Final Post for 2021 (Patreon)

Hello all,

"Hey... This isn't the Alpha!" Yes, yes, I know... Although I already said not to expect the Alpha before the new year in the previous post, I still feel awful about it. Since the entire point of splitting this build off and polishing it up to v0.09 standards to create something playable was mostly to give you all an end of year present. 

The good news is that I've now essentially finished with the game components of the ALPHA (Just a few days of play-testing remains and a handful of minor bugs), and (as you can see from the images in this post) have now begun the transition into properly rendering the new scenes. This Debra & Jebadiah scene featured will lead seamlessly into the scene with Debra & Barney so it'll have the most renders total that I'll need to create. My other plans for the ALPHA scenes are still to also get the Tiffany & Barney scene in, alongside all of Debra's combat sex scenes.

So where does this put us? Well, effectively I am 3 weeks behind the originally estimated shcedule. I know I've made things complicated here by delaying things and combining the planned releases together, but I'll try and explain anyway. What I have ready now, is what I had originally planned to ship at the end of November. The original ALPHA (which is the new combined ALPHA minus the handful of new scenes with Debra & Tiffany that I mentioned above). 3 weeks is how long it will take me to get these new scenes in place. And around the 21st-25th of Dec was when I had originally planned for the "BETA" (before I decided to merge those both into a single ALPHA release) to be done. 

So that's the bad news, another 3ish weeks of rendering and implementing these new scenes before this combined ALPHA build is complete. How did I get so far behind schedule? Apart from the usual things taking longer than anticipated, I actually did end up burning myself out around the time that I made the decision to combine the two planned builds. I guess I hadn't realized it at the time, since I was so busy and not sleeping much, but once I gave myself that extra time, I didn't really get too much done for the next week while I recovered. I do need to stop trying to release work at this time of year. It never ends well... In hindsight, when I couldn't get the ALPHA out in November, my first move should probably have been to suspend the page and take a month's break for the Holidays and recharge, but here we are...  

Regardless, the ALPHA will be out for all tiers in January (And sent out to any patrons who supported at any tier in either November or December). My apologies again to everyone who has been waiting. I can now say with confidence that despite whatever progress I've made on scenes by then, the Alpha will be in a good enough state to release regardless, since it is basically ready now. I just want there to be some new scenes for your trouble as well. (And maybe fix the remaining 3 broken Perks + Skill rank bonuses not applying)

Also, since I'm now finally rendering again, from next week there will be a weekly update with a new render, and a bonus Sneak Peek render for the Special Forces tier. I don't know when other Bonus Content will return, but I am sure there will be polls again as soon I start work on a piece of content that could benefit from your input. However, Terminal Quickies story updates won't resume until after I have the ALPHA out to you all. Since that project requires several days of writing from me and also some logistics to work through. But more on that in the New Year... 

Thank you all for your support during what ended up being the worst year for TD in terms of output. Both for the game itself and bonus content for your support. I promise you the wait will have been worth it, and that 2022 will be one of the best years for TD in terms of content and releases. The Full Release of v0.10 is still a few months off, but the ALPHA will be out in January, and the BETA will be out about a month or so before the Full Release once it's all mostly ready including with the scenes. I know I keep reiterating this, but I will do my best to make all the waiting up to you guys in 2022. No one is more upset about this than I am. Thank you again for sticking by me while I work on this monster overhaul.

I hope you all have a Safe & Happy New Year! Let's leave the worst behind us. :)

~ Jim