KickStarter Vampire Syndicate: Gangs of MoonFall

[Tyranicon]

Posted this on steam so might as well post it here too. Main takeaway is that a much bigger version of the current demo will be dropping on June 19th for Steam's Next Fest.

Hopefully I can build enough momentum that I won't be living off ramen packets again. That wasn't even fun in college.

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to take some time to inform you what my plans are for the future.

As many of you may already know, game development is a risky endeavor. It’s hard to make money in gamedev just to pay the bills, much less fund future games.

Don’t worry! This isn’t a post about how I’m running out of money because I’m not. But I would like to lay out the cards on the table: gamedev is monumentally challenging, especially financially. In this respect, I am no different than the thousands of my fellow gamemakers.

It’s just another rat race, and I have to grind and crunch in order to make ends meet. I don’t mind, this is what I love to do. A few years ago, I quit a very lucrative and stable corporate job to work on Memoirs full time.

Yeah, it was pretty stupid of me. But it was a gamble that paid off. Memoirs is one of those extremely rare solodev success stories. It won’t make the news like something on the level of Stardew Valley, but I now have a little runway that I can survive on to make my next game.

Just a little runway, not a lot. And the game I want to make is a beast. It’ll be an upgrade over Memoirs in every way: the mechanics will be refined, the combat tightened, more characters, a darker storyline, a more open game world.

This is the game that after more than a decade in solodev, I will be pouring all my ambition into. It will be my attempt at achieving breakout success on the level of Stardew Valley and Undertale.

This will be Vampire Syndicate.

It will be a direct sequel to Memoirs of a Battle Brothel, with the same setting, many of the same characters and factions, etc.

So what’s different?

Well, there’ll be a lot of changes, but the most striking difference is the switch from pixel art to 3d renders. I have absolutely nothing against pixel art, in fact I loved the graphics that I used for my previous games.

This art shift is for two reasons:

• I can create and edit 3d renders easier than I can with pixel art
• The 3d aesthetic fits a vampire game closer than pixel art would

That being said, I am still keeping the anime-esque look for characters, which you can toggle.

Vampire Syndicate will be the next chapter of MoonFall’s story, and if you liked Memoirs, I hope you join me for this one too. An updated demo will be released on June 19th for Steam’s Next Fest.

Dev for Vampire Syndicate hit the ground running almost as soon as the 1.0 dev for Memoirs finished. The last few months have been super busy for me, but I’m glad that I almost finally have something major to share.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that I’m abandoning Memoirs (even though it is already long past 1.0).

I still have at least two major, free content updates in mind for Memoirs. Each of these will include romance-able new characters with their own quests. These will be released sometime in the near future, and I will update the roadmap as the last one is outdated by now.

Thanks again for your support. As always, I appreciate your feedback and suggestions.

 

[Trithne]

So when can I expect to be able to torrent this game?

When you pay Tyranicon an amount of shekels equal to the price of this game.

Silly goy. Torrents are free.

Presumably on release since it has a thread on f95.

I found it! It's strange to see him use an anime girl picture instead of the Binky avatar like he does on here.

Has anyone submitted Memoirs from a Battle Brothel images to the avatar gallery? Then he could be consistent with his animu girl avatars.

 

[santino27]

Posted this on steam so might as well post it here too. Main takeaway is that a much bigger version of the current demo will be dropping on June 19th for Steam's Next Fest.

Hopefully I can build enough momentum that I won't be living off ramen packets again. That wasn't even fun in college.

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to take some time to inform you what my plans are for the future.

As many of you may already know, game development is a risky endeavor. It’s hard to make money in gamedev just to pay the bills, much less fund future games.

Don’t worry! This isn’t a post about how I’m running out of money because I’m not. But I would like to lay out the cards on the table: gamedev is monumentally challenging, especially financially. In this respect, I am no different than the thousands of my fellow gamemakers.

It’s just another rat race, and I have to grind and crunch in order to make ends meet. I don’t mind, this is what I love to do. A few years ago, I quit a very lucrative and stable corporate job to work on Memoirs full time.

Yeah, it was pretty stupid of me. But it was a gamble that paid off. Memoirs is one of those extremely rare solodev success stories. It won’t make the news like something on the level of Stardew Valley, but I now have a little runway that I can survive on to make my next game.

Just a little runway, not a lot. And the game I want to make is a beast. It’ll be an upgrade over Memoirs in every way: the mechanics will be refined, the combat tightened, more characters, a darker storyline, a more open game world.

This is the game that after more than a decade in solodev, I will be pouring all my ambition into. It will be my attempt at achieving breakout success on the level of Stardew Valley and Undertale.

This will be Vampire Syndicate.

It will be a direct sequel to Memoirs of a Battle Brothel, with the same setting, many of the same characters and factions, etc.

So what’s different?

Well, there’ll be a lot of changes, but the most striking difference is the switch from pixel art to 3d renders. I have absolutely nothing against pixel art, in fact I loved the graphics that I used for my previous games.

This art shift is for two reasons:

• I can create and edit 3d renders easier than I can with pixel art
• The 3d aesthetic fits a vampire game closer than pixel art would

That being said, I am still keeping the anime-esque look for characters, which you can toggle.

Vampire Syndicate will be the next chapter of MoonFall’s story, and if you liked Memoirs, I hope you join me for this one too. An updated demo will be released on June 19th for Steam’s Next Fest.

Dev for Vampire Syndicate hit the ground running almost as soon as the 1.0 dev for Memoirs finished. The last few months have been super busy for me, but I’m glad that I almost finally have something major to share.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that I’m abandoning Memoirs (even though it is already long past 1.0).

I still have at least two major, free content updates in mind for Memoirs. Each of these will include romance-able new characters with their own quests. These will be released sometime in the near future, and I will update the roadmap as the last one is outdated by now.

Thanks again for your support. As always, I appreciate your feedback and suggestions.

Other than wishlisting the game (already done), is there anything people can do after steamfest to help you/your game with valve, from a popularity/rankings standpoint?

 

[Tyranicon]

Has anyone submitted Memoirs from a Battle Brothel images to the avatar gallery? Then he could be consistent with his animu girl avatars.

Dhaze was kind enough to do that when he was doing the Let's Play of Memoirs. Should be around somewhere. I'm happy with Sarevok tho.

Other than wishlisting the game (already done), is there anything people can do after steamfest to help you/your game with valve, from a popularity/rankings standpoint?

Yes, following helps too, and the button is right next to the wishlist one:

Otherwise, downloads might help with Steam's algo. I would encourage people to spread word of mouth, but it's a sex game so that's awkward.

 

[HoboForEternity]

i still really prefer the anime style of brothel even than this 3d stuff. background looks awesome tho.

 

[Tyranicon]

I don't know if it's good or not (probably not since it's really basic), but it sure is hard.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

I played in demo. When the concept appeals to me I don't fully bough by porn aspect. It's not about nudity or sex itself, but rather porn-chick. Porno, in California sense, is a really strange reality where expressive sex is detached from everything and the whole language sounds like a continuation of this artificial expression. Subverse did it on a bigger scale and it wasn't healthy for that game.

 

[Sarathiour]

The problem of subverse is that, maybe apart from the schmups section, everything sucks, and not in the good way.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

The problem of subverse is that, maybe apart from the schmups section, everything sucks, and not in the good way.

Tactical aspect had potential, I think. With broad waifu rooster they could prepare diverse and entertaining gameplay.

But they preferred to spend most of their money on porn CGI and strange fully-voiced dialogues.

 

[Rahdulan]

I'll miss the old bimbo header, but this one is way more striking and you will probably get more attention with it. Keeping the portraits as a toggleable option is a major plus.

Looking forward to the new demo as existing one is very lightweight for my taste.

 

[Sarathiour]

Tactical aspect had potential, I think.

On paper, sure. Did you played it ? I did, and it's absolutely unsalvageable :
- It's incredibly boring, you kill shit without any kind of option or thought at any given time.
-None of the damage type matter, and every spawn at random location, so even if you were supposed to think, you can't because it would be pure rng.
- It does not even look good, the model are barely recognizable, which is something you very much don't want when the waifu are the main selling point. I'm currently playing othercide, the game at least understood that if you put waifu on the cover, you also want to recognize them while playing the game, instead of looking at some nondescript mass of pixel.

 

[Tyranicon]

I played in demo. When the concept appeals to me I don't fully bough by porn aspect. It's not about nudity or sex itself, but rather porn-chick. Porno, in California sense, is a really strange reality where expressive sex is detached from everything and the whole language sounds like a continuation of this artificial expression. Subverse did it on a bigger scale and it wasn't healthy for that game.

Not sure what you mean, something wrong with the translation I think.

Tactical aspect had potential, I think.

On paper, sure. Did you played it ? I did, and it's absolutely unsalvageable :
- It's incredibly boring, you kill shit without any kind of option or thought at any given time.
-None of the damage type matter, and every spawn at random location, so even if you were supposed to think, you can't because it would be pure rng.
- It does not even look good, the model are barely recognizable, which is something you very much don't want when the waifu are the main selling point. I'm currently playing othercide, the game at least understood that if you put waifu on the cover, you also want to recognize them while playing the game, instead of looking at some nondescript mass of pixel.

Yeah, Subverse didn't really interest me at all. To the point where I didn't buy it despite it being the arguably largest porn game out there.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

I played in demo. When the concept appeals to me I don't fully bough by porn aspect. It's not about nudity or sex itself, but rather porn-chick. Porno, in California sense, is a really strange reality where expressive sex is detached from everything and the whole language sounds like a continuation of this artificial expression. Subverse did it on a bigger scale and it wasn't healthy for that game.

Not sure what you mean, something wrong with the translation I think.

Ok, so I put that in a less convoluted, straightforward way - Porn people speaks funny :D

Tactical aspect had potential, I think.

On paper, sure. Did you played it ? I did, and it's absolutely unsalvageable :
- It's incredibly boring, you kill shit without any kind of option or thought at any given time.
-None of the damage type matter, and every spawn at random location, so even if you were supposed to think, you can't because it would be pure rng.
- It does not even look good, the model are barely recognizable, which is something you very much don't want when the waifu are the main selling point. I'm currently playing othercide, the game at least understood that if you put waifu on the cover, you also want to recognize them while playing the game, instead of looking at some nondescript mass of pixel.

I played once in 2021. I had similar experiences like you, but by all this years I naively expected some improvement from StudioFow.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I'll miss the old bimbo header, but this one is way more striking and you will probably get more attention with it. Keeping the portraits as a toggleable option is a major plus.

Looking forward to the new demo as existing one is very lightweight for my taste.

You mean?

Make it your wallpaper and you'll never miss it again. Make it one of those jap fuck pillow covers. It needs your luv.

 

[Tyranicon]

New version of the demo is out.

Holy shit man, that was way more work than I though it would be. MFW becoming a pornmonger means lots of work.
Why don't I ever do things the easy way.
Should've just made a goddman VN.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

There's always the next one for a VR VN. (Sex suit sold separately for the FULL BODY EXPERIENCE)

 

[WhiteShark]

Tyranicon just out of curiosity, are any of the new banner/portraits produced using AI? That's not meant to be a comment on their quality one way or the other; I just have a general interest in whether indie devs are adopting it for real use or not.

 

[Tyranicon]

Tyranicon just out of curiosity, are any of the new banner/portraits produced using AI? That's not meant to be a comment on their quality one way or the other; I just have a general interest in whether indie devs are adopting it for real use or not.

Some things I get from the artists I work with and shutterstock so I'll have to ask. The other 80% or so of artwork I handle and I don't really use much AI-generated stuff in my game. For Memoirs I only used AI for some environment screens, as an example. The reasons are mostly because AI art is simply not as high quality as art from professionals... for now.

I also think there will be a major pushback very soon once it really starts to saturate the industry with even more low-quality stuff, but I don't base my decisions on that.

What is ready for primetime is certain AI animation and voice, which I'm starting to experiment with.

 

[santino27]

New version of the demo is out.

Holy shit man, that was way more work than I though it would be. MFW becoming a pornmonger means lots of work.
Why don't I ever do things the easy way.
Should've just made a goddman VN.

View attachment 37605

Grabbed it and will check it out. And yeah, VNs are the quicker/easier path to fame and riches in the porn market, but think how bored you'd be!

 

[Tyranicon]

The game went from being the 2100th most wishlisted game on Steam, to 1971st!

Right behind A Rat's life: the Cat Conspiracy.

Huzzah!

I forgot if I was being sarcastic.

 

[Technomancer]

The game went from being the 2100th most wishlisted game on Steam, to 1971st!

Sex sells. Add more tits.

 

[Storyfag]

The game went from being the 2100th most wishlisted game on Steam, to 1971st!

Sex sells. Add more tits.

 

[Lord_Potato]

View attachment 37737

The game went from being the 2100th most wishlisted game on Steam, to 1971st!

Right behind A Rat's life: the Cat Conspiracy.

Huzzah!

I forgot if I was being sarcastic.

That's some serious advancement! Nothing to be sarcastic about. Lets hope it means good sells in the future.

 

[Spectral Pontifex]

Removed from wishlist. I don't want my niche RPG to become mainstream decline after all.

 

[Rahdulan]

View attachment 37737

The game went from being the 2100th most wishlisted game on Steam, to 1971st!

Right behind A Rat's life: the Cat Conspiracy.

Huzzah!

I forgot if I was being sarcastic.

I guess that stealth marketing on 4Chin must be paying off.