Development Update 49 (Patreon)

Hey guys,

I hope everyone enjoyed the recent special. The poll is now closed and the results have been finalised. As usual with these things, I was a little surprised with the way the group went. I had planned to do a short follow up to Mykock’s manor where Riley reveals the answers to the poll. However, I really need to press on with the main game, so I think we will hold off on that. Instead, I will have her reveal the school owner's decisions directly to the headmaster in the main game. Since it could be some time before we get to see that; I’ll quickly comment on the results now.

Question 1: Does Reilly deserve to be punished? - Winner B) I should have been consulted; someone needs to pay for this. (71% in favour)

I get the impression that a lot of people want to see the tall, sophisticated and elegant Reilly getting spanked over the knee like a naughty schoolgirl. I think the headmaster will need to help Mr Mykock out with this sensitive task. How Reilly will respond to being treated this way by her employers, we will have to wait and find out.

Question 2: Should the girls wear heels when on cafeteria duty? - Winner A) Yes. The girls must learn to look their best at work. (66% in favour)

I am not surprised that the heels won. Although, it was much closer than I expected. A lot of people want to see the girls safe and comfortable, and I do not want to let those people down. Therefore, I think the headmaster will have to make sure the girls have appropriate safety training.

Question 3: Preferred cafeteria outfit? - Winner E) Tiny apron with bare breasts. (42% in favour)

Unsurprisingly, the smallest outfit won by a considerable margin. If I were to plot a graph of skimpiness against votes I would have an almost perfect positive correlation. I think that we might need to go through a couple of brief stages before we get to the point where the girls are serving us lunch topless and with bare bottoms, but that will be what I am aiming for.

Question 4: Ban underwear ASAP (i.e. the end of Chapter 2)? - Winner B) No. Students should be allowed to wear underwear except during punishments. (58% in favour)

This question was the big one and has huge implications when it comes to writing and planning chapter 3. I really didn’t know which way the group would vote on this. However, it seems that the majority agrees with Reilly; that less isn’t always more. It was close though; 42% were in favour of an outright ban on underwear at the earliest opportunity. I promise to keep that in mind and I’ll make sure that the headmaster continues finding dubious reasons for the girls to remove them at every opportunity. At the end of Chapter 2 the headmaster will gain the authority to pull down the girls knickers anyway, so I think it will be easy enough for me to keep both factions happy.

Question 5: Preferred underwear (if not banned)? - C) Make the girls wear transparent underwear. (52% in favour)

Of the three options presented 52% preferred the transparent underwear option, so that is what we will be going with. To be honest this was not the outcome I expected, however, the more I think about it the happier I am with the result. I’ve already figured out the rationale for introducing transparent underwear. Without giving away too many spoilers, I will say that the transparency of the underwear will be affected by how aroused the girls are; providing important new information for the headmaster to discover during his uniform inspections, plus a potential new reason for the girls to feel embarrassed by their exposed knickers.

Several people complained about the appearance of the transparent underwear in the special. I admit I was a little pushed for time when making those images and I wasn't entirely happy either, particularly with the gloss effect. Therefore, the final version used in the game will differ from the image above, but the general concept will remain.

Question 6: Are skirts an indispensable part of the minimal uniform? - A) Yes. Skirts are an indispensable part of the uniform. (63% in favour)

A fairly convincing majority agree with Riley that skirts are indispensable. Therefore, the girls will be made to keep their skirts on, even when they are being punished with the minimal uniform. However, that doesn’t mean we won’t ever see the girls in just their ties and socks. It will just mean that girls who forget to wear their skirts will need to be spanked.

Question 7: Would you like to be consulted in this manner again? - A) Yes. I would like to be invited back for future important decisions. (97% in favour)

I am very glad that the vast majority of people enjoyed this poll-special combo. The last three polls I’ve conducted have been “in-character”; with Mr Mykock messaging the school owners directly. This special takes that concept to its logical conclusion. I am pleased to have such concrete evidence that my core audience enjoys being involved in this way. From now on I will aim to release a short update to Mykock's Manor roughly halfway between each major update for the main game, and we will use this as the primary way of conducting polls. I do seem to find ways of making everything more difficult for myself, but I am glad the effort is appreciated.

As a final comment; we learned a lot about the school owners' intentions through Mr Mykock’s monologue. However, through the poll we’ve also learned a lot about ourselves as a group. Crucially, we know that not all of us want the same thing for the girls. As the school’s patrons in the game are a reflection of my real life patrons then it makes sense for that to be true in the game’s world as well. A potential split into different factions within the school's owners may be inevitable.

When will we see the new outfits?

Just to clarify for everyone, the new outfits from this poll won’t appear in the game for some time. I have been writing ahead to the end of Chapter 2/start of chapter 3 recently, which is why I needed to ask these questions now. The upcoming release for the main game (version 0.15) was planned, written and story-boarded many months ago and is in the final rendering stage. This poll won’t have any impact on it. I hope to wrap up Chapter 2 and introduce the new outfits in version 0.16. I have a lot of loose ends to tie up before we can move on, meaning I have a ton of work to do before then. I have a lengthy novel’s worth of dialogue to write, which I then need to pose, render and animate.  It’s a huge undertaking, so do bear with me. At a best guess, I expect 0.16 will be released mid-way through next year sometime and that will be when the new outfits appear.

I wanted to get a head-start on all that work, so for the last couple of months I have been primarily focused on my medium term goal of writing ahead to the end of the chapter, rather than my short term goal of completing version 0.15 and the staff training storyline (as I discussed in my last development update). Even the poll and special were all part of the planning ahead process, as I had some important questions for Chapter 3 which needed clearing up. Also, I want the staff training storyline and the class punishment scenes to be one of the triggers for the chapter 2 ending. Therefore, I needed to have all of that figured out first before finalising those storylines. I have made significant progress with this. I have my plan for the end of chapter 2 (with the help of these poll results) and I know exactly how all the different quest lines fit neatly together. I still have tens of thousands of words left to write to get to that point, however, it’s all clear in my head and I know exactly what needs to happen. Therefore, I am now ready to put my writer's hat to one side and focus purely on finishing off version 0.15 as quickly as possible.

Progress on Version 0.15

Just a quick reminder of what I have been working on for version 0.15. The staff training storyline will be the backbone of the update. With Claire and Debbie being trained in your disciplinary methods using Amy as a training dummy. The staff training storyline also linked together with a new class punishment mechanic, where the headmaster punishes his entire class. On top of that we are going to see the long awaited punishment of Claire by the twins after the school play rehearsal. There will be plenty of other stuff too but I don’t want to give away too many spoilers. I will post a new batch of image previews in the next week or so. We’ve been working on some great animations. I think people are going to be impressed with the new soft body model I’ve been testing out.

As with my last few updates work has been continuing on improving the code. We are currently testing out a new feature as part of the game's “easy mode”, where the punishment mini-game can be completed automatically, provided that all the necessary prerequisites have been met (e.g. buying items or passing rules). As part of this code we plan to add a notification to all players when a girl gets sent to your office, telling you whether or not it’s possible to level her up. If it isn’t possible then you can get a small hint on what to do next. I feel these changes would help to eliminate a lot of perceived “grind” where some players keep trying to level up the girls without seeing all the prerequisite story scenes first.

I set myself a provisional goal of getting version 0.15 out by October/November. Unfortunately, Herdone and I had a housing problem to deal with over the summer that cost us a couple of weeks of work time. Plus I spent a couple of weeks working on the Mykock's Manor special. So, we’re a little behind where I expected to be by the start of October. At this point, I’d give the estimated release date as being closer to the end of November, although it’s still too soon to be any more accurate than that. I will update you all again on our progress in a few weeks.

Altos