The old Google Doc was getting really, reeeeally slow, so I migrated everything over to a new Firepad system that runs way, way faster. I had to do a little bit of tweaking to get revision history / rollbacks working, but it does properly save everything so we can roll back in the event of griefing.

New doc can be found at: http://furry.science/translate

SUBMISSIONS CLOSED - VOTING NOW!

Just a few minutes ago, my Patreon crossed the 10k mark!

First of all, THANK YOU. I still wake up every morning in disbelief that this is really what I get to do for a living. It seems like just days ago that I was scrapping by on a dayjob I hated, struggling to pay down medical bills, and constantly worried [rightly] that my job wouldn't be around forever.

The fact that you guys support me while I work on these games is amazing. It's fucking mindblowing. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I am the luckiest motherfucker on the planet. Thank you. Thank you thank you thank you.

To celebrate, I've worked out something fun: a R2CK-themed art piece by !

Patreon doesn't allow raffles, but they don't have any rules against voting, so the plan is to round up a bunch of potential characters, then have patrons vote on their favorites. The top four will be included in a Rack-themed picture with fek, where they can serve as either a scientist or a test subject.

If you would like your character to be in the picture, please reply to this journal with a comment that includes:
- A link to your character's refsheet
- A link to your favorite picture (or two) of your character
- Whether you would like to be a scientist, a test subject, or both/either

And here's the rules:
- Anyone can submit a character, but only Patreon supporters will be able to vote for the winners.
- You must have a refsheet.
- Your character must comply with all of Ruaidri's rules. No cubs, no taurs, no extreme body proportions, etc.
- You can submit your character any time before Saturday, Aug 13. After that, I will pick 20-25 characters using a secret blend of random chance, obvious favoritism, popufur pandering, and blatant nepotism.
- The selected characters will be compiled into a poll, which will then be sent out to all of my patreon supporters to vote on (using email keys to avoid fake votes) some time around Aug 15.
- The winners will be featured in a picture by Ruaidri. You pay nothing.

Just a heads up:

I am aware that the latest Win64 Rack 2 package is being flagged by Windows Defender on Windows 10. I am trying to determine why the game is being flagged - some of my colleagues have told me they've experienced similar issues with their games made in Unity.

I'm fairly confident that the flag is nothing to worry about, but as a precaution, I've run a full scan on my machine to make sure I'm not infected with something that could have injected itself into the game before I distributed it. Everything came up clean.

I will let you guys know if I figure anything out.

Making this so I can link it in stream.

Free?
Free once it's finished/public.

Patrons will always be a few months ahead of everyone else, but it will all be free to play.

Where can I get it?
Once it's publicly available, I will post links here on FA, and at http://furry.science/

For now, there are no public builds, but I release development builds to people who support me at http://patreon.com/fek/

Where should I submit bugs?
This early in the development process, bugs are going to come and go like crazy. You will find bugs, and I probably know about them.

I do not have a public bug tracker, for now. I will set one up once I'm actively focusing on bugfixing.
Release estimate?
No promises. These dates are extremely subject to change, and may be delayed dramatically.

Rough guess: basic public playable builds around the end of 2016. Finished, polished game around the end of 2017.

I have an idea for the game. Where should I post it?
http://www.tricider.com/brainstorming/2jmqq3ju7MF

Can you put __(species)__ in the game?
http://www.tricider.com/brainstorming/2XZGUc0frWN

VR?
Yes. I've got the Rift kinda working, and I plan to get my hands on a Vive.

Modding?
A little. You'll be able to bring in a lot of custom assets, like character mesh pieces, textures, music, CO, lab decorations, and possibly toys.

There will not be any sort of official modding/scripting API. This isn't because I'm against modding, it's just more work than I'm capable of doing. If I could just flip a switch that turned modding support on, I would do it, but it's not that easy.

With that said, people are very welcome to modify the game on their own as long as their modified versions are always clearly labeled as mods.

Humans?
I want humans, and I'm gonna give it a shot, but if I can't make them look good, I won't add them.

Open source?
Maybe eventually, but not right away.

Can I help? I'll work for free!
No thanks. I prefer to work alone. Nothing personal!

Why is it so dark?
Because right now, it isn't possible to add lights to the lab. That will be coming eventually. Until then, since all the lights are off, it's pretty damned dark. It won't actually be this dark in the finished game.

Will there be voice acting?
There will probably be grunts/moans. There probably won't be full voice acted dialogue.

Can I do voice acting for you?
Check back later / keep an eye on journals.

Multiplayer?
Probably not, but MAYBE. I do love multiplayer game development, but it's a *ton* of work.

Will ___(fetish)____ be in the game?
Electrostim: yes
Watersports: maaaybe
Scat: no
Feral / taur: no
Vore: probably not, except MAYBE if it's done to micros / by macros. Probably not.
Hyper: probably
ABDL: probably as a costume option, but not much functionality.
Inflation: cum inflation, probably. Rubber pool toy inflation, probably not.
Spanking / caning / etc: probably
Gore / dismemberment: no
Hypnosis / mind control: probably
Cub: no, but I can't really stop you from making small characters.
Rape / abduction: no, but you can headcanon whatever you want.
Lactation: Possibly. If it's added, it'll be added for all genders/characters.
Impregnation: Maaaaybe? If it's added, it'll be added for all genders/characters.
Tickling: yes

Why no feral/taur?
The game is built around a single animation skeleton that is shared by every character in the game, a massive library of programmatic animations for that skeleton, as well as a single bank of body parts that are designed to snap into place with each other on top of that skeleton.

This system allows a pretty good amount of flexibility, but it only supports characters that stand on two legs and adhere to the rough shape of the skeleton. In order to support feral / taur characters, I would need to create (and maintain) an alternate skeleton, an alternate set of programmatic animations, and an alternate library of body parts for each.

This would effectively mean building an entire second game from scratch. The only parts of the game I'd be able to reuse for ferals/taurs are the pleasure/orgasm mechanics and things like movement, dialogue, inventory, etc.

It's simply too much work. There might eventually be some sort of hard-coded interaction that caters to the feral/ taur crowd, but feral characters will not be fully supported.

I'm gonna be running another game for offline friends next week, so you guys get another weekend off. Still trying to decide if I want to run one group or two, but I'm leaning toward two.

R2CK / Streams

Most of you have noticed that my development streams have been happening at very weird hours lately! Dayoon has started working from home, which means we're both able to go back to our natural sleep patterns, which means staying up all night and sleeping all day. :P Lately, I've been streaming from about midnight to 6am, so if you're wondering where I've gone, you know where to find me!

My goal for the next development build was to have a functional handjob working from start to finish, and while I do think I could accomplish that in the next couple of weeks, I'm also intentionally moving very carefully because I want the penetration systems I write now to be as modular and reusable as possible. I'll keep you guys posted on the next devbuild as we get closer to the end of the month.

Dungeons & Dragons

Many of you have been tuning in on Sundays to watch the D&D games I've been hosting, and if you missed out, I've uploaded them to youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBjxoIkOsYA&list=PL-BDXjT0afHMekgJ3AGj_XmvlxNww6R8m

I've wrapped up all three of the one-shot sessions I was originally planning to do, which means it's just about time for me to start picking people for the "real" campaign I've got planned. I'm still trying to decide if I want to run one party or two; I think it would be super cool to run two parties in the same world simultaneously (especially since it means I can pick more people to play with), but it would also be a tremendous amount of extra work, and I don't want to overcommit.

Either way, I'll be taking next Sunday off to spend more time with the family. There is a chance that I'll be taking a few more weekends off before my brother leaves town, but whenever I get back, I'll start sorting out groups for the final campaign and get in touch with people.

If you missed out entirely and are interested in doing some D&D, I might occasionally run some more one-shots from time to time. Shoot me a note and I'll hit you up with a Roll20 invite / character sheet.

My brother's moving out of state soon, and in an effort to squeeze in some quality time before he leaves, we're going to be playing D&D with a few of my friends for the next couple of weekends (which will be my first time DMing). I've been busy prepping for that, and I've been doing a lot of it offline because there's a chance I'll run the campaign online with some of you folks after he leaves, and I wouldn't want to spoil anything! :3

With that said, those of you who are up to date on my streams are aware that this month's Rack 2 update is gonna be a doozy, with character selection / throwing characters onto racks / interaction mode. I'll try to get a proper preview up and ready soon!

I feel obligated to make something clear: I'm not a lawyer. I like to share research I've done, but the US legal system is a fucking nightmare to navigate and laws are constantly changing. Do your own research. Don't trust your understanding of the law to some guy on the internet.

In the past, I have always waited until payments were processed every month in order to send out rewards. This was necessary because of the way Patreon handled pledges, but it was also very annoying. It also meant I had to set up an itch page for anyone who missed out on the reward package every month.

Fortunately, Patreon has just added the option to charge up front when someone makes a new pledge, which means I can start hosting/posting R2CK devbuilds directly on Patreon, without having to wait until the payments process each month.

Here's what this means...

...if you are already supporting me:

You're awesome! From now on, when I post a new devbuild, it will show up like a normal Patreon post, instead of a message. That's pretty much all that changes! You'll keep getting charged at the same time, for the same amount. There's also a much better chance that I'll simply start posting demos as soon as they're ready, instead of intentionally waiting until after payments get processed.

...if you aren't supporting me yet:

You can now get access to the latest stuff immediately when you start supporting me, instead of having to go through my itch.io page or waiting until the end of the month. When you pledge to support me, it will automatically take your first pledge as soon as you sign up, then everything continues like normal, and your pledge will be automatically taken out every month.

...if you're me:

- I can finally stop double-posting everything to both Patreon and itch. I might continue to post builds on itch because I think I have a small audience that ONLY knows about me through itch, and I don't want to abandon them. But I can post to patreon right away without needing to launch on itch at the same time.

- I can finally stop sending all those annoying messages every month. I just post the update, and that's it!

- I don't have to artificially delay updates to account for payment processing any more. In other words, if I have a demo ready to go on the 29th, I can just post it on the 29th.

Anyone play it?

I recently learned that it's available on Tabletop Simulator on steam. I briefly acquainted myself with it, and now I'm dying to run a game some time.

I feel like six is the ideal number of players, but anything between 3-8 can be fun (I usually play 3 with my brothers).

I usually play long game with most of the optional rules EXCEPT artifacts (which I feel make the game too fast and are too RNG-ish), but I'm also very flexible on that. If it's a bunch of new players, 10-point game would probably be best for getting familiar.

Howdy folks!

All of the patreon perks packages for April have been sent out. If you're supporting me at the $10 tier and you didn't receive an email, here are the possible reasons why:

1) Your payment was declined. Go make sure your payment info is up to date, then shoot me a message after your payment goes through and I'll make sure you get the package!
2) You pledged too late. The cutoff is [roughly] 3AM EST on the first of each month! If this happened to you, it means you weren't charged any money for April. Your first donation will happen at the end of this month, and you'll get that build, instead!

If you missed out on this month's perks package, you can still get it for the exact same amount over on itch: http://fek.itch.io/

With the exception of two or three people who are still missing some shipping info, all of the kickstarter orders have now been mailed out! International backers, you should expect your package in the next few days/weeks, depending on your country's customs process.

And with that, the project has essentially come to an end! I'm still blown away by how popular these decks have been, and I've decided to go ahead and place a small followup order, which means I've got more decks available! Please note that because this followup order was smaller than the initial Kickstarter print run, the tuck boxes use a sheen finish instead of embossing. Everything else is identical to the Kickstarter decks!

If you would like to purchase a deck, just hop on over to:
http://fek.toys/

This project was a first for me, and it actually went surprisingly smoothly. The biggest complication I faced was international shipping. Customs were simpler than I expected, but very time consuming. Additionally, even the most economical tiers of international shipping were more expensive than I anticipated. I actually ended up selling at a loss for most international backers, but I had budgeted a small pillow to deal with unexpected expenditures, so it didn't break the bank, and it was worth it to learn the process!

In the future, I suspect that domestic orders will be cheaper (now that I don't need to have as thick of a safety cushion), and international orders will be a bit more expensive. I've also learned that there are a few countries I simply cannot ship to due to strict customs / regulations, including Russia. (Once again, sorry to my Russian backers - your refunds have been sent and should process in the next few days!)

In terms of printing, I'm very happy with the quality and the overall feel of the deck. It would be nice to try a domestic printer - particularly one that specializes in offset printing / stamping - if I can manage to secure a bigger preorder budget for future projects, but I'm very pleasantly surprised with how MPC delivered on their full color printing. I'm also particularly happy with the tuck boxes; they look great and feel great, and they hold up pretty nicely with regular use.

I do plan to eventually design another deck, which will probably focus on higher contrast, sharper/clearer imagery, and iconic illustrations, resembling a more traditional playing card style. If you enjoyed this deck, be sure to keep an eye out for an update email if/when I start working on a new one!

Thank you all, once again, for your support! I had a blast, and I'm so happy that you guys are enjoying the cards!

- fek <3

Howdy folks!

All of the patreon perks packages for March have been sent out. If you're supporting me at the $10 tier and you didn't receive an email, here are the possible reasons why:

1) Your payment was declined. Go make sure your payment info is up to date, then shoot me a message after your payment goes through and I'll make sure you get the package!
2) You pledged too late. The cutoff is [roughly] 3AM EST on the first of each month! If this happened to you, it means you weren't charged any money for March. Your first donation will happen at the end of this month, and you'll get that build, instead!

If you missed out on this month's perks package, you can still get it for the exact same amount over on itch: http://fek.itch.io/

I'll be at FWA with Dayoon!

We'll be staying at the Marriott, arriving on the 31st and leaving on the 4th. Dayoon will likely be doing a bunch of suiting, and I'll mostly be wandering around with him, or possibly swinging down to the artist's alley to hang out for a bit. While I'm there, the best ways to get in touch with me are Telegram (@fekfek) and Twitter (@fekfekfekfek). If you see me, say hi - especially if you're making food plans! 8D

We actually don't know as many people at this con as we did at MFF, so we'll be down for finding new folks to hang with!

This month's R2CK build might be delayed a few days, since I'll be at FWA when I normally mail out demos. This month's demo contains:

- Music and audio!
- Basic IK system is up and running. To demo the system, you can "use" a rack chair to snap your character into it, then use the arrow keys to struggle around in it.
- The character editor now has a "quick start" page, which allows you to very quickly set up a character based on their species, body type, and a streamlined color picker. After you've set up your character editor, you can go into the advanced editor to refine and tweak it.
- A little bit of new level design work has been started.
- I've started on the NPC and dialogue systems.
- Furniture system is up and running. You can now sit in chairs and stuff. Again, it's just the basic framework - more content will be added along the way.

Last but not least...

All domestic UNTAMED playing card orders have been shipped! I'll be wrapping up international orders next, then if I have any left over, I'll auction them off here. Right now, it looks like there are only going to be ~10 decks left over; these were way more popular than I expected. If you're interested in snagging one of the last few decks, keep an eye out for a journal!

Just taking a few days to play The Division with . I promise, I'll try to stream soon so you can see what I've been up to! I just feel bad streaming when I know it's gonna be more gaming than working. :P

http://furry.science/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/2/tutorial-how-to-create-custom-textures-for-rack-2-characters-using-blender
http://furry.science/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/2/tutorial-how-to-create-custom-textures-for-rack-2-characters-using-blender
http://furry.science/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/2/tutorial-how-to-create-custom-textures-for-rack-2-characters-using-blender

I plan on setting up a spreadsheet for custom Rack 2 resources, just like I've done for my other games. I'm waiting until we're a little closer to public builds, though, just because things are still likely to change right now.

Think I tracked down another source of launch bugs: the game will fail to load its files if it is run from any directory other than the same one where your AppData folder is located (usually, the C:// drive). I'm investigating to see if I can work around this bug.

http://strawpoll.me/6977553

If it doesn't, I'm in the process of working on some bug fixes. Hang tight!

Howdy folks!

All of the patreon perks packages for February have been sent out. If you're supporting me at the $10 tier and you didn't receive an email, here are the possible reasons why:

1) Your payment was declined. Go make sure your payment info is up to date, then shoot me a message after your payment goes through and I'll make sure you get the package!
2) You pledged too late. The cutoff is [roughly] 3AM EST on the first of each month!

But don't worry! If you missed out on the perks package, you can still get it for the exact same amount! Go snag your goodies over on itch: http://fek.itch.io/feb2016

Check this shit out. If you pledge, let them know Fek sent you. ;3

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/.....2/x/13104464#/

EDIT: just to clarify, the exciting part is the controller (and the fact that I could integrate it with rack 2), not the game.

VOTE HERE >>>>> http://www.tricider.com/brainstorming/2XZGUc0frWN <<<<< VOTE HERE
VOTE HERE >>>>> http://www.tricider.com/brainstorming/2XZGUc0frWN <<<<< VOTE HERE
VOTE HERE >>>>> http://www.tricider.com/brainstorming/2XZGUc0frWN <<<<< VOTE HERE
VOTE HERE >>>>> http://www.tricider.com/brainstorming/2XZGUc0frWN <<<<< VOTE HERE
VOTE HERE >>>>> http://www.tricider.com/brainstorming/2XZGUc0frWN <<<<< VOTE HERE
VOTE HERE >>>>> http://www.tricider.com/brainstorming/2XZGUc0frWN <<<<< VOTE HERE
VOTE HERE >>>>> http://www.tricider.com/brainstorming/2XZGUc0frWN <<<<< VOTE HERE


Rack 2 is going to support a TON of species, but I'll be using this list to help determine which ones I should work on first. Go vote for your favorites, or add them if they aren't already on the list!

So this is something I've been meaning to do for a while, but I finally got around to working on it over the past few days.

A lot of people have been asking about Rack 2's development timeline, when they can expect to see a demo, when I think the game will be done, etc. I don't have definite answers for any of those questions, but what I do have is a rough development roadmap showing what needs to be done to get the game ready for launch, and where I'm currently at.

So here it is - the Rack 2 development roadmap!

The Trello link above contains an up-to-date todo list showing what I'm currently working on, known bugs, and a rough look at what I'm going to be working on later. It is not an exhaustive report of everything I'm going to include in the game, it's just a list of current tasks.

On the far left column, however, is the development roadmap. This list contains, in roughly chronological order, a list of all the major steps I need to take in order to get the game up and running. They aren't in perfect order (I'm sure you'll notice right away that the "Audio Framework" task is untouched, despite being near the top of the list), but they give a rough idea of what I'm working on right now, and what I'll be working on later.

You'll also notice that near the bottom of the list, there's a task titled "Start Releasing Public Builds". That is roughly the place in the development timeline where I expect to start making Rack 2 builds available to the public. Patreon supporters will always be a little bit ahead of the general public on updates, but Rack 2 is going to work like Rack 1 in terms of release schedule, not like Bedplay. In other words, I'm not going to make everyone wait until the game is completely finished to let them start playing.

I want to wait until there's a solid foundation for a game and enough content to keep everyone busy for a while before I go public, but I also know that Rack 2's development time is easily going to break the 12+ month mark, and I know that the game will be playable/enjoyable long before it's actually finished. No sense keeping it a secret now, is there? :P

If you're interested in supporting the game, and want to start snagging development builds, hit me up over on patreon. I am only able to work on this game because you guys support me! I'm the luckiest guy in the world, and I owe you all so much for keeping me afloat. <3

24 hours left in the UNTAMED kickstarter! We just broke 300% funded, and I'm suuuuuuper excited to get started on the final batch. :D

Once the campaign ends, I'll have a few decks left over to sell at conventions and stuff, but once those run out, they're gone forever! Best way to snag a deck is to back the kickstarter before it ends tomorrow night!

Howdy folks!

All of the patreon perks packages for January have been sent out. If you're supporting me at the $10 tier and you didn't receive an email, here are the possible reasons why:

1) Your payment was declined. Go make sure your payment info is up to date, then shoot me a message after your payment goes through and I'll make sure you get the package!
2) You pledged too late. The cutoff is 3AM EST on the first of each month!

But don't worry! If you missed out on the perks package, you can still get it for the exact same amount! Go snag your goodies over on itch: http://fek.itch.io/jan2016

Also, if you're interested in some furry playing cards I made, go check this out - there's only a couple days left to snag 'em:
https://www.kickstarter.com/project.....-playing-cards

Doubled our space again! Server's back online. The chunk scanner didn't find any corruption, fortunately, but please let me know if you encounter any broken/missing chunks!

For those of you who requested whitelists, I'll be adding you in a sec and noting you info. :3