Dev update 6th March (Patreon)

Hi folks,

I just wanted to start by saying thanks a lot to all patrons (past and present) for your support. It is much appreciated.

And just another reminder (in case you missed the last posts) that we have currently paused working on episode 24 and are instead focusing on a re-do of some of our earlier episodes.

Thanks for all the positive messages regarding this decision. And for those that were less positive, I understand but please let me stress that if you are annoyed/frustrated about this decision, please ensure you pause/cancel your patronage during the re-do months.  There is no point supporting us for the two months while we work on the re-do if you aren't happy about it. I'd rather have an ex-patron than a pissed off patron that is paying for something they don't want. 

Work on episode 24 will re-commence in the latter half of next month (April) but obviously Patreon is done on a monthly basis so to keep things simple...if you are in the re-do unhappy camp,then please assume that a good chunk of next month will be spent on the re-do, so bear that in mind when considering whether to cancel or renew pledges and please also bear it in mind before sending me a ranty message about a lack of progress on EP24.  I have no problems receiving these messages but I just want to ensure everyone is well-informed as to the plans for March/April.

And just to extend the outlook a little further, I am also considering (not confirmed yet) taking some time off (approx 9 days) in May for a family vacation.  I know most of you don't care about my holiday plans :), but I just want to be forthright about time that will/won't be spent working on the game.

For this month, I'm going to be a little more active on Patreon than I usually am and plan on giving people a little bit more insight into the creation process and also keep you in the loop regarding re-do plans and progress.

I will start by addressing a few questions about compatibility between the existing version and the re-do:

Once episode 24 is released, it will be fully compatible with the existing game and your existing saves will still work. i.e. episode 24 will follow the original game pattern and you will not need to restart from the beginning. The same goes for EP25.  So for anyone that doesn't want to try the re-do and just wants to finish EP24 and EP25 (once they are released), that will be 100% possible and you can ignore any re-do releases if that's your preference.

The re-do (once it comes out) will behave like a brand new game, i.e. you won't be able to mix and match with the original game saves. So once the re-do comes out, you WILL have to start a new game if you want to play the re-do.  So before anyone panics, let me repeat: A new game start is only required if you want to play the re-do version.  This should make sense because the re-do will cover the earlier episodes.

So you can continue to play the full original game (including Ep24 and Ep25 when released) as normal and without ever having to restart (or touch any re-do releases).

OR you can play both:  i.e. continue your original game/saves with your exisitng game version AND with EP24 and EP25 (once released). And you can ALSO enjoy the re-do version (starting from scratch).

Hope this makes sense. Please ask any question in the comments below if it doesn't?

Episode 24 and 25 will be released on Patreon (as per all other episodes.) And the re-do version will be released on Steam AND on Patreon.

My next post will be this weekend and I plan on going into some details about how we make the game (coding/art/script, etc.) including what applications we use and how we go from an idea to a finished/playable scene and I'll share some behind-the-scenes snapshots/excerpts to help you visualize the process.  This might not be of interest to everyone but I have received a lot of messages/questions about it (some from people who have ambitions to create their own games an d some requests came from people who are just curious).

And then next week, I'll delve a little further into re-do progress and share some sample images.

Before the small percentage of angry people start blasting me with messages saying "Why are you taking time out to post about this bullshit when you should be working on the game".  Please note that these posts won't take much of my time and will be done AFTER I have hit my daily targets for the game. And some people ARE interested (and have asked). 

Thanks,

CG