[Progress Report]: 29th of October (Patreon)

Hey everyone,

Above you can see a render from a future Valentina event! There's about to be some changes in the Academy, with the new patrols cooking up along with some long-waited time with the Academy's foremost (and only) gymnast. You can also expect a flourishing of Harper-related content as well, as both will be moving towards the main story progress overall!

To segue from story matters (and avoid spoilers) I also wanted to touch on where I am with the new computer. I've purchased roughly 70% of the parts, leaving just the GPU, storage, and a CPU fan. I swung some great deals on Prime Day, and the parts are currently sitting right behind me as I await what I hope to be some good deals on Black Friday. I'm praying for at least a small discount on the GPU. Either way, I expect to have the rest of the parts purchased at the end of November, and have the computer assembled sometime in December. This is...

Boy is this expensive! Once again, technically you've all already paid for this computer, so there's no worries in that regard. I just never expected to build something like this. All the games I've been looking to purchase on Steam have been classics and I'm currently making my way through Chrono Trigger during the rendering. I don't know if I'll ever be able to take full advantage of the hardware recreationally, which is why I was happy to stay with my 1080p monitor. It just turned eight years old.

Still, for animation, rendering, and even learning new skills like Blender, I think I'll need all of the power that I can get. I've got some major goals next year for Superheroes Suck, and the self-supposed deadline of a 2025 Steam release means I need to squeeze every last bit of efficiency that I can afford. 

Also, in regard to Steam keys, it is my intention to give Steam keys to patrons on my Patreon, but please keep in mind that I have no idea how that works. There isn't even a guarantee that my game will make it onto Steam, and I know that I'll need to improve several aspects outside of just the main story for it to succeed on there. The music overhaul, UI updates, and a tracker for the Sandbox Events are all things I've been hearing about, but have taken the backseat in favor of what I believe to be the game's most pressing problem:

Content.

The game looks better now than it ever has before. The story is more complex now than it has ever been before. But both of these things, while improving the game's quality, has slowed down my production. I am putting out, on average, 7-8 events per update, but this... this won't work long-term. Half of those events belong to the Sandbox H-scenes, which means I am only getting four events or so to advance the characters' stories and the main story. 

Truthfully, this has been an issue for a while now, but it's gone beyond my ability to correct while maintaining the game's quality. This is why I want to build a new computer: I need to somehow go from 7-8 events per update up to 9-10. If I have 6 events to progress the story per update, then I'll be able to make the Steam deadline. Moreover, I would also be able to cut back down to 7-8 events in order to spend the extra time needed to implement things like the Music Overhaul. I can't get more hours out of the day, so the only way I can address this is by making those hours more efficient.

Anyway, that's all the stuff that's been juggling around in my head right now. It's been pretty stressful, but I should only have to deal with this for two more months or so. Plus, it'll be the holidays soon. Who isn't stressed during the holidays?

Thank you for all of your support and Happy Halloween!

~Solace