The Little Black Bestiary- An episodic monster-dating VN

[CyberScherzo]

The Little Black Bestiary is a modern fantasy VN series about a dating website populated by different fantasy races, monsters, aliens etc; where the player has the opportunity to experience different dates with them. It's a dating sim with the emphasis on the actual dating and getting to know the different characters. With some occasional mini-games for special date activities.

Instead of one huge game, we're separating the content into smaller self-contained episodes, each featuring a different character. The first episode, in which you go on a date with a geeky dragon girl, is nearly complete and in open public beta. (Content and story is complete, just needs some polish)

The download is available for free on Itch.io.

My hope is that we'll be able to keep adding more episodes and release them to the public for free.
To help cover the cost of hiring professional quality artists, I've opened a tip jar Patreon. Ultimately none of the content will be paywalled, but patrons will get to vote on the content they helped to fund with patron only votes on things like which dateable characters get added next, what sort of fetishes their sex scenes will contain and so on.

I'm actively hunting for feedback on how to improve the game, and what sorts of future content our potential fans would like to see us add in the future. Please don't hesitate to comment or contact me with any questions about the project. (Similarly, if any writers or artists are interested in joining the team, feel free to PM me about details.)

Development on the 2nd episode is due to commence next month, more details very soon!

Thanks for checking out our game, and I hope you'll give it a shot!

 

[Kesil]

Though I'm not into dating sims, I might be interested in this, so... Fetishes and pairings, please?

 

[CyberScherzo]

Fetishes and pairings, please?

At this moment, Just F/M, (Male protagonist) since this release just has one date with one character. The demo's sex scene is pretty Vanilla compared to what you might find in Fenoxo's games. Didn't want to give it away, but the sex scene contains...

Spoiler

very light electro-stimulation play, as Isabel is an electric/thunder dragon though that's not actually revealed until that moment

I'd like to have future episodes with a player-selected protagonist gender, and male/female/other dates are going to be options on the future character polls so that should open up the pairing options. Also, said characters will have their own kinks so there'll be some more fetishes featured in the future as well. The episodic structure should make it pretty easy to just play the episodes with the content that interests you while skipping the rest, so no hard feelings if this one isn't to your taste.

If there's a specific pairing or fetish you're looking for though, let me know and I'll add it to my notes (I'm keeping track of what's requested most frequently)

 

[Kesil]

Thank you for your reply. I'll catch up when there's a female protagonist or male partner. As for fetishes interest, you might wish to check these threads if you're interested in the pulse of the Fenforums:

• "What is your fetish?"
• "Your top five"

 

[Incuboss]

Well, color me impressed.

Everything about this game is wonderful. It's got an eye-catching name, beautiful art, a really neat story concept, the character introduced thus far is delightful, everything flows nicely, and it's got, ahem, effective lewd scenes. Seriously, really good stuff here.

A few things I'd like to suggest if you'll hear me out. I think a save feature is definitely going to be welcome (or if it's already there, possibly just more visible because I had a hard time finding it). The scene can be finished in a sitting, but sometimes it's just nice to break it up or to revisit it at certain points. And if you wind up adding more to each particular character (which given what you have so far, would definitely be welcome), it'd be downright necessary.

Another thing worth including is the ability to scroll up to go back to the previous dialogue box because sometimes I accidentally double tap on the text and wind up missing something. It's a little thing, but one that's very nice.

One other suggestion that is perhaps a bit more dependent on what you do moving forward is a bit of character customizability perhaps. I like your ability to choose your body type in the dialogue options. Given that it's a dating app though, it'd be really easy to have your character's profile be a means of customizing.

Other than that, I can't think of much to add other than more content because that was great. Keep up the good work.

 

[CyberScherzo]

@Incuboss
Thanks for trying it out, glad you enjoyed it!

There is kind of a save system in place but probably not what you're thinking of. There is really simple save data that saves your settings preferences and which chapters you've unlocked. You can skip right to specific chapters from the chapter select menu which makes getting back to specific parts faster, but the ability to save/load your exact place at any time isn't in there yet. I'm currently working on editing the game for cross platform compatibility, so I'm going to be looking into such a save system, that hopefully works on all platforms, as one of the next steps after that.

The ability to review past dialogue is already in. You can access it by pressing the L key, pressing the middle mouse button (AKA clicking the mouse wheel on most mice) or clicking the "log" option on the in-text box menu at the top right of the text box. The hotkeys and such for those functions are listed in the readme; but I can perhaps include some kind of "instruction manual" card with the game download since that might be more user friendly.

More specific character customization is something that's extra tricky so long as we remain committed to illustrating all the sex scenes. Anything that affects their appearance is going to potentially multiply the demands for artwork variations. Since I'm focusing much more on the dates than the player character, that hasn't been a priority for the first episode. For that matter, I've actually been wrestling with the matter of how to treat the protagonist; as in, how much they should be their own character as opposed to an empty self-insert. This episode tries to middle ground it, in that the writing isn't in 2nd person, and the protagonist has his own opinions, thoughts and decisions as a character; but at the same time give the players the opportunity to fill in the 'gaps' in his personality and backstory themselves. And then there is the decision if they should ultimately have a cannon visual appearance or not. (Link for example; even as a mostly blank slate silent protagonist self insert, he has a distinctive visual appearance)

I may experiment with that a bit and try some different 'styles' for writing the protagonist in some episodes to feel out what people prefer. I think the level of customization afforded to the player goes hand-in-hand with that as well. Going back to the save data and the character profile thing; something I am looking into doing is making a type of "universal" character profile save that lets you import the default values for things like protagonist name or any such potential customization across episodes. That might need to take the form of an online player account and an API to read the data from a player login. To be honest, maintaining such a system might not be worth the trouble in that case, even if it's a fun idea.

I'm trying to avoid the trap of focusing too hard on feature creep that'd slow down my ability to put out more content; but of course I still want to make a more fully featured experience. So I'm starting with the easy stuff and building upwards from there.

 

[Obnoxious]

Hey, I just finished the episode you have available last night. I enjoyed it quite a bit; the quality of both the writing and the art assets is really good -- especially compared to much of the competition.

I was reading your reply and noted this bit, though:

@Incuboss
Going back to the save data and the character profile thing; something I am looking into doing is making a type of "universal" character profile save that lets you import the default values for things like protagonist name or any such potential customization across episodes. That might need to take the form of an online player account and an API to read the data from a player login. To be honest, maintaining such a system might not be worth the trouble in that case, even if it's a fun idea.

Does that mean your intention is to release each new "episode" as a standalone executable, as opposed to adding new characters or additional scenes for existing characters into the same game? Given the dating service framing, I thought the latter seemed much more logical, and would allow the protagonist configuration to just be saved locally.

Generally speaking I think the more reactive NPCs are to your specific PC choices the easier it is to immerse, but that doesn't need to be physical configuration as much as letting your player describe what kind of person they are or want to be.

That's just my two cents of course, and obviously easier said than done. I'll look forward to your next episode nevertheless; thanks for sharing!

 

[CyberScherzo]

Does that mean your intention is to release each new "episode" as a standalone executable, as opposed to adding new characters or additional scenes for existing characters into the same game? Given the dating service framing, I thought the latter seemed much more logical, and would allow the protagonist configuration to just be saved locally.

Yes, that standalone executables is the intent. The reason I intend to do so, is because I made flexibility my top priority after seeing the results of several high-profile failures and disappointments from some other similar projects. (Not gonna call out anyone specific right now, but I'd bet you're already thinking of some) Episodes let me hire artists and contractors on a per-episode basis, allowing me to rotate team members as availability allows. Switching artstyles between episodes in that case won't be as jarring as having a lot of multiple artists all working on one huge game. I can even straight-up swap the entire game engine for different episodes and experiment with different types of mini-games and game-play as I learn and grow as a developer; without breaking older content, because it's it's own entirely separate exe.

A lot of bigger projects, especially ones by newer devs like myself, have a pattern of collapsing under their own weight from feature creep, not being able to make changes/updates because it requires too much work to bring older content up to code, falling apart due to infighting or something going wrong with a key team member that can no longer contribute. So this structure was put together to help me mitigate some potential risks.

The dating service framing is what ties the whole thing together as a series thematically. I'm thinking of it as something like an anthology along in the similar manner to the original twilight zone show. In that each episode may have differences, but they all carry a similar tone and theme that ties everything together.

That said, part of the flexibility is also the option to NOT do that. There is nothing stopping me from going back and adding more content to "old" episodes as updates, add-ons or DLC style things. For example, I could easily go back and extend the Isabel chapter some day where it continues right where it left off and you spend a day with her in the apartment. But the project structure is designed to be an ongoing 'living' thing that I can adjust on the fly to meet the needs of the team or the desires of the playerbase.

By they way, My current save system already lets you save a profile locally and load it up in an entirely separate exe. The problem is you need to root it out of your system's local storage (the appdata folder in windows) which is in a different location on each platform and annoying to find, and drop it into the a location where the 2nd exe can locate and import it. Most players will find it less troublesome to simply retype their name and the 2-3 other variables they need to enter to recreate their profile on a new game.

 

[TheDarkMaster]

Do you have a public list of current/planned characters somewhere? I read you plan on doing polls to see who becomes date-able, I'd like to know who and what those characters are going to be.

 

[CyberScherzo]

@TheDarkMaster
No. There is no public list yet.
The first character vote is going live next week. It will be a special case, in that it will be an open public vote, and will consist of 3 different possible designs for the same character: a fairy this time.

After that, while the second chapter is in development, I will be trickling out reveals for new potential dateable characters with their dating site profiles and concept art. I'll be aiming for a spread of different types of characters and monsters. Close to the release of the 2nd episode, then there will be a patron-only vote to determine which one will be the star of episode 3.

I think putting out the text list of character concepts might spoil some of the fun and impact of the profile reveals; but maybe I'll publish it after doing some reveals to get some input on the ones that are 'unused' at that point.

 

[CyberScherzo]

The first character vote is now live!
You can cast your votes on patreon, but patronage is not required for this vote:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-2-design-19818208
It's a public post.

There are three possible designs for the next dateable character to vote on:


She will be an astoundingly rich billionaire fae socialite.

 

[karunama]

I really like the name. I'll be watching this since you said there would eventually be m/m pairings.

 

[CyberScherzo]

I really like the name. I'll be watching this since you said there would eventually be m/m pairings.

I don't want to inadvertently lead you on, so I'd like to clarify and say that m/m is a "maybe" rather than guarantee.

With the theme and set-up of the series, it seems like a natural inclusion down the line but it's not a priority right now. To level with you, m/m content doesn't interest me personally. If I include it, first of all I want to make sure to hire an artist and writer whom do enjoy that content so that they can do it justice. What I *can* promise though is that the next character poll, as in the poll for the 3rd episode's date, will have one or two male characters as voteable options, along with more women.

If that turns out to be a decisive thing with backers (Like if people don't want their money going to that content, or vice-versa only want their money going towards that content) I might see if I can set up a separate funding pool of some sort.




Also in other news,
I was also hopping in to announce that the 1.0 version of the first episode was just released.
Still the same download page/link in the opening post. No new content, just some typo corrections, bug fixes, script reworks, updated graphics and a few small features.

 

[jedispartan117]

Great game so far. Really looking forward to future episodes. Also. I don't know if it's just me, but the store's music in chapter 3 sounds really familiar. I can't place what it sounds like though.

 

[CyberScherzo]

Another "news" update:
This first episode has a working HTML5 port now so you can play it online. It's currently up on Newgrounds.

I don't know if it's just me, but the store's music in chapter 3 sounds really familiar. I can't place what it sounds like though.

It sounds like this: https://maoudamashii.jokersounds.com/archives/song_21_lapislazuli.html

Well, that's my source for that song anyways. It's a Japanese site offering royalty free music for indie/doujin game devs, so you might have heard this specific piece or one of their other music used in games before and that's what's making things sound familiar.

 

[jedispartan117]

Another "news" update:
This first episode has a working HTML5 port now so you can play it online. It's currently up on Newgrounds.



It sounds like this: https://maoudamashii.jokersounds.com/archives/song_21_lapislazuli.html

Well, that's my source for that song anyways. It's a Japanese site offering royalty free music for indie/doujin game devs, so you might have heard this specific piece or one of their other music used in games before and that's what's making things sound familiar.

I swear it sounded like an anime opening, but it definitely could of been in a game. Either way, it was a good choice.

 

[CyberScherzo]

Hello all!
Wow, it's been a year already?

I've mostly been quietly working on my projects, now I'm popping in with some updates on this one now that I finally have some more substantial news and material to share!

First off, new episode just released. Pretty similar to the last one in terms of sexual content. This one just has more of it, as well as an action based minigame. Just like the last one, you can download it for free on Itch.io: https://cyberscherzoff.itch.io/lbb-a-playful-proposition



We have a website now! Where you can browse the profiles of all the past and future characters.
https://www.littleblackbestiary.com/

What will probably be most exiting to the folks here given the requests is that we put up the profile for our first male dateable character last week. Though he's not a very 'manly' man so if you're looking for bara can't help you there just yet. Talesin will be one of the options for the next character vote so it'll be interesting to see how well he does vs the other options since they're all pretty much female. (Regardless of weather he wins that vote or not, I do plan to finish his episode at some point, and we're planning for it to be playable as both male and female protagonists)

Direct link to his profile