yep. Original is very much a work in progress or a “rough draft.” I wanted legal music but couldn’t afford it when I started the project so I kept the original without audio. The Revamp does have a licensed soundtrack and sound effects though. If you’re playing for the first time, the game starts rough. I promise I get better. It’s also repetitious at the beginning and requires the right combination of activities to progress otherwise it loops. There’s a walkthrough file included in the game folder if you need it. That mechanic was annoying tho and goes away by the third chapter. It’s completely removed in the Revamp because I didn’t like it.
yay, that makes me happy you made it that far. you're getting out of the roughest parts of the story then in terms of me being soooo new. around chapter 5 i got more community support and encouragement so I really started to push the story to a more mature narrative than just a smutty adult game.
if you're playing the original v0.21.4 it is the complete story. it's 10 chapters and they progressively get longer. like i said before, the quality is a bit rough at the beginning but i promise it gets better. all that stuff is ironed out in the Revamp but the Revamp is only the first 5 chapters right now.
I've finished the original ver now, I liked the friendship dynamic between the 4 characters towards the end but I felt like it ended way too quickly. Would've liked to have seen more of the 4 of them before the whole "nothing lasts forever" - even the writing letters to Ash/Max and them getting the picture of Bradens phone picture never happened. And the whole parting ways at the pool with your bestie 'for the last time' - felt a bit too bittersweet for my liking. It was an almost happy ending. But kudos to you!
i won't go into a lot of detailed spoilers with the ending (lots of people check comments down here before downloading so you can really spoil things if you're not careful) but the ending was very purposeful for me. It checked a lot of boxes and tied up all the loose ends while still leaving a lot of things open to reader head canon. over the years, a lot of people have related to these characters in many different ways and the community around this story has really grown. I've received thousands of letters and messages and personal stories just based on these character interactions and how important they were to people. As the story progressed, I found that I really wanted to write things in a way that was specific to the characters but also left openings for the reader's own head canon and fan theories about things. So trying to keep the majority of those as possibilities was definitely a goal for me for the ending. you sound like you interpreted things in a very different way than most and that's ok. that's the first I've heard of a "bittersweet" reaction to the bestie plans but I'm glad you like the friendship dynamic. that was a big part too. The majority of this story is just guys hanging out :p
There's also hints throughout the game on things like the phone picture that end up popping up on the patreon page as additional content sometimes. most patreon pages have monthly CG extra they put out. I used to do that frequently but then found that it delayed the game development so now I do it a bit less. I mostly use a lot of those photo sets as practice for other development and visual skills that I want to use in game later. Over time, i thought it would be fun for those pictures to end up actually playing a roll in the game somewhere so that everything is connected. They're not required for the story but it was just an attempt to make supplemental content there actually matter. There's a photo set on there that's unconfirmed if it's the actual one he's talking about but it could be. This is also just a first attempt at all this for me so I'm learning as I go-- mistakes and all. I've thing I ever wrote before this was research papers for school :p