THE STORY OF FEMALE FORGE: FROM ITCH.IO TO STEAM
Female Forge was first released on itch.io on April 28, 2024. Since then, the project has evolved considerably through numerous major updates, thousands of new customization elements, and many improvements designed to make creation smoother, faster, and more expressive. The MK versions, from MK1 to MK5, represent Female Forge's Early Access period. Each major MK release marked a new stage in the project's development, gradually expanding its content, features, customization tools, and overall experience. Here is a look back at more than two years of evolution, from the very first public release to Female Forge's arrival on Steam.
THE FOUNDATIONS — MK1
April 28, 2024 The very first public version established the foundations of Female Forge and its character creation system. It included:
Character creation and customization
Screenshot capture and a personal gallery
Music player
Character save/load system
Random character generation
Custom background support
Various graphics settings
The first updates brought various fixes and visual improvements while gradually refining the overall creation experience.
MORE FREEDOM AND MORE CONTENT — MK2
August 29, 2024 MK2 considerably expanded the wardrobe and creative possibilities. This version introduced new hairstyles, outfits, dresses, swimwear, underwear, wings, gloves, shoes, body paints, eyelashes, Secret Outfits, and new body shapes. New poses and music were also added. But MK2 wasn't only about adding more content. This generation introduced facial expressions, as well as Auto Tone, a system designed to automatically adjust the character's tint according to the background. The HUD was also reworked, while the save/load system was redesigned with new compatibility checks. The various MK2 updates continued this evolution with:
Pose 06 and its effects
The NoLimit feature
Improved eye colors
More shader customization possibilities
New cosmetic categories
Many new clothes, accessories, hairstyles, backgrounds, and effects continued to be added throughout the MK2 period.
A MORE COMPLETE CREATIVE STUDIO — MK3
January 25, 2025 With MK3, Female Forge placed a greater focus on usability and tools allowing players to go further with their creations. This version introduced:
A redesigned main menu
A dedicated Music menu
Improved color pickers
New graphics options
Improvements to text panels, thumbnails, and navigation
A control to reset the character's position and zoom
Save thumbnails and character previews directly in the load menu
The Clothing Synthesizer
Stickers
Platforms and walls for building scenes
New backgrounds
Glow effects
New skins, outfits, accessories, and cosmetic elements
New music
A new image compression method was also introduced, significantly reducing Female Forge's storage footprint.
THE WORLD EXPANDS — MK4
June 21, 2025 MK4 marked an important milestone with the introduction of the HUB, giving Female Forge a more interconnected world built around its various systems. Players could now move between several areas, including the Office, Black Market, NanoShell Constructor, Clothing Synthesizer, Omniview, and Generator. MK4 also introduced several new systems:
The NanoShell Constructor
Cryptocurrency mining
The Black Market
The Crypto Rush minigame
This generation also considerably expanded the available content with NanoShells, back accessories, blush, Black Market outfits, face accessories, face paints, earrings, new backgrounds, and new music. The save system was also extensively reworked to improve compatibility with future versions and provide better management of the different character elements and layers.
POLISH, PERFORMANCE AND NEW POSSIBILITIES — MK5
October 25, 2025 MK5 represented one of the largest refinement and polishing phases in Female Forge's development. A new shadow projection system was introduced to add more depth to selected clothing, accessories, and hairstyles. Custom text and stickers could also receive optional shadows. A large part of the game's underlying infrastructure was reworked to make Female Forge lighter, faster, and more polished. The random character system also received much more detailed color controls for clothing, hair, makeup, and other character elements. MK5 also introduced or expanded:
The Wheel of Masks
Face View
Ground masks
Animals
New overall and background masks
New backgrounds
NanoShell overlays
New masks
Back and face accessories
Pubic hair
New Secret Outfits
A new pose
New Pose 06 effects
New dresses, hosiery, and leggings
New bikinis and underwear
New wings and skins
New cosplay content
The main menu, buttons, and fonts were also redesigned. Particle effects were added to NanoShell construction and the Black Market, while the new system maintained compatibility with MK4 saves.
THE 1.0 ERA — A NEW MILESTONE FOR FEMALE FORGE
VERSION 1.0.0
April 26, 2026 After the different MK generations, Female Forge reached a new milestone with the release of version 1.0, marking the end of its Early Access period. This generation consolidated many of the systems developed over the previous years while introducing several major new features. Version 1.0.0 introduced much broader display and resolution support, including 16:9, 16:10, and 21:9 formats, along with a compatible resolution selector. One of the major additions was a true Undo/Redo system capable of storing up to 25 actions, allowing creators to easily go back through changes made to their character. The random character generation system was extensively redesigned. The Easy Colors system was also introduced, making it faster to harmonize a character's primary, secondary, and tertiary colors while retaining individual control over each element. Version 1.0.0 also introduced:
Transitions and sound effects when changing clothing, hairstyles, and accessories
An experience system featuring 8 tiers
Adjustable filmic effects
New music
Statistics available through the Data Center
An Experimental section
New Black Market content
Major improvements to the save, load, and progression systems
The creative tools also continued to evolve. Saturation and exposure controls were added for skins, along with Blender Skin, allowing two skins to be mixed together. Hair gradients were introduced, while many new hairstyles, poses, body shapes, dresses, outfits, skins, backgrounds, stickers, and background masks were added. Auto Tone, layer management, zoom, textures, audio, HUB visuals, and background transitions also received numerous improvements.
VERSIONS 1.0.1 TO 1.0.5
Versions 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.0.3, 1.0.4, and 1.0.5 continued the development of Female Forge following the 1.0 release, bringing new content, technical improvements, and numerous fixes. These updates notably introduced:
New one-piece outfits
New shoes
New hairstyles
New body ornaments
A Refresh button allowing newly added custom backgrounds to be loaded without restarting Female Forge
Smoother transitions between poses and body shapes
Changes to XP gains and rewards
Automatic progression adjustments for older saves
New wings
Optional tails for selected Furry skins
These versions also continued to improve stability, performance, and the overall experience.
VERSION 1.1 — FASTER AND MORE CUSTOMIZABLE
July 27, 2026 Version 1.1 represented another major evolution for Female Forge, with a particular focus on performance and customization. One of its main additions was a new Favorites system for several categories. Items can be marked as favorites and displayed using the Favorites Only filter. The random character system also gained support for this feature, allowing characters to be generated using only favorite items. Check All / Uncheck All controls were also added to the randomization settings. Face and body customization was expanded with:
Face freckles
Moles
A second Face Paint layer with FacePaint A and B
Two body tattoo layers, A and B
New eyeliners
New Face Paints
New hairstyles
New backgrounds and music were also added. One of the most significant improvements in version 1.1, however, was performance. The optimization system was completely reworked, significantly reducing loading times for poses, body shapes, and character saves, with loading now up to 3× faster. Version 1.1 also improved:
The skin shader
Auto Tone
Music and sound effect volume saving
The XP system and its rewards
The Black Market
Access to the Crypto Rush minigame
VERSION 1.1.1
Version 1.1.1 continued these improvements with new interface controls allowing the side panels to be hidden or displayed, providing more space to view the character while creating. It also introduced:
New hairstyles
New outfit tops and bottoms
New dresses
A more consistent makeup panel
Further improvements to Auto Tone
Background changes that are now twice as fast
Several fixes were also made to Face View and various cosmetic elements.
FROM ITCH.IO TO STEAM
Since its first release on itch.io on April 28, 2024, Female Forge has evolved through more than two years of continuous development. What began as a character creation tool has gradually grown into a much more complete creative experience, now offering thousands of possibilities for customizing characters, clothing, accessories, and scenes. Each generation — MK1, MK2, MK3, MK4, MK5, 1.0, and 1.1 — has helped shape the Female Forge of today. And its evolution is far from over.
THANK YOU ♥
Thank you to everyone who discovered Female Forge on itch.io, supported the project, shared their creations, provided feedback, or simply followed its evolution since the beginning. After more than two years of development, Female Forge is now coming to Steam to begin a new chapter in its story. And more updates are already in development.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Female Forge 1.2 will officially launch on Steam on November 6, 2026.
Don't forget to add Female Forge to your wishlist.
Take care of yourself