September news post #3 (Patreon)

This is our final news post for this month! ^^ We got lots to cover and more solid details as to what is being seen in update 0.15 set for Oct 5th.

Before we jump into it! You can check out our previous news post >>Here<<

~Update 0.15~

Okay, so much like our previous news post. October 5th is still our firm set release date for update 0.15. Interesting enough, that very same day we'll also see the kickstarter launch!

We'll be releasing a public post set for this Monday (tomorrow) with all the exact details needed for our kickstarter. It will list the date for the launch, our time we plan on launching and which timezone it's based on. We'll have all the details needed to ensure that everything is ready for a smooth launch, we're trying our best for the timezone launch as we want to be fair to those all around the world the best that we can.

Anyways, let's do a little mock up Q&A time shall we?


So what's new? What can we expect for the next update?

Our plans with update 0.15 originally was to simply adjust days 1 & 2, it still is sort of.

Sort of?

So without trying to scare anyone. The adjusting was meant to cover those days and it would fix them up, expand on what takes place during those events in the days and improve the writing quality to be more closer to how the writing felt with our more recent route parts.

While adjusting these older areas of content, we needed to also look at how the game flows overall and do some other fixing of stuff for the finished version of the game as we head into the next year of major work to the project's finish line.

We've already mentioned the episodes thing in our last news post and so let's just lay it out there in simple terms.

Day 1 = Episode 1
Day 2 = Episode 2
Day 3 = Episode 3
Day 4 = Episode 4
Day 5 = Episode 5

Simple right? Okay... So the laid out episodes above are taking what's seen in the game during days 1-5 and turning them into episodes. The main point of this is to be seen as the common route for the game.

It will focus on easing you into the world setting of the academy, it's rules, how things work and it's main story taking place. It will also be introducing you to the characters and giving you a good idea of who these characters are, much like it does in the game currently.

The big thing is there's new content added, so while episode 1 has the events from day 1 seen. It's got plenty of new stuff taking place between those events you might be familiar with already. Even the familiar events you might know have new expanded stuff seen.

Okay so what is this common route thing and how's that work?

So the common route which for Messy Academy will be Episodes 1-5 is seen as your introduction into the world setting, characters, building up what is needed before you dig into the deeper story of the game.

After Episode 5 is finished, you'll choose a girl's route. This is a little different than the route part stuff currently seen, as you won't be actually dating them right off the bat after Episode 5, but it'll have the events that lead up to you and X girl dating each other.

Time to do another lay out... Below is a rough example using Nova.

Episode 6 = Day 6 & 9 Nova events, plus new stuff.
Episode 7 = Day 11 & 14 Nova events, plus new stuff.
Episode 8 = Day 16 & 17 Nova events, plus new stuff.

With that above, that's all of Nova's events after Day 5 and before Day 19 in the current game when dating opens up. So for the rest of these examples, we're going to pretend we chose Nova.

So with choosing Nova after Episode 5, we're now stuck in Nova's route and Episode 6-12 is unique for Nova. Some events will be shared across all the girls episodes for main academy story related stuff and we'll still see some other characters show up in Nova's episodes. (Bridget, Miki, etc.)

So you get to go into routes earlier in the game? So Episode 1-5 is the common events leading up to Episode 6 where you get to focus on a single girl until the end of the game?

We haven't even covered Episode 9+ but looking at the events covered above, here's roughly how Nova's Episode 9-12 would look.

Episode 9 = Nova's route part 1 and further expanding for pacing.
Episode 10 = Nova's route part 2 & 3.
Episode 11 = Nova's route part 4 & 5.
Episode 12 = Nova's route part 6.

It's hard to really explain the above, since we've only shown everyone the girl's route part 1 and nothing past that yet. But this is just a pretty close and yet still lightly rough layout of how the episode format for the game will be like for the finished game. (Now replace Nova's episode 6-12 with Miki episodes, Erika episodes, etc.)

That seems like... A lot of work? Is this just a reboot again? Isn't this going to take a long time to go through all of this? Is the release date for the finished game delayed?

Okay, okay. Let's answer them before anymore questions! <.<

First off, I can see why this might look like a lot of work. The thing to keep in mind is that a lot of this is taking what the game has currently for it's content and expanding on it's idea. So just briefly, episodes 1-5 will be the biggest episodes for word counts. We're expecting overall about 100,000 word count alone for those episodes altogether.

It's needed to ensure players have a clear idea of things before choosing a set route for the remaining episodes. But other episodes are much less huge than that, let's compare.

Episode 1 right now is about 17,000 word count.
Episode 6 Nova, might only be about 5000 word count.

Still seems crazy right? Well if episode 6 hosts 2 of Nova's events from her days currently. Each of those events are roughly about 1500-2000 word count. So really it's not too different, I'll expand on stuff a bit of course. But I'm not looking to go crazy extreme by any means either, overall the game should feel fulfilling from start to finish in any given way you go through it.

Next. I can see why some might think we're rebooting the game and starting all over, but it's not like that.

Yes, we are changing the days format to episodes. We're fixing up how the affection stat menu stuff is seen as. (more details below) But unlike before when we first rebooted the game at the end of last year, it was such a huge events change to the game.

I know this might sound similar, but before the reboot. The game was planned as 10 chapters with open map parts between each chapter, a more dating sim approach to things while focusing on being a visual novel still, etc. It'll be one of those things that you'll have to see how things are turning out and looking to really judge how you view these episodes.

Next. This isn't planned to delay our set release date. We still expect at least early 2022 to have the game finished up, getting in polished and bug free state.

I still don't know... But what's this about the stat menu you mentioned?

So we did a poll asking everyone, but the summary about that is. Affection as a stat doesn't really seem to fit for the game as a real interactive fun system. Currently you would play through days 1-19 building stats and sometimes losing stats with certain girls, all to be able to confess to a girl and get into their route.

But then what? The route has you set with Nova in our case, so what about my points I have for Miki? Can I go sneak off and do something with her?

Sadly it's a bit too much for the game and the original plan with affection to make it useful isn't quite panning out. We're looking to do two things instead.

(1) - The stat menu becomes a diaper accident tracker, which is linked to the mini game that will be added. This will keep track of how many accidents or times each girl has used their diaper and if it reaches a set number. It'll unlock extra scenes later in the game because of it.

(2) - Instead of affection, when you are in say Nova's route (Episodes 6-12). There might be some optional choices seen that possibly let's players do stuff with Rosa or Allie. That can affect the ending for sure and make for some interesting outcomes because of it. Will you be the type of boyfriend to stay loyal or fool around?

Okay, do you have more information on Bridget's redesign and personality changes yet?

Sadly right now I've shared all I have, we won't see the visual changes being made to her and how things change for her personality on a deeper explaining until October.

I feel like her changes will make her still interesting and also add to her character overall, visually she'll still be linked from how she looks now to her new look. What I mean by that is, fans of Bridget should be able to look at her new design and think. "Okay that seems like it could still be Bridget."

There's quite a bit of plans for sprite related work to happen, but here's a few things below that we'd like to get around to soon and leading into next year.

Bridget's redesign (Work on it set for October.)
OC character #5 & #6 (Work on it set for November.)

We might have to put a hold on new OC background characters for a while, as we don't want to fall behind on them and also ensure we don't have way too many to add into the game. To make up for that, we'll set two $25 tiers. One that will be closed here soon that offers the OC background character for the time being and another $25 tier that will offer something worth it in the mean time.

We still want to get Evelyn (support character) sprite done set for next year, possibly a redesign concept in mind for Allie. (might see that sooner)

Then as for minor sprite stuff, we have a few outfits needed and some new expressions to be seen for characters too.

What if I wanted a oc background character, but now you're going to close those requests for a while?

We will open up that tier and requests in the future, before we do that. We'll of course make some posts to warn anyone who has been waiting for them to open up again, so that everyone has a good chance at grabbing spots for it when it happens.

We simply have 6 total oc background characters right now and as you're aware, we have to find fitting moments for them in the game still. So we want to ensure we get that handled first before agreeing to allow even more and then possibly run the risk that we can't add finished requests in.

Okay, I think I've heard enough for now. So what can I fully expect to see for content in update 0.15 and what's the plans for October work for update 0.16?

Alright, update 0.15 will feature the below.

-Episode 1 added.
-Music added for Episode 1.
-New effects for fade in/out and transitions.

The way that the change of format from days to episodes will work is interesting. We're going to have the game play out a little oddly for a little while, so on a fresh game. You'll begin Episode 1 and get through it, then it'll let you know that's it for the new content for update 0.15.

But you will have the option to jump to "Day 2" and continue playing the current game if you wish. We'll have to set a warning for new players though, letting them know that things aren't quite balanced or perfect after episode 1 ends. (We might even simply unlock the affection requirements for the routes in the current game on Day 19, just because of changes happening with affection moving forward.)

That doesn't look like a lot of new content for a month of work...?

Well one thing to note is that this month was meant to be a more relaxed month considering update 0.13 & 0.14 took a lot out of me to write all of that for the past 2 months. I didn't want to push myself and risk burning out completely, I would hope no one would want that and understands.

Even with that in mind, while it doesn't look like a lot of content when listed above. Keep in mind Episode 1 is 17,000 word count. Roughly about over an hour of reading content if not more or less, based on your reading speed.

Hearing music in the episode will be a treat as well, since it's been a bit of a wait since we started getting the music made for the game.

Even if this doesn't seem like much still, just keep this in mind.

Our plan for October work is to first pay off the last 3 music tracks for our music producer, so that's done. Then we're looking to shoot for at least 3+ new cg scenes for update 0.16, this will also be scenes not like the ones we've seen before. (Aka the punishment scenes that aren't varied that differently.)

We're aware the cg art in the game is lacking, it's our weak point and we want to end this year with a big push on cg art leading into the new year. Our goal is to see 4-5+ new cg art scenes in each update moving forward, our kickstarter will help greatly with that funding as well.

~Conclusion~

That about wraps it up, a lot is going on to end this year for game updates and what goals we have in mind to tackle. So hopefully we'll see many of you choose to continue enjoying our decisions for the game and leading towards seeing it slowly come together into it's finished project with next year.