January news post #1 (Public) (Patreon)

Starting in 2021, in effort to offer a fair balance to our supporters vs public fans. We're going to try offering at least 3-4 public posts each month. One of these will be the first news post of the month out of the normal three news posts we do each month. Another thing will be a public poll and from there one extra or two extra public posts. (These won't include bigger perks like art previews, guide perks, scripts, behind the scenes: writing posts.)

With that out of the way! The team is still on our break until Jan 8th, but this week will be lightly prepping myself, along with the rest of the team to return back to our normal work on MA once again. So expect this month to have quite a bit more going on than we had last month while we were on break. :P

Hopefully everyone made it through the holiday season alright and that this year will be a step up from 2020. In regards to in general and also MA. ^^ Let's jump right into things and waste no longer, prepare for a wall of text boss!

~Great wall of text boss approaches~

So what plans do we have for 2021 and the upcoming content to come out for you awesome supporters and fans? This year is going to start off for game updates a little, tiny bit slow as we get back into our normal process with returning from our break.

But we have some things on our list to tackle this year that's already in the works, for you supporters. You've seen this already taking place as we're getting the chibi art done and shared with you all for the past week. :P (Chibi art is to be featured on the episode splash art screens in game.)

We have more than that though that we wish to tackle for 2021. Let me just lay out the list and try to tackle each one as we go along.

~The list~

-Chibi art for episode splash screens.
-Gui overhaul (aka some new elements or possibly polish of existing stuff.)
-New music tracks.
-Episode 5 splash screen (Special gui screen/art illustration piece)

-Chibi art-

I've already touched on this going on right now, but as of right now. The artist tackling the chibi art for us is narukkod. (Check out their DA, great artist and not just in chibi.) They've been doing awesome work as seen so far in the past week of our previews of these.

Currently, they have Zoey, Lola and Bridget left to finish. (Main girl chibis done) It is possible we will have alt versions of each chibi made up that feature each girl in a more unique outfit that suits them. Like Miki in her magical girl outfit or Rachel in her fursuit outfit. (We're trying to keep budget in mind firstly, so we'll see where we sit after getting some other stuff done.)

But in short, the chibi art is already nearly finished and we're only 4 days into the new year! ^^

-Gui-

Our plans for the gui as of this moment is a few things. The major note on this, is that we might not get new gui assets made up and added until spring or early summer. We're keeping an eye out for gui artists to see who to have tackle what we might need.

The confirmed stuff we'll need are some minor assets of missing buttons or screens that we didn't have to account for before when using Tyranobuilder as our engine. Since the switch to Ren'py, much of the gui assets were easily laid out to work still, but some stuff might not be up to par as I'd like it to look fully.

Some missing stuff I believe is cg/music gallery background screen and assets related to that, as Tyranobuilder had it built into its engine compared to Ren'py? So we might have some rough placeholder gui buttons or screens seen in MA at the start of this year, but just understand that those will be replaced with a overhaul.

Some asset parts of the gui that exists currently might be refined or recreated to suit the game theme a bit better. Before anyone gets too worried, we'll do some feedback polls on what parts of the gui seem like they would be best benefited by receiving a overhaul on graphics. (text box, text font/style color, transparency on text box, text box gui buttons style/look, menus, etc.)

-New music-

We've been holding off on new music for a while now, but we recently had our composer back in I believe October or before then finish up the 14 tracks we had planned for the game.

I believe the game could very well make use of some new tracks added to fill the void of some missing tones or general music needed. Stuff like a theme for comedy scenes possibly, but our approach with new tracks would mainly focus more on ambient, lighter toned tracks heard. We'll see some tracks that are suited for certain areas of the academy as well, like the cafeteria could have it's own unique track that normally plays there if something else isn't taking place that's major, etc.

Now, music isn't cheap and is on par with art prices roughly depending on who or where you're looking, it all varies. So if we get into ordering new music tracks, we want to do so very very carefully to keep in mind our budgeting of things. Since we're currently dealing with a good amount of art already.

Expect to see new tracks being a thing we'll see throughout 2021, the rough idea for this is to order one per month or a light approach to it.

-Episode 5 splash art-

This is partly a gui screen but mainly it's a illustration art piece. If you aren't aware of how the game is planned to play out in terms of the common route vs character routes, I'll skip spoilers of any kind, but episodes 1-5 is the common route.

At the end of episode 5 the player will be greeted to a very lovely art illustration screen that features the 9 girls in it.

At first glance it'll look like a normal art screen, not quite like the cg scenes in the game, but different. When you hover your mouse cursor over one of the nine girls seen in the illustration, she will have a glowing outline around her as if highlighted.

This is your pick a route screen, once you choose a girl. You'll be set on their path for the remainder of the game. (Unless you lead yourself into optional/secret endings or paths during a character's route.)

We have yet to choose an artist to tackle this and I feel like our current artists have their own duties to take care of. So you can expect to see a one time unique illustration art piece from a new artist tackling it. (Said illustration will also be offered to supporters at $5+ as a desktop wallpaper in various resolutions.)

~Future content coming out soon or in the near future~

With the stuff addressed above for 2021, we'll also continue to see our normal writing/editing/engine stuff each month, along with oc sprite characters being made and cg art. We plan on having our cg artist caught up to our current game releases as well by Feb 5th.

What does that mean? Well, currently for the past game releases we've done each month. We've only had some cg art done for the featured episode, I believe episode 1 did feature all of it's cg art on release for supporters. When it came to episode 2 though, we only had I believe Rachel's scene in the classroom to offer and maybe the locker room scene with Nova.

So then by the time we released episode 3 for supporters, we added in the missing scenes for episode 2. (Nova's kickboxing one) Along with the one scene in episode 3 featuring Heather/Erika. (Spoiler free)

So we had three more cg scenes missing for episode 3 when it was released in December before we went on break. Those missing scenes are planned to be added in a minor update later this month around Jan 25th. Currently our cg artist has began playing catch up and is expecting to have two more cg scenes done for episode 3 later today, bringing us to 3/4 cg scenes for episode 3 finished currently.

He will have the last cg scene to wrap up for episode 3 after that that and a cg scene for our upcoming release set for Feb 5th. So I have a good feeling they'll get caught up and if they can do this, it brings us back to the starting question. "What does it mean if the cg is caught up to the releases?"

Our goal is that starting with Feb 5th's release, both supporter and public versions of the game will have no missing cg art when you play through the new featured episodes. This will continue like that through 2021 and into the future until the game finishes sometime in Q1 2022. ^^

Now let's jump onto what you're waiting to hear!

What can we expect for version 0.17 (public) & version 0.18 (supporters) content?

Addressing version 0.17 first for the public fans, you can expect to see episode 3 coming your way on Feb 5th! It's quite an episode with new faces showing up and interesting scenes taking place, along with some more slight mystery of the academy seen.

Below is a list of what to expect roughly for version 0.17.   
-Episode 3 added.  
-Music added to Episode 3.
-2 player choices in Episode 3. (possibly more)
-4 cg scenes added.  
-New sprite expressions added. (These are final expressions suited to each character)
-Allie's redesign sprite added to episode 2. (unsure if it'll be in there yet)

Addressing version 0.18 next for supporters, you can expect to see a side story being added to the game on Feb 5th! It'll be featured on the title screen to access it, by a button labeled "Side Stories". This is where you'll access future side stories added to the game, these stories feature stuff that might be connected to the main episodes to help fill in some blanks for lore/story. The major plan in the far off future is that this area will feature the after stories for characters that takes place after the ending of MA.

So right now the first side story being added is labeled "Miki's Dream" I'll mention right now that in terms of fitting in a certain spot within the main story episodes or timeline wise. It doesn't confirm or mention if this story takes place before Brandon comes to the academy or where it sits in the timeline of events.

As I mentioned earlier, our releases for 2021 at the very start will be slow to kick us off for the year. This side story is expected to be around 4-5k word count vs how episodes 1-3 have been averaging around 16-18k word count. But in terms of choices and stuff taking place, it should be seen as a fun side story to play through, mainly if you're a big fan of Miki. Even if you dislike Miki, you might still find it enjoyable.

By March's release, we'll be back on track with main episode releases again for 2021.

Below is a list of what to expect roughly for version 0.18.
-Miki's Dream (Side Stories) added.
-Music added to Miki's Dream.
-1 cg scene related to Miki's Dream content. (possibly have our artist add a new scene for ep 1's tickle fight between Miki/Erika showcasing Erika and Miki's diaper accident.)
-New player choices for episodes 1-3 added. (this possibly will be part of Jan 25th's release of ep 3 stuff.)
-New gui placeholder button "Side Stories" added to title screen.

Up next, we'll look into what's taking place roughly with minor spoilers for both Episode 3 & Miki's Dream.

What's in Episode 3 & Miki's Dream?

(Public)

Episode 3 follows sometime after episode 2, but not directly after where ep 2 ended.

We can expect to see some stuff that popped up during episodes 1 & 2 to make a return that was brought up, but not fully explained or dug deeper into. We'll see 2 characters show up as a part of the episode's focus, but the major focus of this episode will be around the academy plot unfolding.

Sadly that's all I can mention on that for now without getting too spoiler filled.

(Supporter)

Miki's Dream places the player in the shoes of Miki! You'll see a look into her mindset a bit from this side story, but as the title implies. This is a dream taking place while Miki is sleeping.

I don't really want to spoil the fun of what can happen or see in her dream, but it'll have a fantasy feeling to it and it's Miki we're talking about here... <.< Expect some crazy fun and random stuff taking place is all I can say.

CG scenes?

(public)

Episode 3 will feature 4 cg scenes, in order of when they show up. You'll have the first one offer two versions of it based on your choices during it. The second cg has one version. The third cg scene is optional to the player and has three versions that play out regardless of further choices. The last scene has one version planned, but possibly two versions that play out regardless.

(supporter)

Miki's Dream will feature 1 cg scene, possibly having a few outcome versions to it. It'll feature Miki seen in the scene is all I can say right now. :P

~Conclusion~

I think if you've made it this far, you've beat the great wall of text boss! Here's your reward of 15 gold pieces! :P

Kidding aside, even though I'm not expecting to begin writing Miki's Dream until Jan 8th. There's some light prepping taking place this week to get everything going again and prepare myself to write out her story to be seen on Feb 5th!

The break during December was very, very much needed for myself personally and I'm sure everyone else on the team is very thankful to have the time off to spend with family or do some relaxation when possible during the holidays. All of us on the team are very thankful for everyone being so understanding during December and even now as we start work back up again on MA.

If you're a public fan who is curious, every month we offer exclusive versions of the game to those supporters who pay $5+ and with that includes many perks like art previews, general news, behind the scenes posts, polls and more! If you can support and enjoy what we offer from what you've tried in our public versions so far, please do consider gaining some of these perks from supporting. ^^

With that said, we have quite a bit of work to get done as we start up again soon. Our artists are already getting ahead right now as we speak. We hope you all will enjoy the game version releases on Feb 5th! (Jan 25th mini version update for supporters addressing current content too.)

From all of us at Messy Studios.
We hope you all are having a good start to 2021, it's early but lets hope it's better!