Starting Over Update

Hi all!

It's been over six months since the last update to Starting Over. I'm fairly sure folks who care about the game are a bit confused what's going on at this point, so I wanted to give an update. In short, the delays can be summed up in three categories: mental health, project work, and external delays.

To say the past six months or so have not been kind to me from a mental health standpoint would be a massive understatement. I've been struggling with what I'm fairly sure is some sort of depressive episode since October, though it hit significantly harder after the US election happened.  This was compounded by a number of factors -- a move to a safer place falling through, my grandmother dying and the subsequent getting uninvited from her funeral by my conservative family,  and work getting significantly more busy and difficult, just to name a few -- that left me in no position to work on any of my own creative work. I'd intended to get the novella I'm working on over to my editor right after finishing the last update of Starting Over...and I just started working on that again on March 21st. 

As a result, I dove head first into the one kind of creative work I could do that didn't make me want to cry or curl up in a ball: editing for others. I've done a TON of editing work for clients since October. I've still got a bit of a pipeline built up of stuff to work on, but less of it has immediate deadlines like stuff earlier in the year did. It was great for helping me to feel like I wasn't being totally worthless creatively, but alas, it kept me from doing any work on Starting Over (or my books for that matter).

On top of that, there were other minor external items that delayed me getting back to working on things. I wanted to make sure that the next update had some cool stuff in it since you all have had to wait so long, which has required a TON of revamping, as well as some new art commissioning, all of which is taking some time. Right now, I'm thinking I'm on track to get the next update out in late April or early May. I know that's a long way away, and I'm not 100% committing to that date yet. But it's a goal I'm setting for myself. 

So. What can you expect in the next release of Starting Over? Here's the current plan, nearly all of which started:

• A new UI layout for the whole game. This will disable a couple of things I previously had added to the game (the bio card gallery being the big one), but they'll be readded later
• New art for Rina and updated art for Tessa, Harper, and Sara...more on that below
• Nude art for Rina, Tessa, Harper, and Sara. It's worth pointing out that only Sara and Harper's will be visible at this point in the game, but the assets will be in there for Rina and Tessa's future releases
• A new month to play in Sara's path. This will feature four new scenes in Sara's story. I also intend to do one optional scene in this month, but that might get pushed.
• All of the ArtBreeder art for minor characters will be removed. There were still a couple minor characters from the first release before I realized ArtBreeder utilized AI that had the ArtBreeder art on bio cards only. This is fixed going forward
• And a few other minor things that I've forgotten

Lastly, since you've read all the way to the end (in theory), have a new art preview of Rina. I cannot stress strongly enough how much she has become one of my favorite characters in this entire game. I'm so happy she finally has art. Once Sara's path is done, everyone's favorite ace matchmater and possible bender of physics will get her story next.