Update - 28 November 2016 (Patreon)

This week's image

This was a $50 patron request! I wasn't really planning to do much with the Masami/Kimiko Orb of Ecstasy scene but since a patron wanted it I took the time to write, design and render a full response for it. I include it here even though this image is actually in v0.14.0 because a lot of what I've made recently is too spoilery, and also I think people may not have found this scene yet anyway.

Is the game well balanced?

I need to know the answer to this because I can't really tell just by playing it myself. If you've played the harem mode, were you able to get all of the sex scenes and get the placeholder harem end? Was it still too hard to pick them all up?

Did you manage to get many of the collector cards? I know they're somewhat hard but if you can't find them at all then I would like to know that too. Anyway, let me know how things are going with your plays through the game! I can't assess the balance because I made the game. I already know all the solutions. If something's hard for me to do then I know it's pretty hard, but beyond that I really can't tell, and I think that often players are reluctant to admit that something is too hard for them.

Programming the harem ending

I've been working this week on programming the harem ending; it's interactive and it's longer than a simple cut-scene, so it actually requires a fair bit of work. I can't say too much, but I will say it's going to have a lot of illustrations because I've got a bunch of new 3D assets that I've been able to use for it. I also forked out a little bit extra for a really nice new set for a key scene.

It's a fair bit of work but fortunately I've already written it, so it's just a matter of programming it and piecing it all together; I'm not sure how long it'll take at this point. Just to be clear, I'm planning on finishing this harem ending entirely and finishing the victory suite entirely for the next update. That could mean this is a bigger task than most updates.

Lust fantasies should all now have pictures

Some of the lust fantasies that Kenji has when his lust is too high and he tries to flirt with girls went into the game without illustrations. I've now designed pictures for the remaining ones (Iku and Fumi) so they'll all have something. These scenes were, frankly, hard to illustrate (I didn't write them) but I've done my level best and I hope you like the results. I don't think they're my best pictures ever, but... oh, well, I kind of felt they needed something.

I need feedback: should I change the reward tiers?

I've been thinking I should probably change the reward tiers for this campaign. I took my best guess at what would work when I first set this up but I think maybe I could improve it. I would do this after PAL came out. Here's my idea for the new tiers (each level includes the lower rewards):

- $1: Access to these weekly updates (formerly $5 reward)

- $3: Access to uncensored live AIF updates (assuming I run public live AIFs - I can't show nude pics as public releases anyway, due to Patreon's TOS)

- $5: Early access to public game builds (maybe a month before public release?)

- $10: Same as current (all game builds)

- $50: Same as current (commission special content)

This would also include a few extra public releases of games in development, with early access for $5+ patrons. What do you think? Would this change your pledge level up or down? Or no? Does it sound good to you? To be clear I'm not trying to get you guys to pledge more, I would just be concerned if a whole bunch of people dropped their pledges.

Note that I'd be removing the image and audio zip files at $3 as I plan to do this either way - I don't think that was a great reward, it was just something I thought I could release without much effort. The existing ones will stay available, though.

My original idea was to run this patreon campaign as a kind of 'tip jar' and I still intend to do it that way. I'll still release completed games publicly for free and only ask for contributions to help me to keep working.

So what do you think? Is the game well balanced? And what about my reward tier ideas?