Progress Report - 05/23/2021

Dear Supporters,

I've been putting a lot of effort into the flashback but it should be nearly complete. I've split it into two parts and I'm currently about half way through the second part. There is a lot more I'd like to include with the next update so it's going to be a long journey.

I am going to spend some time this week trying to change the format of the animations from a string of renders into video files. That should reduce the lag and fix some issues android users have been having.

There isn't too much to say about Penny's game. It's coming along just fine.

As you can see here, Penny is going to change over time as the flashbacks go on. We're going to see her start carrying around equipment for longer journeys, she'll have mastered some skills so she has more time to bathe and groom herself, she's gotten new clothes. I'm confident you'll enjoy watching her as she matures into the person she will become.

I have one more thing to mention before we wrap this up.

A Petal Among Thorns is a small side project I've dedicated some time to and it's actually starting to turn into a full fledged adult visual novel. So I am going to start treating it like one. We'll have a progress report for it and teasers as well. 

Where Penny's game is an incredibly ambitious project, A Petal Among Thorns is going to be much simpler and more manageable. There's only going to be two characters, Petal and the protagonist, on a vacation retreat for a week. It's a first person perspective adult visual novel, you'll get to define relationship titles, there will be choices that affect the story and a point system.

Xianne is going to be the representative for A Petal Among Thorns so you'll get to see her at the beginning of the story and at the end of each release. I also have plans for her to 'chastise' you if you get too many creep points. I haven't decided exactly what that entails and I may scrap it altogether. Or I might switch it so you get rewarded for not being a creep. We'll see. 

This is Petal, the main and only love interest. You'll get to reconnect with her after being a apart for a year. There's not going to be too much drama, we're literally just going to spend time with Petal. 

If this game is well received, I have future plans for us to spend time with her two sisters. For now, we're only focusing on Petal. She's jubilant and kind, eager to take care of you and hiding a deep loneliness behind her glimmering green eyes. I'm just sure you're all going to love her.

So what does this mean for Penny's game and future releases now that I'm dividing my time between two projects? It means I need better time management. I have no plans for Penny's game to suffer for the sake of a second project. I want to do 70 renders a week for Penny's game and 40 renders a week for Petal's game. A Petal Among Thorns will be much less complex which means I should be able to get releases out at around 300 renders and it shouldn't detract too much time from Penny's game. I'm going to be spending less time on Discord so I can focus more time on these two projects.

I'm also going to suspend live renders for a while until I see exactly how difficult it's going to be to crank out 110+ renders a week. I'll take a poll on this next month to see how you guys feel about it.  

We should see a release for Petals game around the end of next month and I am still aiming for the end of July for Penny's game. I hope you're all excited and if you have any questions, you can message me on my Discord channel.

Thank you for all your support and I'll see you on the next one. Farewell for now.