During the past few months we are working on several ends to release the new (and most likely) final Beta version before the release of MoGi Origins. Many decisions were made and a lot of work has been done, but we are not done quite yet.
Talking about the Beta and the release of MoGi Origins, we mean Voms' timeline. The other characters (Ucogi, Alice, Rudy, Chibi and Ninjuco) will be released as DLC, later on. Right now we want to Focus on Voms and the level design. The level design however is affected by other characters as well. So we had to finish Rudy and all 3 of her transformations back in March, and also finalize Ucogi this month. Their versatile moveset is crucial for the final design of many levels and they do appear as NPCs in Voms timeline.
Ucogi was a beast to make. She has about 200 frames, many unique moves and 3 states of undressing. And she has to look as good as possible! Right now Ucogi exists only naked for testing purposes. Once we are happy with the way she feels in the game, I would need about a week to dress her up, and make her presentable for Voms timeline. In total, Ucogi will have 600 frames!
All that said, Titan prepared a Beta for me to play and test, but there were many game braking errors and glitches that needed to be fixed. That's the cruel truth about gamedev... adding new things sometimes break old things... and many other things need to be updated or upgraded or corrected.
I wrote over 7 pages of notes, for both me and Titan. Some are high priority, and some are low. But they all need to be addressed sooner or later, if not for this Beta, then at least for the final version of the game.
We are happy to announce that Veins completed Stheno's design and animations. She is the last Queen of Voms' playthrough and the last MoGi enemy for Voms timeline! It is indeed a landmark in our game's development. I wanted to avoid spoilers but I also wanted to share how she would look like in the game and see your reaction. I hope you like her!
In the following video we reveal the animation procedure of her idle animation, frame by frame. She is the 29th Monstergirl that we made for the game (including extra MoGi enemies that don't appear in Voms timeline) and the 9th boss Voms is going to fight! We only show her idle animation in this video. She will appear in the game when Voms' timeline is completed and MoGi Origins is released.
We have been working on many more things in the background. Details that may not be visible to the player. We usually can only show the progression of animations and art, but let's not forget that the programing is the soul of the game. Sometimes it's hard to talk about it, since it's just code. And it's easier to point out what doesn't work instead of what actually works. Many of the videos I have upload is of work in progress where the programming mostly fails. A lot of hard work, knowledge, peace of mind and willpower is needed to program, let alone finish anything. Here's some small things that need attention that nobody would notice, but they would contribute to a better gaming experience and we consider them important. They may contain spoilers, or not appear in the game at all.
We also plan on releasing a new Beta soon. Probably next month if everything goes well. Veins still needs to finish Ucogi
and a new cut-scene for that to happen, but we are very excited about
this!
Voms will finally meet Ucogi and Rudy and get to an entirely new area, the labs! A brand new MoGi will be introduced and we will add Troll and Vampire (+ZombieGirl) in the game as well!
That's 4 new MoGi in total and we will merge the two current Betas to avoid any confusion. That means that the Story Mode and the Extra Modes (Time Attack and Survival) will be in the same package!
The last few months we worked hard to finalize Rudy. We do plan to finish Voms' timeline first and then release all other characters. But it was crucial to finish Rudy in order to complete the actual level design. Rudy gains unique monstergirl skills during her story, and many levels had to be designed with these skills in mind. - Spoilers ahead!
Rudy in a nutshell:
She is the only playable character that shoots projectiles. She can get quite resourceful and hack doors the other characters can't open. Since every other character has short range attacks, we had to give Rudy a few flaws for the balance of the game. One of those flaws is her slow ability to climb platforms. To overcome her shortcomings, Rudy gains the power to project holograms and act like a MoGi. That means that she can have sex with all three of her transformations!
This idea came to us very early in the development of the game, when a fan expressed his wish to play as a monstergirl in this game. It was a great challenge to choose which MoGi she should morph into and an even bigger struggle to give these MoGi useful and fitting abilities. Each MoGi had to gradually give her the advantage that she needs and place each transformation evenly on the map.
Elf jumps higher than Rudy, Okami jumps further and Gold helps Rudy climb walls. Rudy is essentially 4 characters in 1 and each of her transformations has its pros and cons.
The video shows our test level where Rudy practices her new skills against a Soldier. Later on I have some fun in the Survival mode with Rudy. Rudy wont be able to play in Survival but I had to check how see performs against other MoGi. You might see some things going wrong in these videos but we try to address all of them, as this was recorded during our tests.
If by any chance you want to know more about the sex scenes, here are some of the details. Rudy's 3 MoGi transformations can only have sex with Soldiers. Each transformation has it's own Sprite Scene, and each scene is designated to a... hole! So we have oral, anal and vaginal sex to keep everyone happy! Originally we wanted the player to have sex with the Soldiers but that would break the flow and pacing of the game. So we decided that Rudy will create extra holograms to immobilize the Soldiers.
Rudy's sex scenes are not a shoehorned fanservice but a well thought concept that has actual impact on the gameplay. The Soldiers are not only fierce but also immortal. Against any other character, they always stand up, seconds after they die! Unless you have Rudy. She is such a unique character!
As always, we are open for comments, questions and suggestions!
With the death of Adobe Flash, most, if not all of Ucogi's games stopped working in any internet browser. A friend of mine is working on a "wrapper", that would be able to run the game's I made over the years. That said, Ucogi games will have to adapt, or seize to exist. So, I had to think and work to preserve Ucogi's legacy.
I revisited my itch.io account in hopes to uploading and promoting my games. I'm uploading both .swf and .exe files (hopefully the .exe files will keep working in all computers). These games are given at a minimal cost and people who supports us on Patreon receive these games for free.
This month is a special one. It's the 10th anniversary of Ucogi's first Flash game, "Saint Patrick's Day"! That inspired me to revisit and upload the final version of the game here. But that's not all. As part or Ucogi Legacy, I started exporting Ucogi's original art in the biggest resolution possible! This is awesome not only for posters, but for any kind of merchandise! Depending how it goes I may to the same for more of Ucogi's art, but for now I welcome you to Ucogi's Saint Patrick's Store!
Just like in my itch.io page, most products are given at a minimal cost ($1 above their original price), plus you can get discount passwords and even customize the merch to your liking!
Regarding MoGi Origins, I'm happy to announce that I finished SlimeGirl Blue, which means that all of the normal MoGi in Voms' timeline are completed! The Queens are not far off either, as only Stheno remains to be done from the bosses.
Furthermore, Titan has finished Rudy and her transformations. Rudy has
access to very specific places in the map, due to her various
platforming abilities, so now we will be able to finalize the levels!
Also, we finished three new and original music pieces for the game!
We are happy to announce that a new Beta has been released! This is a special release since you won't be able to play the Story mode, but you can test your skills in the Extra modes!
Everyone with a MoGi Origins Beta access, can now play the Survival and the Time Attack mode! These modes would be unlockables in the game!
What's new:
• Survival and Time Attack modes! • New MoGi to fight against: FairyGirl Troll, Vampire and ZombieGirl! • Updated sex scenes for BeastGirl Squirrel, SlimeGirl Black and RockGirls Stone and Gold! • New music • Additional sound effects for all MoGi • New menu design • So many glitch and minor fixes! • Voms is more flexible as he can now kick in the air and grab on ledges or use his Groundpound move in the same jump!
Let us know of your thoughts, suggestions, and any bugs and glitches you may find! And thank you all for your support, emotional or otherwise!
Apologies for the lack of posts the past few months. Me and Titan had it hard for several reasons... Covid-19 struck a bit too close to home and the lockdown damaged us mentally. There were other problems like over 200 wasps occupying my room, back problems, hard drive failures and even bridge shuttering floods and ear problems (during the making of sound effects of all times) to name a few. So we weren't in the best frame of mind to focus on the game as much as we wanted.
Problems aside, we managed to pull ourselves together and do a lot of progress. All the normal MoGi are pretty much finished. Sometimes however, if you try to fix something, something else breaks, so we had many unexpected glitches:
SlimeGirl Blue: her projectile reverses trajectory when we press pause.
SlimeGirl Black: she vanishes with Voms during her grab.
We try to finalize everything we can and release a new demo with two Extra Modes, as originally promised. These Modes (Time Attack and Survival) are almost completed, as you can briefly see in the video above. They need a little more work before we are satisfied regarding the mechanics and pace. Both modes will include new MoGi to fight against.
These new MoGi would be Troll and Vampire. Working on them, gave us the opportunity to go back and improve many other enemies, regarding their behavior and sounds effects. A lot of the MoGi have updated audio and they sound a lot
more unique and memorable. The image below shows some of the things that had to be improved.
various corrections
There was a lot back and forth to make all this happen and we had to test each change several times over and reevaluate every decision we make. What works, what doesn't, what we can keep working on or discard. Many "luxuries" were left out so that we can focus on what is most important. For example, I wanted the NPC Soldiers to be able to kill MoGi but that would be a week of programing work, and although it would make the game more realistic, it's not really that important and it only may have been used on a couple of screens max.
That said, we tried to add details whenever possible. Most MoGi have a little tell before they attack. Naiad and Turquoise hold their projectiles a bit longer and Squirrel looks back if she is about to turn without finding a wall :)
An important thing we added, is Voms' kicking and grabbing in the same jump. Up to now, he couldn't grab on a ledge if he had kicked on the air. Titan had to play around with the core mechanics, which is always dangerous. This small addition however, improves the gameplay and it can create a few satisfying combos. The following images also show some decisions we had to make.
This is a problem that occurs in many 2D platform games and we couldn't work a way around it because it would cause conflicts with the other mechanics of the game.
Trying to make Vampire's jumping attack animation feel good, visually.
Having an enemy that jumps was a huge challenge to program, because the base of the platforming engine still used some of GM's built in physics systems which are a complete black box.
We hope we can release a satisfying new demo soon, as we feel we are getting closer to finishing the game with each new installment. Releasing the Extra Modes is our way of saying that progress is made and that the game looks and feels good. We don't want to spoil the actual game as it's really close to finish, so the Extra Modes were the best next thing we could prepare for release at this point.
I'm happy to announce that we are a few steps closer towards the completion of the game. Quite a lot of progress was done during August. Titan was working on the Time Attack and Survival modes of the game, and I finished animation the sprites for Okami and Elf, which are going to be transformations for Rudy. You can see both making-of videos in my YouTube channel.
For those who don't remember, back when we started the game, there was a suggestion, to have the option to play the game as MoGi. This is what we came up with, having Rudy morphing into several MoGi, each with a different power and attack, in order to avoid various obstacles. It was a challenge and we hope our efforts are well received! Okami
and Elf are 2 of the 3 Rudy transformations. The 3rd is Gold and when
she was done, we decided to add her in the game as an extra MoGi enemy.
That though, won't happen with Okami and Elf. We would love to include them of course, but it would take a lot of time to program them as enemies and give them sex scenes. We need to focus on finishing the game, rather than adding extra content at this point.
Thankfully, not many things are left to be done in the game. Apart from Stheno and 2 adult scenes for Voms, the rest is just 3 adult scenes for Rudy, and a couple of bosses. Then, Voms and probably Rudy's playthrough would be done and the playtesting and polishing should begin.
The next thing I need to work on, is Stheno, Ucogi and Alice. Ucogi and
Alice's playthroughs are not a priority right now, but they do appear as
characters in Voms' timeline and I need to animate them soon. I was
waiting a long time for this and I'm hyped!
