May News Post #3 (Patreon)

We have one last news post to share with everyone today, kicking it off early to give enough heads up. As I suspected, v0.20 part 1 is going to be difficult releasing exactly on May 31st and it's most likely going to be held off until this upcoming weekend instead. There's two reasons for doing this that play into one another.

The main reason being that typically releasing a new game release during the weekdays can be a bit hectic, as some of you might be aware that I work a personal job during the week, leaving me with what time I have before restarting all over again the following day. (While on weekends there's more time to prep everything and in the case where a file was uploaded wrong to be replaced asap, it can be swapped out pretty quickly compared to waiting longer during the week.)

The other reason is very bad timing on my part, as I came down with bronchitis Saturday morning. (Caught it from my mom while trying to keep her company, which was playing with fire in its own right.) But she wasn't doing so well with it, having it develop into a infection and so I wanted to help her out in anyway I could late last week.

Thankfully she was given antibiotics to help overcome the infection and has been doing much better within the following days, where before she was having major trouble trying to sleep and breathe, in general worn out.

It just so happens that even with all the precautions I took to be careful around her, that I'd end up coming down with it.. >.< What I want to stress is that while I am about 2 full days into this bronchitis and feeling a bit out of it honestly. This isn't a excuse for any delaying, as the most it would affect is when I do the uploading and general prep work for uploading a new release. That might take me a extra hour or two in total, if anything.

Overall, the main point from all of this is that v0.20 part 1 is coming from the knowledge I have from the programmer. I just want to be completely open and honest that it is probably for the best to cancel your Patreon support before June 1st rolls over in case you're weary and need to see the physical proof first hand. (Not blaming anyone for doing that, I encourage it to be safe.)

Hang tight and let's go into the upcoming weekend with something to look forward to and hopefully I'll also be feeling a bit better as this week progresses along.

[Once again, v0.20 part 1 & part 2 will be given out to supporters who supported us at $5+ tier at least once during 2021 or during the early months of 2022. This promise is just one step of the overall picture in trying to make things right as we get moving. We'll be looking into other ways to give back in this sort of way that's more engaging.]

Q: What about the programmer situation? Is that all patched out or what else is there going on?

A: I'm trying to handle this professionally regardless of how the situation unfolded along the way. While it is no surprise by now that there's some troubles taking place in past weeks with them, I'm trying to be respectful and careful about the given situation. I think it goes without saying that with what we're seeing behind the scenes, is that this sadly won't be a long term spot for them.

I had my worries and tried to brush them off along the way, because I naturally try to give anyone the benefit of the doubt. But I had a growing feeling that this won't be a long term situation for them, even with the open agreements and being aware of what to expect from our team and vice versa in coding needs.

Without trying to say too much or put the situation in a terrible light, I'd like to have them work on v0.20 part 1 and part 2, polish things up and we'll split our ways without any hard feelings I hope. Then as far as bringing someone else in and getting them fully caught up on the project.. That'll probably take place during June behind the scenes and get them prepared to work on v0.21 as their real proving test in terms of deadlines set and what their skill level can handle vs our expectations.

Ideally, I'd like for this transition to go off without a hitch so that we can see a big difference this summer and keep content rolling along.
 
~Development Team!~

[~CG art~]

MarxeDP and AjoseMp are still working on v0.22 content related to Bridget, but I had updates from them a week or so ago, that Ajose wasn't feeling too well. Marxe did mention that he suspects they'll still get that cg scene finished by the end of May, but even if they don't, they're pretty ahead on cg art vs what is released.

The rough plan with funding in June is to cover the costs of v0.22 Miki and Rachel cg scenes. So hopefully we manage to take care of those and gather up those details with my writing notes for story direction.

[~Sprite art~]

Lisa really knocked May out of the park with these sprite addition updates! ^^ Not to spoil any of the outfits here, but she managed to finish up Brandon's last outfit. Miki's 4 additional outfits and I was surprised the other day with Bridget's 2 additional outfits to wrap up her needs too!

We haven't figured out what the plan for June/July is yet, but I have a feeling we'll see a return of focus on kickstarter oc's being worked on. If this is the case, I'll be reaching out to the first two in line for these, sometime early/mid June.

(If you wish to see Miki's additions, there might be minor spoilers. But these posts below will show those off. ^^ )
https://www.patreon.com/posts/sprite-preview-66814555
https://www.patreon.com/posts/sprite-preview-2-67050738

[~Music~]

ComposerJF is still in the middle of the main theme for MA, no further update as of right now beyond a 5 sketch sample for some melodies to work with. But I'm really excited to hear how the theme is coming along and I hope it'll impress many! ^^

[~Gui~]

Ds-sans should have some updates ready for me as we head into June, if these happen. I'll hopefully try to get some of them added in for v0.21 to see how everything is coming together. :P

~Ending Notes~

I think the main highlight I was to focus on in ending this news post is to do what feels right for yourself in terms of supporting us into June. Even if you decide to cancel your support before June 1st so you're not billed, you can always choose to support midway through June for example. (You should be able to see all June posts right away when doing this, even if they were posted before you supported us later in the month.)

I just want to be as open about our process as I possibly can and allow everyone to make decisions that's best for their lifestyle. Our intention isn't to trick or scam anyone, I do know that we need to personally work on providing a better estimated release date when we set those, so they don't become delayed or pushed back.

Just know that we're looking to improve this with the release of v0.20 part 1 and we'll keep people informed, but we're going to make sure there's no doubt about our estimated dates we set for release. (Even if we set the release date for something for example to be out in 30 days from now and everyone expects that, but then around 20 days in, we make a surprise announcement that we're actually further along than expected and so X release will be out sooner than expected.) That is much better than cutting ourselves short. ^^"

Anyways, I'm hoping to rest up and take naps through today, lightly checking in on things when I can't stay asleep. >.< But I hope that with all the fluid drinking and medicine taking going on the past 2 days, that I'll beat this bronchitis out as the week progresses along.

~ From all of us at Messy Studios! ~