Faehna Engine - 3D multiplayer sandbox survival

[unknownman115]

Given how much of a grand undertaking this game is AimilsFat, I completely understand if this game takes a while, especially the news you mentioned in your recent post. I also believe the sheer potential alone, will draw in various folks to an extent.

The multiplayer aspect of this game, will definitely amplify the existing difficulty due to the real possibility of say, hackers, griefers n trolls, but thats a given with multiplayer games. Have you considered a singleplayer test playbuild for say patreon members or if need be, a public version so players can check for bugs on your behalf?

[AimiIsFat]

@unknownman115

The multiplayer aspect of this game, will definitely amplify the existing difficulty due to the real possibility of say, hackers, griefers n trolls, but thats a given with multiplayer games.

The game is generally balanced around groups of 2-5 players, up to 10. Most servers will likely be private (requires a single-use code from the server administrator to create an account) so unless you’re inviting someone who you think will be hacking or trolling, this isn’t a very big issue.

That doesn’t mean I won’t be adding code to prevent cheating, it just means that most people won’t have too much of an issue here even if there are bugs.

@unknownman115

Have you considered a singleplayer test playbuild for say patreon members or if need be, a public version so players can check for bugs on your behalf?

The game is open source. You can go and download it free. As in, right now, though the repository isn’t currently up to date and it isn’t properly playable and you’d have to learn how to build from source. It is freely available and always will be.

The only planned monetization so far is:

• Patrons get an official hosted server with maintenance and tech support.

  • You aren’t required to use an official server. You can host it free on your computer or pay for another provider without any additional fees.

• Patrons get the latest build one month early.

  • If you aren’t a patron, you still have the source code free so if you can’t afford it, you’re still free to compile the game at no additional cost.

  • It’s less of a “you have to pay for this” and more of an “if you have the money then you’ll go for the convenient option, but if you can’t afford it, you’re more willing to try the less convenient option” sort of situation. I am very poor so I can understand not wanting to spend money even if the game ends up being really well made.

• Patrons get access to all DLC (technically mods).

  • Note: DLC will never paywall major features. DLC is planned to primarily be bonus regions with their own separate story, culture, characters, possibly races, and events. Most worlds will probably use default generation, meaning they aren’t in a region at all.

  • Note 2: A region is a large static map that is manually created and features lots of lore-relevant places and secrets, as well as the content mentioned above.

  • The first two regions are free and included in the base game by default. I won’t spoil too much about them, however.

  • DLC is also open source. The “inconvenient route” mentioned earlier still applies.

• Donations, obviously.

Note: All of the above is subject to change, minus being open source. That will never change.

I’m not really a greedy person, though. I’ve always been poor so I don’t really care for being rich or any of that. Hypothetically, if revenue paid a reasonable salary (like a couple thousand or so), I would start stripping down all the monetization and only ask for donations since all I really need out of this is to pay the bills and be well fed.

@unknownman115

singleplayer test playbuild

This isn’t possible by the way. The game is multiplayer. You either code it to allow multiplayer or you code it to be exclusively singleplayer. This is a decision you make at the very beginning of development. Converting it to a singleplayer game would be very hard.

You can compare it to Minecraft. Even if you’re playing singleplayer in Minecraft, you’re actually running a separate server locally on your computer and connecting to it, it just isn’t open to the public.

[unknownman115]

Ah, I see I see, so in a sense it is like Minecraft, I never knew how single player really worked in minecraft. I’m also relieved about how the servers will function in regards to the server administrators code for creating accounts. While trolling isn’t an issue, hacking on the other hand, much more likely to occur but, not as big of an issue since unless this game REALLY took off like minecraft or angry birds did, not much to worry about imo.

As for the monetization, 100% understandable as developing a multiplayer fetish game, models alone will eat up a lot of time (seen this plague many game devs trying to add say bigger bellies, boobs, ect.) to their games. The early access for patrons is a good idea to iron out any obvious/easy to replicate bugs and the public one, where the more obscure, harder to find bugs are discovered. Best of luck AimilsFat!

[AimiIsFat]

Note:

For context, please read this earlier post, either as a reminder or if you haven’t already seen it.

Update on MGR + Sneak Peaks

To start off, I will be completely honest. The Patreon’s at $27 a month. I genuinely can’t live when it’s that low. Unfortunately, I can’t just get a job like most people. I wasted an entire year of my life trying to get a job but unfortunately, my disabilities (mainly severe PTSD) make that incredibly difficult and I don’t think it’s a realistic option for me, especially when my PTSD is even worse than before (see previous post). I genuinely can’t function properly most days due to it and that would make it impossible for me to keep a “real” job. I feel sick just trying to write this post.

This isn’t just begging for money though. I am doing real honest work on MGR, which I can actually now confirm the official name will just be Monster Girl Ranch. It was more of a code name previously until a new name came but the team seems to have gotten rather attached to the name Monster Girl Ranch and I do think it is quite a good name as well.

Obviously, you shouldn’t just trust that I’m doing work. I’ve got a couple screenshots and assets from the game to show that it’s real and it’s getting done quite quickly. You can expect a free demo coming either around Christmas or early next year.

Sneak Peaks

The farm map, designed by me. WIP.

Tons of different scenes I’ve made and scripts I’ve written so far.

The logo, also by me. Note: WIP. Likely to change.

And here is a little bit of art from our wonderful artist:

There will be 3 characters available in the demo with 9 stages each. The third character is a harpy, though her design is currently unfinished.

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Thank you for taking the time to read through all this. I hope to see you all trying out the MGR demo that is coming soon. It will be linked here when it’s out. If you want to support my work so I don’t have to find other ways of funding this project, please come support me on Patreon. Every donation counts, especially to smaller creators. My goal is just $50 a month currently. Even a $7 or $3 subscription is a big help.

[AimiIsFat]

We’re Back

And with more developers.

Faehna Engine is back in development. I’ve found a decent way to work on the game in a more healthy way and not get terrible burnout from forcing myself to work on the more painful parts of the game too often.

I spend like half the day just thinking about how to improve this game so it’s quite difficult to keep me away from it even back when I was really badly burned out. It’s just what I like to do.

I will be primarily working on the more fun bits. I’ve massively cut down on the extra “bloat” in development work for features which were just kind of excessively complex and really didn’t need to be added. The vast majority of the game will be the same. It’s primarily smaller features I didn’t even mention previously that are being removed.

By the way, here’s a little “fun bit” if you’re interested:

If you’re curious what that was, I’m testing the new character controller. It’s very early in development but it’s basically a physics-based character which reacts to being hit by objects.

I’m a pretty big fan of physics-based games. They’re often very fun and even though they can sometimes be a bit janky, it usually ends up being a funny sort of jank. I didn’t originally plan on having many physics-based features but it sounds like a nice way to make development (and gameplay) more fun.

Big Important Note

Yet again, the planned systems have been changed up massively to be a lot easier to make. The good news is this means it will be far far easier to develop the game. The bad news is that the whole project just got scrapped (as it would be easier to just restart than to fix the old version), but we will be back faster than ever this time, especially because we have a massive overhaul planned of the system that was taking about 90% of development time, meaning we should get it done in maybe 1/10 of the original time.

Every time we fail, we come back more experienced. No matter what, this game will be done. I promise that to all of you.

More Good News

I am now joined by BurntPencil, an artist who I’ve had some very good experiences working with on MGR. He will likely be assisting me with the art and FaeCharm, the character model. Please check out his DeviantArt above and maybe give him a commission if you’d like to support us.

Speaking of FaeCharm…

A Bit of Bad News

FaeCharm is currently on hold. I am no longer directly working on it as it is one of the main reasons I had severe burnout. It just isn’t what I enjoy doing, though I’m quite good at it at least so I am teaching BurntPencil character modeling to assist with it.

However, we could really use a dedicated character modeler. If you have any skill in character modeling then please consider sending me a message through the forum. We can provide payment if necessary.

About the Patreon

The current Patreon will be shut down in the future. Since I am joined by BurntPencil, we are setting up a Patreon which is a 30-30-40 split with the 40 going back to development costs (such as commissioning sprite artists or paying a 3D modeler as mentioned above). The Plump Pasture Co Patreon will be made public on the day we release any game.

However, I would still recommend checking out the Patreon as I am currently paying all the development costs out of pocket at the moment, including hosting our WIP website, buying asset packs, and more. Any support is appreciated, especially since I’ve had to be off one of my important medications which is very draining for my sanity. It’s a stomach medication so I haven’t been able to eat properly in a few months and lost about 10 lbs. Even just a couple more $7 subscriptions would be enough for me to get back on my medication.

Incomplete List of Planned Changes

• Massive QoL improvements.
  • This also means you no longer have to have the game open twice (one server and one client) in order to play.
• Full singleplayer support.
• Balance adjustment modes at world creation.
  • Single mode (1 player)
  • Couple mode (2-3 players)
  • Group mode (4+ players)
  • Note: The player count is only a recommendation.
• Servers will be limited to 8 active players but I recommend 4 or less.
• Dedicated server support is scrapped.
  • Having the game primarily aimed at running on a server was because of old plans for the game which have since changed.
  • To play multiplayer, you simply need to enter into a world and then host multiplayer.
    • Note: Requires you to port forward on port 17007. I will provide a short tutorial on this when the game releases.
• Granular weight gain will be on hold.
  • Due to technical limitations relating to bone movement, I am not quite sure how to make granular weight gain at the moment, so weight gain will be in stages for the foreseeable future.
  • Granular just means gradual, as in, rather than being 5 set stages for example, it is a slider of 0 to 1 which includes 0.2, 0.35315, or any other decimal.
  • So in other words, we are just doing weight stages.
  • This is also to make the modeling easier since I am no longer working on it.

[xxsingletakengamerxx]

Thrilled to see Faehna Engine back in development!!

[AimiIsFat]

Big Announcement

I have been pretty busy with a certain fundraising game recently since I’m homeless (working from a cheap motel room and bypassing my phone plan’s hotspot limit for unlimited free internet) so Faehna kind of unintentionally went on hold for a while because I apparently sucked at planning out games.

Fortunately, I no longer suck at planning out games. Somehow that was the main issue because I was working on a ton of unnecessary things that cause a ton of burnout without doing proper prototypes for everything and actually focusing on what needed to be done.

There was also the issue that I tended to put way too much in a single script which led to huge barely-readable scripts which weren’t very easy to work with. They are now split into far smaller and far more modular scripts which are very easy to write and extend the functionality of.

And I don’t have nothing to show for this announcement either. In just the past few days, I’ve already started from the beginning again and gotten two characters to connect to the same game together and interact with each other.

Next is terrain interaction, which should actually be quite easy. I don’t develop the Voxel Tools module which creates the terrain. All I really do is modify the terrain and then sync it to other players. I do create the terrain generation chart though.

The “Big” Part

There are various changes that were decided on during the time I was working on the other game. (I can’t stop thinking about this game even if I’m trying to focus on another project…)

1. The game will be SFW by default.
2. The NSFW content will be added through an official mod released on the forum alongside the game.
3. The SFW version will still include some particularly squishy character models with some “fun” sliders in case you’re just feeling like expressing yourself a little better without all the fetish content.
4. The SFW version will still be considered 18+ so I can do whatever with it (and children are annoying) but not outright p#rn so I don’t get obliterated by payment processors. (Thanks for the idea @Parnash)
5. The style has been changed up a bit. Characters will be about the same but the environment graphics will be a little more realistic, similar to Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom.

There’s probably some more in the new description that you can see if you go back to the top. It should explain most of the game.

Anyways, I have been working since the moment I got out of bed. Actually probably before that because I was already planning what to do in bed. I should really lay down… and plan some more while I’m at it.

EDIT: I think this was the first time I ever made a spelling mistake in an official post. Maybe sleep deprivation is bad…

Also, I am very open to feedback about the game’s changes so feel free to comment.

[AimiIsFat]

v0.0.2 Completed

Goal: Terrain added; Terrain is synced with other players

Terrain generation has been added… with materials and cool hills as well because for some reason I really like adding things that are completely unnecessary but this will be helpful later. You can’t actually see the dirt or rock underneath the grass yet but it’ll be visible later.

Materials will also have sides at some point so these hills won’t just look like grass mounds any more.

Terrain is also synchronized between players and two players can load terrain separately from each other. A demonstration of two far away players is visible below.

Note: The low render distance here is just for testing and demonstration. It will likely be adjustable in the final version.

Note 2: The current implementation of the terrain generator is not the most efficient. It will have to be rewritten in C++ at some point. I did make sure to optimize as much as was reasonable, however. This is also not really a game that will run well in general on lower end devices due to its nature.

Next: v0.0.3

Goal: Basic terrain editing which is synchronized between players.

v0.0.4 will be an extremely simple structure system using placeholders.
v0.0.5 will be saving and loading.
v0.0.6 will be authentication and naming.
v0.0.7 will be options and basic world customization.

v0.1 will be the first pre-alpha release and also the first thing you can technically play. It will have a bit more polish, probably just implementing placeholder animations and making the UI a little prettier. Maybe a fancier title screen as well. Also documentation so anyone who would like to help can actually tell what stuff does.

I am not really mentally well at the moment (loneliness sucks) so I will be taking a break after posting this.

EDIT: Like a day-long break, not putting the game on hold again or anything…

[AimiIsFat]

Placeholder Animations

I am incapable of not working on this game so my “break” was adding something which was going to be added before the v0.1 release anyways.

They are synced as well of course.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that a simple implementation of head bobbing which tracks the animation is also added.

[AimiIsFat]

Terrain Digging Prototype

I worked on a small prototype of the terrain digging system. It will be a little easier to use and probably a bit less powerful than this but this is mainly to test out the ability to dig through terrain.

The video is fairly compressed since it’s long (this is why I avoid posting long videos) and I don’t really want to steal all of grot’s file storage so it’s a fair bit pixelated but you can still see what’s going on.

[flatbreadaside]

this engine looks incredibly promising! im looking forwards to seeing more progress on it and i wish you luck on development!

[AimiIsFat]

The terrain editing is turning out quite a bit harder than expected to get working well. It is a fairly complex system so I will be refactoring the current code a bit before moving forward.

It shouldn’t be too difficult. The reason it is somewhat difficult in the first place is because I am using custom functions to edit individual voxels rather than the simple built-in functions.

This is because the built-in functions cannot discriminate based on material or return the amount of material removed or added. This is not necessary in v0.1, but it will be necessary starting from v0.2 and beyond, so it is better to get it out of the way sooner rather than later.

It should be all good in a day or two if nothing goes wrong.

[AimiIsFat]

Development Update (Yes, it’s still in development)

Apologies for the sudden disappearance! My girlfriend left me. Yes, I’m lesbian. I needed a bit of a break from posting because of that, but stuff is still getting done. I’m back to working on the game almost daily again.

Also, I am more mentally healthy and have friends (not in real life though) and only sometimes have random uncontrollable mental breakdowns with scary hallucinations. Yippee :3. Back to work.

Short (not really) summary:

• Graphics :3

• I found multiple ways to implement water and beaches without editing the horrifying black box known as the terrain mesher.

  • The quick method (everything under a certain height is water) is coming soon.

  • The longer method (the above except only in beach chunks so you can dig deep underground) might be coming in the first release or next couple versions.

  • The painful and scary original method will come some time in the future.

• Biomes. Unnecessary at this point but I was taking a break from the terrain editor and wanted to have some fun. Very easy to program and add more of them, though this is a very simple prototype version of biomes.

• meow

• I learned more web development. Expect a website and blog in the future. :3

• single again!!! noooo :<

• The terrain editor’s core functionality is finished. The remove operation is complete. Flatten, smooth, and grow will be added later. I need a break from that.

• A place to keep all the error codes.

• Some other stuff too probably.

Currently: Adding basic oceans because it’s fun and they look pretty. Maybe swimming. The structure placement system will be coming next. Or maybe the account system.

Stuff remaining:
(Question mark = optional)

• Account system
  • Authentication
  • Character creation
    • Naming
    • Pronouns >:3 (just to annoy certain types of people)
  • Character saving and loading
• Terrain editor
  • Core
  • Remove
  • Smooth
  • Flatten
  • Grow
• Character
  • Camera
  • Gravity
  • Movement
  • Jumping
  • Sprinting
  • Swimming?
• Terrain
  • Generator Core
  • Basic noise-based generation
  • Advanced generation?
    • Temperature
    • Humidity
    • Ridge-based mountains
  • Biomes
    • Simple height-based version
    • Advanced climate-based biomes?
  • Decoration generation? (rocks, trees, etc)
  • Ocean?
    • Basic version
    • Chunk-based version
• Structure editor
  • Core
  • Floor
  • Wall
    • Supports
  • Ceiling
  • Roof

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As always, thank you all for reading this and staying here even though I’m not very consistent with updates and all that. I was a “little” suicidal for a while there but I’m doing better now so expect a lot more* to come in the future. It does really suck being single, though…

*Just maybe don’t expect me to post about it on here that often because I really don’t like being formal since I prefer to always be myself but the game is absolutely being worked on whenever I’m mentally ready for it.

Oh, also, we are still looking for a 3D character modeler if anyone is interested. It is a paid position. Send a message through the forum if you’re interested. Or send an email to PlumpPasture@pm.me.

[toastedbuffalo621]

-meow

so hyped to play this feature

[Dark_Webster]

Been here for two years watching this, hope to see your good work continue.