February News post #3 (Patreon)

I wanted to toss out some updates on how things are going along behind the scenes, mainly for v0.20 and our newly hired programmer who's joined the team at the start of February! Please stick around and read through, as there's some important details!

Wasting no time, let's head into it!

~Update on February's Dev plans!~

My original plan in the previous news post was that we'd shoot for a mid February release when it comes to v0.20 content. Something that by now is pretty clear we've missed our mark, as we're testing out our new programmer and learning how to work together, communication and other little things we're figuring out.

To put it simply, behind the scenes development wise with v0.20 content. It's very stressful for myself, because I'm well aware that I need to release something for everyone, but it's not quite as cut and dry as many might think the process is right now... We just hired on our new programmer to really begin working at the start of this month. Not to get too personal, but there's a lot more going on than being shared and I'm trying to give the benefit of the doubt, giving people a fair and honest chance to prove themselves, etc.

I'm trying to do my best with the situation and make the right calls so that we can get things moving on track again with the project. I understand any frustration, more so when we have a good history from 2021 with delays already under our belt. But this is a situation where I can try my best to push things or get something out as quickly as possible, but that isn't going to improve the engine/coding situation with getting adjusted to working with a new programmer and trying to bring them up to speed mid project. Right now the programmer is being tested with their first real task on the project, trying to get their footing as to how things are handled for MA as a project.

Pretty much what I'm trying to express is that we're trying our best to get things on track with our awkward situation of bringing someone completely new to the project on board and expecting them to handle things perfectly within 2-3 weeks. Which is very hopeful thinking with what stuff they're being fed for information and engine related notes for what we're expecting from them, etc.

We'll make things right even with this awkwardness going on right now behind the scenes.. Just please bare with us a little and we're trying to be as open and honest, clear about all of this because we don't want to falsely trick supporters. We want to give these heads up, so you're aware and make a decision if you wish to cancel support for a month or two until we're back on track.


Now with that all said... I do have something scrapped together planned to offer something for content as we get the content for episode 5 (v0.20) in it's finished state. If you've seen our recent gui preview last week, you'll notice that the game looks a bit different.

We've been slowly working on bringing MA from 1280x720 resolution, up to 1920x1080 resolution! We've had the HD assets for sprites, cg and bg art since forever! But when we originally moved from Tyranobuilder engine to Ren'py back in late 2020, we decided to just copy the game over engine wise for resolution and not even think about the possibility that we could've brought everything up to 1920x1080 at the time or at some point.

The only thing we don't have as HD assets is the currently used gui assets, which were made for 1280x720. But with the finalized text box elements done, it's one step closer to having everything ready for MA in 1920x1080 HD quality.

So what I'm trying to come out and say... Is that while we're awkwardly waiting for v0.20 to be finished while working with the new programmer. We'd like to at the very least offer v0.19.5 at the end of February, by this weekend ideally.

What is v0.19.5?  

It isn't going to bring you new fresh content in episode form like normal releases are expected to have. It'll include Miki's Dream and episodes 1-4 similar to v0.19's state. The main difference is that it'll be your first look at getting to play MA in 1920x1080 resolution, with the HD assets. So sprites, cg art, bg art.. All of that will look more clear, clean and much better quality, not to mention some improvements to sprite positions and general sizing where the sprites aren't as small as they once were currently with v0.19 and before.

It should also feature being able to get a early look at the finalized gui, only for the text box elements. (Minus the portraits working yet.)

Think of this release as a personal first hands on preview that you as supporters can check out in the mean time as I awkwardly await for a play test version of v0.20 to enter my hands and get that out asap.

It might not be too exciting for some of you, but we hope it's at least something to tie you over for the mean time, anything vs nothing to offer for now.

What about v0.20?

Right now it's being put together by the programmer for that content and with the awkward nature of still learning how to work with them communication wise, general understanding of each other on expectations and what not.. I'm thinking early half of March v0.20 will be ready.

That is a over estimated prediction being made! Right now I'm just trying to think of the worse outcome as the goal, where it could be possible that they have a play test sent over to me by this weekend or right as we head into March, so we can get v0.20 out right away in the first week of March.

What about v0.21 release plans?

If the above announcements have you frustrated or feeling put off still, I'd like to make it very, very clear...

V0.21 will be coming out very shortly after v0.20 has released! We won't be waiting 45 days after v0.20 before new content, it's very possible with how things are looking from my angle on the writing scripts for v0.21 content... We'll have this content ready to release by the end of March or first week of April max.

Writing wise, without spoilers.. I've wrapped up Lola's ep 6 (route) content and have started on Nova's ep 6 (route) content being written up this week, into next week. With the plan for v0.21 to include Lola, Nova and Heather's ep 6 content. It's looking good behind the scenes development wise.

Not only on the writing, but sprite and cg art planned for v0.21 is going along nicely. CG art wise, they're wrapping up the cg planned for Lola's ep 6. They have Nova's ep 6 cg art started on the drawing phase and so, roughly the schedule looks on track with the assets being ready, writing being on track and engine work will begin soon after v0.20 has finished up.

~Ending Notes~

Probably not exactly the news everyone had hoped from us this month and I'm praying everyone can understand that there is a lot going on behind the scenes in development that we don't fully go into detail about not to get into the personals of it.

Think of it as being back in school, if you've completed your test and everything else is now outside of your hands. You still have to wait for the teacher to look over it, grade it before it's ready to be given back to you. Toss in the added bonus that you notice some of your answers are marked wrongly, so you need to bring it up to your teacher and have them look over it again in hopes of getting everything graded right before it's finished.

That's sort of where we stand in development right now to put it simply... ^^" Just remember, everyone on the team has their own lives, bills and other stuff going on outside of this project work too. So even if I, myself put aside 3-4 hours to write for the project on weekdays after my 8 hour day job. That might not be possible for the programmer for example, as I don't really know them enough yet. But I can guess they too, have a day job and so time is limited.

Pretty much, I'm just trying to kindly remind everyone that we're just like many of you out there at the end of the day. We're not "living" off of Patreon funding month to month, all that funding goes straight into the project to help pay for cg art, sprite art, engine work, etc. There's been many times through development where I've payed out of pocket for extras, because I love working on this project.

It's a dream hobby for me and some days are more rough than others, but even if I never reach a point where we're earning enough so that I could make a living off of it. That would be completely okay! For myself, this project has been a dream of mine to create something like this for years and while it would be nice to think that maybe someday it could lead me to making a living from creating games like MA. That's more of a second thought, as I surely wouldn't be doing this still after 2+ years if money was the goal fueling me forward.

I can't speak for everyone on the team fully, but for myself, this is what I feel with the project and creating something like this. I'd like to hope that many can not only take my word for that feeling, but actually really sense that in how I talk about the project, what I do for it and much more. (That isn't to exclude all the hard work and possible feelings from the rest of the team either! ^^" )


To wrap it up, I can only hope that while this is frustrating and not only for you supporters, but myself included. That with v0.19.5 being offered as something to tie everyone over for a week or two ideally before v0.20 should be in my hands. Along with v0.21 in the works and coming along, that we can make things right as we get on schedule and mash out the awkwardness with bringing a new programmer on board. We have huge goals this year, even if our start is bumpy...

We have a ton time ahead of us to really pump out release after release of very exciting route content that I think many, many of us have been waiting for since late 2020. (Myself included to write for it!! :P )

~ From all of us at Messy Studios! ~