Last month took some unexpected twists and turns. While I was originally planning on working on Dragon Roommates and HSR Otome more (and I did do a little bit). Instead I started building my Patreon. I uploaded all my Dragon Roommates and Pure in Heart content into the galleries. And by the time I was finished, I was feeling a lack of motivation to do what I had intended to do for this month. On top of this, my dad's health deteriorated quickly and he unfortunately passed away a few weeks ago. I love him and miss him terribly already. I was kind of feeling a bit depressed (understandably) as a result. I felt like I needed something new and exciting to help reflect and take my mind off of things.
The past couple years, I've always wanted to create a Halloween themed otome visual novel. It's an itch I always get this time of year, because I love fall and I love the spooky fun vibes of Halloween. So I decided, now is as good a time as any. Even though I know I have other projects to work on, I just needed something different and thus my newest VN Project: Monster Boyfriend came in existence. So in today's devlog we're going to switch it up and talk about my plans for this newest project as well as talk more about my Patreon.
This visual novel in particular is inspired by a lot of the 90s-early 2000s anime that I enjoyed when I was actually into anime. It would be the spark that first got me interested in drawing and later otomes and visual novels as well. Specifically animes like Yu Yu Hakusho, Inuyasha, Soul Eater, Full Metal Alchemist, etc. It'll have a good balance of drama and comedy. The writing is also a little on the darker side compared to my usual writing, but I made sure to do plenty of comic relief—in the form of friendly character banter—to help balance things out, so the story don't get overwhelmingly heavy despite some of the serious topics it explores such as loss, acceptance, grief, etc. Of course being an otome there will be plenty of romance options as well (and will have optional NSFW scenes as all my visual novels tends to do these days).
The "Monster Boyfriends" as the name refers to are going to be: a zombie, vampire, angel, and demon (he's specifically a hellhound). While the main character is human, but also a reaper. I love my lore, so while we're going to heavily influence the myths of these creatures, it's also going to have some of my own personal takes on these as well. For example, my version of 'reapers' are more revered as ghost hunters or guides. Their job is to track down lost wandering souls and help them come to terms with their death so that they may cross over to the afterlife. This is going to be a prominent theme within the visual novel.
As far as my plans and progress goes ... I'm already nearly halfway finished with the first chapter. So I've definitely gotten off to a good start. My goal is to finish the first chapter before Halloween. However, because this is going to be done completely from scratch (aside from music, sounds, and other minor assets), just as a heads up, this may very well be my first pay to play visual novel. My intentions are to first release the chapters on my Patreon in early access for my Dragon tier subscribers.
What this 'early access' means is that this chapter will remain exclusively on Patreon for roughly a year (give or take a month). And then it will be released on itchio next year as a demo. Now if I go through with my 'pay to play' plan. The game will cost probably around $5-10. Which is typical for a visual novel of its size and quality that doesn't have voice acting. Obviously this won't be released on itchio until the full game is developed. Which means while you'll get to play a demo as early as October 2025, you probably won't see the full release until 2027-2029 given my track record as to how long it takes me to make a full length visual novel working on and off as a solodev.
Now if you want to play the game sooner as it's being developed, you'll only be able to do so by becoming a member on my Patreon. I'll make an official page for the game announcing early access as soon as the first chapter has been uploaded to Patreon (hopefully before 10-31-24). I'll make another announcement next year when the demo releases here on itchio. And I'll continue to announce as each chapter becomes available for early access on Patreon.
I plan on following a similar format for all my upcoming visual novels in the future. Note this does not include Dragon Roommates, HSR Otome, or Pure in Heart which have already been released. Those will remain free to play as they are some of my experimental projects that helped paved the way for these future, more polished ones. And of course I do intend to finish them sometime in the future. Just because I'm working on this new vn, doesn't mean I'm abandoning any of my old projects. I just needed to take a break and work on something a little different for a while.
As I said, I launched my Patreon earlier this month. I already uploaded all of my current Dragon Roommates content—including some CG scenes for the upcoming 1.4 update—and most of my Pure in Heart content as well. Throughout September I plan on adding to that. Including all my Honkai Star Rail Otome artwork and Monster Boyfriend artwork as well.
If you are 18+ and enjoy my art, stories, are interested in Patreon exclusive content, receiving early access to all my visual novel releases in the future, and would like to help support my work so I can continue making visual novel content, please consider becoming a paid member of my small, growing community. You'll get a front row seat to all my ongoing progress as I continue on my creative journey.
To celebrate the launch of my Patreon, I also have a raffle going on. Where you can receive raffle tickets by becoming a member on Patreon, commissioning me, or even just helping me spread the word. If you're interested in an opportunity to win some FREE artwork from me, you can find more information about this on my Deviant Art in the link below.
https://www.deviantart.com/goddess-of-gales/journal/Patreon-and-Commission-Raffl...
Thank you for continuing to play my games and for being such wonderful followers ~ ♥
Let's all have a good month and keep working towards accomplishing our goals! ^o^
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