Hello everyone. This will be a long post with a bunch of random, unnecessary stuff, so feel free to skip to the parts you care about.

General speech

It so happens that after looking at the calendar, I realized it’s been about 10 years since I started making games. I generally don’t pay attention to dates nor engage with social media, so it felt like a good moment to actually do that.

A lot has happened in 10 years, both in my life and in the world. I’ve gone through a midlife crisis and lost close relatives. I started with no real experience in game dev beyond some basic scripting and simple modding. After two finished games and one almost finished game, I feel like I’ve touched nearly every part of the skillset except 3D and netcode.

A lot has changed since then, and many tools have been introduced to make the work easier, especially with the rise of AI. While it’s a controversial topic, AI is basically used everywhere now, starting with things like ChatGPT for consultation. It’s especially effective for low-budget projects and solo devs because it can reduce costs drastically while raising the “minimum quality bar” to at least a decent level.

I’m talking purely from a technical standpoint, though. The creative side of AI still feels like shaking a kaleidoscope and hoping something meaningful appears, and I don’t expect that to change anytime soon. It's also sadly kinda terrible on voice acting, at least for my standards.

As I get closer to finishing Conquest (and Displaced, to an extent), and with my personal life being less than great, I’ve been questioning what comes next. To be honest, I have a lot of ideas (and finishing Conquest is still the top priority), but I also have some concerns.

The payment processor crackdown on adult content (in case you’ve missed it) has made me think about moving away from that space, because it feels increasingly unsustainable without decent connections which I, surprisingly, don’t really have, either due to circumstances or my poor social skills.

I have plenty of ideas for what I could be doing by 2027, including moving to a different medium or even going by another name, but those kinds of thoughts often come and go and life proves to be above our thoughts and desires. Still, I feel like I need to make some changes if I want better results, because right now things feel a bit bleak.

AMA Section

A few weeks ago I made an “ask me anything” thread on Discord. I didn’t get many questions, but there are a few worth answering here.

Question from 11114 of Zephiark

One question that plagued me since gods-know-when: SfP world was charming and pretty unique on its own, so why change the setting for the sequel? Was it SfP’s in-universe limitations (like destructive magic ban), attempt to get on fantasy anime “hype train”, writer block of sorts, or something else completely?

So, let’s talk a bit about one of the major changes from the first game: the setting. There’s a main reason and a secondary one, though you could swap them depending on how you look at it.

The main thing about Strive 1’s universe is the sex-to-mana concept. I wanted to move away from it because it was thematically restrictive. Everything had to be approached through that lens, and while it can make for a fun gameplay system, it also felt too dominant.

You could argue it made the first game feel more “mature” in the sense that it gave the setting a more visceral tone and that uniqueness can be a positive, but I felt a more classic fantasy style fit better for a sandbox fantasy game.

The other big change, which some people may not have noticed, was that I originally wanted a setting completely absent of religion. Looking back, I wasn’t exactly wise when I made that decision, and my views and knowledge have expanded a lot since then.

Religion is a much more prominent theme in Conquest, and naturally it wouldn’t have been possible in Strive 1’s setting.

So yeah, those are the main reasons behind the setting change.

Question from Raello

Do you plan to add major post-1.0 content aside from bug fixes, like expansions, or will you be focusing on existing projects and possibly a new one?

I’d say it’s possible, to some extent. I have a lot of ideas, including potential Strive expansions. The issue is always time, you have to choose what to invest your effort into.

I hate making promises, especially when I’m not sure I can keep them, but it’s within the realm of possibility that I’ll add more major content later. There have also been a lot of suggestions, like alternative story routes, which I’ll touch on a bit later.

Not asked at the time, but comes up often: Steam?

Not asked at the time, but it comes up often, so I’ll address it here: “What about releasing it on Steam?”

Previously I said it was basically impossible, and that was mostly true for Strive 1, but now I’m at least considering it, in the sense of stripping all adult content and maybe giving it a try.

At the same time, I’m not sure it would be worth the time and effort. In the end, it’s all about reach and visibility, and the overall situation around adult game dev has been getting less and less favorable in my eyes. Hopefully that doesn’t turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Strive Conquest development

So, let’s go over what’s happening in development and what to expect in 2026.

Story

First, I want to say that we’ll finish the major story and character sidequests in 2026. As usual, that’s more of a target than a guaranteed fact, game development is unpredictable, but we’re very close at this point.

Act 4

While we’re technically just starting it, it shouldn’t take more than a few months to flesh out. The idea is to have several parallel quest/storylines developed alongside each other (Rouge, Erdyna, and the other parties). This will be a bit different from Acts 1–3, which were more linear, but the ending of the act will still revolve around a single major global event.

At this point it’s not easy to account for every possible character and trigger you may have picked up during a playthrough, but we’ll try to cover as many as we reasonably can, especially since even characters like Zephyra are technically optional.

Act 5

Act 5 will be the final act: a “fight the apocalypse” kind of wrap-up. It will feature three routes/endings, one for each of the sisters: Zephyra/Kuro/Rouge

Each will have a unique final dungeon/boss sequence.

I also want to add a more advanced ending and a secret boss after the player has seen the original three endings and possibly completed a specific sequence of steps.

Speaking of secret bosses, I also want to make it into its own minor unique quest-boss encounter as well, and it and some of the boss fights will need additional work on them.

Sidequests

There are about five sidequest characters who are still missing their personal questlines, but they shouldn’t take too long to develop.

Mae will be the first, and after that we’ll likely take care of the Act 3 girls.

Tutorial

We’ve made a completely new tutorial that should be a much better introduction for players who have struggled so far, and it also improves the overall GUI experience on multiple levels.

Bonus points system

This one is a bit unconventional, but I want to add a system to increase replay value.

Players would accumulate points as they progress through the story and complete achievements, and those points would be recorded globally. When starting a new game, you’d be able to select additional bonuses or start with story characters you recruited in previous runs.

This would even allow you to start with an Act 3 or Act 4 character right away, similar to how importing save files works now. You’d still encounter them normally and be able to complete their quests as usual, but they’d be available to you from day one.

This could also open up the option for story events that would otherwise be impossible, and it feels like it could be really fun if we go that far.

Ending

So, all things said, for now I’ll go back to work. Thank you for your interest, support, and for following through all these years.