Game Progress, SIMBRO Thoughts & Dilemma (Patreon)

Welcome to the new patrons! I do hope you stay around.

I hope everyone is excited for the release tomorrow?

I'll be brutally honest it is ready now but I want to try and add even more than I promised so what I've done so far as an extra is added Tiffany to the beach with a short conversation, Rookie Barnes to the Jail with a short conversation and I'm going to put Izunna and Malik in the game with a short conversation as well. If I do it means every area now has at least 1 event in! Yay!

Anyway as to the 2nd part of the title, some of you may or may not know SIMBRO, they are a team who have been on here for over a year and at their peak were earning 18,000$ per month. They have for the past few months delayed their updates and as of 1st October not released at all. This means quite a few upset people to say the least.

I was a patron of theirs since version 0.5 of their game, a year before I even knew ANYTHING about creating, they motivated me in part with a few other creators to actually start learning....and now....they have gone the way of breeding season (which I was also a patron of).

Which leads me to the 3rd part of the title...a dilemma. Because I was an old boy on the simbro page and everyone knew me, the moment the game went tits up a lot of folks were eying me up to take the assets and idea and continue it. I considered it, even bought the books on C# and Unity to either do that or create Valia: Life of a Succubus 2. A few people have approached and asked me to create something with playshapes sprites, the ones simbro uses. But the dilemma is this...

I already have a project and I already have loyal patrons who have stuck with me through thick and thin and who I have got to know. I've had another guy ask me to work with him on his version of it (people are starting to make their own version of it). The problem is 3 fold....

1) If I abandon my current project and start my own SIMBRO game - I end up the exact same as SIMBRO, someone who just took the money and left with an incomplete project, a slap in the face to all of you who have stuck by me through thick and thin, all of you who are forgiving of the fact that it's a visual novel game and just love it for me or for the story and...I just can't do that, I don't care that it could get me the 18K they had if I did, because I would forever be tainted as a money grabbing corporate wanker rather than a creator of art that makes people happy.

2) I could do both at the same time - If I do this I would be able to release both on time, but the quantity of stuff will be less for both, progress for both would be slow, maybe an update for Valia one month and the next month the other game. I don't know if that would be good. You're all paying for this and I don't want to give small time updates.

3) Just keep doing this and don't do a SIMBRO game - If I do this, then everyone who has asked me to do something gets nothing, I end up just as responsible for SIMBRO failing as they were because I will have stood there, with the ability to learn how to do it and done nothing! I could have saved it and I didn't!

As you can see, it's heavy thoughts...

I REPEAT THOUGH: VALIA: LIFE OF A SUCCUBUS 0.6. IS READY FOR RELEASE TOMORROW. I'm just adding extra stuff before the deadline.

But yeah, this is why I've been a little quiet for a while.

Sorry to bug you all. Thank you for letting me get that off my chest.

-Apo