I wanted to write a small update as we're approaching the two month mark up date since the latest build (or are at it?). We're well under way with the build, but it'll likely take us one more month to finish up with it as we want to push more meat in ^^ We generally try to release one build every other month. It gives us enough time to work on new features and content without rushing and trying to fulfill a quota of build releases to pad up release numbers. Some might prefer faster cycles, but over the couple of years working on Hunt and Snare in public (Steam Early Access build was our 22nd public build release over the past few years), we've noticed that this kind of a cycle is best when it comes to developing new features and bigger content updates.
Initially we released builds weekly or biweekly, but the time it takes to prepare and release a build pretty much ate 10-20% of the development time, and it slowed down development of new features because we couldn't really work on one thing for extended period of time (which in game development is generally required). Also, back then Hunt and Snare builds took just few minutes to make, and most of the time was setting up posts and uploading builds. Now builds take 4-6 hours to make, but there's nearly zero work outside the actual build compiling, except half of the team just fiddling fingers and waiting x) As mentioned in the earlier paragraph that the Hunt and Snare developer team is just four people; Thanks to sales on Steam we've been able to purchase some outside hours in form of an another artist (working on some new and better houses and the player's ship), and couple of extra writers to populate the world with fluffs and make it feel more living ^^
What we're adding in the next build are "Minor NPCs". Minor characters can be short or long, can have quests/tasks associated with them or might not, can be important to the world or might not be, the only difference between Minor and Major characters is whether or not they have sex acts associated with them. Kess, for example, was originally intended as a minor character, but she'll be getting a full act in the next build.
The minor and major characters will be identifiable in the game, at least in the first release with them. We'll see how it looks and plays out and if it's annoying to know "who can be banged" or not ^^ Also, the bigger feature is moving from simple Graphics Presets to a proper options menu. Can't say on the exact number of settings you can tweak, but I'd say it's "a few games worth of options". You'll be able to tweak pretty much every option to some degree, to disable and enable most of the graphics features ^^
Along with the proper graphics options menu, we're finally adding trans characters to spawners properly and adding ability to tweak the spawner combinations; E.g. if you just want trans, you'll be able to remove males and females out of the spawning, or if you just want males or females, you can filter others out. The important thing about Hunt and Snare is giving options and maxing out to your preferences. Do note that this doesn't affect the written NPCs (which will eventually get clothes, though full nudity is likely to be an option), it only affects the spawned ones ^^ We're also expanding the save system, from a simple autosave, to allow save states. This is basically a classic save/load system, but we're at least initially going to limit it to saving in a ship; The autosaves would still cover your travels elsewhere, but if you wanted to create a "continue point", you'd have to visit your ship (initially just outside it on the docks). The saving system will also streamline loading and starting a new game, because choosing a character you've made is... tad bit confusing at times (the hat and spyglass thing) and some people thought you're forced to play as the Butler (you're not!) ^^ In addition to that, we're expanding the minor acts with a small set. It's mostly more pawing as it was the most lacking category, but I think a bit of surprise anal too ^^
Also huge bunch of work have gone to making initial city, Kirhaal, better looking and better in general, but... just look at the screenshots. Images are stronger than swords x) Thank you for reading (or skipping to the TL;DR!) You are all awesome! ~Ruffleneck TL;DR: - We aim to release next build early-mid next month - Takes time to make chunky builds - Thanks to Steam, we have extra helping hands - Reworked city - Minor NPCs for city - Save states - Extensive options menu - More single acts and variation - Sex with Kess