November news post #2 (Patreon)

Sorry it's been a bit busy! >.< Meant to have this news post out a few days back, but with preparing to go on break in December. We're trying to ensure everything is tackled and out of the way before then.

So in case you haven't seen our first news post, you can check it out over >>here<<

Let's get right into everything, as I laid down what we're expecting for update 0.17 in our last post. I'll lightly go over some of that stuff and talk general stuff as well.

How is the content for update 0.17 coming along?

We still plan on having Episode 3 released on Dec 5th, it could be possible that we need to very lightly delay it until the 6th or 7th of Dec with where we're currently at with stuff to ensure the update has what we want included.

We have about 1/3rd of the writing done for episode 3, you heard that right... Sadly this has been a busy month and we haven't even hit the holiday season in December yet. Between work and other things going on, I've been trying to put aside time to write out episode 3 and struggling a bit. It deals with a more serious or off putting tone in the start of the episode without spoiling anything and so it's been a bit tough to make sure it isn't too serious.

I'm aware of what needs to be tackled roughly each day moving from now until Dec 5th to reach the end of episode 5 and give some time for Uncle Artie to get it into the engine too. So it'll be a tight squeeze this time around compared to last month, but that's also another good reason why we're taking December off knowing that the holidays will be busy even with everything going on around the world right now.

Moving on, we currently have 2 cg scenes done right now which wrap up ep 2 scenes. With a 3rd cg scene in the works right now, nearly done that is targeted for ep 3. We're hoping to get a 4th cg scene done still from now before Dec 5th, which would of course also be for ep 3. So we'd be able to expect 2 new cg scenes for ep 2 and then at the very least 2 new scenes for ep 3 in the update.

The sprite expressions for characters (Their final versions of expressions) are done, have been finished and ready to be included into the game. But given how things are going right now, we'll most likely be looking at seeing ep 1-3 touched up with the new final expressions when we release update 0.18 for Feb 3rd, 2021.

Allie's redesign we've seen a preview for already and we're looking at the poll feedback, we should see another preview of her more finished up here by this weekend. This preview would show her off with red eye color as it's a big request on the poll and we'll see if it feels fitting for her, otherwise we'd go with the original purple colored eyes she had before.

Pajama outfits for Juliet, Nova and Rachel are done and we've seen previews of those. We can't say when we'll see those in the game yet, but we're done and will be expected at some time in the future when the time is fitting for them to be seen in their pajamas :P

I knew if anything would be cut from this month to be worked on, it'd be the special disclaimer screen or chibi art for episode splash screens. Sadly with how things have went for this month, it isn't going to be seen right now. Our hope is that during December while we're much more relaxed and taking our break from stuff. I'll put a bit of time aside and have someone tackle the chibi art for episodes 1-4, that way it'll be caught up for when we return in January and get working on episode 4 to release on Feb 3rd.

Winter break.

Just in case you're not aware, we're trying to remind everyone that during December. The Messy Studios team is taking a break from working on MA, this means that update 0.17 will release as scheduled on Dec 5th.

But for update 0.18, that won't be expected to release until Feb 3rd, so simply put. December is our break from the game, January we return back to normal and work on update 0.18 during that month so it's ready for February.

We hope that many of you will still choose to support us in January even if we don't have a new game update released that month for you. We'll still have plenty of art previews, news and more to be shared even during our break in December!

But we'll also understand if you choose to stop support for January and return back in February once we have more game content released, getting things back on track for the new year. ^^

[Update 0.17 targeted for Dec 5th, will of course still release as normal]

~Conclusion~

Sorry for the short news post compared to normal, we're still very hard at work to get episode 3 ready and honestly. I really feel like us going on break in December will greatly help us a lot.

I know for myself with writing, the main point of the break is of course relaxing and I plan on doing that as my priority as we shape ourselves up for a long and well productive year in 2021. But I'll try to sneak in a tiny bit of episode 4 writing so that I can get a little ahead of schedule, which would also help our cg artist too.

Ideally it would be best if we were exactly one episode ahead of what we release, but it's a bit hard to pull that off without holding out for our fans on content and we'd rather not.

We have some light goals in December over all to look at even during our break, we'll of course keep everyone updated as we do tackle some stuff that isn't directly work for our team or if it is, it's very light.

One goal I have is to possibly get some new gui art requested during our break, so that with update 0.18 in Feb. We'll have the gui looking really slick and also get the mobile support rolled out finally.

From all of us at Messy Studios.
We hope you all have been staying safe and avoid getting sick if possible! <3