Demon Lands - Devlog 8 (Pixiv Fanbox)

It's been a long time since I've done one of these. Once I released the game last December I took a small break from art, and then a small break from the game to do other art.

However, now the year has fully kicked off my progress has resumed! Since most of the features I wanted in the final game have already been programmed, a lot of the stuff I have been working on is smaller to quantify. However, I'm very excited to share it and give you a sneak peek at some upcoming content.

Elements are now Affinities

This is a very small change, but worth noting. Currently, you can find enemies in the form of Slimes, Insects, and Plants. However, when I was laying out every enemy I planned to have in the game, this ended up being far too specific a classification system, with less than 30% of the final enemies falling into one of these categories.

The new system renames Elements as Affinities. Affinities come in the forms of Bestial, Arcane, and Elemental. In short, Beastial refers to animalistic Demons, Arcane refers to those who can control magic, and Elemental refers to those comprised of (or controlling) singular materials, such as slime or rock.

I like this system a lot more. Not only does it encompass almost every Demon I have planned, but it also allows some Demons to fit into multiple categories, and thus drop multiple different types of the Essence you need to craft items with.

Just as examples, Wood Dryads are now both Elemental and Arcane, the Forest Sprite is now Arcane, the Blue Slime is Elemental, etc.

Shop Preview

This was a feature I've always wanted but didn't have time to implement for the release. However, it's now finished! You can now see previews of clothing and underwear when buying them from shops, as well as when selling.

Map Menu Improvements

The map menu is something the player will use a lot, and as they unlock more locations the list will only expand further and further. I've added a few small features to it to help keep you organized.

Locations will show an Icon in the list if you have quest objectives located there.

There are also keyboard shortcuts for travelling to your base, and travelling to the last location you travelled to. This lets you quickly travel to the Outpost, rest, and quickly travel back to where you were. Your base starts as the Paladin Outpost but may change to each chapter's major town/city.

In the future, I may need to split the locations into different pages for each chapter/continent, but that shouldn't be an issue for a while.

Heart System

A new feature I'm excited about is a romance/friendship system which lets you go on special dates with the Paladins! It likely won't be fully implemented in the next update but it will be finished before the end of Chapter 1.

Although I had always planned lewd scenes with the other boys, I wanted to add a slightly more involved system to complement it and make it feel more special.

Each of the four main Paladins has 12 hearts to unlock, approximately 3 per chapter. You can check your total hearts with each Paladin through their journal page. A small heart also appears next to their nameplates which slowly fills up during the game, becoming a new colour every 3 hearts to represent your total progress.

Every 3 hearts you earn with a boy lets you go on a date with them. A date is a sort of mini-quest which is mostly a large cutscene, culminating with a lewd scene at the end between the two boys. When a date is available, a heart will appear above the boy in the same way a new quest icon appears.

Hearts can be earned in various ways. Throughout your travels, you may find special gift items which can be given to one of the boys (matching their personalities and interest, of course!). You'll also gain hearts through completing their side quests in each chapter, defeating each chapter's boss, and through some special hidden events like making 5 alchemy items with Tommy's help.

There'll be slight changes to the boys' dialogue, particularly their greetings, depending on your relationship status with them. You will be able to romance all of the boys at once, Paladins aren't too bothered by monogamy ^^

Though the dates won't be in the next update, the system itself might be finished enough to release. The update after next will likely be focused on expanding this system and adding the dates and lewd scenes.

Postface

There are many other changse I have made but are either too slight to mention or are still in early development. Changes in dialogue, improving the maps, adding more details to the world, fixing bugs, etc.

I don't want to put a date on when the update can be released since it introduces a lot of stress, but most of the scenes that I hope to include are almost done. It will come down to exactly where I want to cut things off to release. ^^