May News Post #2 (Patreon)

It's time for another news post! I know things are a bit awkward right now and we'll jump right into the main highlight news to start this post off.

As many of you are aware, v0.20 was originally planned to release by May 15th, but I haven't heard back from our programmer with any updates in general before that point in time. This isn't something completely new, but I had figured they'd at least get back to me during this week so that we could provide even some content of episode 5 to be featured in v0.20.

Right now, I have yet to hear back and its going on a little over a week now. This isn't something I had thought would happen and it leaves me in a awkward spot for how to proceed.. <.<

I'm still holding out a little hope that I'll hear back from the programmer in the coming days, but naturally if I don't hear back soon enough. I will be reaching out to another programmer I know even as a short term replacement on the team for this release, but I hope it doesn't have to come to that if possible.

The main thing I want to achieve is at the very least, make sure even a few scenes of episode 5, v0.20 are released before the end of May. As that would be better than not providing anything to show and then quickly getting the rest out by mid June or earlier.  

I'd just like to say I'm sorry for this unexpected and awkward situation taking place behind the scenes, but I'm looking to make the most of what time is remaining in May to ensure we get some content out and in the hands of many supporters/fans regardless of the awkward situation.

With that out of the way, there's much to do behind the scenes of course.. ^^" But for now let's not focus too greatly on feeling down if possible. I have much planned for June beyond this little speed bump, the scripts for the first route episodes are nearly finished and will be ready for engine transfer right after v0.20 releases, which means our first look at routes will be easily be ready in June.

Let's check out some other stuff going on this month though to keep some hype up!

~Development Team!~

[~CG art~]

MarxeDP and AjoseMp are still working hard on v0.22 content. I can't quite say much about this without directly spoiling a ton.. <.< But we know that v0.22 content will feature Miki, Rachel and Bridget route content. I'll go ahead and go one step further, confirming that it's actually a cg scene for Bridget.

For those who don't mind spoilers and saw our cg scene related to Heather for v0.21 route content. I'd say Bridget's cg art is shaping up to be the most complex out of the three girls (Miki, Rachel and Bridget). Quite a bit of animation and pose changes going on for it.

If all goes well, we'll see continued cg art in June that focuses on Miki and Rachel's route content. Of course spoiler images will be posted with caution during June when the time comes for that.

[~Sprite art~]

Lisa has been pretty busy this month, for those who decided to take a look at the final Brandon additions preview. You'll know exactly what we're talking about and she's very happy with the responses so far, but also is aware some supporters/fans haven't seen the previews yet to avoid spoiling themselves too much.

She's also nearly done with all of Miki's additions that'll have a preview post all in one sometime in the next week or so. We're just waiting to see the last outfit addition being worked on for that and then her additions will be wrapped up. ^^

Depending on how things proceed, we'll possibly see some additions for Bridget into June, but ideally I'd like to shift the focus back to kickstarter oc's that remain for the summer. I wanted to give her some time for the past 2-3 months with the Ukraine situation, which I won't go into too much detail, but she needed some time to herself. (Of course there's still stuff on-going, but it seems like shes doing okay and ready to shift focus on sprite stuff possibly.)

[~Music~]

ComposerJF is working on the main theme for MA and this past week, I was sent a 5 sketch sample for the melodies that could work into the final track. Its still early to say too much, but I'm really excited for this track!

It'll be around 4 minutes in length and ideally it'll be used for the title screen, main story moments and other fitting areas of the game.

With music focuses, we'll probably shift our focus after this towards 2 more character themes and then tackle a more general track before repeating that sort of focus forward. I think we have around 2-3 general tracks remaining that I'd like to get sorted out, one being sexual romance focused.

[~Gui~]

Ds-sans has kept me updated that we'll be seeing some more gui previews soon. I'm not sure what to expect yet in terms of screens and elements coming, but I'm excited to see how things will pair up alongside the text box gui elements we're working into v0.20 currently.

~Ending Notes~

Not a whole ton of new stuff to mention besides the main highlight of the situation with v0.20, which I know is very "meh" to many of you as it is for myself, given our past history with mentions towards it.. ^^"

Right now with the situation, I'll keep everyone informed with little update posts along the way. I still have hopes that we can get something out there for everyone before the end of this month one way or another.

I know this is awkward and I'm thankful for everyone being very patient, not only during this, but with previous months. Even if we end up splitting v0.20 into two part releases to help development, I'd like everyone to know that our promise still stands.

(Anyone who supported us at $5+ tier at least once during 2021 or in early months of 2022 will receive both parts of v0.20 for free. We'll send a personal copy directly to you through Patreon/Kickstarter.)

There's a lot to consider and how to proceed as this weekend unfolds before me, but I hope to have a brief update on the situation unfolding by the 24-25th to let everyone know where we stand and whats going on by then.

~ From all of us at Messy Studios! ~