Sprites revealed so far... (and some alpha demo talk) (Patreon)
Content
I figured I'd put these all in one post for your viewing pleasure! I really, really love the character designs Ecchi has come up with! They all look great in the game too, with a huge variety of different expressions.
Hex has so much art that the current build of the game is already about 20% larger in terms of file size than Succubus Stories! I think the game will end up being a few gigs by the time it's complete.
About the alpha
As far as a release date for the alpha demo, it will arrive sometime before the end of June. Most of the content I want in this first alpha release is in at this point, some of it in an early/rough draft state (and may launch that way), and there are still some placeholders I will need to either hide or replace in the next week or so. However, almost all the major game systems seem to work great, and I think the alpha is a good representation of what I want the game to be like. Some stuff will be missing, of course. For example, I want to fill the world with little options and interactions and scenes like what you have in Succubus Stories, but for this alpha, I've just had to prioritize major gameplay systems over these smaller things I already know I can add fairly easily.
The issue with this, to the extent it's an issue, is that the alpha feels much more linear and less interactive in many ways than I expect the game to ultimately be, so I hope it doesn't give you the wrong impression. Just imagine it as becoming more like SS in the future in terms of interactions with NPCs and stuff.
I plan to release additional content for the alpha over the next few weeks/months. Note that save data may not carry over into future, non-alpha versions of the game, I need to leave that option open to myself just because of how early we are in production at this point. I'll try my best to make saves carry over, but it may not be possible/worth it.
The alpha will eventually be made available to the public, I don't really have a firm idea of when this will happen, though. I don't want it to be too far removed from the patron edition of the alpha, but I want to give myself time to add more stuff and fix any major bugs or other issues. I also want to get a version update of SS out this summer (I've been working on v0.15, too)--probably in August sometime.
I am soooo excited to finally get this in your hands, you have no idea! I don't want to talk up the alpha too much--I want to lean toward under-promising and over-delivering, if anything--I will say that I think Ecchi and I may have created something special here. But of course, you will be the judge of that!!!
I will announce a release date for patrons soon! The game will be distributed via Itch.io like SS. It will be for Windows and the web, with an offline browser version, just like SS. So if you can play and access the patron edition of SS, you'll be all set!