Build 0.8's Release Date

Build 0.8, containing the first act of Chapter 20, will be released on September 13th on Patreon.

Due to a variety of reasons, which we'll go at length below, we have decided to change the plan for Chapter 20's release. Instead of being published in one update we will release it in 5 updates, which are expected to go out monthly for our patrons of all tiers.

Build 0.8 will come out on September 13th for our patrons, and on September 27th for the general public. It's about 16,000 words long and features 9 CGs by Captain Nikko and 5 backgrounds by GigaSaddle.

Build 0.9 is expected to come out in mid October for patrons. We are aiming for an October 18th release date for patrons but that is yet to be confirmed. It will be about 19,000 words long and feature CGs by ToraGoru.

Builds 0.10, 0.11 and 0.12 are expected to come out on a regular monthly schedule, each one longer than the one preceding it. Build 0.12 alone, the climactic conclusion to Chapter 20, will be over 40,000 words long and will feature 14 CGs by Alpha0.

Aside from Build 0.8's public release on September 27th, the specifics of the following public releases are to be determined.

I am quite confident we will be able to handle this release schedule, though I do expect there to be at least two variables.

First, we must also account for the first release of the Visual Update, which is likely to happen sometime in the next five months. We cannot anticipate a release date yet, but when it's ready I want it to be its own update, so that we can give it all due attention — both from the developer side as well as letting readers focus on it.

The second factor is December, the holidays. It is difficult to predict to what extent our team will be available then, but even if they are available I'm of the opinion that time off during the holiday season is essential for a team's quality of life. My goal will be to have December's build prepared and ready to go ahead of time. As I look over the game's current progress I believe that is doable, but if it is not we will keep patrons posted.

Putting it all together, this should cover the next six to seven months in terms of releases.

Originally, it was my intention to release Chapter 20 in one single update. This was not out of ambition or vanity, but simply because its writing was done with the assumption that readers would transition from one scene to the next uninterrupted. If this had been done with the plan that it would be delivered across multiple updates I would have had some extra amount of care to make each "ending" wrap up a little more conclusively — leave a sweeter aftertaste, so to speak.

That said, as the circumstances of our development have changed and work has progressed, we've had to reevaluate our plans. Work on Chapter 20 has been going at a very good pace and most of the CGs are done, most of the coding is done, but there is still a lot to cover and to polish. The workload was not split evenly and some of our team mates are still chipping away at their own colossi — which so happens to be concentrated on the last fourth of Chapter 20, which is the most labor-intensive in a variety of ways.

Now, I would be remiss not to mention the workload specifically on the writing team's shoulders — mine, Kaganrube's, Awoo's and Nemo's. We have avoided talking specifics about Chapter 20's length, because we know that is a metric that can scare some people off, but circumstances make it the right time to come clean: in its entirety Chapter 20 is about 120,000 words long, and chances are it will become even longer as we finalize edits to its last two scenes. If you'll forgive the joke, writing it was our Iliad and editing it has been our Odyssey. Exhaustion is a factor, and to put it bluntly I know that releasing the earlier parts of the chapter, and being able to see people's reactions, would be good for us in ways that words cannot describe. In the most pragmatic terms possible I can say it will helps us be productive, but in all honesty this would be healthy for the team.

And if that wasn't enough, there is also the situation of the game's expanded team, its budget and finances, which we've discussed in previous DevLogs. As things stand, providing benefits to our patrons translates directly into a greater budget to finance the game and give it high production values, which is in the best interest of all of our readers.

So, let me re-frame this: though most of Chapter 20 is essentially done, what work is left to do is concentrated on those who had the heaviest and most intense workloads to begin with, creating an undue pressure to deliver ASAP exactly on those who are the most tired. Meanwhile, there is a lot of content that is missing only the finishing touches, which is kept unpublished only because of our initial plan to release Chapter 20 in a single update.

We don't like changing plans, but the reasoning here was overwhelming and the decision to change the plan was unanimous.

Naturally, if the next updates are being published on Patreon, this raises questions about the public releases. For reasons which will become apparent with Build 0.8's release, I consider it important to have the gap between Patreon and public release to be short so that everyone is on the same boat rather quickly. This decision is done both as a creative choice and in the best interest of all our readership — again, the reasoning will become apparent when the game comes out.

After that point we might adopt something close to what most FVNs have, with an update being made available to the public a month after its Patreon release, or we might try to package multiple updates into a single one as to maintain a semblance of our original vision of Chapter 20 coming out as intact as possible.

As a final reminder: as I said before, Build 0.8 will be available to our patrons of all tiers, but that's not the full extent of the rewards we are offering to our supporters. They include access to our Discord server, special events, non-canonical erotic stories and even unpublished prototypes — one of them is even Minotaur Hotel-related.

If you want to dive back into Minotaur Hotel ASAP, then joining our Patreon will give you plenty of stuff to entertain you until Build 0.8's release. 

I hope to see you soon, dear reader, in our Minotaur Hotel.

—Mino.