February News post #2 (Patreon)

As we hit the halfway point of this month, I'd like to briefly toss out some updates in news regarding v0.20 and how it's coming along, as well as what we're doing so far towards v0.21 content which will come very quickly.

Let's get right into it!

~Update on February's Dev plans!~

Our rough plans to get v0.20 ready by mid February give or take is looking like it'll move a bit beyond that. I can't give a confirmed day to expect v0.20 until I receive a play test version of v0.20 in hand, but the moment I have that in hand. That'll at least tell me that we're ready to release something within the following 48 hours after testing it and fixing up any minor issues with the update.

Once again, sorry with how bumpy things are starting off this year as we get everything situated with working alongside a new programmer and making sure we're on the same page with everything as this is our real first test put forth for them.

With how things look, we're still in the range of having v0.20 out this month at the worst on Feb 28th. It could come sooner though, but naturally I'll only confirm if it's coming sooner, once I have a play test version in my hands and then I'll put out a 48 hour notice to confirm which date we'll have it out for everyone.

We're working really hard right now not only in regards to v0.20 to get it out asap, but we're already focusing on v0.21 content and writing being started early in this month to get that going. So if all goes roughly to plan, we'll see v0.20 out at the end of this month and v0.21 content should be finished up, ready to release by late March roughly.

From there, as we head into April we'll be on track with our 45 day release cycle. So we can expect v0.22 for mid May. v0.23 for late June, etc.

Thank you to everyone being very patient with us during our awkward development, we really can't thank you all enough and we still have a ton in store for everyone to make things right alongside releasing content on a set schedule again. Our priority focus is of course going to be brand new route content episodes, secondary priority being quality of life/fixes/etc.

We have a lot in mind for transforming MA into a more polished and high quality experience for everyone. Just to briefly share some early thoughts, with v0.20 we'll possibly see improved sprite visuals for episode 5. They shouldn't look as blurry or awkward as they might come off as right now, we'll be sharing a little preview of this in a few days alongside some new gui work being added later in development! ^^

As we get extra time during the release cycles, we'll tackle the quality of life fixes for episodes 1-4 and Miki's Dream so that the sprite quality we're going to see in episode 5 is applied to the whole game. Pretty much.. MA should feel HD quality as we move along with development this year. We want to show everyone what MA is meant to feel like by the end of development, giving the game a professional visual look and experience for all of you!

~Voting Poll Results!~

Huge thank you to everyone who took the time to vote this month on your favorite characters! <3

We made a post already detailing what our plans were for doing this, but really quickly.. We wanted to get a good idea of how to split up the characters for their route content. If you aren't aware of how we're doing route content and how the rest of our development will feel like in comparison to episodes 1-5.

We're going to be releasing content for Nova, Heather and Lola within v0.21 as their route episode 6 content. Each update to the game moving forward after v0.20 releases will feature 3 girl's route episodes, as it's what we feel will be possible within 45 day deadlines. Sometimes we might toss a 4th in there, but even though we might not have all our content out at once. Just understand that as we move along in development, we'll naturally have a storage of written scripts ready for the engine for these routes. So even if what we release is all you're seeing for the time being during v0.21 content, we very well could have Miki's episode 6 done already behind the scenes before v0.21 is even released.

So to better lay it out for the next couple updates to the game based on our poll results!

v0.21 = Nova, Heather and Lola episode 6 content (routes)
v0.22 = Miki, Rachel and Bridget episode 6 content (routes)
v0.23 = Erika, Juliet and Zoey episode 6 content (routes)

Then it'll repeat with Nova, Heather and Lola episode 7 content as v0.24, etc.

We wanted to tackle content like this for the routes because it feels better overall for our development and how we release content. If we for example only focused on Nova content we could finish her story up within 3-4 months tops probably, but that would include spoiling the main story unfolding with it and how the game ends very early on.

Not to mention with other plans set in place for the route content across the board, we have some content that needs to be done more closely together with each girl for a better experience.

Mainly with how we're splitting the focus on the route content listed above, it should ensure everyone has something to look forward to with each update still. Even if you really love Nova content, maybe v0.22 will grab your attention because you like one of the girls being featured in that update, or v0.23 has another favorite of yours too.

~Development Team!~

~CG art~

MarxeDP and AjoseMp are getting closer to wrapping up our first cg scene planned for v0.21 and the 2nd cg scene planned has been paid for, in the works as well! I don't want to mention anything here in case of spoilers, but we'll be sharing a early preview look at the first cg scene for v0.21 later this week!

I should mention it here, if you saw our recent sprite preview post a few days back. We're starting to spoiler our art related posts, so to explain.. The main image seen will be a template image that just says "Messy Academy" Followed by "Possible Spoilers" or "Major Spoilers" with the game version it's related to below that as "V0.21" in this example.

Now if it's a spoiler that's beyond just a single game version/update, we'll add "V0.21 Beyond" instead.

We want to be more cautious with the content for those who want a fully blind experience when playing, but we do understand a perk for supporting is to see art previews and so this feels like a good way to handle it. If you click on one of these posts in question, after reading through the post, at the very bottom the actual images for cg art, sprites, etc. Will be displayed, hidden only for when you decide to click on these spoiler preview posts.

We kindly ask not to mention anything in discord spoilers wise unless it's in it's respected chat channels. For example when v0.20 content is released, talking about episode 5 content in the "v0.20 discussions channel" will be completely okay! If you want to be even better, when typing out spoiler related stuff, if you highlight the text that's spoiler related and right click, hitting the eye looking icon will put a black bar over that text when it's posted to be more mindful, but it won't be a requirement within that respected channel.

We'll remind everyone before v0.20 releases on being mindful of other's experiences and how to go about discussing new content. We'll be making a special channel for unreleased content discussion, which will cover anything that's for the future of MA and naturally this can include spoilers from v0.21 content, v0.22 or further, but it'll be a spot to talk about stuff coming to the game soon and not so much major ending spoilers for the game as we're not ready to share those details.. ^^"

Anyways! CG art is in process and going hard on it! Those who don't mind some spoiling will be very surprised with what is coming to the game in v0.21, but that's all I can share here in a general sense!

~Sprite art~

If you've seen our sprite preview posted in the past few days, you'll see that Lisa did a very sudden little favor for me as there's some last minute stuff I needed to get done for v0.21. They're small additions to sprite related stuff, but besides that..

Lisa will be working on the next main oc from our kickstarter campaign and if they're looking for something else to do alongside that.. Well.. There's a pretty interesting surprise in store for the near future for additions. :P

~Music~

ComposerJF hasn't provided anything new yet for me to check over, but Miki's Theme is what we have in the works right now to expect sometime maybe in March to hear how it's going to sound. ^^

Some plans for which character theme to tackle next are in the works naturally, but I can't confirm anything for who is up next after Miki. I'm trying to be very careful with what their themes are roughly going to sound like, as there's going to be moments within the game that'll really be impactful based on them and I can only say there's going to be some alt versions of these themes being used as well!

~Gui~

Ds-san has shared with me the first look at how the textbox ui will look like! ^^ I'll be sharing previews of this later this week, which will also give a little preview look at our plans to make the sprite visual quality of the game feel more HD and clean. I'm very excited to share these details with all of you and hope that many of you will be just as excited as I am!

One thing I will say and confirm! Mobile users, we've heard your struggles during cg scene moments and so we have a button element on the textbox that'll let you hide the textbox and then tap on it again to show it! (This applies to pc users too as part of the gui) It'll be a nice addition in case those a bit unfamiliar with vn's or Ren'py's shortcut keys are playing.

We'll go into more detail on this during our preview for the gui elements soon!

~Ending Notes~

I think that covers our updates for now! This week and weekend will be extremely busy, but I hope to have some good news by next week for everyone regarding v0.20!

Once again with v0.20's release, we'll be sending the download to anyone who has supported us during 2021 once at $5+ tier, even if you are no longer actively a supporter. This is part of our wish to begin undoing our awkward development and giving back, but it's only the beginning in our fulfilment plans on this!

Just be sure to keep your eyes peeled on your personal inboxes on Patreon as we'll send the download links through there for v0.20 to those who qualify with the requirements above. (Also includes anyone who supported during January 2021)

Besides that.. I do hope with our focus on trying to post only 2 new Patreon posts per week doesn't feel too quiet from us. We're trying to ensure that while we post less than we did in 2021 or prior, that the quality of the posts are higher and more thoughtful. Later this week will be very preview heavy posts though, so be on the look out for those! (Spoiler ones will be marked as such and protected with our template image of course!  ^^ )

Until next week!

~ From all of us at Messy Studios! ~