Raliv Dev

Setback

Unfortunately there has been a significant setback. Archipelagates will no longer be released on Steam, and the early access release will be moved to Itch.

With this change, there has been a short delay. I suspect not more than a couple weeks. I apologize to those that were looking forward to a release on March 27th.

The good news is that since I use Itch for Patreon builds anyway, it will be easy to make sure subscribers get both the test build, and the release build.

2024-03-26 01:22:31 +0000 UTC View Post

Feet Update

New Build! This build changes quite a few things (and unfortunately wipes saves again).

• New Gate mechanics
• New HP progression
• Feet have been added for both elves and beast species
• Clothing has been redone to work with feet
• Some chests are locked now
• books have been replaced with glove enchantments (Q key) so you can use them in combat without weapon juggling
• Sex in wild islands is now animated to climax

As usual dis...

AI Update

A new build! That took longer than I had hoped, but I got the new AI working reasonably. Fair warning, this update is going to be pretty rough and does not include much in the way of new content, but it should still be fun. Old saves will not work due to data structure changes I had to make (Apologies!).

Changes include

• New wild island AI that responds to emotes (Z key)
• Non undead enemies have body type preferences and might be persuaded to interact sexually with yo...
  2024-01-29 04:28:35 +0000 UTC View Post

AI Update coming soon

It's been over a month of silence!!! I apologize for the delay, the AI system I have been implementing was a LOT more complicated than I anticipated.

The good news is, it is just about ready to show! I will be releasing a build as soon as I get the kinks worked out (a few days), and I would very much like thoughts on how it feels.

This is a pretty big change to how the game feels, as it makes interactions with characters in the wild much more complex, and opens up sexual encounte...

Ally characters in combat!

Getting started on ally combat and navigation behavior. I love the idea of my favorite characters coming on adventures with me, and my systems are clean enough that it has been an easy process so far!

Progression Demo!

This one took a while, and does not contain anything too flashy. It DOES however have the groundwork for combat progression. I am really doing my best to find a fun loop for this, so I would love feedback.

This demo also includes analytics. It is opt in only, but if you choose to turn it on I will get info about what characters are interacted with most, what island levels are being achieved, and how often players are dying. Please consider enabling it, I will use this data for the sole ...

Heavy workload

Progression mechanics have been the main focus at this time. The combat and exploration portion of the game need to feel good as a base for all other features. I have added a biome system and a level system that affects enemy encounters and loot.

Characters have some height variance now (this seems simple, but with sex scenes alignment can be tricky. It works though!).

The inventory UI now allows dragging and dropping to and from any inventory. This is important for systems I am i...

AI full island navigation

Got pathfinding working on the generated wild islands, which means allies and enemies have the potential for much more dynamic and lifelike AI processes.

The next two weeks are going to be a sprint focused on gameplay. My main goals are rare point of interest spawning, enemy pack behavior, adding allies to wild islands, and putting the weapons on a more sane distribution plan.

Wishlist item if I can squeeze it in is clothing dying. The groundwork is already in place I just need to...

New Demo!

The game finally has sex! This update features the completed dialog and animation scene systems, with several characters to speak to, and one sex scene!

Dialog uses a TOPIC system, so when you learn a new TOPIC, you can ask characters about it. Be sure to talk to townsfolk again after learning new TOPICs.

The demo is available on itch.io just like last time. Your Patreon membership unlocks it. If you have the previous demo a...

Update on the past 3 weeks

I realize it has been a bit. I have been in the middle of a relatively intense technical sprint retooling the animation system in preparation for sex scenes, and although it is going very well, it has been a slow process.

The dialog system is done! And I am very happy with it's capabilities. It takes some time to enter all the triggers for a good looking dialog (camera positions / poses / facial expressions), but It is super worth it. I'd post a clip, but releasing the next demo would ...

The Dialog grind

I have done everything I can to make tools to make dialog a smooth and quick process to make, but it of course still takes time to get feeling good.

I am in the process of roughing out some additional characters and story in a new area, and will probably leave most of it rough as the game comes together, and polish as I become more certain dialogs are not getting cut or changed. Right now I am changing things constantly.

I hope to implement the first spicy scene in the next build....

Combat test build! (With character create!)

It's about time we had a build around here! Follow the link below to download and play the combat test build. You will need an Itch.io account to claim a key, please let me know if you have any trouble accessing it.

https://ralivdev.itch.io/archipelagates/patreon-access

A few things that haven't been explained too well in the build:

- You can add as many pattern layers to your char...

Preparing for the combat test build

So I was planning on releasing the character create demo for y'all to kick around, but creating a character is more fun if you can run around and play.. So I will be releasing a combat demo instead!

The combat demo will contain:

• Character create with elf and canine species
• A procedurally generated intro island
• Basic melee and spell casting enemies
• A friendly character with a demo of context aware and branching dialog
• Some basic weapons, sp...
  2023-08-16 14:25:18 +0000 UTC View Post

Performance System

I spent some time finishing the bulk of my new performance system for character animations, idles, dialog performance, and sex scenes.

The system is based on IK target poses (place hands/head/hips/feet and such) created in the unity editor with layered looping motions that can be added to each target. In the dance example the hips have sin waves added to hip X and Y motion, and a sin wave on the hip Y and Z rotation.

The point of this is to make it much quicker for me to put toget...

Combat!

After a lot of iterating, I think I have a combat system put together that feels good. It is still pretty rough, but it's got that feel!

I know I am trying to get the character create build ready, but this was so close and I really want to start showing how this game is going to play.

Elf Species cleanup

The elf-like species (haven't chosen species names yet) was there from the start, but I gave it a good once over and added expressions and patterns so it is fully integrated into character create. Next will likely be dragon-like species.

Masculine Characters

I am still working on pushing the body more toward a masculine appearance, but I have a prototype in place now. One penis is available with more on the way!

Preparing for Steam

Spending my development time preparing an early alpha build and preparing the steam page for the game.

The game is still a ways away from a proper releasable build, but when it gets there, patrons will get it. In the mean time after steam preparations are made, I will be working towards a character create build for patrons to take for a spin.

Character create is operational!

I absolutely love games with good character create systems, so it is important to me to do the best I can for this project.

This one features a layer system that lets you put as many patterns as you like rather than having to select a single favorite.

The layers all overlay with color and opacity options in a single render to the character's texture, so in game there is zero performance cost as the design gets more complex.