You must be 18+ to view this content

MUTALAB may contain content you must be 18+ to view.

Are you 18 years of age or older?

or Return to itch.io

Comments

Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.

Sorry, but the text size is too small that it burnt my eyes.

That was a lot of fun. Spent good 3 hours exploring everything. I ran into some bugs (one of the test subjects is flagged as mutating despite nothing happening) and I can't figure out how to fire people. also I don't know what is the point of mutating hired personnel but sounds like a fun idea (Would love to have my lab guarded by beefy werewolves and minotaurs :P) Maybe a "return to human" program might be nice if mutated clients come over and pay to get back to normal? Anyway this is fun and I'd love to see more.

(+6)

Decided that I will be continuing with this instead of starting new projects all the time, since it'll be easier to rework this as I need to. It'll take a bit of time to get all the reworks I need to do in place, but the game should function a bit better when I'm done.


Very very high on the list is save/load, but because I was kinda stupid and under time pressure to get it done I made some bad development decisions which make it difficult. It's WIP though.

I'll keep updating the comment thread as I work away at it. Thanks for trying what's here so far, I think with people's suggestions in mind I'll be able to make this into something really cool. ^^

The game has a solid design but I've noticed some bugs. I've run into issues where the alternate location hasn't shown up for expeditions and one of the quests wouldn't let me select the transformed people.

It is a very solid game otherwise. 

so, tried the game, and it as a lot of potential, the gameplay loop is good as it is, and not having artwork and making it seems like you are doing clerical work in front of a pc add to the charm, it needs a save function (obviously) and a lot of more content, but what's there is still pretty solid, I would say that if you keep going down this road you are going to make a nice little game, approved!

(+1)

Can't believe how late I just got into this, but it's pretty much what I want from a tf game. 

Unfortunately, it falls short in its current state, but I'll be following this closely because it shows a LOT of promise.

Ran into a few bugs I'll list for note.

*Turning the volume down doesn't disable the music entirely.
*Serum didn't record a stop leading to debt, might just be a kink in the between genders setting (instance with female horse high, anthro, masculine).
*Pause button stuck preventing resuming.

Best fixes right now for playability though is a save system and a .txt insturction/guide in the file. Theres a bit of QOL that can be done, but this will allow players to work around most minor bugs. A .txt will allow the player to review things from outside the game for one who's dedicated. An in-game .txt is usually skipped, especially when there's time involved.

In the future, rebalancing the start may be good. Not necessary, but there's a lot thrown at the player very quickly, and not much room for mistakes before going under. A guided tutorial option could help, but that's not super important.

Otherwise very solid, I hope there's size stuff in the future as well, but idk where this is going to draw the line with it, it's pretty ambitious as is. Great work!

Rather late, but I finally got around to trying this out. Overall, I like the concept, though I ran into some issues with the UI - because I've got a high resolution display, I can actually just keep all the windows open. Unfortunately, they don't always update unless I close and re-open them (the contract list was especially bad about this).

The main things I felt lacking during my playthrough where the amount of content and complexity, but that may just have been me not getting far enough into the game. In particular with the complexity, I'd want to see more ways to fail or for things to go wrong - I think the half sports team manager idea you mention in your comment would help with this.

Also, a minor thing, but being able to pause or unpause the game with the spacebar would be really nice. I usually play simulation/management games at max speed and just pause when I need to do stuff.

(+1)

Thinking about this concept more, there's some things I think I could improve at a foundational and conceptual level.

Things I like about my game:

      • The dynamic progression of TFs and the descriptions.
      • The systems I've designed to allow for partial TFs, parts with multiple stages, and possibility for custom species and chimeras (which aren't fully implemented).
      • Mad science theme and UI-based approach. Lack of extensive 2D gfx means I can focus more on the systems and making them work together. 
      • Design-wise, managing the staff side as well as the subject side and how they could potentially interplay.

      Things I don't like about my game:

      •  I don't particularly like that you make all these animal people and then immediately get rid of them to a contract. If they had some staying power or reason to take care of them after you make them, it wouldn't be as much of an issue. Production morphs are one thing, but that's a very narrow band of species.
      • Narrow selection of stats to affect. This would need quite a rework, but I'd want to have more than just the three stats of production, social and combat. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but perhaps a more rimworld-like approach of having MANY stats that can be tweaked by parts is a better play.
      • The window idea is fun but gets hard to manage in Godot. If I wanted to expand it further I'd need to fundamentally alter the architecture of how I set up my game, and use scenes and signals far more than I did. I *like* the windows but they don't seem to be very customisable and can be a pain to manage refreshing and updates when there's a lot of things on the screen.
      • Some of the systems I made were scraped together and duct-taped to others, and I hard-coded too many things. I didn't store everything in one place, which made managing resources a pain (they also weren't Data-driven). Many of the design decisions I made earlier held me back later and weren't as fluid as I'd hoped - ie they caused a lot of bugs and troubleshooting from unintended behaviour.
      • Because of the amount of hardcoding I implemented and some decisions I made with how to assign objects to things, saving and loading would become an absolute nightmare. I need to figure out a better way of doing this and I need to begin implementing it from the START.

      This is the largest game I've made in Godot and it feels pretty small still. There's a lot more I could do with it but I'm not sure the core concept is what I want to go with for the future.

      However, there is some merit to it and I think there's a version of it that ends up being kind of fun, but maybe not as fun as another way to rework the game from the ground up would be.

      I'm thinking something like half sports team manager, half mad science TF game. You'd make your creatures out of former (fictional) sports players, and send them out to fight other chimeras in an underground arena. You need to contain them, prevent breakouts and outbreaks, manage your resources to keep them fed and happy (and paid, if you want to do that). I'll need to plan it out in more detail, but it'd solve a lot of the issues I have with this (and I do want to add some modular portraits too).

      I want to focus on GUI design and deep, interconnected systems because I see a LOT of gameplay potential for how to build and deploy chimeras and how best to present this to the player.

      I will try to fix as many obvious bugs with MUTALAB as I can, but I think beyond that I might need to evaluate a full redesign from the ground up.

      Let me know what you think!

      (1 edit) (+1)

      Here are some ideas for these issues for you to consider or ignore, I don't know much about development, but I know what's worked for others.

      You've established 3 stats, these can be used as guidance for a different kind of contract work. First, a storage area for inactive experiments might make this easier. Second, a new tab for subject contracts. From needing a breeder bull to a self defence chicken for a thief, maybe even a sociable horse for a hospital event. The other events aren't as interesting, but they could net a smaller amount of cash without losing the subject completely. Plus, traits could give a bonus or negative, but I think that's already factored into the stats. The fight pit can exist too with this kind of system, but you might have something more in-depth in mind for that.

      If you decide to change these stats it's going to add a whole new level of complexity to the game. I think going more with a traits-based approach you have now you might keep it toned down. I understand the desire for more stats because I think it would be cool too to manage it, I worry about the complexity spiraling.

      Simplifying the windows and outputs, keeping one tab up at a time, could maybe help, locking the window for it. Combining a lot of the apps is the simpler solution I see, but that removes the desktop feel. I don't know much on the dev side so this might just be stupid blabbing.

      I don't know about the coding side too much, but it seems like you know what you want there which is good. Managing as much as there is sounds like a nightmare, redoing it seems daunting. If that's what it needs though it's probably worth doing.

      Anyways, great work with this! I hope it becomes what you've envisioned! I think it's a very promising project you've built!

      (+1)

      Feels like this game breaks the mold in the right ways. A straight forward interface that allows some player freedom. I'd love more options and effects, but I can see the potential as a proof of concept. I'm hooked.

      I wish the speed of the game was under 4 options. Paused, Normal, Fast, Fastest.

      Clarification on when you can gain research points by examining people. 

      Allowing examine people who have changed to a new form to grant more research points after they were examined previously.

      Auto sort sequenced genomes by race > gender > quality.

      Research does not cost research points nor require a set threshold nor a hired scientist. 

      Contracts can be completed by submitting nothing.

      A beautiful TF/TG Game, seems well balanced and in-depth.
      Not perfect for me personally just because graphics aren't available, a paper doll system would be neat to "Observe" changes. Maybe even make it a spot the difference-esque minigame?

      (+1)

      I really like where this one's going. I think this is oddly a game I've been waiting for but didn't know it. The only bugs I've run into are the chicken NULL thing, and the fact that the Petshop contract gives you a new area notification for every letter of PET-SHOP but doesn't actually unlock the biome.

      (+2)

      Oh, well that explains what I've done wrong there exactly thank you ^^

      (+1)

      This is a great proof of concept and I'd absolutely love to see it expanded on! In particular I feel there's a lot of potential in the serum creation system, namely the implication that we'll be able to combine serums to create a hybrid mixture and by extension a completely different species.

      In that regard I think the best thing to do is to add as many species, biomes and modifiers as possible. I'd love it if stranger, more unorthodox groups of species like bugs, aquatic animals, and potentially even stranger stuff in addition to the standard mammals, avians, etc.

      That being said, I think there are some kinks that need to be worked out first. Distendo covered most of what I had a problem with below (especially the lack of ability to save, get rid of test subjects, and lack of bulk serum production/material purchase). I also don't quite know what a good bit of the tags on fully transformed characters are meant to imply besides being useful in contracts. I think if you expanded on this as well it could make for some very interesting gameplay.

      I've encountered all of the bugs already mentioned and I trust you'll fix them in time so I won't bother going over them again. The "chicken <NULL>" bug (at least that's what I'm calling it, lmao) in particular is quite annoying as it has the potential to essentially softlock the game by setting research points to <NULL> if observed. The other major bug I noticed is that the "pet shop" biome (and I assume the "canine" species) is completely unavailable even after completing the contract required to unlock it. Whether this is because that section of the game isn't finished yet or because it's a bug is unclear.

      All in all I really, really hope you decide to continue development and expand on the concepts offered here. You've built something extremely compelling.

      (+1)

      Thank you! It does need a lot of expansion on species/biomes etc as I built most of the systems to allow for a lot of options. Still a few reworks to do on some things but that'll come with time.

      (+3)

      Proof of concept is okay... but lacking in basic features:
      - Save function absent (this should be a first priority, for both gameplay and debugging)
      - Unable to get rid of test subjects
      - Unable to bulk purchase materials
      - Unable to batch produce serum
      - No known method to increase serum production speed
      - No known method to fire staff
      - No penalties to contract breaking

      Bugs:
      - Accepted contracts shown as available at turn of day (00:00)
      - Internal contracts unable to accept eligible candidates (potential bug)
      - Game loops when trying to implement forced masculine transformation

      Thoughts and Observations:
      - I like the tutorial. It is sufficiently informative and backgrounded, handholding this player at the very initial stages and letting him figure out the rest.
      - These 'tags' on characters are interesting, but I can't infer what their purposes could be from a game development PoV.
      - I tried stacking transformations by injecting different serums. The base morph stays but the stats stack. This could potentially be game-breaking as employee performance is (as far as I can tell) tied to these stats.
      - Not sure what the 'social' and 'performance' stats do in-game.
      - This game looks like it could branch in many directions. Off-hand, I can think of three categories: 1) In the variety of transformations; 2) In the scope of gameplay (eg., tycoon-like competition, supply chain integration); 3) On the game mechanics of the transformations (eg., having certain transformations will lead to certain effects or consequences on the lab or world-state) 
      - Right now the vision for this game is a bit lacking. It may be that you would want to leave space for unrestricted feedback but it's a slight challenge (at least for me) to offer it without understanding your priorities as a developer.

      Wish List:
      - Personally, I like to see polished one of two features in transformation games. One is the fetish aspect. The other is a well-designed, deep and immersive game environment.
      - I'm a sci-fi/fantasy fan!

      P.S. I hope my brusque feedback is not off-putting to you. The more highly I think of a game, the greater its improvement I look forward to. 

      (+1)

      No worries, thanks for the detailed feedback! There's a lot of things I want to change and fix so this gives me a good list of important stuff to start with.

      (+2)

      One more thing actually - research doesn't seem to consume points. Not sure if it's a design feature :)

      If you're still hunting for the masculine tf bug, the loop goes like this: the tf log reports every few hours that the subject has developed physically masculine traits, but the tf doesn't progress from there. I can't remember which genome the serum was based on.

      I ran into the bug with mas anthro horse TF

      (+2)

      I wish there was a sandbox version with unlimited money.

      So I could experiment freely more without having to worry about going bankrupt.

      (1 edit) (+2)

      Bug: The music's volume is controlled by the window's size. At 1440P, it's inaudible even with the in-game slider maxed out, but it gets increasingly louder as the window is scaled down.

      It looks like your AudioStreamPlayer2D node is set to fade out as it approaches 2000 pixels from wherever the listener is. Using an AudioStreamPlayer node instead seems like it'd fix that 

      (I'm not super familiar with Godot, but it seems like the listener is defaulting to being located (0,0), so just putting the node there might also work?)

      (+2)

      That is actually kinda funny...I'll fix it though.

      If I can ask what are the 9 species. I've only seen 8 after MANY expeditions, and only seen deer once.

      You need to unlock the other biome by completing one of the contracts.

      I waited 4 ingame days after doing said contract but still nothing. 

      Is there a way to remove clients, have a few that I can't use in any way and just take up space. Accidently gave the wrong serum to one, then tried giving the client the serum for a correct contract but they became unusable in any future contracts. Also once you give someone the chicken serum they become unusable clients as well. (Which I did see your reply to someone else about chickens.)

      I can say though from the concept and the few hours I played, albeit a some bugs, I really loved the concept and would love to see more content and improvements.

      (1 edit)

      I probably missed something then ^^ I'll have a look at that as well. Thanks!

      (+1)

      When I do contracts, I can't complete them and it shows 1/3. How can I select multiple?

      (+1)

      Shift select, sorry should make that more clear

      Thank you! Been enjoying the game so far :)

      (+1)

      A UI scaling option would be appreciated. Everything is illegibly tiny on a 4k monitor.

      I'll see what I can do

      One of my test subjects bugged and their changes never finished, meaning they stayed in the "mutagen observation" phase and couldn't be used to complete a contract.

      Is there a way to remove a test subject without completing a contract with them?

      I can add a means to do this, do you know what exactly happened to make the changes never finish? Serum type, any modifiers, gender etc

      I was using a female sheep serum with the "masculine" modifier on a male subject.

      (+4)

      Chickens are super buggy for some reason? it only seems to be chickens, but job woun't accept any chicken-morph despite having correct traits, and sometimes when admistering chicken surum all stats for the subject gets replaced by NULL, and observing a null subject will set reaserch to NULL, which is a bit of a problom.

      (+1)

      Thanks for letting me know, chickens were the last thing I added and I didn't get a lot of time to test them, so I'll have another look

      (+1)

      Struggling to get the chicken morph state when using the anthro mod on a pure sample, couldn't complete the job because they were all still labled human, i'm wondering if it's trait count that determines whether or not something is human vs morph.