Game Status, Anniversary and Announcements (Patreon)

by Sashka

Note: this is a long post, scroll to the bottom if you want bullet-point summary. 

Hello, all - we hope you're all enjoying 0.8.7, 0.8.8: "Brains and Brawn" is getting close to the patreon pre-release so make sure you're sub'd if you want to jump on the latest content fresh off the keyboard!  

Looking beyond the present, we have a couple announcements. First is that October marks the 5 year anniversary of Secretary 0.1.0 and its initial 33k words and 192 passages being first released on TFGames by Deedee. It has been quite the journey since then, with the game growing in ways DD couldn't have anticipated, with characters evolving, plots becoming more intricate and a game that was expected to be finished with stage 3 in ~9 months worth of work having grown to (as of 0.8.8) over 1.9 million words and 6.3k passages. It's been quite the journey, and we thank all of you who have helped fund this crazy endeavor, reported bugs or grammar issues, contributed art or ideas... or just simply played the game. Truthfully Secretary could not have reached the state that it's in either in scope (literally longer than the Bible, Lord of the Rings and War and Peace... combined), or in content (we read all suggestions and have endeavored to provide options for a wide range of game-play styles and experimentations). So, again, to all of you, thank you.  

Now that we have looked back, it's time to look forward. After 5 years of public releases (including 3 years straight of a major release every other month, averaging 92k words, which is slightly longer than than novel 1984) we're finally nearing the end. Based on internal plans and estimates the game will be roughly 81% released as of 0.8.8, and the backlog is up to roughly 96% written. A side effect of approaching "stage 5" of the core work plotline is that we are running out of choices when it comes to the primary topic of a releases. For over TODO we have left the determination of the primary topic of each release to a poll of our backers, as was likely suspected based on the mere two items in the previous poll... that approach is no longer sustainable. For plot reasons the remaining major content pieces must go in in a particular order so, rather than offer perfunctory choices, we will be taking over choosing the primary topic of each release from here on out.  

While the main topics are (baring a surprise that causes us to need to split a release) determined... there is still quite a few smaller side items that can go in more flexibly, so we will be running at least one additional "small/secondary feature" poll for each release (varying depending on the size of the "core"/major content). Also, in light of the recent success of the "Male->Female" toggle feature we will be commissioning unique art for the female versions of major characters (Bob, Kurt, Mr. Pawn, Mr. Horn, Mr. Bergmeister, Mr. Bogart, and Dr. Twig), with backer polls to determine what order they happen.  

tl;dr: 

• The game has celebrated the 5-year anniversary of its first release, yay!
• The game is over 1.9 million words and ~80% released.
• From here forward the "main" topic of releases will be determined by us, rather than backer polls.
• There will be additional "small"/additional feature polls for each release to make up for this.
• The "female" versions of major characters will be getting custom art, order to be determined via back polls.