Monthly Update - May 2024 (Patreon)

Hey, everyone!

Time for a new format for update status! Using the system I mentioned in the previous post to help keep everything organized, I plan to begin writing posts at the beginning of every month outlining several details. 

First, a list and brief summary of everything completed in the previous month. This will include a “total progress” estimate to help give an idea of how much is complete in total.

Second, a list of what is left to finish with a list of goals left to accomplish along with my plans over the next month. 

Why monthly posts instead of previous attempts to make them weekly? Ideally so I can actually stick to them instead of inevitably burning out when I’d realize spending hours every week on update posts was taking away from development time. I liked the idea of weekly updates a lot, I just sucked at maintaining them.

Still, I’d like to be making weekly posts with more variety. Polls, random renders, and random topics are easy enough, and I have them all planned out for the next three months. So, with the help of scheduling them all out at the beginning of the month, I can ideally keep you all updated on things and offer consistent content by only carving out a day (or less) each month, leaving me plenty of time to keep working on the games and other projects.

A big part of consistency is organization, and after taking some time to organize all my Patreon posts, especially after figuring out what was already covered so I’m not repeating myself, it should make it all a lot more streamlined. There typically reaches a point in production where I get caught up finishing up a game release and go dark, but I want to avoid that by showing my work every month.

So we’ll start with a list of accomplishments for the last few months.

Since the 1.4.3 update I've spent a decent amount of time polishing up Episode 14 more. I added the in-game walkthrough, which was also useful for helping me find errors and missing pieces of code for the update in general, including the first half of the episode. This also included fixing all the issues people found and reported from playing since then. 

After talking about it for a while I'm finally finishing the path back in episode 10 where the MC confronts Laura without being hypnotized and steals the watch all while still getting the Grace and Daphne bath scene.

Here’s a list of updates we’ll see for the completed version of Episode 14:

Updated in-game walkthrough for Episode 14 and the Broken Watch Branch

Updated credits page

Made it possible to get on the Beth and Grace paths if you weren’t before, with those scenes and visuals now complete (before it had a “to be completed later” message). Also made things make more sense if you aren’t on their paths

Fixed multiple issues with consistency in dialogue and paths, such as defaulting to have Leah and Cory join you when you hadn’t asked them to

New path for confronting Laura in Episode 10 where she never hypnotizes the MC but he is still able to recover the watch

Fixed multiple issues players found in different playthroughs

After over a month, you may be asking why that update still isn’t finished? I figured most of the issues weren’t game breaking, and the episode pretty much holds its own for now. Most of what I’m still have left is the new content, which I figure is the only real reason there would be to play the polished version. Overall, I haven’t given it top priority and have been spending the majority of my time working on Episode 15. 

As for Episode 15, I've completed most of the research, planning and writing stages. With all the research replays I did for Episode 14 I kept lots of notes to keep everything consistent and moving forward. So the research for this episode has taken a much smaller role, letting me move right to the writing stage. 

For the main story I’d say it’s around 80% written. In addition there will be the variations on paths and all the basic edits, but a lot of those come during and after the stage of adding visuals. I tend to write a first draft that’s simple and straightforward with it being enriched by the visuals as the characters react to each other and their environment.

This episode is different for the fact roughly half of what I have planned is already complete. Some of the scenes are planned around framing the existing content, and some of it is for new content altogether, but all of it feels like it's coming together nicely.

I have several goals for the update. The first is to check in with all the girls who weren't in episode 14. Sure, we were able to get at least a few texts from each girl, but nothing beats seeing them in person. This doesn't mean a dedicated date with everyone, as this update only occurs over 2 days, but at least seeing them in person for a moment. 

There are a lot of characters now, so it’s always a juggling act trying to check in on them all without making every update too large to accommodate everyone. But my goal is to keep the update small enough where it doesn’t take longer than it needs to be completed.

I believe I’ve mentioned it before, but here’s a quick summary of the episode. 

Spoiler warning for events of Episode 15:

First day - wake up at Grace’s, get shot by her dad. Spend the day at the hospital where the MC gets sponge baths from attractive nurses.

Second day - meet up with Cory, Brittany and her friend for a double date. 

In summary, how complete is Episode 15? 

This time around will be a little different, as the update started with a decent amount of it already finished as the Halloween update. Therefore, it’s technically over 50% complete. However, I think it makes more sense to judge it based on the new content, and of that I’d say we’re about 40% complete in total. 

I would absolutely love to have this update up and ready by the end of this month, especially since I have a lot of fun things planned for Endowed and can’t wait to get back to working on it. However, if I were to hazard a guess, I would say sometime in June. 

What will I be working towards this month?

It’s one of my favorite themed months of the year, that being Mayternity! That means previews of the girls pregnant. Does anyone have any suggestions for renders? So far the idea of progression shots was suggested by Proof over on the Discord channel, and I thought that was a solid one. A lot of the other suggestions were for particular girls. Any more ideas to consider?

I’ll give you all a few days to come up with some suggestions, then I’ll put my favorites up to a vote!

I also want to put out a preview of Episode 16 with the Daphne content in comic form.

Otherwise, most of my attention will be towards the next update for Hypnosis.

Thanks, everyone!