Messy Academy transfers to Ren'py! (all details) (Patreon)

Over the next week, we'll be sharing these details among our other areas for fans to be aware of it.

Messy Academy is ditching Tyranobuilder and transferring to Ren'py! I'm sure many of you have questions about this, how this will effect the game progress, is it a step backward rather than forward? etc. All should be covered in a little mock up Q&A below.

(Q) - Why bother transferring the game into Ren'py now?

(A) - We've always had interest and even some demand to see MA move over to Ren'py, either full on or as an alternative version. Needless to say, there were a few factors for this.

The first factor came with realizing that sooner or later, as much as I tried to hold on to being able to cover writing, engine work and management. I simply can't continue forward with keeping up with all of those together, add in my personal job for income that takes up much of my time as well and I can honestly admit. In recent months I continue to find myself with less free time to the point where I'm being honest when I say 90% of my time in a month is my personal job or working on MA.

I expect to put time into MA, but sooner or later at this rate. Regardless of how much I love working on the project and seeing it come together each month, it'd be insane to continue forward like that for upwards of another year straight.

Cutting to the point, I have someone already picked out as our new engine/programmer to handle those duties. Which means I can fully focus on writing and management. I want to keep who this person is a secret until closer to Nov 4th. Rest assured, they're skilled in Ren'py and have a great understanding of it. If you're following them, they might even break the news a bit early themselves, which is fine.

Closing note to this, in under 1 week. We already transferred Episode 1 over to Ren'py about 95% flawlessly, visually and how things feel. You should still feel as if MA hasn't changed completely in this transfer of engines. With it though, you will gain new benefits.

(Q) - New benefits with Ren'py?

(A) - Right away our first benefit which isn't a big thing, but we've went from 6 save slots to 200 save slots. All in working order.

I think that might make a few fans happy? But we would've also had cg/music galleries ready before Nov 4th too, if only I knew ahead of time. Right now some gui assets from Tyranobuilder don't really work or fit within Ren'py in a nice way. We didn't quite have gui buttons for "cg gallery" "music gallery" ready.

So we'll have a bit of new gui assets made up during November that feel much more fitting with Ren'py, but still has that MA feeling to it visually.

Then while we're on the subject, we'll add a settings/menu button and exit button to the title screen too. This will help in two ways, one will allow players to simply config the game how they wish before having to get into a new game just to hit "menu". The other will allow for players in fullscreen mode a helpful way to exit the program.

Alright, so maybe those aren't too exciting benefits? Well Nov 4th we'll continue to see Windows & Mac support for the game. But by Dec 5th, we'd like to get Mobile support released for the game and it'll be much easier than before in our attempts with Tyranobuilder.

Lastly, I can't say how true it is. But fans have stressed that the game would have more support if it were in Ren'py. Support for unofficial mods/patches being easier to be made by fans of the game, let's be real. We have plans for a good amount of content in the game, but we can't always agree to everything suggested to us. This would offer a way for fans to work towards certain mods/patches, maybe you were a fan of NTR and wish to see it return even if unofficially?

Well perhaps you could get your wish with the help of fans being able to work towards these. We'll even advertise for you many of these unofficial mods/patches for the game, of course with that said. Do keep in mind, due to some content of these mods/patches, we can't fully agree to some works of these.

(Q) - What about Episode 2? Is that going to release on time in Ren'py for Nov 4th?

(A) - Simply put, yes.

While it wasn't 100% ideal for us to do all of this about 2 weeks before our new game update releases. I have to give big props to our new engine/programmer, they've seamlessly made sure episode 1 right away. We're still hard at work even now on writing and getting that put into the engine, but it is safe to say. We'll have everything ready.

(Q) - What will happen to the existing versions of the game? What does the future look like now for MA?

(A) - Since we are moving to Ren'py, we'll be taking Update 0.14 (last known update that covers days 1-19 and the 1st part of routes) putting it up for download on all our areas we host the game on.

Why update 0.14? It's the last update before we started work on the adjusting and fixing up of older content, many of you have already seen what episode 1 looks like in comparison to what was originally "Day 1". But just to compare, day 1 was about 7000 word count of content. Episode 1 is 17,000 word count of content.

Much of this is taking the existing content for day 1, fixing and improving it's text/dialogue, bringing it all up to writing quality that compares to the quality seen in route parts. While also adding new events and fitting moments, expanding on existing moments and overall prepping it as the finalized path for the game towards it's finish line.

But back to the topic, update 0.14 will always stay offered to everyone to show what we currently have put together and what we're taking to improve on into Ren'py.

Update 0.15 (public) & Update 0.16 (supporter exclusive) will release on Nov 4th. With Episode 1 for the public to go through, as Episode 2 will be exclusive for a month respectfully.

As for how this all affects the future of MA, our roadmap projection still has us on track with a early finished date of early 2022. If anything, depending on how well things go where I can focus more on writing and management alone. We could possibly even get ahead of schedule, seeing the game wrapped up by late 2021 instead.

So to end that, nothing has changed. If anything it'll be even better outcomes.

(Q) - I'm not quite sure about all of this.

(A) - I know it's a change of mixed feelings, but regardless of how you might feel. If you feel like you're supporting us and need to wait until Nov 4th to see how things feel. Just know that the public version will still offer a look at how episode 1 and the game in general looks, feels and plays like in Ren'py.

If it's more than just that for being unsure of your feelings, maybe you don't agree with our recent changes? Or maybe think we moving one step forward, two steps back. We're very open and would like your feedback on this, even just general comments. I enjoy chatting with everyone, long as time allows me to. Even then, rest assured I still get back to everyone's messages and try to keep everyone updated.

What I'm trying to say is I don't bite, regardless if you agree or disagree. If you need time away from supporting us or just for whatever reason, need to get away. We understand 2020 has been a wild crazy year and even if you're doing okay to continue supporting and just unsure or wish to support, but need to look out for yourselves first.

We understand, with that said. Regardless how things push forward, we'll continue to do our best each month with what we're able to do and cover. The kickstarter is currently at 120% with 11-12 days remaining and much of that will be covering CG art costs for the game. That isn't to say we're pocketing what we get from patreon by any means, those funds go directly towards the skilled work supplied to our team currently and also allow us to choose carefully little extra aspects to tackle monthly if able to.

-Conclusion-

From all of us at Messy Studios, we hope this post will be very informative and also possibly quite exciting news.

We're shaping up to end 2020 with a bang, as we'll soon see even more CG art pushed out monthly similar to what's been seen so far to our supporters this month. Plus much more!

Thank you all! Stay safe and stay warm!