December news post #2 (Final) (Patreon)

Before the New Year's celebrations kick in here, I wanted to put out one final news post for the month! It shouldn't be too long I hope! ^^"

In case you missed the mentions in some other posts we've made this month, we're looking to give back to many of you supporters and previous supporters during the year. The short and sweet of it, is that we have some rewards and perks being given out to everyone that qualifies for them to help the healing process of our shortcomings in development for 2021.

(To learn more about those, you can read about them in full at the post below.)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/v0-20-release-59834814

We've also shared some of our big goals in development for 2022 in another post this month. I think the most exciting mention of those is the mention of how interactive moments would feel more like a mini game. We only used one example of how we'd see this content used for diaper changing events in the game, but it can be applied to some other key moments through the game to help break up the reading periods at times.

(To learn more about these goals and features planned for 2022, you can read more about them in full at the post below.)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/merry-christmas-60325777

Moving along!


As many of you are aware by now, we decided to fully take advantage of our Winter break and begin 2022 freshly energized. The first link post above actually goes into our detailed plans for releasing v0.20 and v0.21 in January, but I have some news to share by the end of this post regarding all of that.

Before I get into the heavy news that I have to share with everyone, let's begin light..
(Skip down to "Big News Announcements" for the heavy news.)

~Development behind the scenes talks~

MarxeDP & AjoseMp as many of you can see from our post put out yesterday with Lola. They've been working hard on our final wallpaper for the year and also our last wallpaper moving forward. We'll be seeing the loss of wallpapers for the rest of development, but the big priority for extra time put into cg art will benefit greatly from this.

The only exception to this will be that we might see a promotional art piece for the game very, very rarely pop up.

I hope everyone found the surprise of seeing Lola featured in the recent wallpaper to be really exciting though! I know for some of you, we haven't seen much of Lola in the game yet to judge her character or maybe feel too strongly about her yet. But I was shooting for having her come off very confident, trying to play into her character being seen as quite forward often at times. :P

Currently the cg artists are on a very small break for a few days from the holidays, which is a given I'd say. I'm surprised they were willing to tackle some stuff in December in the first place, so I hope they, along with the others on the team are all having a good break.

The next cg art is paid for and will be progressing along into January, without saying too much. It's a cg piece for the upcoming routes, so we'll have to hold off a tiny bit from showing it, but I have a good feeling it'll take a memorable moment for one character and make more sense of the context going on to make it fit seamlessly. :P

January will continue with route related cg art besides that, along with some visual adjustments being made for existing cg art. We're looking to improve how the diapers look and I believe I discuss more detail about that in one of the two posts above in this post if interested.

Our composer, ComposerJF is still working along on the more emotional sad track in the works. I believe he's been a bit busy with the holidays recently and I'm not too surprised with things being a bit more quiet this month. We should probably expect to hear this track in January though. ^^

Plans for music ahead.. I have to double check my notes, but I do believe we'll be hearing some character themes very soon. I mean.. It makes sense given the routes are the focus here soon! :P

The first character theme will be Miki's theme, which will fit her character very well I hope! Not to say this is how all the character themes will be based around or how they're put together, but for Miki.. I think her theme will take into factor that she's very energetic and overwhelming at times, mixed with her playful nature to have fun... Those are key words to help put her theme into being realized.

~Big News Announcements~

I don't know how to begin to express this sudden news as it hit me with a mix of feelings, but I also understand greatly from their point of view and on-going personal issues, etc.

First off, I regret to inform everyone that v0.20 will be delayed, still planned for January. But the reasoning is kind of out of my hands for this decision and there's a lot more going on behind the scenes for Messy Academy now as we head into 2022, but I'm still very hopeful of keeping on track and making this happen smoothly for the transition.

Artie shared the news with me this morning that he's looking to leave the project for the time being, with the possibility of joining the team for a future project. But as of right now, it seems like he'd be done for the near future involving MA's development for engine work and editing. Without going into detail on his behalf, it seems like it wasn't a easy decision for him to make lightly.

I know he has his own project he's creating that's a lot of time investment, but between that and his job picking up again in recent months. I had this growing feeling that his free time was getting shorter and shorter, but when he expressed that there's more going on with his personal life outside of all of that. It just really hit me that this wasn't a easy decision for him to make.

Being selfish, I would love to have him continue working with us on MA in any shape or form. But I also had to take a step back from my own selfish mixed thoughts from the news and trying my best not to beg him, making it any harder than it is for him already. I had to really put myself in his spot and think about all the good he has done for this project as a whole, more so with knowing that he was the very first to join me in development a long 2 years ago.

He's helped me grow behind the scenes as a mentor to me, it's very possible that without his guidance and help in pushing me at times in directions. I might've not been here today making this post, as MA could've just faded off into becoming nothing without his help. Things were bumpy at times in development early on, reboots included to get MA on the right track that it's sitting at today. But there's so many chances that things could've resulted in a different path for the project as a whole or if it'd even be around still today if it weren't for his mentoring help.

I could go on about just how much I've learnt from him as a indie developer and friend, but I'll spare you all more mountains of text.

Simply put, Artie is departing from any future development for MA. The future is unknowing and anything is possible, but what I do know is this...

Artie will help with the editing/engine work in January in order to release v0.20, but this will be his send off. My reasoning for holding off on getting v0.20 out by what was planned to be Jan 7th, is to simply give him some extra time needed with what's going on personally in his life. I know I've been really bad about delays in 2021 as a whole, but I hope you can please understand that there's a lot going on here to consider. If you have to get it out of your system and say anything demeaning, please direct it towards me.

Starting in January while Artie is making his way through editing/engine work. I will be juggling writing for the future content of the game and also trying to find a new engine programmer. I'll have to help get them up to speed on how we do things behind the scenes and prepare them during January/February so that they're ready to tackle v0.21 on their own. (v0.21 will be quality of life content for ep 1-4 and the new episode 6 routes for 3 girls at the very least.) That is planned for March.

It's very, very sudden and I'm trying my best to ensure that the transition between Artie to someone else goes as smoothly as possible. The goal is to keep to our 45 day release cycle as planned even with this sudden news, so please understand that there is going to be a lot going on behind the scenes, more than I originally had in mind heading into the new year.

I will do everything within my being to keep things moving along smoothly, MA has had it's bumps in the road before and this won't stop us from continuing to pour our hearts into this project either. We're going to make it to the next New Year's and look back on one of MA's biggest year's of development yet! Just you wait!

~Ending statements~

I'd like to include, Artie has expressed that he wants to help out in what way he can for MA still. Just not being able to be as involved with engine or editing work as he has been for nearly 2 years now. He will still be within the discord server and keeping up with MA's development along the way until the finishing line!

I know this isn't the greatest news to share on New Year's Eve, but much as it was very sudden for myself. I too, wanted to share it suddenly with everyone of you supporting and helping us along the way, being open and honest is key!

While I am very saddened and mixed with thoughts on my mind, I can only hope that things improve for Artie with a fresh year ahead of him, I can't thank him enough for being part of MA for the past 2 years and everything he's taught me in development skills.

Here's to you Artie! Have a very, wonderful Happy New Years!
Everyone else! Have yourself a great, fresh new start in 2022 as well!

<3

~ From all of us at Messy Studios! ~