Parasite Black [v0.153]

Well guys, it’s finally here!
A couple things:
-The travel maps mechanic is the last major feature/mechanic to be integrated into the game. From here on out, we’ll just be adding depth to ALL of existing systems and improving on them, such as combat, enemy AI, etc.
-The next focus now, is on (finally) the Mages of Palam quest(s) and wrapping up Captain Nyx for Act 1, before moving on towards finally wrapping up Act 1’s main quests and leaping ahead with the story (with Regina content). We’ve already made a start gathering assets and things already~
-Apologies for the lack of communication on this one, we’ll try get back to our more regular news updates shortly.

As usual, thank you all for your amazing amount of support helping to bring this project alive,
you guys are awesome!
Love,
-The Damned Studios Team
0.153 Changelog:
New stuff:
– Added a traveling system: getting to remote locations has never been this exciting
– Added a travelling merchant you can encounter on your travels (and have fun with)
– New holiday event (with two sexy scenes)
– An assortment of items related to the holiday event
– Adara’s place can be visited (after the holiday event) – Adara can now be “properly romanced” (after the holiday event)
– Three new music themes for the holiday event & travels
– Couple new cinematic sounds
Tweaks/fixes:
– Already-clicked choice options are now slightly greyed-out
– Fixed a small display error in prologue
– Fixed pregnant characters spamming birth and behaving weirdly in general
Translation-related:
Books now won’t crash due to splitting text tags no more
– Fixed a bug with Thea not appearing on quickstart romance option
– Some other smaller fixes

v0.152
N/A

v0.149
content:

– new quest: The Slavemaster. Involves captain Nyx and is unlocked after The Bloodhound quest.

– new sexy scene w/Captain Nyx, happens during The Slavemaster quest.

– 5 adventure guild quests, 4 of which are repeatable.

– two new sexy scenes happening in one of the adventure guild quests. (Please note, the catgirl/catboy rotate weekly during the ‘price of life’ quest.

– new enemies, cgs, backgrounds as parts of the Adventure Guild quests.

– Thea romance content including sexy scenes, unlocked by advancing your Adventurer Guild rank.

– new regina sexy scene, happens after the Dazzling Tail quest.

– new Elena sexy scene, happens later into her romance.

– Myu can now be impregnated. Alt sex scenes are added, as well as some narrative. – new celeste sprite.

– new celeste returning to the city artwork.

smaller changes/fixes:

– numerous smaller fixes to old quests, such as transitions, dialogue, char positions and more.

– healing items can be used in story mode. Only one place where this is relevant as of now.

– books are now items you can carry around and use to read.

– WASD keys can now be used to navigate most of the locations in the game. S leaves most of the city’ buildings. (we’ll have help screen eventually listing all the hotkeys, promise).

– you’re now notified if you’ve succeeded or failed a skill check (or, charm check as of now). – retreat from battle added to demorai hunt & balun exploration.

– Elena facial expressions no longer clipping’ around.

QoL:

– you can now use potions in combat with numpad keys.

– saves can now be named. you can toggle this option on/off in prefs menu.

– double-click-to-proceed is gone for good.

– error screen changed to account for the game’s early stages of development. – combat log can be toggled on and off permanently.

v0.147
– new quest: a tale of two emperors
– a bunch of new characters & scenes as per the quest
– new location as a part of the quest
– new quests, char & lewd stuff if you bring the slime jar with ya during The Bloodhound
– From Another World quest as a part of prologue: act1 now starts at either ves camp if player saved her, or at novaras city if they did not.
– quickstart changed to accomodate for FAW being merged into prologue sequence, added a choice sequence to alter pre-act1 choices
– Para dream sequence tied into Adara Reunion quest: doesn’t rely on weird sleep trigger anymore
– gallery rework: characters as categories, scene variants as additional flags that are saved on being seen
– tons of fixes to existing gallery scenes
– gutted native renpy gui, rebuilt entire ui from the ground-up: main menu, save menu, credits, options
– as part of the above, plenty changes to ui big & small
– massive amount of typos fixed, big thanx to ivann for providing a list of most of these (was it 400+ total?)
– map doesn’t have location names baked-in anymore
– valley of death as a separate location southwards of novaras
– “hunt demorai” moved to VoD
– added missing elena grind + lingerie finish arts – quicksave/quickload with f5/f9
– non-flickering main menu video (finally) & non-bugging-out save thumbnails
– some tutorial popups placed around the game, explaining functionality
– prologue intro stretched on x-axis a bit
– the dark knight lists gangs slain
– Added additional soundtracks
– new adara hug cgs
– replaced some prologue artworks w/better ones
– replaced nijah prologue doggy w/improved one
– prologue revisited, fixed some chars overlappin & other visual hiccups
– chars are shown on a separate layer by default now, as to avoid any vfx overlap
– relationship change lists capitalized name
– also tons of under-the-hood changes & smaller visual ones

v0.146
General:
– world map & travel
– dros romance & corresp. content
– mal’s shop is now working
– church location
– new mc artwork
– black diamond arena
– skill tests, currently used for charisma rolls in quests. Whenever you see one, you’ll see a “drama” icon (two masks). Percentage tells your odds on “passing” the skill test.
– cheat menu replaced with cheat codes

Party battle:
– a bunch of combat sounds
– cancel skill button
– music lists as opposed to fixed tracks
– floating numbers (dmg)

Quests:
– From Another World quest now ends with a tavern scene
– The Dark Knight quest (after From Another World) – The Bloodhound quest (after The Dark Knight)
– A Graceful Rebirth quest (after High Fashion) qol/fixes:
– a bunch of ‘Regina’s replaced with [regina_ref]
– restored accesibility menu (a key)
– restored self-voicing (v key)
– made “goodbye” choices always the bottom-most ones – sometimes waiting would be blocked if ya skip too fast, not anymore (hopefully)
– arwen scenes static placeholders replaced with anims
– bunch of typos/text edits (umicans anyone)
– consistent infection change across any and all sex scenes
– startup disclaimer is a text now, not a picture

0.145 Changelog:
– new character: arwen, a prostitute that cosplays occasionally
– 3 sex scenes (involving arwen).
– 2 (4 variants) cosplay sex scenes involving arwen
– palam tower now has a night music theme
– library has a new background art
– party battle turn counter/side indicator
– party battle ui no longer blinking in/out of existence
– first combat sound: bottle pop, expect more
– options to delete persistent data and saves
– new adventurers guild’ background sprite
– mad prophet wanders about novaras
– new book readable at vala’s
– added small unique scenes in case nijah & elena are at mc’s at the same time
– black diamond not immediately available if you take the bloodbath route, extra scene there
– clothes shop new background & sound (after you bring the power crystal)
– nijah can now be impregnated on vaginal sex
– a bunch of scenes revolving around nijah pregnancy
-lukkan can be found at the tavern every few nights
– extra dialogue lines for nijah post-damzel quest
– new kylisa sprite
– entire ves questline revisited, reworked into separate quests & polished up
– no-lingerie version of ves 69 scene added
– some ves sex scenes improved visually
– ves tent flap soundbank
– adara reunion (“visit her at iron unicorn at night”) turned into a quest, to avoid players getting lost
– Sister Divine dialogue slightly altered to not clog up questlog
– resting now ticks clock per-hour of rest
– resting also plays a clock sound
– you can now rest up to 24h
– “relationship with character changed” now lists char. name
– clock choice icon to indicate events that are gonna take up quite a bit of time
– elena music theme improved – regina story description improved
– vala first meet scene only happens at day
– gallery is now 5 gold per view
– nijah rescue sequence only happens after the “parasite dream”
– sunrise/dusk times tweaked to match those on the ingame day/night circle
– missing nijah house name fixed
– plenty of grammar fixes

-The Damned Studios Team 0.144 changelog: –

-fix: saves breaking after combat

– fix: a bunch of ‘bought’ vs ‘brought’ typos – fix: alea wearing mask proper during her lewd scenes now

0.143 changelog:

– new: thea character (during adventurers guild sequence)

– new: alea & fawha character sprites (during black diamond quest)

– fix: missing ves camp button names – fix: dialogue history causing error

– fix: double click on messages

– fix: relationship char duplicate entry

– fixes: plenty of typos – new: elena the wolf-lady, questline available after completing adara reunion

– new: a bunch of new quests and events revolving around elena

– new: two rep. sexy scenes w/elena

– new: butcher character, curently used in elena’s questline

– new: regina masturbating animation

– new: kiara sprites

– new: helena the courtesan

– new: a bordello helena works in

– new: slightly changed ‘parasite first meet’ cg

– new: gold coin amount interface bit (if player has any)

– new: scrollbars in dialogue history

– new: time frames (dawn, noon etc) are now displayed on the clock

– new: ability to select a choice menu entry with number keys

– new: hotkeys for most of the general interface stuff (not editable yet)

– new: three music themes; babazhul, bandits (nijah questline) and elena

– change: traveling around passes time a bit, so does demorai huntin’

– change: player now has some gold at the start of act1

– change: hunt rewards raised

– change: simplified how sleeping in bed works, as to avoid silly progression hiccups

– engine: moved over to python3 renpy

– engine: reverted .py separation: entire codebase is native .rpy files once again

– engine: while at it, cleaned up & optimized plenty of engine nuances such as init stages

– engine: midnight check for quests/logic

– engine: bare-code groundwork for leveling, pregnancy system, party management system

v0.140
-Nijah romance heavily extended past Damzel quest
– Black Diamond lewd scenes (servant during Damzel quest)
– Sell Nijah option during Damzel quest
– As per feedback, pauses whenever lewd scenes happen
– Gallery scenes tweaked according to
– Novaras market location
– New party battle healing item obtainable from Nijah’ market stall
– Tarek death CGs
– Couple under-the-hood tweaks

v0.137
Engine: – Fix to android (.apk) builds. They now work. Again.
Content: – New Nijah character sprite. – A new quest revolving around Nijah (Damzel in Diztrezz) that you can begin if you visit pleasure district after completing From Another World. Might want to daily-revisit ~twice or so for the event to fire.
Note: this is a first not-quite-linear quest we’ve got. Bring feedback if anything borks up.
– The Black Diamond location. Currently only visited temporarily for the duration of Damzel in Diztrezz quest, will be re-visitable once the quest is finalized & missing assets acquired.
– Three new enemy types: a bandit, a thug, a guard. Currently only used within Damzel in Diztrezz quest.
– Nijah house & some coding scaffolding for her TBA lewd content that is unlocked post ^ quest.
– Applied a quick & dirty visual tweak to sewers battle map.
We’ll most likely change it further down the line. Till then, boosted brightness/contrast should do.
– Added a country-ish street battle map, currently used in Damzel in Diztrezz quest.
– Markus added as a character that you can speak to in his house. Not much there for now, just a consistency’s sake.
– Added a small cozy system playing a random sound from an SFX library. Currently only used for door creaks around the city.
Will come full force when we get to combat sounds. – Added more ‘glowing lights’ VFX to locations. Think we’ve covered all of them.

0.134
fixes a major bug causing quests to bug out.

v0.133
Visuals:
– Artwork replaced with new & improved versions: princess cg, day/night tavern, prologue laboratory
– Tweaked NVL (bunch of text on screen, like when reading books), so that it’s more beautiful.
– Fixed Vala bugging out duplicating herself

Mechanics:
– potions you can use in battle are now taken from your inventory. you can fill your belt slots yourself, or let the system autofill it.

Quests/Progression:
– as per feedback, fixed mismatched ves dialogue
– disabled (fixed) sleeping during prologue
– high fashion quest now properly triggers on entering the shop for the first time
– added lewds gallery: you can find it around novaras pleasure district
– changed hunt bronze reward to lighten the grind
– reworked arlena questline: arlena’s content was most likely not seen by most of the players due to tricky triggers it had set up & it being untracked. it is split into two complete quests and a repeatable romance stage after you beat those.
– added arlena as an interactable character after her introductory quest is complete
– as part of the above, some writing & narrative was added/changed
– cleaned up redundant notes and added a couple more to the journal

Interface:
– implemented new mouse tooltip instead of an obsolete one we’ve used
– as per feedback, added dialogue history screen, top-right textbubble-like button
– sound values now display in options screen
– added new tooltip to the battle, showing skill descriptions
– “censore violence” option moved to options menu as a toggle
– fixed main character’s house interactables positions
– during reworked arlena qustline, you will sometimes see icons representing permanent outcome. these are meant to warn player to think twice, and should be visually self-explanatory. if this idea takes root, we’ll have more of those placed around when appropriate.

Quality of life changes:
– Added party battle skill numbers, these indicate keys you can press to select a skill
– As per feedback, added an ability to cancel combat skill choice. after choosing a skill, press either esc or right mouse button to cancel skill selection
– Added cheat menu player can toggle on/off in options. a top-right flower-like icon, it allows you to add gold & change corruption levels. in battle, open it to access a “win battle” option. not recommended if it’s your first time playing.

Under-the-hood changes:
– Baked kiara prologue scene into a webm: game folder size reduced by 15%, lag it caused is gone
– Tons of background & cg images converted to .webp, cutting game folder size further by ~%20, with this and above, file size optimization is now pretty much complete
– Codebase optimizations

Other:
– Novaras smithy got an ambient SFX loop