Pendulum--pay what you want

Seeing how the sales for Pendulum basically came to a dead stop, I'm starting a pay-what-you-want promotion for the game. The promotion will last till the end of the year.

If you haven't tried the demo yet, go ahead and do so by first downloading it from this page http://dreamingofcheshirecat.blogspot.com/p/pendulum.html. Then, if you like it enough, you can buy the full version (for any price you want--whadup) from the same page.

Some more early creatures and a couple other things.

Again, these are all just me fiddling around trying to get some creativity flowing, nothing is final and in fact none of these made the cut to the first few creatures in game.

 

Some cyclopean midgets, I kind of like'em.

I'm not even sure what this reminds me of.

I would like to include a demon kind of like this somewhere, as a homage to the demon George Kamitami includes in all his games.

Always wanted to animate a green naked dryad for some reason. Ent thing is kinda uninspired tho.

Spooder Gurl.

Random idea for the ghost: possession to make the main char use that big ass hand on herself = fun fun. Also, octopus girl and muscular doggy.

A small size chart I made for some of the first npcs, here we have regular humans and elves, so yeah, half life 3 confirmed. Goat girl is my homage to the pookas in Odin Sphere, hopefully we can fit them somewhere (preferably somewhere they will get fucked)

My theory crafting regarding clothing destruction, because it's kinda awesome. If we are able or not to include this is tied to some tech stuff. Hair was a test here and now we moved back to be more like the original posting of the character. Also, besides sketchy lines, some misproportion here and there and some color adjustments, hopefully this is how ingame sprites will look, maybe I can post a teaser of game sprites on the next update on visuals.

 I know almost all of the creatures I have posted so far are mostly humanoid, I will try to come up with some less human stuff for the next update on visuals.

Keep the comments and suggestions coming people, we are reading all of them, and you never know if one of yours may end up in the game.

Some early monster concepts.

Here are some monsters I designed for the game. Notice that these are just me throwing ideas around , trying to come up with the general feeling I want to give to the creatures of the game, so there's a high chance that none of these will end up in the game.

When I start planning areas (soon™) I will have to come up with creatures to match those areas, if some of these are chosen will entirely depend in if they fit or not, and even if I end up chosing some of them there's a high chance they will be modified in some way.

I like to call them chef and mister anorexia.

The token catgirl and a wolverine wannabe.

You should be able to tell this guy is not regular map mob.

Couple of friendly slimes.

Fire Nymph and maybe a cockatrice .

The idea is that this guy is the whole room.

Again, feedback and suggestions are welcome, what kind of creatures have you always wanted to see in a porn game?

More monsters later.

Let me introduce myself

 From now on I will be in charge of the pixels around here, you can call me Stylus Rat, while I'm new to the whole game making and hentai scene, I'm not new to drawing and animation.

If you're curious, I have been an animator by profession for the last 6 years, I have worked mostly on religious cartoons probably no one around here has ever seen. And since I believe in balance I think that after drawing so much "good" cartoons it's time to do some "bad" ones.

Here's a little illustration I made for the blog header, I have little experience in illustration so I hope to get better as we go along.

Our main character.

And here's a step by step process for anyone curious. Done in about 5 hours on Paint Tool Sai using a Yiynova MSP19.

No cool painting techniques, need to learn some.

I will be posting a few early monster concepts over the following days, so keep checking back if you are interested.

Also, any questions or feedback regarding the art side of the game are welcome.

Project 2

It's been a while since I made a post around here, especially about something not completely related to Pendulum. If you attend the same message boards as I do, maybe you've heard I wanted to create a remix version of that game, with updated high-res graphics and whatnot. In the end, it won't happen. I've been unable to find a reliable artist throughout the past month (the idea was to outsource the art overhaul and invest my own time in doing whatever), which with every attempt made me lose interest bit by bit. Now seeing how my sales basically came to a dead stop, I came to the conclusion that I'm better off starting anew and investing my resources into a completely different project.

main character concept

The game will be a 2D action RPG (with sex!), in similar fashion as Odin Sphere, where you run around looped levels, while your goal is to defeat all enemies. The protagonist will use body deformation as means of fighting her foes, as in she'll be able to turn her arm into any deadly shape I can think of. Killing stuff with that thing, together with magic and awesome combos, to me sounds like a fun way to spend your evening. It's still too early in development for me to have any more details to reveal for now, so keep checking in.

DLsite, other stuff

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Pendulum now on sale

So, finally, Pendulum is finished and up for sale. I wanted to make some stupid pun about making it rain, but the price is set to only $3.50, and given my (oh, so typical) goal of a thousand sales, that'll hardly buy me one bengal tiger. So yeah--no pun.

PRODUCT PAGE

You can download the demo, read the game's description, and find the store url, all on the page linked above. If you've decided that you absolutely want to buy the game, make sure you also read the instructions (yep, on the same page). And if you're wondering why in hell would I leave a file that blocks all hentai content in the game package--I had to jump through extra hoops to make sure the game appears to be hentai-free at first glance, after hearing about paypal cutting Kajio off, and that's basically the first countermeasure that popped into my head. So just read those instructions and you won't have to worry about that.

Calamity

And the last stage is done. I'm very close to finishing the game--all that's left are the two bonus scenes. I've decided I'll make one of those a regular sexeh scene, and one kind of a joke scene (still sex, though). I won't have much free time during this weekend, though, so the game won't be released until next week.

IMPORTANT! Do you guys know of any sites that go about eroge/hentai reviews, be it english, japanese, or any other sites? I've searched google for a while now, but the closest I got was a handful of personal blogs, none of which was a major one, and some biased user reviews posted on ulmf and hongfire. If no such sites exist, where do you go for hentai news, other than the obvious dev blogs, the aforementioned forums, and dlsite itself?

Royalty

So it's only one more to go. In the meanwhile I'm trying to decide on the bonus animations, since I haven't touched them yet. For now my ideas range from straight on super orgies to more of a troll-the-player joke approach.

EDIT: Cleaned up a little the dragoness' color palette. Also, this is a better screenshot.

Wisdom

How about a clusterfuck of colors for a change?

Stage three is done--two more to go. At this pace I should be able to meet the late-august deadline, despite the fact I can only work on the game during my free time.

On another note--I got my neck tattooed today. It hurt like a motherfucker... all over my body... except my neck. Reflective pain for the win, I guess.

Pendulum Demo V4

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What changed?

-NEW stage two
-NEW checkpoint system
-NEW stage intro icons
-NEW option to turn text (dialogs) on/off
-NEW stage-specific dialog pools
-NEW icon
-NEW loading bar
-NEW censoring (like the genitals weren't obscure enough already)
-FIX surfaces getting destroyed after native Windows screen-refresh (eg. when you enter task manager on win7)
-FIX sounds not loading, not playing, and/or ending abruptly on x86 systems
-FIX float overflow error will now give you clear instructions on what to do to prevent it from occuring again (this error pops up with certain ATI cards if you set anti-aliasing above x2)
-FIX minor fixes and adjustments not worth listing


First of all I'm really sorry about the ridiculous delay. I keep running into financial problems, trying to solve them by accepting any contracts I can get my hands on, working part-time jobs, and whatnot, so you have to understand that the amount of time I can afford to waste on this game is very limited. On top of that, something--how do I put it subtly--extreme occured last month, and it seems I still can't quite handle the situation, since every time I sit down to work my head is only full of fuck. I had the demo ready like a week ago and I only had to upload it and write this post to release it, so you can imagine in what state of mind I'm currently in. I think I'm getting better now... Oh look, I'm writing this post!

As for the game--this is the last public demo I'll release, unless some new bugs pop up in need of fixing (patches count?). I'll be releasing teasers as I complete each stage, though. I had to cut out some features that only after actually completing them I had the chance to see and say they look like shit with this art style (image dialogs, I'm looking at you), and I had to cut out some things I really wanted to have in the game but time just won't let me (cutscenes--bye bye), since I absolutely have to release it before the end of august. Also, I'll hold off putting the demo up on dlsite until the whole game is ready, since I already started getting some major traffic from Asia, for some reason.

Almost there.

Bee or butterfly?

Stage two is almost ready--the stage itself and the victory sex sprites are done, but the enemy is missing. I'll have to take the next few days off, since I got a ninja offer to design an online footwear store, and money's tight right now so I couldn't say no. My point being--if there's any nature-themed enemy you'd like to see in this stage, now is the time for suggestions. The only restriction is that it has to be a flying enemy. Personally, I'm thinking either bee or butterfly lady.

So anyway, the game is in its final development days (as in the whole game). From here, I don't have to write any code in addition to what I already have (unless something breaks again), nor do I have to produce any sounds or design anything. Now I only have to draw and, well, that's it, so it's downhill from here. For the past week I was also handling stuff on the business end--I'll rather take care of this now, so that I don't make any stupid mistakes once the game is ready and I'll be all like OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD about publishing it within the next five minutes.

Progress report and some random thoughts

Since my last post, not much has changed content-wise. I'm done with the whole engine wrap-up, so all the insignificant technical stuff and the last handful of features (checkpoints, image-form dialogs) are finished. I also did a lot of under the hood work, since some bugs I thought I've fixed long ago popped back up after I finally had the chance to test the game on systems different than the one I work on. These were bugs associated with the sound extension I was using, and after some days of trying to fix them while desperately struggling to cling to OGG files, I finally had to bend over and revert to WAVs and the awful GM sound system. What's left for me to do before I can release the final demo is basically add a few more random dialogs (should be finished today), find a guy to translate the readme file to japanese (if you know someone who's still good but cheaper than 0.12$/word, I'd really appreciate it if you'd post his contact information), and draw all the graphical content for stage two.

Speaking of poor time management--I wanted to have the whole game ready for a mid-july release, and I doubt I'll even have the last demo up by then. I kept up to schedule only until the avalanche of bug reports started when I made the first demo public. Fixing parts of the code, then rewriting from scratch, only to have to fix it again--that was a huge bite taken out of the time I had reserved for the game's development . I'm still financially set only for the next two months or so, with no sign of any contracts heading my way anytime soon, so I'll really have to release the game in whatever form I'll have it in by the end of august. This basically means that I have to cut down the workload, and because I'm doing everything myself, I can only do that by scratching things off the todo list without implementing them. That, or implement everything without polish, which is basically a trend in hentai games, but it's against my ideology as a designer, so I'll keep the content to a minimum and stick to my usual routine of overthinking and polishing the shit out of every detail--hard numbers, once the game is up for sell, will show whether this concept also works with hentai games (which is very new to me, so let's call this game an experiment). The gameplay sticks out on its own already, so I don't think I have to make the box as overcomplicated as I planned to. That being said, stuff like story elements, cutscenes, climax sprites being able to stand on their own (the ones in the demo were initially only placeholders, but it seems they're staying) won't make it into the final cut.

Gah... V3.2 Patch

Same deal as before. Grab just the exe here, or the whole demo from the side bar.

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What changed?

-FIX game freeze after you pass the first enemy
-FIX screen tearing when lava speed is set to an odd number and the view is set to follow it instead of the player
-FIX 'jumpy' lava when the view is bound to follow it
-FIX screen tearing during the tower-shaking effect
-FIX after you get struck by lightning, the skeleton sprite slowly going off screen
-FIX main menu music plays even though bgm is off
-FIX particles being drawn off screen until you move the view after you die

V3.1 Patch

Just some bug fixes for stuff that people reported yesterday. The links in this post lead to the patch only! You have to replace the exe file in your original pendulum directory with this one. And if you want to grab the whole demo, I've updated the links in the side bar and in my previous post.

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What changed?

-FIX got rid of a bug that would lead to a 'sprite doesn't exist' error for some people
-FIX during the initial dialog ,when playing infinite mode, your highscore now won't disappear too early

Concept Demo v3

Sorry for the delay--I was derailed by some incredibly good weather for like a week after my last post, and after finally sobering up, fixing bugs took a lot longer than I expected (well, not really, because in the end I chose to try and keep every single trivial visual-feature while rewriting the drawing engine, and guess what--it was worth it). Bug reports and feedback are both very welcome. Also, if you tried playing the earlier build(s) and experienced anything weird, it would be great if you'd try this one out and let me know if it works fine.

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What changed?

-NEW highscore system (after you complete a stage, you can play it in 'infinite' mode, accessible through the main menu [play->stage->infinite])
-NEW brutal mode (accessible after you beat the game in story mode, though I doubt anyone will get beyond the fourth stage before checkpoints are implemented)
-NEW mapped-out stage settings (haven't included anything stage specific, content wise, beyond the first stage yet, though--but the overall flow of each stage is implemented)
-NEW main menu
-NEW gallery (unlocked after you complete the first stage, you can see the climax after the regular rape animation has looped a few times, and you can check the [sometimes vague] unlock conditions for the sprites you can unlock [based on your overall progress])
-NEW adult content warning (pre-menu)
-NEW logo screen (pre-menu)
-NEW options (customizable controls, screen modes, sfx and bgm switches--see the options sub-menu)
-NEW save-file system (everything but the config file is obfuscated, and the files will be overwritten with default values even if a single sign doesn't match, so try not to fiddle with those files, or at least make a backup before doing so)
-FIX changed the way the game handles sound file encryption (this definitely fixes missing sounds from occurring, and the occasional 'couldn't define external function' error--fingers crossed for it not breaking something else)
-FIX basically rewrote the entire drawing engine (this will fix the layering glitches once and for all, and I sincerely hope it'll also stop layers from disappearing for those two or three people with systems running on charcoal instead of electricity)
-FIX a handful of tweaks not worth listing


And to keep the summary short--the plan for the next (pre-release) demo is basically a bunch of technicalities, revised dialog system (you'll be able to choose whether dialogs are displayed in text, or image form), checkpoint system, second-stage content, and the first few cutscenes. It might take me a week or two, depending on how long it'll take me to decide on the style and form of the cutscenes (I already decided what the story is, but it'll be a bit tricky to introduce it to the player without confusing him too much).

Just a quickie.

Watch out guys, we've got a badass over here.

Just dropping in to say that the next release is coming soon. I really wanted to have the second stage completely ready by then, but I got sidetracked by working on basically everything except the second stage. So I'll have to release another demo before I put any real new content in, mainly because of the few people that are experiencing graphical glitches and/or sounds not being able to load in the current build.

I've already resolved the sound problem, without having to revert to wav files and GM's shitty native sound mechanism, courtesy of me finally figuring out how to encrypt any kind  of external file using GM's built-in functions only. I'm saving the surface glitch (which is causing the graphics to go apeshit on some systems) for last, because some visual effects will probably have to go, and I still can't decide whether I should waste days of work for a slight chance they could stay. I'll have to make up my mind by tomorrow, though, because my to-do list is growing dangerously thin with each hour.

Glitches aside, throughout the past few days I've done a whole lot of work with the game. The whole game loop is done, the soundtrack and all sounds are already recorded, all stages are mapped out and integrated into the game (also fully designed, I just need to draw the backgrounds and enemies), the gallery is done, separate game modes are done, highscore system is done, obfuscated-save-files system, awesome main menu, all extras unlock conditions, options, company intro, adult-content reminder screen, etc.--you name it, it's probably done and fully integrated. Just need to give some finishing touches here and there, then take out the surface-glitch monster, and then I can release the third demo.

Pendulum--Concept Demo v2

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What changed?

-NEW extended debug menu (turn it on and off with the F1 key)
-NEW scaled and fullscreen modes (press F4 to rotate through modes)
-NEW victory sex stage (this will probably also serve as the gallery)
-NEW lives system (there's no game over, but you'll get a chance to watch the victory scenes only if you did well on a stage, as in you didn't die too many times--if someone cares, the amount of lives you get is calculated when stage height is (re)set, so you can watch the scene by turning height off and on through the debug menu, then finishing the stage)
-NEW double jump (off by default--switch in debug menu)
-NEW pausing
-NEW the screen can now be set to move relatively to the lava instead of the player (debug menu)
-NEW ambient visual effects (debug menu)
-NEW stage completion/transitions (there's only one stage, still)
-NEW stage one victory sex scene
-NEW sex climax (pink room/gallery only)
-NEW gallery music
-NEW loading screen (placeholder)
-FIX changed to a different encryption plugin, missing sounds shouldn't occur now (and if they do, it'll throw out an error message)
-FIX post-rape dialogs play at random chance
-FIX broke the one variable responsible for overall difficulty into a couple of variables for easy stage customization
-FIX a whole list of minor tweaks, techy stuff nobody cares about, and things I simply forgot


Let me know about any problems you might be having. Criticism and praise are also very welcome.

Welcome to the pink lodge.

Feeling a little grumpy today.

Today I went batshit to get everything finished, doing my usual routine of rushing through brick walls like it was nothing, and saving the seemingly least time consuming stuff for last. And of course, as it usually is with my routine, when I faced the one last thing on my list (drawing the graphics set for the lodge/that thing in the picture), my mental incompetence for things you shouldn't even have to think about kicked in. I've wasted over five hours drawing  a single background image, on top of the one I already had and ended up using (even though I don't like it). Take that, brain!

So basically all's done and ready to be served. Well, not entirely, since I still have to run some bug tests, but it's all downhill from here.

In for the hurt.

It's just me playing around on the game's highest difficulty settings (watch in full size on youtube), showing off a handful of new mechanics that made it into the new build. I only had a few hours to spend on making progress with the game throughout the weekend, so I didn't quite finish everything I wanted to for the next release yet--I'm getting there, though.

That being said, all that's really left is to make the first victory sex scene and add a few more placeholder dialogs for when you finish a stage (which take like a minute to produce, each, so it's really just the sex stuff that's left). Let's hope I won't have to deal with any more power outages before the next demo is out.

Stuff has to be done, probably.

I've spent some time optimizing audio/visual effects associated with the double jump ability, to the point I'm happy with, so I call it done.

There are still a few things on my to-do list I need to implement before I can release the next demo. Basically I want to have the gameplay engine entirely finished, and I'm very close to that point already, since I only have to add stuff like ambient visual effects, screen shaking (for a sequence where the tower is collapsing, think explosions), pausing, victory sex, and finish up stage transitions. It shouldn't take longer than a few days, so stay tuned.

Hope you'll enjoy.

I've been working on this tower-platforming game called Pendulum for a handful of weeks now, shaping and polishing core mechanics. You can expect a fun little game, sprite sex, and a lot of win. There's not much content as of now, just one stage (which loops infinitely), enemy, and rape animation.

You can find download links for the latest build in the latest demo section (if you can't see it from here, scroll up). Also, if you're into this kind of stuff, you can use a few debug-mode features by first hitting the F1 key, then some other keys to make stuff happen (just read the GUI).

After first releasing this build, people with different OSs reported having problems getting the game to run as intended. Since then, I've fixed the layering glitch that everyone seemed to experience on 32 bit windows. I can't really test the game on win XP, so if you still experience any glitches (eg. no sounds during the rape animation) just drop me a line.