Update - Emi bending over (Patreon)

The update's a day early! I'm going to try and keep them at this time each week again.

This week's image

I took a while making this one. I'm normally very hesitant to make butt shots like this because they just tend not to work great with these models, but I think this one turned out pretty well, so I'm okay with showing it. I'd like the room to be a little more crowded, but that's just a result of the time it takes to pose all of them (a lot) and the limitations of my hardware. Hopefully you agree it's not too big a deal.

Follow up on Patreons fee changes

Since I put up my last post there's been a lot of backlash to Patreon's decision to shift transaction fees from creators to patrons. Personally, I think it's a bad idea and they've also handled it badly. I'm a little surprised they haven't rolled the decision back yet. If you're thinking they're gouging you for money that they're pocketing themselves, they don't actually make any extra money out of this change (unless they're being SUPER shady and lying about where the money goes).

There is a small silver lining that has been lost in all this - people who pledge to me (because I've got upfront charges) won't be charged twice in the same month. They'll get charged once when they pledge, then once a month later. Not so important for most of you guys, though. :/ It turns out that upfront charges are the reason they had to make this change (I don't know all the details, don't have time) but upfront charges are necessary because so many people were scamming the old system without upfront. This part of the changes actually costs me money, but... well, you know, I just figure if I keep improving my games my support will continue to grow.

As I say, people have been very upset about it, so I'm particularly grateful to you guys who have been sticking with me through this. If the prices become unmanageable for you then you should look after yourself, of course; I understand. In the meantime, I'm going to try and ignore the trouble and go about my business as usual, just like with the changes to adult content restrictions.

The PAT demo

I do try to read the mood on how things are received and I think the response on the PAT demo is okay, but not all that excited just yet. I'm pretty excited about it, but I get that people who've been backing me for AIF games might not be immediately enthusiastic about something that seems like a lot of more mediocre game designs.

You've got to trust me, the gameplay is going to become more interesting. :) I've actually been in a back and forth on the forums to try and figure out how to solve some technical problems in my quest to increase interactivity, particularly 'hidden' interactivity, like you find in PAL. It seems like most people don't try to mess with the gameplay of VNs that much, even though the basic VN gameplay style sucks ass. I am not interested in making something linear and boring, I just like the ability to display text and images in a much nicer way than Adrift lets me, plus making the game more accessible to new platforms and people who refuse to type commands. My real mission is to try and find ways to give you the same sense of 'ownership' over the gameplay that you get when you type commands into a scene in an AIF game. If I can do that I think I'm on to something good.

I admit, of course, that this is a really experimental thing. I haven't made a game in an engine like this before and I haven't even played a really large number of VNs; just some older hentai ones that didn't have a lot of exciting gameplay features. (Three Sisters Story, Runaway City, Season of the Sakura, etc.) My gameplay design, for example, is based a lot on 'hotspots' - clickable points on the screen. I see it as having elements from VNs, Myst and of course AIF... but basically I'm going to see what works and how I can find interesting ways to surprise you. (I hope!) I imagine that PAT is going to get better as I get further into the process of development, but I can't make it better until I've learned and really immersed myself in the project.

Oh, but when it comes to the story, don't you worry about a thing. I think that's going to be great. I hope you liked the intro - there's more to come and I plan to get to the first interactive sex scenes relatively early in the story this time.

LMO update

I'm planning an LMO update this month; I've already made some pics for the long awaited scene where Twyla actually persuades Lug to fuck her in the cell and I think they turned out nicely. :) Every time I do one of these LMO updates I feel like I should be able to add more than I'm adding, but inevitably when I knuckle down and try to make the pics and edit/rewrite the text for the endings it just takes way longer than I want it to. 

Straight talk - I'd like to be able to finish development on this quicker because I now have three projects in progress and that's too many. I have at least something for most of the remaining endings, but there's a bunch programmed in and it's just a long process finishing them. It's frustrating for me because there's work just sitting in my Google Drive, but it's not yet ready for consumption; I have to finish it and that's going to take time.

Got any opinions about this week's update? Anything new on the Patreon changes? What about the demo - do you see potential or are you concerned about the gameplay? Any opinions on the LMO development process? And what about the pic? Does it work for you? Let me know in the comments!