Update - Rio shows Iku how it's done (Patreon)

This week's image

Iku loves to watch as Rio shows her how best to serve her Master...

So, to be honest, I'm probably only about 60% happy with this picture but I thought it was the best one to show this week anyway, since I wanted to show you some of the action, but I can't show you everything or it'll all be spoiled. It's kind of a complex pose to get right.

Rio + Iku ending

I've now finished up the new bonus ending that's coming in the next update, Rio + Iku. This seemed like an interesting combination to me, both because it includes Rio, who maybe is a little underrepresented in the game, and because this was kind of an interesting relationship to me. 

Maybe you've seen the two scenes in the expansion in which Rio helps Iku wake Kenji up in the morning? I thought those worked quite well and they helped establish for me that Rio and Iku had a dynamic that made sense. Rio is mostly resented by the other women in the game, but Iku respects her and is willing to defer to her. Meanwhile, Rio enjoys ordering around the submissive Iku.

The new ending will follow on from those wake up scenes and I've also made a new night service scene that comes between the wake ups and the ending. You'll need to get both the wake ups, as well as the night service scene, to unlock the Rio + Iku ending.

Other new PAL features coming

My plan is that the next update isn't just going to include the new Rio + Iku ending and night service scene, but will also have some significant other features too. I don't yet know if this is possible, though, just because of the time available to me before the next deadline. It's already the third of June at time of writing, after all. Therefore I won't yet announce what's coming because I might need to mix it up a bit; I will definitely add at least some more significant content, but when I release features they need to be at least fairly complete, so when I've got larger features to add they can wind up having to wait while almost done for a while. I'm working on that stuff now.

Timelapse design work

I'm fairly sure I've mentioned this before, but I'm in the process now of transitioning over to PAT development. My plan all along was to start juggling between PAL updates and getting PAT started, so that I don't have to have a period where PAL is done and I've got nothing new to show for a while. That can be a real problem for a Patreon campaign.

Anyway, this week I've been working on PAT! I've realised I'm still very much in the concept design phase, locking down even basic stuff like who'll be in the full cast, what exactly will happen in the story and how the game will play. I've done a lot of work on that already, but it still needs more. If you follow the Discord you probably have seen some new concept shots of locations and also a new hairstyle for Nobuko, but I've actually decided not to use the new hair because it triggers uncanny valley reactions on Nobuko's design. Even though it seemed promising, it just makes her proportions look weird or something, so I've reverted back to the previous version.

Also, on the writing and gameplay concepts I feel a lot better about how the story is going to develop and how the game is going to play after this week. I've been a bit worried about it because I while I had a lot of ideas that felt like they should more or less work, they weren't quite fitting together properly. In particular, I was rather concerned that the game wasn't lending itself to having the women interact with each other much, which would be a shame because, as you've seen in my other games, I think one of the strengths of the series is the way all the characters bounce off each other. I've mostly got this clear now; the early stages of the plot are a little more complicated than I would have liked, but the concept makes sense now. We'll see what it looks like when I've made a little more progress.

What do you think about having a Rio + Iku ending? Are there other combinations you're particularly hoping for? (I may not do any more bonus endings, of course...) Any other comments? Let me know in the comments!