Hello and welcome!

I am excited to present to you my first title in what will hopefully be a long list of games: Malise and the Machine.

The most recent major release of Malise and the Machine was on October 30, 2016.

As of October 11, 2016, our campaign has become a monthly subscription campaign. As of October 13, 2016 we have begun using Patreon's charge upfront feature, meaning new patrons have immediate access to their digital rewards! The following posts contain download information for the digital rewards:

$3 Reward Downloads (Game Versions)
$5 Reward Download (Artwork PDF)
$15 Reward Download (Soundtrack)

Have a question?

Send me a message or email me at eromancergames@gmail.com and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible (usually within 24 hours)!

Screenshots!

About the game

Malise and the Machine is an adult RPG for the PC, and is being created using a heavily improved version of RPG Maker VX Ace. After having been a personal project of mine for a year, the project had its first test release on Patreon in April of 2015. The project has grown so much in the time since then due to the support of our loyal patrons, and we are now a three person team of extremely devoted members working full time to make this the best adult RPG in existence.

The goal for this project is to make an amazing game that can be distributed in both English and Japanese, and we need your help to do it!

Why should I care about it?

One of the major goals of the game is originality in as much as possible. Characters, enemies, artwork, the story, maps, and even the soundtrack are being custom made for the game. If you've been waiting for an adult game that draws on gameplay aspects from classic RPG greats such as the classic Phantasy Star and Final Fantasy series, then you should care!

Is the gameplay any good?

The gameplay is good! A key element is the custom active time battle system that features fully animated enemy sprites and unique, highly detailed character artwork for every action. Characters have access to different outfits and weapon types that will modify their stats and combat role.

Here's a brief summary of gameplay elements that are either integrated already or are being planned/designed:

A fast paced active time battle system featuring a party of two
Complex skills, status system, balancing, and actual challenging gameplay (gasp)!
Quality AI
A fleshed out story told through events with detailed character artwork
An array of armor types for each character with their own unique visuals and play-styles
Crafting
Armor and weapon upgrade system
A whole lot of loot to feed the crafting and upgrade systems
Non-linear story/quest/progression elements
A custom user interface

Different armor and outfits huh? Explain!

A lot of games in the past utilize picture overlays to simulate different clothing/outfits. In Malise and the Machine every outfit truly has its own unique artwork. In addition, each outfit type has a unique progressive armor damage pattern.

The artwork looks unique! How is it being made?

The art style uses pre-rendered graphics made from 3D models. I'm using a highly customized set of shaders and post processing combined with hand painting in Photoshop to achieve this style, and the result is that I can create highly detailed artwork relatively quickly without being a master 2D artist. This route also allows me to pay to license models/parts from artists and customize them to my liking for use in the game. This isn't a magic button that does the work for me by any means as a lot of customization goes into everything, but it is the next best thing to having a team of artists working with me.

Who are you? Have you made any games previously? How many people are working this?

I'm a professional programmer, but this is my first game. I also have a background in various mediums of graphic design and music, and have pushed my creative abilities to new levels to lay the groundwork for this project.

I began the project on my own, but the development team now consists of myself, a full-time programmer, and a second full time 3D artist. Due to the nature of the game content and the specific skill sets required for making the artwork (and coding my ambitious ideas) the pool of candidates is very small. Naturally I can't expect such talented people to work for free, nor would I want them to.

How does the donation process work? What do I get in return for helping out?

Patreon works a little differently than traditional crowdfunding platforms. When you make a pledge to this project, you are charged for your initial pledge, and then on a monthly basis until you choose to end your support.

Pledging $3 per month will give you instant access to the project activity feed, allowing you to see and comment on updates that I post. This includes monthly in-depth progress updates with visuals and previews of what we’ve been up to! In addition, you’ll receive the latest version of the game on the first of each month! Please note that we may not have a new release ready every month as we want each build that we release to be stable and bug free, but we will do our best! Pledging $5 per month will also net you a high resolution artwork PDF that gets expanded with each major release! It's not skimpy either. It’s currently nearly 300 pages!
Pledging $10 per month will enter you into the "Inner Circle". At this tier you will receive weekly in-depth and technical progress updates via the Patreon feed, including previews of high resolution artwork as it’s finished. In addition, every time we reach a point where we have a semi-stable build we'll share it with those who have pledged at this tier via my Google Drive. This will give you the first opportunity to offer feedback and also help me firsthand with testing.

We’ve received a lot of praise for the electronic-metal and industrial inspired soundtrack to the game, and we are now offering the latest version of the soundtrack to patrons who pledge at the $15 per month tier.

Beyond that, a pledge of $40 (continental U.S.) or $50 (international outside the U.S.) will get you a high quality metallic ink artwork print delivered to your door. Check out the current print designs below (more will be added as development progresses)! Keep in mind that all game and print artwork is uncensored.

One more thing! If you pledge a total of $20 or more over the course of the project you will receive an uncensored completed copy of the game at the end of the project!

What will you do with my pledge?

There are two major areas that your pledge will help out with. The first is paying to license art assets. I've already put out a solid chunk of change for assets, and that chunk will only get bigger as development goes on! The second is to pay team members. The more monetary help the project receives, the more help I can get to work on the project! I want to point out that our team is now entirely comprised of members who work full time on this project and are supported almost entirely by the proceeds of this campaign. Your pledge really makes a difference for us.

Here's a big thanks to everyone for taking the time to check out our project. An even bigger thanks to those of you that choose to participate and help us out as the project progresses! Let's make a game!

- EROMANCER