July Development Report! (Patreon)

This one is a tiny bit delayed due to the awkward timing with the busy weekend, but I wanted to get this out before it gets any later! Buckle in, there's going to be some decent sized news to share in this one, so I'll dive right in!

I want to begin with what's taking us a bit, as I was fully expecting to set a confirmed release date by the end of June. <.<

Recently we've shared the big announcement that sprite/cg art is being updated for it's style. We continue to share how this is coming along, but one thing that is a bit awkward that wasn't quite planned ahead of time, is with new content (Episode 5). We have to use sprite art files that are technically going to be outdated and replaced...

It's probably a bit awkward to explain with text, but the sprite art that exists currently in the game will be replaced with the new sprite art files. (Example: Miki's current sprite files spread throughout ep1-4 and her side content are being replaced with her updated new style sprite files.) This has to be done with at least what characters are seen during episode 5 for the time being.

Technically, I'd have to look through the game and make sure that by adding Miki's new sprite style expression files, that it doesn't break things with her past scenes before ep 5. I don't have to do this exactly right away or delay ep 5 because of this, even if previous episodes are a work in progress and noted.

I'd just have to ensure that all the content within ep 5 using the new sprite files and art in general is perfectly fine, which is the goal right now in replacing the current files with the new, testing to make sure said files that replaced the old ones are working as intended without a ton of extra headache work for us. ^^"

Overall, what we'll end up doing is that with v0.20 (ep 5)'s release. We'll make it clear to everyone that for v0.20, it's ideal that you have a save file right at the end of ep 4 and purely play v0.20 as someone who is fully caught up with the current content leading up to ep 5 starting. (For those who are looking to play ep 1-4 or Miki's Dream, it'll be suggested to play v0.19.5 instead and have a save file to transfer for v0.20 as mentioned above.)

This is because we'll need time to later fix up ep 1-4 and the side content visually and some other touching up in general.

What's this mean exactly, I'm not following...

Upon v0.20 (ep 5) release, follow this suggestion below.

New player or not finished with v0.19.5's content? = Play v0.19.5 til the end of ep 4, save before it takes you back to the title screen.

Existing player or you have a save file at the end of ep 4? = Play v0.20 as normal.

Why not fix up the other content?

I think it goes without saying, people would much rather prefer we get ep 5 out sooner than later. ^^"

It'll be a tiny bit awkward for a bit until we update ep 1-4 with the new assets, fix visual bugs or issues that pop up due to the new art style files on sprites/cg art, but we'll highly suggest to new players to use v0.19.5 without any issues. (Thankfully their save data will work across any future versions of the game.)

Ending mentions..

To end my rambling.. >.< We're going to be sharing a bunch for stuff this month and ideally we'll have our release date confirmed for v0.20 (ep 5). We just want to make sure we have the bases covered and not rush it out with even more issues for us to tackle later. Once again, thank you with the continued patience!

[~Expectations for June!~]

In the coming weeks, we'll be sharing a wide variety of behind the scenes on ep 5's content, art previews showcasing more of the new style and improvements based on some feedback already received since our big announcement post. (Thank you to those who offered their thoughts!)

I suspect to have a date confirmed for the new content this month and with everything being shared, it should back this feeling that we're getting things back on track after a long time of gathering ourselves to push forward again! 

[~Messy Studios Team~]

[~Story~]

I'll keep the story mentions short this month, but there's a lot planned out in multiple phases! :P

Roughly...

Phase 1 - Episode 5 mystery storyline & pre-route stories. (This is mainly what's going to be in episode 5's content.)

Phase 2 - Route content & Episode 1 reworked. (Moving quickly after the release of ep 5's content. We will offer 2-3 route episodes, along with episode 1 being reworked. This reworking is lightly updating some dialogue/text for the story, slight changes with scenes, addition of new cg variants/versions and overall polished. These reworks aren't redoing the whole episode anew, not to confuse anyone.)

Phase 3 - Route content & Episode 2 reworked. (Same setup as above, wishing to keep our main priority on moving forward with new content and also fix up the old episodes for newer players.)

These are all I'll share for now, but roughly that's the plan for how content will be handled for the rest of this year when releasing new content. 

[~CG art~]

With cg art, we have a ton of stuff being tackled right now! One of the first things we'll be sharing this month is a first look at how some feedback received from our supporters has helped shape the cg art a bit better.

One thing that stuck out to me among the feedback was that the new cg style seemed to lose it's context at times. What I mean is that certain expressions for cg art were adjusted and as a result, it felt like they lost the original meaning to the context of said cg art. (Example: The werewolf on the roof cg in ep 1. The original tone was set to feel creepy, a bit unnerving. The new style for it ended up removing this tone and lost itself..)

What we've done for this, is that we've adjusted expressions a bit better for the context of the given scenes. With the example above, we're lightly adjusting the tone of the scene and context lightly, making it so that Brandon's eyes are still adjusting from being half asleep. (When we share this cg preview, it'll make sense.)

We have also considered updating how the character's eyes look within the cg art in the new style. It felt like the difference between sprite art vs cg art was still a bit too different in their faces, so we updated the eyes to better reflect how the sprite character's eyes look. We believe this has been a great improvement so far and hope it helps bridge the gap with the new style feeling solid!

Our goal with July beyond sharing these feedback updates of recent cg art updated in the new style is going to be tackling some more cg art in the new style as a whole, along some other surprises! We'll have a ton to share with cg art during July into August!

We hope to hear more feedback on these and see what we can do, but we're feeling pretty good about these updates coming!

{If you missed June's cg art previews, you can check those out below! $5-10 support tiers needed to view!}
https://www.patreon.com/posts/cg-finished-84531836 (Miki's Dream)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/cg-concept-nova-84680240 (Ep 2 Nova concept)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/cg-finished-nova-85175658 (Ep 2 Nova)

[~Sprite art~]

Lisa managed to get a few things done during June, one of the big goals was to finish up Marron (oc) sprite, which is just about done! She just needs her expressions and we'll see a preview of her during July. ^^

Besides that, we'll also be sharing some new additions for Allie's sprite, along with Rosa's sprite in the new style and some additions for her too!

The goal for July is a big one and it wasn't a easy decision to make, but after really thinking about it. We'll be creating a new teacher character named Tara, who will replace John's role as a teacher at the academy. (John will still be within the game, but he will only be seen within Lola's route without any other spoiler mentions.)

We feel this is the best outcome as a whole for moving John to feel less focused on for the most part, but still around for those who like his character. It'll make sense for why he's part of Lola's route and we hope this change is a welcomed one.

I won't speak too much about Tara yet, but just know that she will be seen as the main teacher role for the guys at the academy, being supportive and helpful along the way. This does mean that scenes that exist in the game featuring John will be reworked with Tara and yes, she has her own unique personality that's differing than John's, so expect some new dialogue during these scenes. :P

{If you missed June's sprite art previews, you can check those out below! $5 support tiers needed to view!}
https://www.patreon.com/posts/ma-art-style-84220764 (Zoey new style)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/ma-art-style-85285233 (Bridget new style)

[~BG art~]

This is our last official mention with bg art! Olivson managed to finish up the final bg art during June!

The final bg location is the store campus, which hosts a wide range of items that students would generally need while living on campus. Student's use their weekly allowance of credits to purchase food, drinks, snacks, clothing, hygiene, entertainment and general needs. Anything the store doesn't carry can be purchased online during the store's touch screen computer and picked up at a later date.

{If you missed June's bg art previews, you can check those out below! $5 support tiers needed to view!}
https://www.patreon.com/posts/background-store-85368621 (store campus)

[~Music~]

With music, we ended last month with Lola's Theme being finished! ^^ Pretty surprised how that turned out and I expect it to fit very well when we hear it in-game! :P

Our next track in the works is Zoey's Theme! Then we'll have one final track to tackle before we're finished on music needs for the project! :O

{If you missed June's music previews, you can check those out below! Free to view!}
https://www.patreon.com/posts/music-preview-of-85380660

[~GUI~]

Sadly we don't have anything to share from June for gui assets. <.< But I expect we'll probably have something later this month to share!

The big thing done recently during May was the route select screen, so that alone was a big relief to finish!

[~Ending~]

I feel like I've gone on for long enough... ^^" We have a lot planned out to share this month, ideally the big kicker will be our release date being announced though!

If this is your first time joining along and you enjoy the project, please do consider supporting us on Patreon if you aren't already! Plenty of exclusive posts are made, at least 2 new posts per week!

Keep yourself informed and updated on development by following Patreon notifications or bookmarking our brand new >Guide Post< for 2023. You can also continue to keep updated through our Itch.io page or Twitter as well!

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~ From all of us at Messy Studios! ~