Monthly Archives: January 2016

[Patron Release] Night Games – The UI Magic Update

The new update for Night Games has been released to Patreon backers (it’s attached to a Patrons-only post on my Patreon page, if you’re looking for it). If you want to grab it right now, you can still get early access by pledging at least a dollar a month. Otherwise, it will be released to everyone a week from today, on Feb 3 (two days before XCOM2).

Changelog:

Fixed typo in filename of one of Samantha’s images
Changed trigger for pegging scenes to accommodate Eve
Fixed an issue with doublestrip
Submissive training now takes time
Adjusted the Magic Training scene selection. It’s not perfect since the order of learning the skills has changed, but it’s better
Reduced rate at which Kiss scales with seduction
Added Foreplay and Finisher flags to skills.
Foreplay skills do more damage at low arousal
Finisher skills do more damage at high arousal
Kiss is now flagged as Foreplay
Tickle is now flagged as Foreplay if user does not have Tickle Monster perk
Fondle Breasts is now flagged as Foreplay if target is not topless
Finger and Handjob are now flagged as Finishers
Thrust and Piston are now flagged as Finishers
Tighten is now flagged as Finisher
Added a title screen
Implemented some of InvalidCharacter’s UI changes
Integrated, with some fiddling, dndw’s dynamic comment framework
Added the comments from the mod that are applicable to the base game (changed a few)
NPCs now rank up properly on reaching levels 20 and 30
Reduced base exp gain for combat
There’s now a random chance of original victory/defeat scenes triggering after advanced ones are unlocked
Added level requirements and prerequisites to Feats
Buffed Leadership feat;
New Feat: Tactician, buffs pet evasion
Pets now scale slightly with their governing attribute
Added a simple system where Items can be temporarily removed until end of battle
Strapons are now temporarily removed after use, preventing them from being equipped multiple times in a fight
Completely refactored the mess that was Tickle. It’s much cleaner, hopefully I didn’t break anything
Added new Cassie Draw scene. Requires both player and her to be magic users
Added new Angel Victory scene
Added new Mara daytime scene for magic users

Update: I’ve been informed that I may have been misunderstanding how Patreon handles visibility for patron-only posts. New supporters may not be able to access them until their first payment has processed and are therefore unable to access the update. For the time being, I’ve emailed the update to each of my current supporters and will continue to do so for new supporters until the public release. If you’ve pledged to my Patreon and have not received the new update, please message me in Patreon and I’ll sort it out.

Patreon Page Launched!

So I’ve gone ahead and created a Patreon page. I’ll go ahead and remove my old donation system, since people have pointed out it was not well implemented. If you’ve enjoyed Night Games and would like to show your support, please consider pledging a few dollars a month. It will also get you future content updates a week early (pure bugfix patches will always be public).

https://www.patreon.com/silverbardgames

Scene Wishlist added

Several people requested I post a list of scenes that they could help with. I’ve added the list to the Content Submission Guide. To save you a click, I’ll post it here too, but that’s the one I’ll keep updated. As I mention there, I would be quite happy to receive other scene submissions, these are just the ones I consider a priority and haven’t started on.

  • Alternate text for skills. All skills. Any skill could benefit from more alternate text.
  • Mara draw scene post mad scientist
  • Angel draw scene post succubus
  • Eve draw scene with vaginal penetration
  • Eve defeat scene with vaginal penetration
  • Reyka double-team victory vs NPC with penis
  • Kat double-team victory vs NPC with penis
  • Reyka/Angel threesome scene where Reyka trains Angel about being a succubus
  • Cassie/Kat threesome scene
  • Mara/Kat threesome scene
  • Ki training scenes with Suzume
  • Dark training scenes with Rin
  • Fetish training scenes with Rin
  • Science training scenes with Jett
  • Animism training scenes with Kat and Aisha

A Request for the Community

Would anyone be interested in making a Logo and/or Title screen for Night Games?

Based on the responses to the previous post, I was looking into what I need to create a Patreon. It occurred to me that I don’t really have any image to represent Night Games. The game has been around long enough that I can’t really justify not having a proper title screen. I’ll throw something together in GIMP, but given my lack of artistic ability, I don’t have much faith in the result.

I can’t really afford to pay anyone at the moment, otherwise I might commission a graphic designer directly. People have been asking how they can help support the game and this is something that would really help me.

If you’d like to submit something, you can email it to thesilverbard@gmail.com. You can also leave suggestions in the comments.

Edit:

So here’s what I whipped up in GIMP in probably way longer than it should have taken.

NightGamesTitleScaled

The color palate is based on the new GUI changes from InvalidCharacter (which will be in the next update). Here’s an alternate version based on some suggestions by dndw:

NightGamesTitleV2

I also made a logo for the site. I did some scaling, which makes it look a little rougher. I may clean that up later.

Logo

Any thoughts? Do you guys like them or dislike them? I’m sure someone with a better eye for graphic design can do better, so if you want to send in a submission, I’ll take a look.

On the Subject of Money…

I recently received a notice from my hosting company that I need to renew in 3 months. This has prompted me to take a closer look at the financial situation of Night Games. It’s been 9 months since I moved to the new website and added the donation plugin. In that time, I’ve received a total of $20.36, all from a single donor (who is quite generous and I do not want to downplay my appreciation). This isn’t enough to commission a single piece of art, let alone cover my hosting costs. If I sound accusatory, that is not my intention, but clearly this system is not working.

I want to be clear that I didn’t make Night Games for monetary reasons. I perceived a gap in the adult games market and wanted to do what I could to fill it. It was a good learning experience for my first released game and I don’t regret it. However, I’m quickly approaching graduation and need to start paying off student loans. I at least need to devote more time into something that I’m not actively losing money on.

Before anyone gets worried, I’m not going to start charging money for Night Games. I made this game with the intention of releasing it for free and that hasn’t changed. What I am currently planning is setting up a Patreon account. Anyone who has followed a lot of Patreons will know that they do not tend to do well unless they are either already well known or offer something to their subscribers.

I’ve thought for a while about what I can offer people while still keeping Night Games publicly available. I could give subscribers earlier access, but I’m not sure how effective that would be given my audience size. I could also add in some premium characters, but I’m not thrilled by that idea. It would mean devoting a lot of time to create content for subscribers and would likely thin out my public releases. I’m not going to rule it out entirely, but it’s not my preference.

My current inclination is to offer a premium version of Night Games with additional artwork for subscribers. This will obviously require getting a dedicated artist on board rather than relying on commissions. I’d need to find someone willing to work for a percentage of the Patreon earnings without a guarantee of how much that will look like. For this reason, I want to test the waters with the poll below so I can get an estimation of likely monthly earnings.

Would you pledge a few bucks a month on Patreon to get a premium version of Night Games with a significant amount of illustration?

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I have considered that the answer to this poll may be a resounding “No”. I think this is probably the most reasonable way to support the development of Night Games, but it’s also possible that it’s simply not sustainable. I tried to fill a gap in the market, but between my lack of experience and the rather niche gap I’m filling, there may simply not be a market. I know a lot of you came here from text-based game communities. I’m hoping the addition of artwork would create a broader appeal in other hentai game communities. Night Games may not be the game to bridge this gap. Christian Peterson, CEO of Fantasy Flight Games, gave a great line about game publishing during an interview: “We sort of look at the hemisphere of stars that is game publishing, and we look at if there are any attractive, empty spaces, and we hope there’s no black hole there. We hope we can put our star there without it getting sucked into the abyss.”

Hopefully Night Games is not sitting on a black hole in the adult games market. I obviously took a long hiatus during the summer to experiment with other designs. If Night Games has a future, I’d like to continue nurturing its development. Otherwise I may start working towards an ending in the next few months and moving towards development of one of my other prototypes.