The kind words certainly are appreciated. I enjoyed making the animations I did, and I still learned a lot (especially with Live2D and python coding) and I'm taking it with me to the next project I want to do. ;)
It's nearly impossible for me to make an estimate as I have too many responsibilities outside of working on the game and too many things left to do which I can't reliably estimate.
On a somewhat related note, I *need* to be careful with how much I'm burning the candle from both ends. I'm having people telling me that I look like a zombie IRL, because my lower eyelids are noticeably darker, from all the time I spend working in front of my screen... That is concerning.
I am however now leveraging Patreon's new feature which allows me to make part of my weekly posts public, while I keep the more NSFW things for the subscribers. That can help everyone to stay tuned to what's going on!
Thanks! We're getting close to the end of the road for the first update!
And yeah, I did also notice that the final question had a problem, but it's more like a bug outside of my countrol. That'll teach me to try to make something different, should've gone with a multiple-choice question. ^^
Cheers for the funny guy who answered "I haven't played the game." to 9 out of 10 questions.
A squad of 6 highly-trained seals is currently on route to Spain to kick your ass with beach-balls. Couldn't afford the actual SEAL-Team-6. Still, we know where you live. Roughly.
There's some truth to what you're saying, but I don't see the point in uploading an update for the sake of uploading an update. I'm working on many little things which are all meant to come together soon. That's why I'm making weekly reports to show my supporters what I'm doing, which is better than just a promise of an update.
Really, if there hasn't been an update yet, it's because it's a difficult process that takes time. I'm not making pizzas over here. ^^
I'm making a visual novel with animated sprites.
Everybody's got a different opinion on what I should do that I need to parse. They all want something different out of this, so I need to make sure that what I release will have a little of everything for everyone.
So maybe I should release an update without all the animations, and I add those later... but then lots of people are gonna complain that those were what they were waiting for and I shouldn't have released a rushed update and they don't wanna download tons of versions.
Do I regret that every single character sprite is animated? Yes, but now most people are expecting that from me, so I feel like I need to deliver on that front. I'm already gonna have to cut most of the voice-acting I got from Alexia (Elena's voice), because I'm gonna make too many changes to the dialogues.
So then you'll say that I could deliver updates faster if I paid someone to help, but I can't afford that from the 250€ I'm making monthly. I'd have to find someone willing to work for free. But then I would also need someone I could trust with everything, someone reliable and who's output-quality would feel right.
Yep, you do get to keep the game key from Patreon! You'll even get future updates as they come out! Some people are abusing this and it definitely sucks for me and the game's development, but eh, them's the breaks.
I honestly appreciate people telling me that they're cancelling their membership infinitely more than the emotion-less list of notifications Patreon serves me to let me know how many people cancelled theirs. That list is gonna be the death of my sanity. You don't appreciate Patreon's Exit Surveys until you're running your own Patreon.
But hey, feel free to come back whenever you feel like it. ;)
No date. I do my best to work every week when I can afford to. The first update will basically add a Prologue and overhaul the existing first chapter's dialogue and art. I'm still working on the art. The big worry is that I'm at a point where I'm making very little from the Patreon, not enough to live, so I'm trying to increase the value of the whole thing. Later today, I will release a first drop of bi-weekly bonus content for my dedicated patrons!
As for the pain, the voice-acting made that so much more real. When it was all silent, it seemed quite ok, and I have to say, it surprised the heck out of me too!
Since I'm gonna re-do most of Chapter 1, I'm thinking of making the FMG look far less painful. I might actually make a Patreon poll at some point to decide that, just in case a lot of my followers are into painful FMG scenes (but I'm pretty much will agree that it needs to be changed).
By the way, I wanted to thank you for your bug-report. The issue has been fixed internally and will be deployed with the Prologue update (no ETA yet, though).
Just saw a Patreon recommendation from you, and wanted to say thanks! When I can, I'll return the favor! Right now, I doubt it would be worth it since I'm just starting, and I haven't played your game yet. At some point, I'll give it a try for sure!
I have definitely many things in mind, but it's going to take time.
I tried to focus on quality (and I still need to improve many things) at the cost of quantity. The fact there's only one big NSFW FMG scene is entirely tied to the fact all the sprites are animated.
Had I gone with static images, I think I would've lost in quality/value, but I could've VERY EASILY delivered a far longer chapter. Maaayyybe not as long as StrongGirls' first release, because he's crazy (^^).
But I 100% have a lot more in mind, and I will share with my fellow hobgoblins and goblins on Patreon some of the things I'm doing very soon.
When you say "starting with another playthrough", you do mean with the Start button, right? Or did you try the Scene select button? Or the Dialogue-Rollback feature? Did you try the Data reset in Preferences? And so when you get to the timer sequence, you can't interact with, like, the portrait next to the bed or with the fridge?
This never happened to me, so I would need to check it for myself. As far as I know there should be no reason for this to happen. What says you've interacted with those is not supposed to persist between playthrough.
Would you be able to join the Discord server to share more informations about that in the Feedback channel? If it's as you say, it should go into my "need to investigate" pile.
I've been told as much with the VA, and if I can, I want to recast Elena. The VA herself did a fantastic job, but she's wasn't the right pick for this role.
Thanks a lot! It is my first game, but I've gained experience on RenPy by working with StrongGirls (as mentioned in "Why you should follow Gobbo"). Also I've been working on this for 6 months. I'm glad you like it!
