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The bar, I feel, is very important for Isaac, the player character's arc going forward in showing his life Pre-Jade City and understanding who he is and why he'd want to leave.
And Hazel still shows up pretty early, just not the first thing :D

The original prologue with Dave was more interesting? But Dave didnt show up until like episode 3 or 4?

I still have v0.14.2 available on my Patreon. I'll always try to keep it around as a fun time capsule of the Ren'Py area. But it will definitely hit a point where the only reason to look at it is as a curiosity piece. 

Thank you!

Well, not wipe, but rebuild with some of the same materials. We are working hard to get back to where we were while also adding in all the new things that will improve the story.

My game was free back then, so me being in the bundle was just a free bonus thing. You didn't pay for it.

We're going to have a new demo by the end of the year.

When the game is out, we'll release it on here.

Not quite sure what you just said.

No one is out of the loop, all of our progress report posts and changelog posts are free to read. 

We announced like 2 years ago we would not be releasing new free builds on Itch.

Eventually, our new episode 1 will be released on here for free as the new demo.

But if you want to play the most recent builds, you would need to be a paid Patron.

This is so we get funding to keep making the game as it is our jobs.

I am fully okay with being questioned, but I am going to answer those questions xD

I completely understand wanting to see more of the game when we were already pretty far in. Believe me, I do get it. 

I just think people gotta trust the process and let us build this new version.

And yeah, fuck AI :D

Completely not true. The weekly progress reports and changelogs are free to read on my patreon. 

Never is a strong word. When I first started this game, I was writing it after work and working overtime to afford an artist. Now, we have a team of 6 people, with a 7th person starting soon. The more money I make, the larger the team grows, so we can get the game built faster.

It has been almost 4 years, wow. But we are not "just now" starting over. We announced over a year ago we'd be making the Unity switch and started building the visual novel framework then, while also finishing up our time in Ren'Py.

To me, the game was not fine before. We were running into so many issues using the Ren'Py engine that it led to our longest wait between builds. (7 months) It was getting increasingly difficult trying to make Ren'Py play nice with all the ideas and systems we had. We were bending over backward, making them work suboptimally in Ren'Py when we could just... switch engines where that stuff is easier and better suited.

As for the story, we did not scratch everything. A lot of the story still remains; we are only a little bit into the restart. I did not "throw all that stuff away" at all. This new opening is set before Isaac meets Hazel, building up his character and establishing his arc better this time around. Not sure why people think I am throwing everything away when, over the past year, since I announced the Unity switch, I have been very open that a lot of the story will stay roughly the same. 

And yeah, I did figure out where the story was supposed to go. When I first started writing HL, it was to make a short porn game to see if I wanted to do this. People liked it, and I kept the story going. As the story grew, I realized the story I wanted to tell. Later episodes are more coherent and well done. But the early episodes, where I was writing a random short porn game, still existed. 

The early stuff just didn't fit what the story had become. So, since we were already switching engines and rebuilding, I figured now was the best (and likely only time) to restart the narrative with stronger direction and focus.

I know that right now, people are doomcrying that I have completely restarted the game and everything is terrible.

But games restart all the time. It's a common industry practice. And not one that always ends in disaster either.

In like a year or so, once more of the game is out and people see what we're going for with more content, people will generally think this was the right move.

Until then, I just gotta lock in and keep working.

Well, we haven't done public releases in about two years.

Eventually, episode 1 will be the new public demo, but the game will never be free.

But thankfully, our lowest tier is $3, and you get a build every month :D

Hey, I appreciate the lengthy feedback!

I want to preface by saying, this build is a year and a half old, and I don't remember exactly what is in it, but!

Everything is avoidable. We even have an NSFW warning option, so you know if a choice will lead to porn or not.

I agree that you can't back out of certain sexual encounters once you have agreed to one. It's not well done. There are a few scenes that assume that since you're into (insert character), you're down for more.

I, however, do disagree with a "daddy" tag. Calling your sexual partner "Daddy" or "Baby" during sex is extremely commonplace. It would be like expecting a shooter game to tag "Pistols"; you should expect them to be there. It's not a "Father" or "Daddy" kink, but just... something people shout during sex.

Yeah, Mrs. Jones coming on to you in the call and exposing herself is a bit sketchy. Not knowing it was going to happen is sort of the point of the scene, since later you meet that character and (hopefully) understand her desperation to do anything to get out of her situation. I do my best to let people avoid it, but the scene is sudden and shocking on purpose. It serves the narrative.

All that being said, since the game is currently restarting, many of these issues won't be problems anymore, as they are shortcomings I have noticed, and that partially led me to restart my game.

As for tagging, I honestly don't know what people want tagged and what they don't. I would never think to tag "Daddy." Maybe the community can just call it out when it happens, and I'll add it. But then there is also the problem of something happening once, getting tagged, and people thinking the whole game will be like that. For instance, you, as the player in this build, can cheat on a date. So, tag cheating. Then I get people asking if the whole game is you cheating, being cheated on, getting cucked, NTR'd, etc etc. All for one scene.

So, it's tough and weird because people will jump to wild conclusions.

Glad you enjoyed it! We hope to expand the customization options over time for sure.

Yeah you can try looking up troubleshooting steps about Renpy games not responding and having a white screen.

From my end, you're the only user who has reported this problem. I'll try to boot up my copy later and see if it happens to me too. 

Just did some quick Googling, are your graphics drivers up to date?

I've never heard of this bug before. What device are you on?

Yeah we'll eventually have it available for purchase on Steam and GoG, hopefully Early Access.

we'll have to see if Itch ever allows lewd devs to sell games again.

Yes they are

Yeah we have a steam page and everything!

As soon as I'm allowed to sell adult games on Itch

None at all.

The game's story is very rooted in the main character not being a femboy and being a cis guy who is discovering his sexuality. 

To make the main character anything else would be such a massive rewrite I'd be making a different game at that point.

At some point, yeah!

There already is?

And SubscribeStar! I would post it to Itch but they don't let me make money on here and I gotta pay rent

Because Itch does not allow the sale of adult games

I didnt wanna say this when you left your comment since we hadn't announced it yet, but now that we have, there will be a petite post op trans woman in the next update.

Not to mention, Ash Lee and Dani Tea have been in the game for a while now. While not "characters" they are both relatively petite trans women.

The most recent build, v0.14.2, is just $3 on my Patreon 😇

I can't give an exact time frame. The game is huge, but we're working on it full time every week to try to get it done.

No, full game won't be done for a couple years

I thought so. If you want more, we have v0.14.2 available to buy on my Patreon. <3

If you have completed everything in v0.14.2, this is what it will say. You might be playing an older build.

Its not a bad idea and something i already have in mind! If i think of a good character ill add them.

My patreon which is linked above

We have the player blowing femboys. We're gonna have face sitting. I'm not really taking suggestions or commissions on what to add to the game <3 its gonna be a big game and a lot is going to happen.

If you got the end of content message, you're likely all caught up. If you're playing v0.14.2 it should have told you to go to sleep and then you would have gotten the end of content pop up. 

For the best troubleshooting, join my discord and we can see what is going on

Yeah then you likely reached the end of the content you can see if you got the end of content message.

The full game isn't out, but the most updated version, v0.14.2, is out on my Patreon

What version are you playing

To quote the FAQ https://radlord.itch.io/hazelnut-latte/devlog/851591/faq
"I will translate it once it is closer to full release, which may take years. The game is constantly in flux, and I always go back to previous episodes and refine the dialogue. So, until the game is done, a translation wouldn't make sense."

There is a walkthrough you can buy on my Patreon, or you can join our discord and talk to the community and see if anyone wants to help you