Update (July #2) (Patreon)

Hello everybody! We're already halfway through the month: I hope your July is going well!

Brief update for this week: obviously the public demo has been updated to Chapter 2, so my last week has been about hunting down some bugs and continuity fixes. I've also been able to work a bit on Chapter 5--a lot of set-up has to be done since MC has been gone for so long!--and some fun stuff to happen for the three new recruits (Red, Ayla, Halek), including CAMPING!

I've also devoted some time to some fairly complex coding: I've set up the skeleton of a save system, the one that will be used in the final version of the game (since the current plug-in that we use on Dashingdon is not used in complete games) and it's working! But we can't "use" it until the game is complete, as obviously the game's variables (what will be saved) aren't complete yet. There will be four save points in the game, and you will be able to reload your game and travel backwards in time to each of them as well, resetting your progress to those points!

I've also come up with a stupid-complicated way of the game to determine who your highest friendship is and who you have the most romance points with. (Obviously, players can just look at their stats to see who their highest friendship is, but prior to now, the game didn't have a way of figuring that out.) Generally, this will be used to determine certain scenarios (who will approach you at a party, etc.) but it's also super helpful for me in terms of testing. I'll probably include it as a temporary function in the alpha build for you guys to use (if you want) as long as you promise not to get mad at me if the person you have the most romance points with is someone you didn't expect! (For example, if you're planning on romancing Red, but you have more romance points with Trouble (2 points) because Red just joined in the last chapter (1 point).)

And of course, I'm still working on those pesky recruits to have them ready for you to meet by the end of the month!

I'm also working very hard to finish edits on my novel manuscript (WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN HERE) by the end of this month as well. I'm hoping to meet all of my (self-imposed) deadlines here on Patreon (updating the alpha build, finishing the short story) as well as for that project in these last two weeks, as there's some pressure on me to finish in a timely manner (my official deadline to submit is next month, and certain parties would like to see different versions of the ending before then). I will probably be very burned out at the end of the month, but it will all be worth it if we can stay on track to release the book in summer of 2021! I hope to share more news of it here when I can as well!

Thank you for all of your patience, enthusiasm, and support; it's truly your kindness that keeps me going when things get tough! I hope you have a lovely rest of your week, and don't forget to rest and take care of yourselves as well!