About the direction of v0.10 (Patreon)

Hello! It's time for a small text post about the general course of v0.10 update. Since it's gonna be a HUGE one, I think it's better to tackle the common themes first, and talk about details later.

As I write the very first sentences of a new update, it's generally better to have a clear vision from the start, but most of the time I'm not sure where it's going to end. Best ideas always come to mind when you're caught by the process already, and it's especially true if our next version is supposed to have ~250000 words. Yeah. That many.

Which is why I want to resolve or continue some of the things we already started, but left unfinished due to time constraints. First of all, Kira. Naturally, her being back in Blake's life should have a very significant consequences. Especially since she's now getting a better idea who he is (yeah, she met Melinda off-screen. Take a guess how it went), and what she could possibly use him for. Blake is humble. He likes himself, he finds himself pretty, but he's not aware of how desirable he is for people with sinister intentions. And while Kira herself is mostly neutral in this regard, some of the people she knows aren't.

Second important subject is Blake's professional paths. I already mentioned that he can eventually start doing porn and prostitution, and I think now is a good time to introduce these opportunities to him. Granted, he wouldn't want to do every client or video (and neither would you), but the deeper he is in the business, the less choice he has. And, if you remember, in our porn career poll you've voted for the «suffering from success» option, which is going to make Blake much more popular that he would want to, and it's gonna affect his life significantly (imagine him taking a train to Vanessa's house and encountering three horny and aggressive fans. Sure, his green-haired shieldmaiden can find these punks and rip their balls off, but only after the fact). Not to mention, it's gonna change his image in the eyes of pretty much everyone around. Stewart and Melinda don't watch porn, but everyone else does.

Developing routes is my top priority as well. As of now Liam and Samuel routes are pretty much halted, while Melinda and Vanessa do move forward, but slowly. This is about to change. And these characters will get some progress even if you aren't on their routes (Liam + Reggie, Samuel's shady side business that he hides from Melinda, Melinda's relationship with Rebecca, Vanessa being overprotective sister, etc.). I don't want to overwhelm myself, cause it never ends well, but this is a wall I have to scale if I want to build anything significant on that foundation in the future.

And the last point is mostly a bonus. As I found out in the previous months, sometimes I'm left with several render-free days, when all pictures are finished, while I'm beating the script down. So, I decided to use these days for good, and start remaking some of the older images (mostly from v0.1. There weren't many, anyway). Of course, I'm gonna need to make sure that I still have all the models that I need, but I do have old Blake, Mack and Candy. Not sure about old Iris though, and momma Sue is 100% lost. But she's somewhat expendable. Maybe I'll even add something to the first chapter, we'll see about that. These parts are the very first you see after starting Shattered, and it pains me that they're not as good as they could be. First impression is everything.

So, that's about it. Stay tuned for the progress report tomorrow, and even more polls, pictures, and just talks the next week. Sorry, I promised some Daz stuff, but it has to wait for now. Thank you, and have a nice day!