Hey folks, I’ve released a Devlog for November 2022 on this forum, and on the game’s itchio
I’ve also posted about my plans for releasing v1.0, which is coming up soon.
Thanks for your support!
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In my deployment devlog, I had mentioned working on a studio name to roll the final release deployment under for itchio as well as Steam. I’m letting you know that I’m changing all profiles that I can under the new trade name I’ve setup. I’ll be developing under Rule 34 Games. It also lets me separate development efforts between regular games and adult-themed games.
I’ve updated the links for itchio and patreon links, and letting you know so that you can adjust for them.
Meanwhile, I’ve received some good advice, in game development as well as naming. There is a lot of things out there named Project Gaia, including a tabletop board game. I’m sure someone will eventually not like the similar names. Therefore I’m relabeling the name of the game, and future downloads will reflect that. The new title will be Secrets of Gaia IV.
I’m hard at work on the project so trying to keep the message small to get back to it. I’ll provide more updates soon.
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Okay but where can I download Secrets of Gaia I-III?
In all seriousness, though, congrats on a big step towards a professional release. To be honest, I’m actually surprised no one else is already using Rule 34 Games as a studio or publisher name.
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Thanks! Searching the internet, others are using it to describe the games, but not as a name. This also gives me time to test the waters, and if I have to register another name before release, then at least I’m not doing it after.
Does the game continue after act 4, or can I not do anything at that point?
Act 4 was supposed to be a story extension to support the special endings I was able to get some art for. But there was some snags with some of the puzzles and story to help finish Act IV. I’m working on more of the story, and with NPCs available now, I’m adding another story arc that supplements Act III and IV, and help get players to the endings.
Am I doing something wrong? I keep trying to find the Patreon but every link I find, whether here or in the itch page, does not work.
I tried updating the links when I changed to the studio name.
Thanks for the heads up, I’ll get some fresh links up there when I get back from an errand
I downloaded the game and played through a ton of it. Liked the art and some aspects of the story, but I am gonna be honest, and I’m gonna be brutal about it…
The gameplay sucks. Sorry.
When I started the game and went down to the planet, I started out by gathering resources and fighting anomalies. At first, I thought it was okay. It certainly wasn’t the greatest combat, but I assumed it would improve as I leveled and unlocked new abilities. However, as I played, I started to notice that I was doing a lot of the same things over and over. I go to the planet, I collect resources, I fight anomalies, repeat. The loop never changed. Only one different enemy showed every once in awhile, a boss, and it was basically the same enemy with different art.
I noticed that GB’s were getting hard to collect, and when I first leveled up, I was disappointed that when you purchase a level up, you don’t gain a level, but a random amount of XP. I understand giving random GB for the Anomalous Signals that you collect, but the XP you gain for leveling up should not be random.
At some point, I just decided to cheat in more GB and level myself up a ton in order to make combat less of a hassle, and that is when I learned of a cardinal sin: every enemy levels up with the player. I understand a bit of scaling, but enemy strength should be tied to sectors, not player level. What is the point of leveling up if it makes every enemy an even bigger bullet sponge?
You also unlock new abilities as you level up, but the problem is that Basic Scan and Deep Scan are the only two that matter. Sector Sweep is useless when you only fight one enemy at a time; Stasis has a 50/50 chance between causing an enemy to skip 1 turn, the equivalent of doing nothing, or just ignore it entirely, the equivalent of being stunned yourself; and Oscillating Scan seems to do such pitiful damage despite the multiple attacks. Did I also mention that every enemy has the same attack with varying amounts of power? That’s right, combat just devolves into a back and forth where both of you are throwing out the same attacks over and over again, and while there is some of that in all RPG Maker games, there are ways to mitigate that problem. Status Effects, Damage types, and Buff/Debuff abilities that work make for a much more interesting combat experience. I should also mention that not every ability needs to take 5 seconds to perform and needs to include a flashing light.
However, as I was fighting these enemies, I realized there was one perfect technique to win, a guaranteed win button you could say… Escape. That’s right, the best way to engage with the combat system is to ignore it entirely. Combat can reward you with GB and Materials, but the problem is that Materials are easy enough to gather, and GB will still be a grind, even if you engage in combat. Escape works every time, until you gain the Starving Condition and can’t escape, but as long as you have been avoiding fights, that should never be a problem.
Eventually, I rebuilt the ship and charged the engines, but I must admit that I felt no satisfaction in said accomplishment, as all it took was a lot of repetitive grinding. There was no challenge, only slog.
I understand that I am being really harsh about this game, but even if this is a fetish game, it is still a game, and bearable gameplay is important. I don’t need good gameplay, but at a bare minimum, it needs to stay out of the way of the fetish content, and at best it needs to be fun. This game does have potential, and has fun aspects, but some of the mechanics need an overhaul.
If I were to recommend some changes, I would adjust the combat system with different types of anomalies; add some more diverse and versatile abilities; buff some of the current abilities to make them worth their energy cost; change the leveling system to level you up each time you spend GB on it, and just steadily increase the cost like everything else; tie enemy levels to their areas of the map; and find ways to make the game less grindy, probably involving adjusting the material system somehow.
I hope that this review is able to help your construction of the game and that this doesn’t come across as too harsh. With love… jabthebear.
I don’t think you were being too harsh. All of the problems stem from the combat and encounter system, which I can’t deny that it has been a problem since the beginning. I am still trying to find way to rebuild that part of the game. I’ll take the notes and look at them further. I appreciate you checking out the game. I’m currently working on a new release, and you’ll see it here when it is out.
Got it. Glad I wasn’t being to harsh. Didn’t want to seem like I was bashing the game over nothing. Good luck on future development and have a good new year!
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So I’m in act 4, and I have the circuit board needed to repair Alice, but I have no idea where to use it. Interacting with alive herself does nothing, and nothing else seems to work. help, please?
I selected “I’m feeling kinda lonely” at the beginning of the game and spent the first like hour wondering why it was a preg game lmao
After going back and selecting the hungry option, I gotta say, it’s been really fun! Not to mention the fact of it being a newer rpg maker, which gives it a new, fresh feel in comparison to other rpg maker games on here! Good game man! 
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OK so I’ve put a bit of time into this and figured it might be worth giving some feedback (sorry if some of this seems overly critical etc).
The Good:
- Nice story idea
- Cool idea about the events / story progression stuff
- pretty damn good art
The Bad:
- I think there needs to be an explantion of the games terms etc, I picked up ENG and DIST and what they did by playing but I’m still not 100% sure what WP is, I think its potential energy or something but I’m really not 100% on that mechanic.
- The grind is real and feels like kind of a real issue as it kills the games pacing
- Auto save in nice but having goofed and just loaded a file rather than saved it and the game then auto saving I lost a fair chunk of progress (yes my own fault admittedly on this one) but maybe have it auto save only at key story progression moments and or going to and from the ship.
- You actually can’t seem to access the cave system (the one where you destroy the floor with your weight again once you leave which can make the grind worse as that was a decent possible source for special ores.
Suggestions (Don’t know how useful these will be but I’d rather offer some possible solutions than just throw problems out there and to be clear I know some of these may be somewhat mutually exclusive options.).
- Either scrap the auto enemy scaling system (part of the fun of some RPG games is going back to grind earlier areas and being able to wipe the floor with enemies there which will make grinding quicker). OR increase the rewards for higher level enemies in terms of GB drops as it would make some sense a larger tougher anomoly would give more data.
- More uses for lets say more common ores. This is another point where the game seems to hit a roadblock as you seemingly have to grind for the rarer ores so maybe have some sci-fi explanation of the idea you can extract atoms of the rarer ores but the process desroys the other ore. From a game perspective other RPG games still let you sell the less useful loot to get something but as is the more common rre doesn’t seem to have that much use once you’ve got most of the items. Another option is having the ability to use the ore for “destructive research” in the research lab where the testing destroys the ore but helps give GB by expanding knowledge about the ores.
- Additional planetary scans find more of the tougher anomolies or the anomoly endurance events - again to fight the grind a big source of GB is the “Phoenix” anomlies or the one where you have to endure wavs and once these are gone progres slows down hower having scans find more of them would possible make some sense. OR have the anaomolies randomly respawn in other area when you go to one of the different map locations (they are living / random after all).
- Nerf the health & health scaling of the trashmobs / lesser anomolies - this seems to contribute to the feeling of it being grindy as basic enemies seem to take so long to fight and I’ll say maybe first time to a new location when you’re about on par with their level the rate is right but afer that (and this ties into point 1) you want to be feeling / seeing them get far easier to deal with to give a better sense of progression.
Honestly though while the good section seems like the smaller one here I want to say it far outweighs the issues I’ve had so far and I hope you keep up the good work because I really think with just a bit of refinement that this game could one people remember and stands as an example for aspiring weight gain game devs for a long time to come.
So question, is there a way to get the green circuit board in case you fail the salvaging check? Or does failing that softlock the game?
Inflation is in the tags, but I don’t recall seeing much content relating to it back when I first played it when the game came out. Has this changed?
I don’t believe Inflation is in the game yet. Last I checked, as of a month ago, there is Pregnancy and Weight Gain, but the Inflation option is still disabled.
I saw that where are code things on 2 beds in the upper floor… is that sort of debug and how can i access
Added to be space planned out for extra content. Whether if I need more things on the ship for main story content, or if I have space left over for some more extras. Not yet accessible.
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I do like the game a lot. Cuz it has the other fetishes in too. Though I wonder what else will be added and how complex the win conditions will get. Any want to add more hyper sizes or transformations?