Summary of Survey Results (2/2) (Patreon)

Thank you so much to all the nice comments, It means a lot and is really inspiring but to keep this as short as I can I won't post them here.

Really sorry that I can't reply to everyone but here goes:

First let me answer the question I'm sure you care about the most.

How often do you think plan to publish updates? The release was very big but how big are the updates and how often?

Is there any tentative update schedule?

Generally what will be the release time for each episode?

how many episodes(approximately) do you plan on releasing each year?

How long it takes to make a new episode?

Chapter 2 release data

Let me say a two things and then try to give you an answer and also a promise.

1) Firstly, I am committed to this. Full time. The ~£250 I currently have pledged by you amazing generous people is the only money I've earned since I quit my job. I'm working on Elmwood 12-15 hours each day and I'm loving it. I literally need to release episodes quickly to survive so that more people will join my patreon so please know it is my priority above everything else in my life. It really is my life right now and will be until it's finished.

2) Episodes will get released quicker over time. Episode 2 will most likely take the longest to produce, followed by E3. This is because the early episodes require me to spend time on things that I won't have to in future. For example, I had to design Katie's bedroom even though you were only in it for 5 minutes in E1. When we have another scene in her room in future, that environment is already designed for us to jump right into. To an extent this also applies to other things - like I've already modeled Chelsea's signature sex position, so it should be quick to use that the next time. With E2 there are a bunch of environments I have to design (which are almost all done now) but that took some time.

So saying that... I am aiming to release E2 in 3 months - June. I recognize that this feels like a long time and the truth is I can't even promise June, but I am confident that it can be done. If for some reason it is not done by the end of June, I will be pausing all sub payments until it is. So as for my promise:

If an episode takes more than 3 months, your subscription will be free for any months it is delayed.

After E2, I would expect E3 to take a similar amount of time but after that episodes should be quicker as I'll have pretty much everything ready to go, backed up with increased experienced of how I can do things quicker. My target is for E4 and later to release after 2 months. I'm sorry if this isn't the answer you were hoping for, but above everything the one thing I will not compromise on is quality. I want to release chunky, 45 minute episodes of exceptional quality with around 3 sex scenes each and other hot scenes to go with. If any of you decide that you no longer wish to support me I won't take offense. Similarly if you wanted to pause your sub until E2 I won't take offense. Your support is such an incredible thing and I will never take it for granted, and I certainly don't want to come across as someone who milks patreon, which is why I've made that 3 month or free guarantee (kinda catchy lol).

Enough about that, let's look at the other questions because I want to get back to working on E2.

I enjoy the game so far. The choice frequency was good, but it did feel like some were just outright wrong/filler choices. I hope more choices will feel like viable alternatives in the future. I hope there will be some wide variety in the girls (personally hoping for at least one innocent type with slim build/smaller assets).

This is a very fair comment, some choices were just outright wrong and it's not the right way for me to present you with choices. It's something I'm working on to improve in E2. No spoilers but I'm pretty confident there will be a girl you'll like in E2.

Bios is too long. Its supposed to be easy and fast to freshen your memory about each character imo.

You're not the only person to say this and I get what you mean. I wanted to do bios a bit differently to other games. The information you'd normally get from a short bio is kinda just elsewhere on the page - if you want a refresher on who Lydia is you can immediately see that she's 20, a third year drama student, best friends with Ella and Chelsea and the captain of the cheer squad. In her choices screen you can also clearly see your history with her. Similarly with Katie you can see her basic info and then her perk 'Romantic' will remind you that she loves romance and that's a better angle than being overly sexual. So I wanted to use the majority of the characters page to convey that info that refreshes your memory in a fun, easy to read way while saving the bios for something more.

Too much info given in profiles and bios, lessens the mystery of dialogue and choices.

And similarly some have said this but I do disagree. You can't tell me what exactly the protagonist did for Violet in school. You can't tell me how how Taylor betrayed Selina. I want the characters to feel so real with rich stories and histories that there is an ocean of information to learn about each of them. Please be assured that they don't just have one story that's shaped their life. And even if I laid out everything in a character's history - I can still work with that because I want the present to be interesting, not the past. I want the story to develop as you play, not just have a story that is gradually revealed.

So I've hope I've justified why I think I can get away with this, as for why I've done it in the first place it's simply because I want you to choose when you're in the mood for some extra reading. I want dialogue to be concise and not waffly, and I certainly don't want to bore you if you're dying to get to the next sex scene. So this is kinda my solution to that.

as its only the first episode its forgivable but talent point system isnt explained fully and questions arise if the scholar tree is a must early game so that u can get more points to spend after lectures, exams, homework or how big the impact of it is as we dont know how many points we would get from lectures, exams etc with or without it and if its the only way to get points

So firstly let me say that it's going to be possible to achieve most endings without the use of any perks. My idea with perks is to add another dimension of fun choices that reward you in small ways. I don't think any perk is super overpowered but I do want you to think carefully. A couple of the more difficult main characters will be very difficult to seduce and will require certain perks.

But let me try and explain things a little better:

1) No perk will increase the amount of skill points you gain. You're right that this would be auto-buy which is why I haven't done it.

2) Skillpoints will be earned from studying and learning. There will be a couple of choices that can earn a few extra skillpoints but for the most part everyone will be earning them at a fairly consistent rate. You will gain on average 30 skill points per episode, but you'll gain these after certain moments, rather than just arbitrarily at the start. I want to award them after lectures and studying so that the purpose of these things is very evident. It also makes it very costly if you ever decide to skip a lecture.

Animations look good, but when cumming in a scene, I think it would be good if the camera is shaking little like in other similar games. E.g.Desert Stalker, no matter when, if the MC is cumming, bo matter where, the camera shakes multiple times, which I personally liked much better. But thats just me.

I might playtest a little shaking. I think I was put off because I played a VN, not going to name but it did this so excessively and the screen shook for about 5 seconds and I found it so annoying lol. But I might look into this. If other people are keen on screen shake please comment.

Please don't force any sexual actions upon MC. Keep it all optional as it is for now.

100%. No erotic scene will ever be forced. I remember another game (not going to name) had this option where this girl asks if you want to fuck her and if you say no she just says "Too bad you're not in control here"... ummm am I being raped?

I cannot express how much I hate that so please be assured everything sexual will be optional.

There are several bugs in the logic script. Adding Taylor's love points to Katie's was the most egregious.

Yeah... my mistake. Quite an annoying issue because Taylor's love is of course hidden so well done spotting this in my files. Please in future report any bugs in the discord bugs chat (especially if you found any others already?)

There's a number of bugs in episode 1. For example, Chelsea not registering as being the one to steal your virginity even if you avoid Selina's and Lydia's scenes. It's the first release so it's fine for now. The MC should talk some more too, he's feels like some plank that gets swept by the current.

Apologies, this was a big not fixed in the slim version but will be corrected by E2. The talking comment is interesting and I think there's a lot of truth to it (in E1). In E1 the protagonist is completely out of his depth and lost, which is why he talks less than those he's engaged with. As his confidence grows though, you can expect him to start to lead conversations.

The Tits off all girls to big. A lot off small tits woud be fine.

Several smaller boobs girls coming in E2.

Wel i went to the girls pages everytime to see the outcome of my answers if the scores went up. That took al lot of loading . Maybe a small notification that the girl in question liked your answer or wen she doesnt like it.

I get why you do this and I sometimes do it when I play a VN but I really don't want people to. Instead of you having to look at their numbers I want players to rather look at their reaction - if they smile, laugh, frown etc. I don't want the game to be a cycle of rewinding and selecting optimal choices. It's something I'm always thinking about and it is a bit of a problem.

The story is boring the girls are nice u can make good game out of it if u change the mini games maybe better sex scenes

Would kill to know what would make the sex scenes better for you guys. Really should have had something for that in the poll but if you want to comment anything below I would so appreciate it.

More choice and consquences... Where to finish (cum inside/outside) and pregnancy!!!

Pregnancy will be in the game but I can't have the possibility for you to get a main character pregnant in E1 of a 21 episode game. The consequences of it would mean me having to render every image that character is in twice - a pregnant and non pregnant version including animations. Similarly imagine the possibilities where there's an image of just 4 girls but you could have gotten any of them pregnant. I would need to render 16(?) frames just for that one frame to account for all possibilities. That's why VN's don't have these options super super early on for main characters, BUTTTTT there will 100% be pregnancy options for every character, just much later in the game. Of course a woman will be pregnant for several months without it actually showing - so this will allow main characters to get pregnant in the mid and late game while still making the rendering possible.

Side characters on the other hand.... if you creampie a non main character even very early on then be prepared for the possibility that they do get knocked up.

ARE THERE GUYS IN ELMWOOD??? lol

Looool. Yep (tragically) other guys do exist at Elmwood but in my design for the game I want you to interact with women as much as possible as I think that's what people have the most fun doing. You will have some interactions with males but these will typically be brief conversations.

Will this game furiously try to educated the player? (that's one of the impressions the 1st episode gave me, unfortunately you had to start your story with the MC in a Feminist group, don't know)

This is something I'd like to answer - I'm sorry it gave you that impression but no, I do not want Elmwood to preach in any way to the player. But obviously different characters have their own ideas about how you should behave - Katie thinks you should study hard and fall in love. Lydia thinks you should party and have fun. There are feminists in Elmwood because there are feminists at any university. Of course they would love it if you agreed with their values but that's in the same way to any other characters.

Any more black girls/LIs? I really like Paris, second to Chels.

I'm afraid Paris is the only black main character. There will be other black non main characters though. On the subject of race there will be 2 east Asian main characters coming in E2. Truth be told I kinda wish the main girls were a little more diverse in race but they were simply the 18 hottest characters I designed out of many.

What AVN's have you played and what were your inspirations?

Played way too many but much fewer since starting Elmwood. I'm sure a lot of people would guess that Being a Dik is an inspiration here but it's really not. Saying that, solo devs like Dr Pinkcake are very inspiring and they act as proof that it is possible for me to succeed. I have enormous respect for all solo devs because I know how hard I work lol. But let me name a few of games I'm very impressed by:

Milfylicious - Haven't played all of it but I played the start and loved the energy. The gameplay seems like: Have sex at this location. Have sex at this next location. Have sex in the limo as we drive you to the next sex location. Sounds stupid but I fucking love it. It's just a game that puts fun first and then explains the story as you go. I think a lot of devs could learn from it, I certainly did.

University of problems - Also haven't played all of it but this game has some of the best sex animations I've ever seen. Very very impressed and incredibly jealous.

Where the heart is - I've played almost all of this and I think it's a phenomenal game. What I think is most impressive is the choice - lots of characters and the incredible flexibility to do so much with each of them while accounting for your other relations. It's a really fun experience and I think I still have some things to learn from WTHI.

give us more episodes or make it into interactive open world some kind of summer time saga probably

I don't want to make it into an open world game sorry.

Harem end?

Yes, harem endings will be in the game and harem element will appear in the mid game. (Threesomes and such will appear much earlier though, not E2 but possibly even E3).

Will it be possible to fill out the entire skill tree? Will we be able to have the option to respec in case we want to try out different skills and see if they have different effects on scenes?

By the end of the game, yes. In terms of respec I don't have any plans to currently but I'm not totally ruling it out.

If you've read this far I'm impressed. Sorry if this is written horribly I wanted to do this quickly so haven't really proofread. Really sorry if you had a question I didn't answer here, as always you are more than welcome to drop me a private message and I will do my best answer whatever is on your mind.

WickedWare