Devlog Public Update (Patreon)

So lately I've dropped a few things on the Patreon site including the new selfie series and the updated v0.8.2 (currently in the $5 tier) with several enhanced features from the previous version. If you want to know more about that, review the previous posts. I won't spend much time on it here.

What I did want to get to was to start pushing out some information on the anticipated v.9 release that sorta got put off over the past month because of the restructuring. Let me first say I was completely floored that I didn't lose a ton of Patreons this month despite me being blatantly honest that I probably was not going to get new content out. So thank you for your support and, quite honestly, for your trust in allowing me to do some stuff behind the scenes and get my head together.  This truly must be the only troll-free community on the internet. I tried to supplement that lack of content with the self series that is a lot of fun to make. So here's one of my normal check-in posts about moving forward after the restructure.

v0.9

I've begun writing for the next update and patching some things together. Minimal CGs done for the next update but a lot of those were waiting on the writing to get started first. I find that when I do CGs first, then I have to manipulate the writing to fix the story--completely counterproductive to what I really wanted. So not a lot to actually give you for now other than, the process has officially begun to move things forward after the poker event and v0.9 will officially start Chapter 5. 

The plan is to bring back some of the teased events or things the characters have alluded to and bring them to the forefront of the story. Chapter 4 ended with a significant event in their relationship comfort level but I want to reduce the repetitive "study, TV, etc." events we've seen through the first few chapters. There will be some of those but I plan on a few new options to energize things.

One change for Chapter 5 that I'm considering is continuing with the random events that we see daily (study, bathroom, etc.) but having them disappear after there's no new content. This would allow you to still explore a bit at your own pace (which I always liked) but still focus things so that you're not repeatedly exploring over and over getting stuck reading a lot of the same text. For those of you that were around for the poker game development, I'm not sure what I'm getting myself into but that's my current vision.

The restructuring threw off my old update schedule so I don't currently have an ETA on the new version. Because of the nature of the story moving forward and some of the (in my opinion) complexities of the writing needs, I will probably not shoot for a specific release date each month. I don't want to rush myself or I fear things will suffer. However, my past work etiquette will continue to be my primary approach. I want updates as quick as possible, but I want them to be as good as I'm able at the time as well. Finding that balance is important to me, just as it has been in the past. Hopefully, things will only get better. 

What I would really like is a way to actually do a status bar on the Overview page to give everyone a quick glance at where things are but I haven't really figured out how to do that yet.

Patreon Tiers

Ok, so starting in the upcoming month, the selfie series will be offered to the $10 folks and will not be a public post any longer. While I have thought about posting teasers for it on public posts, I haven't officially made that decision yet because it's just an extra step. The selfies aren't the main reason most of you are here so I don't want to waste too much time on supplemental material and lose my primary focus. I may tease them from time to time but don't intend to for right now.

I have also added a $20 tier for crazy people. Over the months, I occasionally get a message from people just wanting to donate one-time without a reward. Others have expressed interest in regularly donating more but Patreon doesn't really make that easy. I've put this off for a long time because I didn't want to give the impression that I was suddenly going to try and milk people as the game became more popular. That's still not the case but I have officially added a $20 tier with absolutely no benefits at all. The purpose of this tier is just to make it easier for people to one-click something to donate more to the project monthly if that's what they want to do. If you're not interested, that's cool. Now whether I add something to that later on, is to be determined but right now it's basically intended as a donation box for all you crazy people that want to financially support more. Don't feel obligated and I'm not trying to advertise it. I have always hidden the total pledges each month because I didn't want that to distract from the game content. However, my poor computer should probably be on hospice right now so I've started looking at other computer options so every bit helps. If you want to help more, it's appreciated but please don't feel obligated. A "like" or comments to the posts means just as much to me as money and I consider all of them to be "support."

Website

During the restructuring, I've also tried to make a few enhancements to the Patreon site. Strangely enough, there were absolutely zero images of the game to even help people decide whether they wanted to download it in the first place. I've added a few images and started to try and use the tag feature to help organize posts better. I doubt I'll have time to go back through all the beginning ones but hopefully, things will look a little cleaner as I slowly begin to organize and clean house a bit. So if it's been awhile since you visited the Overview tab, pop on over there and let me know what you think. I'm also open to suggestions on better images to use to promote the areas listed. Any other suggestions for that page to better and succinctly describe the game promotion are also appreciated. I'm horrible at marketing :p  

Note: please don't recommend nudity in those images because, IMO, it's inappropriate for the main site and it's probably against Patreon's conditions somewhere anyway.

That's all for now, as always: check-in and let me know your thoughts. I appreciate comments and an active community. I attempt to read and usually reply to every comment if I can

-Aaryn-