What's next? Thoughts on v0.4, hired help, polls and change in goals. (Patreon)

Hi! I am making this post public to let everyone know what has been happening with the development of the game. If you have followed what I said in discord or seen my other posts, you might know that I’m using a new method to create art, using AI to assist me.

I post this here in case you haven't seen what I post on discord.

This is a joke of course, I'm using AI to skip some steps in my current process of creating the art. Some pieces take longer to make than with the old method (but look better overall), at first I thought using the AI wouldn't work, but now that I've done more of them, some pieces are faster to make so the overall workload is reduced, this has helped me to be able to keep working on the game despite being so busy with exams (If I wasn't using this method, the project would be at a complete halt right now). So with this method and increased support, things are looking good for the next update.

What’s next? V0.4.5

I want to do something simpler and faster right now, I want to start working on the other girls too, that's why I'm going to proceed with v0.4.5, I'm already doing common CGs for that, but now I have to decide the girls that are going to be in the new update, that's why I'm opening the polls, but more on that later.

After v0.4.5, I will proceed with v0.5 which will feature Mia and Kana scenes, I will try to integrate the gallery into one of these two updates. There are also some optional things I'm trying to add, I'm remodeling the 3d environments to make them more manageable (since there are new locations I have to add), and if I have time I'd like to add characters to the environment to make the place look more lively.

Polls

The polls are now open for the next update, the first round is for the DROID tier, then the second round is for the ANDROID tier who will vote for the remaining girls.

The girls participating in this poll are: LAURA, LENA, EMILY, RURI and LUNA.

MIA and KANA will have scenes in v0.5, and REA is blocked for story reasons.

About v0.4

I've been reading your comments, I know the first two scenes are a bit dense, it probably would have been better to extend Mia's story over several updates, but I really didn't know what the reception of v0.4 was going to be, as Mia is involved in some way with the end of the game, if this update killed the project it would leave me in a bad position to finish the story. If I were to get banned or lose support suddenly, I would still like to give the game an ending and not cancel it outright, so rushing that part of Mia's story was necessary to anticipate in case it all went wrong. The reception seems to have been good... but in the worst case scenario, I think I could now give the game an ending in 2/3 updates.

Hired help

I finally got myself a proofreader. Danee has been supporting me almost from the beginning, has been my Discord mod since forever and is now helping me proofread v0.4, and hopefully past and future updates as well.
If things go well, he has also agreed to help me with some minor programming stuff, like setting up sprites and maybe building scenes, also adding music and sounds. This would take a load off my back and help speed things up a bit

New goals

The goals have remained unchanged for years even though my situation changed a long time ago, I now earn more and have other obligations. The reasons why I never changed the goals are several... not wanting to look greedy, not thinking that the game is worth it, that I wasn't doing enough.... If I was thinking about pausing the payments all the time, obviously I wasn't going to change the goals to ask for more money.

But now I'm changing the goals to better reflect my current situation, and hopefully I'll be able to hire people to help me with the game. I think the biggest bottleneck for all 2d projects is the art, it always depends on a single artist (if they want to keep the style consistent). I wanted to solve this in the future by using blender models adapted to my style, but instead, with my new method for working, I could hire some artists to help me with some steps of the process. I think I can incorporate several artists into the team without changing the style, which would greatly increase the production and speed of the game (animations are another bottleneck, but one problem at a time).

A word of thanks

I never make a post thanking when I reach a new goal since I don't know if it is momentary or not, but I do appreciate all the support you have given me, both financial and emotional, I wouldn't have endured so long without it. Now I can dedicate more time to the game, and now that I have some help, I hope to be able to release updates faster. Now I can dedicate more time to the game, and now that I have some help, I hope to be able to release updates faster. 

Thank you for everything! Now I will get back to work! Bye!