Mid-term Roadmap Update 1 (Patreon)

0.20.0. Last month's version number has quite a symbolic meaning: According to the original project plan, this marks the halfway point of development. Sadly, we have not quite reached that halfway point yet. In this post, I would like to discuss a little bit where we are standing in the bigger picture of the development of 1.0, what's missing and where I will be pushing in the next couple of months to get to the sacred 50% mark.

For those who have joined in the course of the current year and not stumbled upon the now already quite old post where I gave some insights on my overall approach to the project managemnt of Star Knightess Aura, here's some reading for you to catch up on before diving into this post:

LONG-TERM ROADMAP 

So, first, let's recap where we are standing right now.

I refined the original roadmap picture a bit and split Chapter 2 into its two halves so that everything is a 10 month planning block. In the original plan, 0.20.0, or 20 monthly updates, would have marked the half-way point. Currently, I would estimate the progress like this:

• Lewd content: 45-50%
• Corruption content: 40%
• Non-lewd Roya content: 35-40%
• Overall: 40%+

Let's have a closer look into these categories in the following sections!

Status: Lewd Content

In my original plan, I had projected that we would end up with 80+ lewd scenes for v1.0 - discounting very minor lewd scenes like books/skill learning/repeat versions of scenes/very short scenes like the lewd guard scenes. 

As of 0.20.0 we have a total of 47 lewd scenes in the game, removing these minor scenes, we end up with 38 lewd scenes with "proper" length. The last two proper lewd scenes will be the remaining Hermann scenes, which will be coming in over the next 1-2 months, giving us the 50% milestone in the lewd area. 

In general, in the past half year I had been pushing hard on the lewd content. First to reach the Hedonism orb removal milestone to start the real world lewd storyline. Then to achieve the vaginal penetration milestone this month. We only had 1 lewd scene per month in Chapter 1 with a total of 12 lewd scenes last September at 0.10.0. Since then the production speed has gone up to average of 4 scenes per month, nearly quadrupling the numbers by today. 

Now that we have reached the vaginal penetration milestones in the real world and in Roya, I will relocate some of the efforts put into reaching these milestones to the two other categories where we are lacking behind. So expect the speed to go down to an average of 2 lewd scenes per month going forward. 

I realize that for some people this might be disappointing, but I consider Star Knightess Aura to be primarily a corruption focused game, not just limited to sexual corruption. And the totality of the corruption content is made up of the lewd/vice content in Roya plus the corruption scenes in the real world triggered through the mental changes.

Status: Non-Lewd Corruption Content

Where we are currently lacking is the corruption content in the real world and the non-corrupt content in Roya. For the real world, there is 1 major story that has only received a couple of scenes: The diligence orb/knowledge room focusing on dumping Aura's grades. 

Also, there are a bunch other minor corruption events like Aura Dev 5, Sexual Harrassment 2, etc. waiting in the pipeline . Same goes for some for other preparatory mental changes such as switching the TV channel in the interests room, which will be enabled after Alicia blurred out the super robot shows from Aura's head.

Status: Non-Lewd Roya Content

In Roya, we still have to deal with the 3 main quests. With 0.20.0 I managed to bring these quests into the positions where you can nearly challenge the respective boss of the quest. So the remaining work here is especially the remaining floors in Draknor Fortress and then the boss fights. 

On the side content side, there is still 1 major side dungeon and side quest that will start Paul's side story missing. Furthermore, while I achieved a lot of progress in the underground of Nephlune, the above-ground also has quite some side content missing.

Status: Overall

My next milestone is to reach the 50% mark within the next 4 updates. The upcoming update will focus on side-content in Nephlune and real world corruption. And then in the 3 updates after that, the plan is to finish 1 main quest per month, while grinding a bit of progress on the real world corruption / roya lewd content in the background. 

If you have seen the Steam release date which is set to June 2024, I have already extrapolated a 1 month delay per 10-month-block. So right now we would still be in-time with that release date if we don't get any delays in the future --- which I find hard to believe. On the other hand, although we have lost quite a bit of growth momentum, the full time goal is coming closer and closer, so I would say I would say whether I need to move the release date or not is currently pretty much in the air and it could go either way.

When we reach the 50% mark, I will give a second Mid-term update to the Roadmap. Once we have passed that point, expect the content focus polls to reappear. For now, next up for will be the July project plan coming on Tuesday or Wednesday.