an artist does not own the style their art is made in
1 Like
This artist changed his style, he’s trying to be better and he just improved his self and I watched that improvement every update.
4 Likes
I have come again with more fan art by @BlueLLAMA and boogeydownfunkytown on Discord (I don’t know who boogey is on the WG forums) to show.
Thanks for the fanart!
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Episode 4 Plus - Minor Update
I’ve uploaded a minor update, it’s called “Episode 4 Plus”. Most of the fetish stuff is in the bad ending which is expansion/inflation focused. The bad ending isn’t in the actual episode currently since I don’t know how to get it to work, sorry.
To access the new stuff:
- Interact with Q-Mark to see all the BTS stuff, Episode 4 is the new one
- Interact with Charu to access the Ep4 bad ending, contains the largest CG so far!
- Interact with the fortune ball thing to see the Ep5 preview
Old saves should work, but if you start a new game you can also go to the end with the new stuff in the episode select.
Still has some WIP stuff, it’s about 20 minutes of new scenes.
Other Changes and Fixes:
- Miranda had the wrong gym sprite in Ep2 which I’ve fixed
- Various Ep4 typos (thanks Wulf)
- Added a new sprite for Riley in Ep2
I’ll try to fix the WIP stuff at some point. I want to finish Ep5 before the year is over, although I also want to catch up on other things I’ve been neglecting.
12 Likes
I have to say, I’ve been genuinely surprised by how invested I got into this. I’ve been putting off playing this since I’m not in the mood for more Some Bullshit clones, but I genuinely found myself liking the characters, the art, and dramatic tension of everything!
I will say I do think the game could trim some fat, a LOT happens throughout each episode and I don’t quite know if I would say its sustainable. I’m reminded of Apostles and how much goes into an update and the update cycle, and that one doesn’t even do all its own art assets! I hope you don’t get burnt out…
2 Likes
Thanks, yeah I mean I’ve been taking shortcuts when I can so it’s not as bad. For example I want custom tilesets that fit in style with the character sprites, but it’s too much work for me so I’ve just been doing the characters because I think that’s more important. Also since there’s not really any complicated gameplay (and whenever I try to do it nothing works and I give up) that doesn’t take up much time either. Most time is spent scripting the scenes and making graphics.
I don’t feel burnt out at all, or at least, I still enjoy working on the game and it’s been over a year now since I started making the first maps in July 2023. I don’t think two-three month gaps between updates is going to happen anymore, but something like within six months is a reasonable goal if I keep an episode under an hour. I’ve gained quite a few adoring fans the last few months which is highly motivating for entirely different reasons than when I started.
I think my pace is sustainable. If for some reason I don’t feel like I have nearly anything done by the end of the year then I might change my approach. As it stands I think it’s OK.
I would prefer Apostles clone over Some Bullshit clone, but that hasn’t stuck so whatever.
5 Likes
I’ll say one of the main reasons I gave the game a try initially was precisely because you mentioned your inspiration from Apostles! I’ve stuck around since and sincerely hope you keep at it (as well as the excellent DA arts 
)
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In fairness, I chose SB over Apostles thanks to how Apostles has its whole “book time” scenes where it just gives you a whole text block over showing anything, which you haven’t really felt the need to. Excusing that I guess you can argue its more Apostles as SB definitely tries to be more “gamey” while Apostles is ultimately a visual novel in RPGMaker. Tone-wise, I would say it sits in between the two games thanks to having both serious drama and goofy meme/kink deals. It definitely sides more on SB though, you can’t really get to Apostle’s level without the copious amounts of rape anyhow!
Still, you have your own niche! Just hope you don’t find the conflicting tones and massive cast (in both sense of the words) too much to balance.,
2 Likes
It’s been one year since the first release, this calls for a pizza celebration!
Looks like that diet program isn’t working out.
There’s been more fanart in the Discord since last time which I can share here (I think I got everything):
Fanart
Ange by Buckets
UG Rhea and Hungerdome design by kevdango
Mira by E-Mira
Farquaad Courts Ange by Electric Joffrey aka bob_billing
Duh Aburgider Efecc by All Hell Breaks Loose
Thank you very much!
I’ve made smaller status updates on the Discord channel, but not here because I don’t like bumping the thread myself without much to show. I can summarize what progress has been like since last time (mostly September).
I would say Episode 5 is about 40% done.
- Almost every map has been put in the game there’s like one missing so I would say that’s 90% done. The progression/flow of the episode is basically there already with a lot of placeholders.
- About 50% of the art is done. Most of the character sprites are finished, a lot of faces have been finished, it’s mainly faces and CGs left.
- The writing/scripting (creating the events) is like 30% done. Some scenes are finished but most are not fully written. This is the part that’s going to take the longest time I think.
I can share some preview screenshots if you want a more revealing glimpse of the next episode and also to show I’m not making shit up:
Ep5 previews (WIP subject to change)
Scene stuff:
early Hungerdome layout for one of the scenes (I’ve already changed some parts though):
Some partially finished CG teasers I’ve cropped:
I don’t want to reveal more than that until the episode is out. As usual, expect the unexpected as well as more belly stuffing content involving curious scenarios that make the brain ponder.
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Happy Birthday Abu Dhabi Affect!!!
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Episode 5 - Battle on the Hungerdome
Synopsis:
A declaration of battle has come crashing forth! Can Team Rhea of Sol Earth best the insidious serpents of Team Snake Eyes from the M1 Crab Nebula? Find out in this next pulse-stopping episode of The Abugida Effect! Warning: Contains copious amounts of belly stuffing and burping! There’s a little bit of weight gain too. (Also minor vore as a gag.)
Changelog:
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Added Episode 5.
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Retroactively updated Ange and Phil’s indoors uniform faces for Ep2 onward.
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Added a teaser for Episode 6.
About saves: Old saves should be fully compatible. It’s hard to playtest everything though.
I completed another one, it’s about an hour long. There is also a teaser for Ep6 at the end.
I’ll probably have a smaller update next with fixes and other smaller things I didn’t finish (like Mira and James’ indoor uniform faces).
I think half of my motivation working on this “game” at this point is because of fans, so thank you.
23 Likes
I finally decided to play (?) this game. Actually, I did it when there was only a demo, but left it for a reason I couldn’t remember, perhaps I was expecting a game, not a movie. Do I regret that I came back? … Most likely yes.
The art is great, really. Despite the troubles (more on them later), I really liked the style, simple and pleasing to the eye. I still haven’t figured out if you’re using AI or not, but it doesn’t really matter to me.
The visible advantages ended there. Then there are only doubts and denials.
Plot. My main problem (or not) and the reason is why I wrote this comment. I’m not completely sure what I didn’t like. Perhaps these are frequent jumps from scene to scene (at least somewhere around 2-4 episodes. Maybe it’s the motivation and behavior of the characters that I can’t understand. Perhaps these are often dark topics raised, such as cruelty, revenge, self-flagellation, etc. in a fetishistic story about stuffing, weight gain and inflation. It is possible that stuffing characters often leads to problems and even severe pain. And it is possible (most likely) that I can’t get rid of the feeling that everything that happens to girls comes from evil intentions and influence, although they exist without it. An enemy invisible man roams the ship, the existence of the ship itself depends on an incomprehensible girl with su-de inclinations, the “hero” is very suitable either for seed or for a madman (at least his connection with Cody very much hints at the first, but the scene between the first and the second, it seems, it upsets), some kind of entity slowly but surely it changes girls, and it’s not clear how widespread this is. Damn, throughout the fifth episode, I have a feeling that this is all going to end badly, even realizing that, in theory, the ship’s crew itself will lose nothing except one crew member. I’m glad my feelings let me down.
Again, I’m not sure if the problem is in the plot, maybe I just haven’t gotten used to it, or my life circumstances are preventing me from relaxing and enjoying things that I usually get excited about. In any case, I intend to follow the story now, although for the most part I feel negative.
The lack of real “gameplay” is probably disappointing to some, but this is what’s feasible for me. I’d love to have cool minigames or branching paths or whatever, but it’s hard enough creating scenes I’m happy with. I’d rather have no gameplay than bad gameplay. Also, in terms of personal preference I like these linear narrative games. A lot of my favorite visual novels are pure “sound novels” with no choices at all. A large part of who I am is from reading VNs when I was younger.
I’m drawing the art myself using PaintNET. I should use something better at this point, but I’ve been using this software for basically my entire life so it’s hard to switch. Plus honestly I really like trying to push tech limitations. It’s like seeing the crazy stuff they did with pixel art in the 80s and 90s with such limited hardware and restrictions.
I’ve never fully written a story before like this. I’ve seen and read plenty of stuff over the course of my current life so this is me trying to apply what I like into something. I’m not a professional writer or anything, so the scene transitions are probably more jarring than they should be. Character motivations are meant to be a mystery, at least for some of them. I’m sure there’s some plot inconsistencies, especially with Ep1 dialogue when I didn’t have as much of a grasp on it, but I try my best to keep everything in order. I still think my character dialogue is pretty stiff, but I think it’s been getting better over time.
Yes, the story has a dark undertone. This is fully deliberate and my intention, corruption is core concept of the narrative. There’s an argument here about “why have serious themes in a fetish game?” or “why have goofy jokes in a dark/edgy setting?” and my answer is because I want to do it. I love seeing silly jokes in a drama, I think the funniest stuff I’ve seen has always been in something more serious. That’s just how my brain works. I think an expert writer can easily balance the mood of a story the same way a comedian can read the mood of a room and know what jokes will be funny. Not that I think I’m an expert.
Bad things will happen. I enjoy seeing characters in a story struggle from hardship. Maybe I’m a bit sadistic, but I think the cruelty makes people more interesting. You get to see the human nature more. I’m inspired by my favorites like Fukumoto’s Kaiji manga which I always come back to catch up on (it’s still on-going somehow). But just in general his manga I think really strips people down to their raw emotions, their core beliefs. So yeah, I think stuff like that crosses my mind when I’m trying to write. There’s also Your Turn To Die which is a great adventure game made in RPGMaker which I was really impressed with for similar reasons.
I’m sorry you feel negative about the plot. I’m not trying to ruin your day even if that’s the outcome. I’m glad you’re interested enough to finish the whole thing so far and want to see more. I want to see more too…
10 Likes
10/10 story. Having heavy themes makes better. It make’s it feel more real and also it makes you want to know how it ends.
2 Likes
Yeah I mean it’s probably a boner killer for some people, especially if you don’t care about what’s happening and just want fap material. That’s not my goal though, I want to express myself creatively, and having my own fetishes in it comes as a large motivation factor for the story. The fetish aspect is why I’m only sharing it here and not with like my normie friends or family who have no idea I’m doing this.
5 Likes
Thank you so much! I’m a pretty self-driven and critical person so I always feel like I can do better. I think feeding the player little bits of knowledge about the setting over time is a much better and engaging way to write a story, instead of just lore-dumping tons of information all at once which can be boring. Even though I can’t really experience the game as a player myself, I too want to have fun making the damn thing.
I finished Ep5 earlier than I thought I would so I’ll probably have some touched-up version released in December with fixed art and extra stuff. As for Ep6 I can’t possibly guess a release date right now, although I do have a rough outline made. I think it will be a lot of fun if I can get certain things to work well.
Also a little fun fact you’ll probably enjoy based on your username and avatar: I specifically named Oko as a nod to the MTG Planeswalker that has the busted “+2 Create a food token” ability.
3 Likes
Game finished, loved it. Very, very eagerly waiting for continuation.
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Finally had some to play this game. I like where the game is going, but I have some questions and problems with it.
Problems
- Sometimes tone changes too fast and/or without proper need for it. Because of it mood jumps all over the place and it’s hard to feel emotions that characters express. In one scene we’re talking about murder and betrayal, and in the next scene we’re looking at funny scene with music. I don’t say humour isn’t needed, but I think that jokes sometimes ruin the mood.
- Plot goes kinda fast for me. I may be wrong, but I think it would be nice if there were more casual scenes or even whole episode (It’s probably because I play a lot of JRPGs that have slow and big plot). For example, showing how Mira’s ordinary day goes. It doesn’t have to be playable, some small scenes would be enough (although it would be nice able to control character).
- It would also be nice to have more interactions with the world and/or add some side quests or optional tasks. There are some in the game currently, but there aren’t much and they don’t feel rewarding or interesting. I still don’t get why would you try to set a trap to catch a frog in prologue. If you catch it, then nothing really happens? The only interesting interaction for me is having an option to eat some cookies in Mira’s room. And it doesn’t do much as far as I know. If you add more interactions in the future, it would be nice at least have some dialouge with other characters reacting to your actions or some inner monolouge.
- There’s a tendency in some episodes to have scenes that are very small and change very fast, which causes confusion a little.
Questions
- Are there going to be any important choises in the future or game is going to be fully linear?
- How big are girls going to be? Is there any limit?
Overall, I like plot and art, but game would really benefit from more interactivity.
2 Likes
@Emily
Thanks.
RE: Problems
- Yeah there’s a lot of mood whiplash. When I write an episode I do it in chunks, completely out of order, and work on whatever I feel most in the mood to do. So if I’m feeling dreary I’ll do an emotional scene, if I’m feeling happy I’ll do a goofy scene, if I’m feeling spicy I’ll do a fetish scene. Then I stitch everything together, not really paying in mind the tonal back and forth. I should try sticking to a closer tone for a whole episode so it doesn’t move around too much for an hour or so, but I struggle to keep the tone balanced.
- I do think the pacing is too fast. I felt that way with the original build of the game last year too. I think it’s because I write very terse, to-the-point scenes that have some goal or objective. I’ve barely done any “ordinary life” scenes because each scene is progressing the plot in some way, this probably leads things to feeling fast, besides the terse writing. I will say I plan on slowing things down now post-Ep5 which ended up being this big story arc that took me a lot of time. Ep2 and some of Ep3 was supposed to be intermission between all of the action, but it’s a lot shorter than the end of Ep3, plus Ep4, plus Ep5 which ended up being this weird overly ambitious Graq arc.
- I tried doing “walking around the ship as a hub world with story scenes you can find” for Ep2, then gave up since it was a lot. Then I tried again for Ep3, and gave up again. You can see this with the fast travel map system I added when you’re playing as Dr. Frank. Doing an explorable map with interactable things is a lot of work, especially when I have no idea how to make good maps or find good tilesets and stuff. I want to try doing a structure for Ep6 where it has an opening event, then you get to play and go wherever you want until you find all the scenes, then everything syncs up and progresses to the end of the episode. This would require actually making an entire map for the ship though, with the fast travel system so you can easily get across the whole thing. I’m just not sure if wandering around hallways getting lost would actually be fun.
- I don’t write a lot, it’s hard for me to “continue writing” when I have nothing else to say in a scene. I could work on making scenes longer and more detailed so it’s less confusing. I do make shortcuts a lot to get episodes finished.
RE: Questions
- I like routes in VNs, but it’s too much work for me to do routes. I’ll try to do short diverging stories when I feel like it, such as the bad ending in Ep4 that’s still broken in-episode because I don’t know how to fix it, heh.
- I don’t like massive blob sizes I’m more of a pleasantly plump person, in terms of fat. That isn’t to say really large sizes couldn’t happen in the story though. There’s actually already quite large sizes for some scenes, but they’re not weight gain, funny how that works. I like really large sizes more when it’s specifically not fat…
4 Likes
THIS IS AWESOME!!! the art really reminds me of 2000s VNs which I LOVE! Like the writing and pacing, I just like the whole game so far in general. I would have waited until I was done but I wanted to show my appreciation. KEEP MAKING THIS!!!
2 Likes
@kelidod269:
Thank you, it’s super motivating to hear praise like this.
I’ve got a small update for everyone:
Episode 5 Plus - Minor Update
Changelog:
- New BTS starring Riley
- More scenes in the Ep6 preview
- Retroactively add some characters into the background of previous episodes
- New uniform faces for James
- Various art fixes
- Various typo fixes
Old saves should work. There’s no Episode Select for Episode 6 yet so you’ll need to load a save at the end of Episode 5 or go through Episode 5 again, sorry.
It’s about 15 minutes of new scenes.
11 Likes