Archipelagates

Humble bundle has a deal on game music and sound effects for the next 18 days if you are still looking to implement background music into the game

https://www.humblebundle.com/software/audio-alchemy-premium-collection-sound-fx-...

Haven't played much of it yet, but the bones are pretty good. Looking forward to the eventual Steam release

cant tell if i have the most up to date verson

Just from looking at this, it genuinely looks like it could be a pretty good successor to GrowthRPG by DigitalFurBelow, if you ever decide to go the route of "game mechanics that allow you to change physical attributes/their size outside of character creation" (whether temporarily or permanently)
That aside I think I'll wait until it's more feature-complete before buying it, as judging from the patch notes there's a lot of important basic stuff still being added and developed.

I asked this before on Steam in the discussions before the game got steamrolled (ba dum tch) over there, and forgot all about it. Just crossed my mind again, figured it couldnt hurt to ask it here, since Dev seems cool with questions and ideas.

In the other game, Chastity Catastophy (shameless plug here - go check it out if you read this, players!) we had a few fun elements I could see working here in Gates. I was curious of a few things.

1: I asked about character customization before in the comments, and was thinking about some similarities. The wolf girls from that game ported over (our base femWolf models), but I was curious if we will see a a kobold race option eventually show up? We got dragons and wolves (both from Catastrophy), so I was thinking maaaaybe we'd get a 'bold port-over? I know probably not, but shortstack mini-derg would be fun to have around!

2. That game had a fun mechanic that made the npcs get possessed by their bindings, giving them the purple glowy eyes effect. Was wondering if we might see some mind-controlled NPCs in this sandbox game as a new friend/npc event or type? Saw a question about quest vs sandbox experience in the comments, and I think that the theme of rescue-able corrupted npcs would fit in the context of this world whether or not it stays wholly sandbox or has light story quest elements.

3. Similar vein for enemy types. Not so much possessed enemies (as we would already have possessed npcs we could free...or fight!) but environmental hazards that could impede us/shackle/vulnerability up the player? Being chased by the chastity belt drones and being taken control of as a game over in the other game added the main level of threat. Here, instead of defeating the player, it just makes them vulnerable to attack, or a loss of control (like a stun, freeze, disorient you have to "wiggle" out of, for example?). It wouldnt have to be just chatity belts. Vines, mud, hypnotic plants, toxic gas/spore clouds, suspicious berries/food/drink, enemies casting charm/hypno/sleep/silly or corruption spells, strangely shaped plants with... "convenient uses"; the list goes on!  (And maybe mind-control chastity belts again, why not? They were cool!)

This is all just suggestion. I understand development time and resources can be very hard to manage, and even tiny additions can be costly. But as the world expands - to whatever degree it does, such as new environments and regions and climates - I think these could be nice additions, and don't necessarily remove autonomy/consent in any meaningful way (Its been clearly stated several times there is NO defeat sex in this game). The purpose of these suggestions are to add variety, as well as small, kink-colored interactions/poses/scenarios to spice up the world some more. More threats, more word interaction, more danger. And being fully transparent here, Chastity Catastophy really hit an itch with the mind control corrupting the npcs, those glowing purple eyes and personality change were killer! It's been with me ever since, and would love to see more of it here!

Anyway, loving the game so far, keep up the good work!  

It would be great to add something like an indicator with an indicator of the number of fragments that fall from monsters and the loss of these fragments at death, otherwise there is no motivation not to die in the game. It would also be wonderful if you added more variation of biomes and weapons to the game, maybe even some skills (I mean, I understand that all this will be in the future, but I wonder if the game will be like a full-fledged rpg or is it just a yiff where there is just an opportunity to fight monsters, actually it's a shame that there is practically no RPG with furry, and your game has a huge potential, where yiff with NPCs can just become an additional mechanic, but in any case this is my opinion and you can ignore it, since you are the developer of the game) by the way, some islands with glowing mushrooms or mines would fit well into the atmosphere.

just a quick question, is there a defeat system that by losing you get fucked?

when/will/if there will be a free version of this game?

when/will it release on mobile?

full nelson. and maybe proot species (I know thats hard) i never see proots in games like these lol

Some Recommendations:

This game is certainly one of the best sandbox furry games out there right now, and definitely has some great features! Overall, the gameplay and character customization is good even without a little fine tuning. I haven't been able to find any other place to post this, and this could be helpful for anyone having the same issues I am, so here it is. After playing for over 12 hours I have noticed some inconveniences and potential issues:

1.  NPC Creation Flaw

NPC creation has a big issue regarding the customizability and access to already created characters. In order for the game to process and utilize NPC's you've created, you have to type out their name in the bottom right and proceed. This isn't entirely clear as a requirement, and someone could easily create a character and move on to play without actually seeing them for dozens of islands (As I did). Due to the rarity of finding one of your characters in the wild, it's easy to miss that a character isn't in the potential spawns listed in this file: 

%AppData%\..\LocalLow\RalivDev\Archipelagates\npcs

(Must use search on the Windows dock to find)

Adding a section on the menu that shows available NPC's would be great, as it would allow people to get feedback on which NPC's could be seen in game, alongside deleting or overwriting unwanted ones, maybe even toggling some on or off to customize their experience. 

2. Allure Confusion

The slider called "Easy to Allure" representing difficulty for characters to be attracted lacks a little clarity, but is easy to figure out after some experimentation. However, if an NPC is made with the slider all the way to the left, or minimum value, they are impossible to allure in the wild. Due to the inability for NPC's with the same name to be overwritten, any originally named NPC with their "mind" set to minimum attraction will never be capable of interacting. While the NPC customization issue feeds into this, it's also a generally confusing slider that could use a better title, E.G.: "Attraction Speed/Rate," "Allure Difficulty." 

3. Equipment Gambling

During character creation and saving you have the option to give NPC's equipment for when you meet them later, unless you prefer them naked. This menu makes sense until you get to the arrows, which randomly generates a piece of clothing with a pattern and colors. This is a little annoying to navigate despite having somewhat of a failsafe, where the same item never repeats twice. Making this a folder or menu where you can select the clothing item, color, and patterns would be much more convenient and easier to navigate. 

4.  Limited Customization

As part of the character creator we are given access to a beautiful layered system that takes any option we choose and its color and opacity into account. This is great for stacking one layer onto the other to get distinct new shapes or to hide a small part of one layer to match the base color. If you go too far, the last thing you create cannot be deleted without deleting something else to reduce the overall quantity. If there's meant to be a hard limit or maximum, it would be great to see that incorporated. At this moment the last layer just bleeds off the screen, and scrolling doesn't work to access it. This game has a great customization system that most games don't have, and this issue can genuinely limit people from fully fleshing out their creations using it, especially if new options are added. I'd imagine you plan to add new species, and this level of flexibility would probably be necessary for people to mix and combine aspects. 

Also, only other thing is being unable to click and grab layers to move them up and down multiple spaces. Don't know if that's easily doable, but the problem is just being incapable of moving the layers around easily. Some of them are also named the same despite being different, so it can get confusing. 

5.  Mind Forgotten

When saving characters, the mind isn't saved and is not changeable in the character customization menu in the player house. This isn't an issue for NPC's since they are made on the menu. Although, updating old NPC's can get tricky since you need to access the file from the first section on this post to delete the original NPC with that name in that file. Because the Mind section doesn't save whenever you load a character, the NPC can get default preferences to everything and be allured at a default rate. Not a big problem, just a slight inconvenience. Same thing happens with equipment.

6. Menu? Main?

Thankfully this game doesn't take long to load and performs great, but it gets a little repetitive if you're wanting to make an NPC or continue a different save, when you have no choice but to save and exit the entire game.

7. No Current Island/Level Number

What level am I on? 

8. Small Bugs

Shale for some reason goes derpy eyed if you chat with him on the islands, not sure why, but he looks drunk and debatably sane. 

Sometimes voxels connect between cliffs and other sections, creating a green stretch of grass that's thinner than a pencil but longer than the genital size slider allows. 

Small clipping issues during certain intimate scenes.

Changing character scale affects positioning during intimate scenes, leading to severed legs or shins and feet. 

NPC's cannot independently choose learned intimate scenes without first being prompted, may not be a bug but seems like a necessity. 

Enemies like to bash on themselves and any other character if someone dies. Oftentimes resulting in you getting told, "Get f*cked!" after dying. Every now and then an enemy kills an enemy and says it, or another NPC. Maybe these magical skellies are meant to talk? Not sure, but this bug could probably stay. 

9. The End

Don't know if any of these things will be changed, but regardless this game is interesting and certainly gets better with every update. Hope this wasn't too much or too critical, or even unnecessary. Either way, thank you for reading and hope this helps!

Loving the new update rev! Awesome work! I apologize if this has been asked before and answered, but I had a couple questions. First, will there be a  storyline that will be created/continued in future updates, and second, will there be a romance system with more in depth relationships/marriage? or will it remain a mostly sandbox affair. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to answer this, glad you are feeling better, and I look forward to future updates/games from you!

YEY! Now I can make a character that is even closer to my fursona :D

Question: Will we be getting a storyline and quests with unique item drops or will it remain more of a sandbox?

nice so far! I do hope we get more hairstyles in the future custumization updates, though.

I wonder what will be added in the next update

What will come in the next update?

Hypno would be nice 

some very basic music and sound effects seem to be sorely needed, no moans needed (that way you don't need to search for a VA or two). Background music would make running around a little less dull without having to add more interactables or better looking islands first.

i can't seem to find the file for npc's i need to remove the ones i made because i messed them up i thought putting the slide bar for allure  all the way to the left would make them easier to allure, instead it seems to have made them completely disinterested in any options and now i have a bunch of npc's i can't do anything with.

maybe a discord server would be cool? idk just an idea so people can all talk maybe share OCs made lol JUST AN IDEA :3

Maybe JUST maybe, we could get an option to get bigger sizes. :P