score chasing, but also...
- Mood has returned! With mid-air stunts, you can now gain Mood from starting a platforming combo chain and then ending it on a stunt combo once you've accumulated enough score. Having a high Mood (greater than half the positive bar) will make the clock advance half as fast, while having a low Mood (less than half the negative bar) will make the clock advance faster, so try to keep a high Mood as much as possible to make the most out of the day
- A completely reworked chat system! Now conversations with friends will consist of multiple Scenarios that you'll have to pass in order to get the most out of talking with friends. Part of that is completing short platforming minigames, which can get quite hard depending on what you choose. Thankfully, you can use Insights to boost the easiness of the minigames, but be careful about which ones you use as a smaller average score for them will have the bar not last for long.
- With that, we also have Love Tokens! Love Tokens are gained randomly after talking with a friend successfully (not if they end up inflating tho, so watch out); you'll be much more likely to get them higher the relationship with them is. Love Tokens can currently be used to boost the score of papers when writing them, boost the scores of selected Insights (be careful when trying to do more of them), and even be able to deflate early!
- Speaking of inflating, the new chat mechanics now allow for improvements in the enjoyability in that area: first, you can now control their shape better due to being able to select Insights when encountering an imminent inflation Scenario. Secondly, the escort minigame has been completely reworked so you instead guide the friend to a safe area of your choosing that doesn't have any crowds; be careful not to lead them into any crowds or leave them behind too far or else they'll get caught out by gawkers who you'll have to chase away to stop them from getting too embarrassed!
- Both Ebony and her friends can get a belly-centric shape when going spherical! This now gives a bit more functionality to the Fattening effect, which will make spherical more likely to give higher belly-centric values.
- You can also now buy a crop top for Ebony to wear!
- If that all sounds like a lot to lose when the game gets closed, worry not, because there's now a save system! Currently there's only one slot that can be written to, but it's better than not having anything like before, lol. Not absolutely everything in the game state is saved, so be mindful of that when saving.
- And some additional miscellaneous improvements, including: added an input buffer for the sweetspot dive cancel, made the dialog animations additive (some oddities present there still tho), made it so that the chosen inflation shape (before Ebony inflates) is properly kept track of when traveling between maps (and of course the save game), added a starting menu, corrected the Fattening effect so that it will be guaranteed to at least have a noticeable love-handles value, and fixed the softlock that despawned one of the friends who had not been deflated yet and thus preventing from collecting Insight tokens! You can now freely inflate the other gals together without worry of having to reset (though it's still not in the intended form, so some bits of it might not really work so well, but it at least wont stop the game completely)
Hopefully the fact that it hasn't been that long since the last update (in comparison to previous major updates) should mean that things really are starting to come along a fair bit more smoothly now! I will try my best to keep up the pace and hopefully quicken it soon enough ^^
For more detailed info, please refer to the readme file in the game's main folder before playing, as there still isn't a proper tutorial for the game yet ^^;
I plan to add more content to this version in the future, as it's still very much in a very early state. If you would like to generously donate to this project and receive gameplay updates/content updates as they go live instead of waiting much longer to receive them in larger public patches, consider donating to my SubscribeStar if you are feeling generous: https://subscribestar.adult/puff-knight ^^
Additional gameplay clips:
Download
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Development log
- Demo Version 3.3.0 Now Publicly Available!Nov 18, 2023
- Demo Version 3.3.0 Now Available on Subscribestar!Oct 18, 2023
- Demo V3.2.0 is Now Publicly Available!May 12, 2023
- Version 3.2.0 Is Now Available On SubscribestarApr 12, 2023
- Donations Via Itchio Now (Finally...) AvailableDec 03, 2022
- Finally Updated Game Page With VideosSep 01, 2022
- Version 3.1.0 Is Now Publicly Available!Aug 23, 2022
- Version 3.1.0 Is Now Available On SubscribestarJul 23, 2022
Comments
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Can you add no limit of inflating
I must say I have always been impressed with each bew version, but adding other girls and ways to control how they inflate is quite the addition! This is the only version whose notes I read so I can't be too sure of what else is new as well, but I do have a suggestion or two if that's alright.
Perhaps try adding a popping feature to the characters, perhaps when they're getting large enough that they start getting stuck in corners or streetways. If the deflation minigame is too difficult for a player then the best alternative would be to simply keep inflating until they explode. Perhaps a tradeoff would be that their clothes get ripped up or completely fall off, which would not only increase embarassment but also make them passively gain embarassment even while fully deflated.
Another one I would suggest would be more like an easter egg. A hidden little alchemy station full of ingredients that basically gives you master-control of Ebony and her friends' inflation (basically they get sliders for how big and in what way they inflate when they drink a potion). Making it an easter egg would incentivize players to explore and complete missions in order to access it and maybe certain combinations could trigger entirely unique forms of inflation.
Overall it is no exaggeration that this game is coming along very well. I look forward to future updates.
Thank you so much, I'm so very happy to hear you really love the addition of the other girls in this version and particularly the ability to control their shape! (technically they were introduced and inflatable in the previous build, but this does adds the ability to dictate their shape better) ^^
I actually do have plans to add different ways to deflate the girls that have different tradeoffs (including thinking of popping as a way to end it easy and early but with some sort of damage as a result; not sure I'll make it be them getting embarrassed tho because avoiding that would be part of the reason to take the risk I would think), so I'm definitely going to be trying to find a way to put that in!
I have been thinking of adding certain items like "cursed" amulets that can have inflating effects (mainly to be an unlockable cheat code to get friends to inflate much more readily in chats, but you have got me thinking of other things they can be for), so potions could be a type of cheat code esque item for that ^^ You've certainly got me thinking about different ways to have some bonus unlockables to play with the inflation, so we shall see!
Thank you very kindly for the ideas, I do think they'll be helpful in figuring out some nice additions to the game~ ^^
btw I got one more idea, what if you could change into more different clothing (like change of color or change of different kinds of shirts) if that fine that's fine with you
I definitely do want to add a lot of different outfits when I can! I only haven't been able to because the way the clothes need to work with the inflation makes each new clothing item extremely laborious to make (in fact, I'm working on some tech rn that should make that process much much easier and carefree, so hopefully it will make the outfits come out much faster ^^)
i have a idea, what if you put symbols on the cubes for artistic, scientific, ect. to resemble that subject. And what if you would put textures on the hair/clothes on the characters. (keep up with the good work, its very good)
Sorry for the late reply, has been a busy new years ^^;
I definitely plan on making proper display icons/models to replace the cubes at some point! I just hadn't been able to get around to it yet lol ^^;
We'll have to see about adding textures to the hair, but I do want to have textures on the clothes which I hope I can do fairly soon!
no worries, i understand that we get a bit busy sometimes.
I have some ideas for this game:
Idea 1: Freeplay mode
freeplay mode will be available from the beginning. it will allow to inflate Ebony's body parts or body with just a click of a button (or with a special menu for that), and NPC's can be inflated for as long as you desire.
Idea 2: Upsides and downsides of certain sizes
To explain this, let me give an idea of what these might be for hips.
The downside for hips would be that if they reach a certain size, Ebony might get stuck in place and cause her belly to inflate.
The upside would be doubled points you earn when having the history mini-game.
Hope these things will be implemented <3
okay, maybe don't consider idea 2, I have realised it's complicated
3.3.0 is best version because 3 looks like big boobs and big belly
You shall just make 3.3.3 version and move to the Part 4. In my humble suggestion.
Unless you will somehow do 8 versions.
Think about it. Think.
Played since the old map and I've loved playing each new version. Keep it up and I'll keep on playing it!
Thank you very much! I'm so glad you're enjoying it so well~ I definitely don't plan on stopping anytime soon! ^^
Dunno if it's a glitch or if I'm doing something wrong, but the 3.3.0 update seems to break the trick system entirely sometimes, completely at random, it just stops registering tricks of all kinds.
I'd do a whole ton of tricks and jumps and bounces, but the score just stays at 0. I thought maybe it was a punishment for doing too many tricks, but I'd pick up one of those trick cube things and I'd get 0 points for the entire duration, despite bouncing all over the map. This happens about a third of the time or so.
Also:
1. I'm not sure what triggers that disorientation mechanic, it just seems to happen at random. My guess is it's supposed to for badly timed tricks, but I'm not sure since it happens on perfectly fine tricks too, sometimes without even interrupting what I'm doing.
2. The platforming minigame with the balls, sometimes two spawn on one platform, and if you get hit by one, you get stunlocked by both until the timer runs out. Also I kinda wish it was more obvious that you can "goomba stomp" them.
3. The maze thing, I had one where it failed with 2 seconds left as if I ran out of time, but I can't get that glitch to repeat, maybe a fluke, IDK.
4. The dialog options list is so long it blocks the conversation stats when you're chatting with a potential friend and trying to raise the relationship stat, so it's hard to tell what headway you're making.
I have noted that it can take an extra move (like wall jumps/bounces) or two to get it started compared with earlier, so maybe you're not doing enough wall jumps/runs at the beginning (do note that although you get a speed boost from just wall running without jumping, it wont register as a trick unless you actively jump off the wall, even if you end up sliding off)? That might be why it's not starting the combo, but I don't know if that would explain not being able to get any points at all during with the cubes. Do keep in mind that not absolutely every move will continue a combo (the system mainly looks at the moves that make the multiplier go up, not simply ones like simple jumps that only add score), though that was also true of the previous build so that likely isn't what you're running into.
I'll have to try to look into it, though I don't have a clue where to start since no one else has run into such an issue before ^^;;
1. Getting disoriented happens if you either do a mid-air stunt too soon after having just done one, if you touch the ground/a wall too soon after doing one, OR if you do another stunt in the same input direction (i.e. irrespective of where Ebony actually is facing) as the previous stunt you did.
2. Ahh, I must have been a bit too deft at getting away from them to notice that it's still possible to get stunlocked, I'll have to try to fix the stun window ^^; it is the very first implementation, so I definitely will be ironing things out with them as time goes on ^^
3. I'll look into that, but it could also be a misread of the timer as well, as it would not have been there for very long before being yanked back after losing!
4. What specific stats are you referring to? The ones above or the bar below? What is the aspect ratio of your screen as well? (can I also get a screenshot/photo of what you see too if possible?) I've had one other person trying to play the game on a Surface Pro 7 (3:2 screen!) and was very caught off guard by the fact that PCs/laptops with anything less that 16:9 are still made somehow, so if your screen has an unusual aspect ratio that might unfortunately be what's causing elements to be moved over each other >.<; I'll try to rejig the menus to be a bit more flexible when I can, which I really should have tried to do earlier but just didn't think it'd be so much of a problem on PC
When the 0 score gets jammed, it gets jammed pretty hard, I'll do triple jumps, mid-air tricks, air dashes, belly and boob bounces, wall running, building up speed, it just stays at zero. My running theory is that if it gets stuck, I need to stop and just not do anything for a second or two to let it "reset", but that's really just a theory and it might just be placebo, heh.
The trick mechanics worked fine in the previous build, though.
Screen res and ratio is standard 1920x1080.
Also, is there a way to delete unwanted studies like the zeroes?
That's very curious, I've not had anything like that reported so far. Can you recall anything about exactly what you were doing before the jamming happens?
What specific stats are being blocked by the dialog options? As far as I know, there's only the relationship level up top that could possibly be blocked. Could you share a screenshot or picture if possible?
Unfortunately there isn't any way to delete the zero scores, but if you get enough Love Tokens you can try to boost their scores all at once so they're not totally useless ^^;
Awesome work!
Thank you! I'm glad you like it~ ^^
I've played this game for only a couple times, but I could never find the other girls in said game.
Also not sure if you actually CAN customize how they look.
They will only spawn at random times of the day (though they are guaranteed to spawn at lunch time), so you will need to make the clock run for a bit (mainly by collecting Insight tokens throughout the map)
The crop top can only be bought for Ebony for now, as I still need to fix up the meshes for the other girls ^^;
gotcha, thanks.
Can't wait for the potential full release
i’ve played this for a while and this some really great stuff!! Good job :]
I do have some additions/ideas i’d like to see though, some of which you might have already heard about:
-addinational passive sounds when Ebony has inflated (eg. Creacking, sloshing, gurgles etc) would be nice. Maybe even different sounds for fattened and bloated states
-there should be more of a difference between fattening and bloating. I fail to see too much of a difference beyond the slightly chubbier cheeks
-i think the max size should be upped considerably. Its alright currently, but i think a fair bit bigger for all states would be fun (maybe max size capacity could even be a thing to work towards)
-some gameplay tweaks, like writing-client waypoints or making it so you could work towards multiple insights at the same time, perhaps
still though, its EASILY my favorite expansion game right now, and i see great potential in the project. Keep it up! :]
I'm really glad you're enjoying your time with the game!
-I do definitely want to add more sounds to her inflation, including having different sounds for when she's fatty or bloated! Like with a lot of other polish like that, I hadn't had the time just yet to get around to adding those, but I do very much hope to add them in due time ^^
-Due to the randomization of the shapes, fattening does end up chosing smaller values for the fatty features (especially the love-handles); I'm looking into correcting it so that it will give higher values more often or at least will have a minimum value
-Unfortunately upping the max sizes is completely untenable at this stage; it's already difficult to work with the mesh as it is, and adding the additional morph shapes required to get the clothes in particular to work with larger sizes will just make it near unusably difficult to do anything with >.<
-I will try to keep these in mind when improving the gameplay as I expand the game further! ^^
I very much appreciate the feedback, so thank you so much for taking the time to play the game and compile your thoughts about it! ^^
Hey Knight! This is pretty awesome! Just perfect for the 2023 belly direct if you're interested!
Very sorry for the late reply! >.<;;
I'd be very flattered for my game to be featured in a presentation like that, so I'd definitely be interested! ^^
Amazing! Please contact me on discord @ihopcanada and we can get something figured out ^^
Whoa, just found this game and it's pretty good. I have no idea what I'm meant to be doing half the time, but this is a very early build, so to be expected.
The movement in this game is honestly some of the most fun (and creative ^-^) open-world platforming I've seen in a game. I sometimes just spent a bit just moving around for fun. Something I don't think I've done outside of Spider-Man (or maybe Prototype).
So good job, excited to see where this goes!
I do have some other pointers for further development (some of which others have also pointed out):
1. It took me a while to finish my first paper and by that time I had completely no clue where the guy I wrote it for was.
I'd recommend maybe an overhead arrow to people you've written for (as I know you can do arrows) and later just map pointers to discovered NPC's?
2. The paper quests have a required amount of points/value/quality, but after the initial request, I can't find how much the requirement was.
Could you maybe add that info in the writing menu or something as well?
3. I would really like a map (either mini- or regular) to help navigate a bit easier.
4. I absolutely can't find how to get home, so I keep passing out. This doesn't matter very much at the moment, but it's no positive in any case.
4b. Related to 4: Why is your house on a separate map unrelated to anything in the main game, anyway? Is that because you plan to make it a hub with access to many different maps? That would be dope. Otherwise, I don't really see a use for the other map tbh. (not hating, mostly curious)
All things considered, though, very nice, impressive, good job :thumbs up:
I'm so very elated that you really like the platforming mechanics, especially to the point of not only finding them so unique but also to the point of even just moving around for the fun of it! ^^
I definitely do want to take a proper look at the clarity issues of where to go and general navigation in the map(s) when I get the chance to do so; other difficulties with the games' design had been taking priority so far, but I should hopefully be able to address them soon enough! but to be more specific:
1. I do agree an arrow would be helpful, though I have hesitated on that due to being not immediately sure of how to handle cases where the player has multiple papers finished (which is a definite real possibility with how the game is structured and is likely to come into play much more often in future with my plans) since then it becomes unclear where the player should really be directed. Pointing to the nearest one would probably suffice, but I want to be careful about making sure the solution is elegant and robust for future additions. Their names are displayed both on the papers and on the dialog box, so for now it is possible to probe around ^^;
2. I do agree that the minimum values should probably be more clear. I thought I set the values so low that people wouldn't get tokens with such low scoring for it to matter, but it's becoming increasingly clear that that's not the case. I probably will just remove the minimum score requirement entirely at this point, but I want to give it more thought when I have the space to do so
3. I will continue to carefully monitor the navigation issues, but I'm still putting more thought the exact implementation will really solve the problems (I am also thinking of reworking the way the buildings are built, which will likely make them more distinct and harder to blend in with eachother)
4. I do have an arrow programmed to appear when coming back to the hubmap when it's bedtime (specifically when the clock reaches the bed symbol near the top before hitting the end of the full rotation). If the arrow isn't appearing for you during that time, I'll have to try to investigate that as a bug. The reason for the separate map is indeed to act as a hub for other maps in the future; I've just been unable to build them yet due each map proving to take a mountainous amount of energy and time to build and I'm prioritizing getting more fundamentals sorted so I don't have to exponentially rebuild already costly maps whenever/if ever something changes before certain things are set in stone properly ^^;
I hope that answers your concerns at least a little bit ^^; I do thank you for the feedback regardless!
i game is good! will going future better v4 look helpful features
-i can customize clothes
-i can eat blueberry turn into blueberry inflation
-i can playable other characters
-i can eat foods with inflation types combine to makes better.
-and more!
enjoy :)
Could you make it when Ebony or one of the other girls get big enough their clothes rip and they become nude? Could maybe also add a use for clothes stores using this?
I'm afraid I don't have any intention to have explicit nudity in the game ^^;
Though do want to add button popping and belt popping into the game once I'm able
Ooo, those would still be nice
I'm glad to hear you'll be happy with at least that then! ^^
It's shame that there is no debug mode neither there is saving system. Also how to do somesaulght?
Also is there some hidden stuff besides talking with people, earning repsect (for what purpose?).
is there difference between bloating and fattening and just body_part_name when you purchase feast? Edit : Nevermind, from ReadMe :
[Bloating]
- Obtained via Writing or eating food that contains
Bloating
- Will add a bit of one of the leftover 3Bs* (if one or
more of the 3Bs), or make spherical more full looking.
* 3Bs = Boobs Butt Belly
[Fattening]
- Obtained via Writing or eating food that contains
Fattening
- Similar to Bloating, except it also add love-handles
and a generally more "fat" look.
In reality I didn't really notice any difference at all. I purchased Boobs + Hips Fat and Bloated Only and respectively in the very beginning. Pushed to the max (I did some writing jumping so that Ebony won't turn into a sphere straight up). The Belly will be on both regardless. I also don't think Ebony inflates from same exact food constantly, I think there is RNG even if you purchase same thing and to the max, but I may be wrong. Maybe make fat boobs more realistic and affected by gravity while bloated to be more like silikon boobs?
Shame there is no way to expand other body parts after initial inflation sequence started. What was set to be expanded intially will be only expanded. We NEED debug/cheats.
Escorting girls mechanic is wonky, I had to dive and bounce around in order for the Embarassement bar to not go full, even though game itself tells you to just stay close.
Also I fucking love how you made mental gymnastics into the form of video game. Wow. That's taking already good even though very niche game into being pure art.
In the next updates I'd like if Ebony or even other girls if you make them playable, could straight up squish (at least non-lethally) bystanders. Want some landing on butt option too, currently I butt upgrade is just for better control in the air, which is valid too but it is criminal if she never uses her humongous behind to put down peope or create local Earthquake or maybe you will make things realistic and it will be the only way to land from tall buildings without losing HP.
People that say Sphere is OP/Strat/MLG/etc are wrong. It is decent and for quick and rather lazy play sure, but boobs + butt upgrade allows you to go REALLY fast in tight places and in some areas you can squeeze in the corner of between two buildings and bounce almost infinite (compared to vanilla bounce) time. Sphere can give 1,7 million , boobs + butt can give 4 million and more if you know what you are doing.
How to easily go from spherical to else?
How hard would it be to implement a GTA-esque minimap? I think that would really help.
I don't know how easy it would be but I could certainly try! ^^
Super happy the deflation minigame is gone, it was annoying that the game went through several updates with it still so broken.
Liking the game way more than I did before, and it's 100% playable now, almost fun with some of the inflation shapes.
Anyway, 3.2 observations:
I'm so glad you're liking the game so much better now! ^^
1. I have noticed after a while that it can be easy to lose track of them sometimes myself; I'll definitely take a look at remedying this at some point
2. I had noticed that it can be easy to get stuck at larger sizes especially with the belly bouncing around, but hadn't had the space to address it due to needing to settle the rest of the social mechanics. I do have some movement mechanic tweaks that I have in mind that might end up making it much less of an issue, but regardless of that I will be looking into that ^^
3. I'm happy to hear that spherical has changed from useless to even the most useful! I may well end up having to rebalance some parts of the system as a result soon enough lol.
4. The mealtimes are actually noted on the clock face with symbols/markings; they're not super clear, but there's one for breakfast, lunch, and then dinner, which will each trigger the hunger when the clock hand reaches them ^^
5. I had ended up neglecting adding that for a while now; I'll definitely try to put it in much sooner now!
6. I have noted more and more for a while now that it is pretty cumbersome; I do plan to do some movement refinements soon so I'll try to see what I can come up with to make it less annoying.
7. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on what I can do to make rolling the friends smoother ^^ The embarrassment was put in place as a sort of stopgap solution to get the ball rolling with the friends inflating and then needing to be escorted; I definitely will be making a much better interaction(s) in the near future when I can! ^^
Thank you very much for all the feedback! It'll definitely be very useful to help guide the refinements to the game~
really loving this game so far! is there going to be a save feature any time soon?
I'm so happy you're loving it so! I will try to add a save feature at some point soon, especially when it becomes more relevant with the characters relationship levels having a proper impact on the gameplay ^^
NPC eating contests would be fun especially if the npcs change in the same way as the main character.
I'll think about it! ^^
so what feuteres we need: more imrpoved graphic,animation,cutscenes,casual npc cillians,some fighting/action things.
The quick time event for deflating is too fast for me now. Change it, please. use number keys for QTE. and don't make it too fast
How to shrink down from sphere, please add feature. The deflate window is nonexistent. Also would be cool if her limbs could inflate making her higher or her arms reaching ground and more
does the size of the expansion rely on inflation potential, and does it always become spherical after a certain point?
The size of the expansion does generally correlate with the inflation potential amount, but it doesn't guarantee spherical after a certain point. It only forces spherical if you get even bigger beyond a certain point when you're already inflated ^^
Will you add blueberry inflation to the game? I would really like for it to be in V4.
I would like to try to add it at some point, but I can't guarantee it will be there in V4 ^^;
Is inflation still gonna be a central part of the game?
Of course! The whole point of the game is to be a tale about a girl trying to cope with an inflation curse, so it's always going to be central to the game ^^
i love this project, can i make some suggestions for the game?
I'm glad you like the game ^^
Making Ebony get taller during butt expansion would be technically complex to achieve ^^; I personally don't think it'd really make much sense in a game mainly about expansion
its okay, also are you still working on this game?
I am still working on the game, things have just gone a bit unexpectedly slow with a certain part of what I've got planned, but everything else is going well with it ^^
also, what is the button to stop while she is inflating to admire her shape?
I got Pretty huge, gonna try to get even bigger. lol love this game
I'm glad you're loving the game so! xD
Deff gonna sub to your donate page here in a sec, Would love to see more done with this project.
Awww, thank you very kindly; I really do appreciate the support! ^^
Nice! What did you do to get her so big
Can you maybe put customise the character and maybe have nude mod please
I do hope to add clothing options at some point, though I wont be adding any nudity, sorry ^^;
How is the progress on V4 coming along?
It's coming along pretty well! I should hopefully be able to show something about it soon enough ^^
i do hope you flesh out the entire thing its been very entertaining so far
Thank you! I do hope I'll be able to make this into a full and proper game some day ^^
I have an idea, what if there was a blueberry pie food item you could consume, and it has a chance to do a blueberry inflation to Ebony.
That could definitely be a good way to incorporate a blueberry into the game! ^^
I have another idea, outfits you can wear but first you need to purchase them with money.
I'm definitely wanting to add that at some point!
how do i earn money
After collecting one of the cubes, you'll be tasked with doing platforming move combos to try to get as high a score as possible for it; then you can open the writing menu to write to make money using the items you've collected by doing the aformentioned score challenges ^^
Enjoying the game a lot. Thank you for your continued development. I can't wait to see more!
I'm glad you're enjoying the game a lot despite its still slightly rough state ^^
Hopefully now that more of the game's design is worked out I can put out updates a fair bit more frequently! ^^
The game needs a map more than ever: specifically, it needs a map that shows all the restaurants, and especially which ones are open. It's infuriating having an empty hunger meter at night and not being able to do anything about it. It'd be nice to have a place to sleep until they open. I'd also like it if writing papers didn't pay pocket change. A multiplier over 15 and it's still worth less than a pound?!
I apologise for some parts of the game still being more obtuse than I anticipated ^^;
You can go to near where you spawned in the city to return to the hubmap where you can find the door to her house to sleep (it's on the other side of the building behind you when you first spawn when starting the game).
The lack of money might be to do with not having fulfilled the "requirements" on the left. You can still make money without them, but you get significantly less. I'm revamping this system in the next version to fix the lack of clarity there in addition to other things about it.
I'll definitely try to address the clarity issues with nighttime and sleeping in the next build, especially as it does intersect with the gameplay changes/additions I'm working on
Once again I apologize for how obtuse it is, it sort of slipped my mind while I was working on the core gameplay systems ^^;
Now that 3.1's out, bug report:
The little minigame to clear your inflation is still broken, it flickers the blue color for somewhere around 0.05-0.1 seconds on average, maybe a frame or two. The stretching minigame is fine, though.
If the tiny window of success is a feature and not a bug, then can we get a little line on the bar to help us time it instead of relying on luck or superhuman reflexes?
(Windows 10, playing with both a controller and KB+M, v3.1.0, both in town and in the starting zone, RTX 2070 Super, all settings maxed.)
I do hear everyone's pain about the deflation minigame, and I am looking into changing it to work differently (possibly as a random timed button sequence) so it doesn't appear as buggy (though I've been prioritizing nailing down more fundamental gameplay aspects/systems first, which I'll explain why shortly). There is a bit of a fundamental issue with it in the design side that's not so trivial to fix and that is the fact that I don't want the deflation to be too easy to do straight away as I want the experience to be having to deal with the inflation as and when it comes, which being able to deflate too soon and/or too easily ends up working against, since you'd be able to too easily just deflate to only have to experience your favorite moveset without consequnce/risk. So because I've still been hammering away at fundamentals of the game's overall structure, I've decided to leave the deflation be (although partly because I keep forgetting about too because never feel the need to use it myself even in long sessions) until some parts of gameplay are figured out so I can properly slot in all the different ways to deflate without fear of them not fitting into the game (I am already getting pretty near to another milestone for that, so it hopefully wont be that much longer until I can properly address the deflation mechanics). I do understand that this isn't really the most satisfactory explanation on what's going on with the deflation minigame, but hopefully you'll understand a bit of why it's taken so long to fix ^^;
Also, could you explain what you mean by "deflation is mandatory now with how the game is played?" ^^;
I don't really understand how any of the changes to the gameplay would make being inflated significantly harder than previously? Is it the new movement system/movesets (I made the inflation movesets have similar capabilities (lateral and vertical wall jumping especially) now, including spherical)? Is it the way that money is made now?
I was referring more to how being spherical prevents you from using most of your moveset and what counts as "tricks", keeping you from doing as well as you could during the rated trick sections.
Getting money and doing tricks during the other shapes seems fine, though.
Unrelated side note, suggestions:
1. A little glowing/dim OPEN sign for shops that are currently open/closed.
2. Some kind of change to how the text above the little trick block things appears; they're hard to read unless you get the camera really close.
3. Maybe a taunt/trick button that can be hit mid-trick to earn a little bonus points?
Thanks for getting back to me! ^^
That makes sense that the spherical feels that way at the moment, it is a lot harder to get the hang of, though it is possible to wall jump like normal if you charge the jump long enough and release close to a wall but not too close to the ground, which can get you a lot of speed that can earn you a massive number of points if done (though again it is a bit tricky to get the hang of). I'll definitely need to add in more tutorials once things are more settled ^^;
1. I'll definitely be considering adding a more outward visual indicator of the state of the shops so you don't have to check (or some way to get the opening times otherwise)
2. I am going to be replacing the cubes with more unique custom models for each once I'm able to get the chance to make them ^^
3. I'm definitely considering adding a trick button like that, especially since it could be fun to see how she tries to do them when inflated in various ways xD
I read somewhere 3.1 is going public soon, is that true?
Yes it is, it will be coming on around the 23rd ^^
From the videos I’ve seen on Twitter, 3.1.0 looks like it’ll be a lot of fun, and personally I can’t wait to try it. Though I still like the gameplay of 3.0.0, maybe it could be remade into an extra story mode of some kind perhaps? I feel that with a few tweaks it could be made into a fun side story where Ebony goes about her job dealing with the curse, and over the days slowly comes to terms with it, allowing her to reach higher max inflation sizes as the weeks go by. Then again, that’s just my idea, I’ll be happy with whatever gameplay these demos have to offer.
I am considering having something like the current job gameplay become some sort of minigame in the future, like she takes on the job for a day or two ^^