Dec Monthly Update - An Unmitigated Disaster

It's time once again for the monthly update!

Like the title suggests, last month was pretty terrible, and there was a lot of bad stuff that happened. I'll go into all that first, then talk about progress. If you don't want context, you can jump down.

To start, my part time job that was supposed to be a maximum of 20 hours a week, has had me working forced overtime every week since the start of Nov. I've been working 12+ hour days almost every single day. I only had 3 days off in the entirety of November. It seems to be slowing down now. I'm still working forced overtime, but it's looking like I may actually have days off this week. Because of this, I just didn't have much time to work on the game. I even had to close my commissions. As I've said before, I have to go where the money is. The game isn't really being supported and all of the overtime has given me the money needed for my move.

Next up is that I was accidentally poisoning myself for who knows how long. I was getting increasingly worse and worse brain fog all last month, as well as being more and more exhausted. I thought it was just because of the long hours at first, so I didn't really think too much about it. But then about a week ago, I discovered that there was mold in the water bottle I had been using every day. There were little white bits that I thought were just small scratches, but I got especially sick and forgot to clean it out or use it for a couple of days, and when I did, there were huge amounts of mold growing from those spots. I looked it up and it's something that can happen, and drinking moldy water lines up with the symptoms I was having. It's been about a week since I threw away the bottle and switched to a new one that's metal, and I've already gotten a lot better. I'm mentioning this partly as a PSA for people to check their waterbottles and clean them out every day to ensure nothing is growing in them, and also because it's another reason I didn't get much done. I was just too tired to do anything after working.

And now for the last bad thing, and arguably the worst of the bunch. I've been working on transferring over to my laptop from my desktop, since I can't take my desktop with me. It's also falling apart and is old, so there's not much reason to. Anyway, I downloaded RPG Maker MV to start moving over files and get into the habit or working on my laptop, and it wont boot on my laptop. I've spent hours and hours across multiple days trying to figure out how to fix it, and nothing has worked. It's apparently a fairly common problem and a lot of people just never found a solution. Because of the delays I was considering just scrapping the idea of a retail release, and continuing to develop the game as more of a hobby. Since at this point, there's just no way it'll be in a completed state within the next month. But with RPG Maker just not booting on my laptop, I'm not really sure what to do. As of now, once I move in March, I wont be able to develop the game anymore until I get a new computer. Even then, I'll just have to hope that it works on whatever I end up buying. I still haven't decided what to do.

As I see it, I have three options.
1. I can just do what I can before I move and release it as is with whatever I can manage to put into the game. Then call it done, release it, and move on to another project. I don't plan on doing a Steam release if I do this.
2. I can put developing the actual game on hiatus and just work on artwork when I can until I get a new computer, and just hope that RPG Maker MV works. In this case, I'd plan on adding back in the housing and beyond tier. Without having the need to release it before I move means I don't have to cut out later plans.
3. Then lastly, I can just be done with it now. Sort of. I can rework the current version of the game to make it more complete and include everything I've made so far, release it, and then move on to something else using a different engine. It would mean scrapping the hospital, office building, MMC storyline, the final lab character, and random beach babe. I'd just rework the lab story so there there's only the 4 existing EDBs needed, and cut Hikari's scene. It would mean cutting out a lot of content, but it'd be "complete", and I'd be able to move on to another project.

Considering the lack of support, AI accusations, and overall middling to low reviews of the game, the third option is the one I'm leaning towards. Working on a 2D game is SO much work, and without support, it's hard to stay motivated to keep working on it, especially with such limited free time. I have an outline for a sort of sequel to Waifu Wonderland that's 3D and animated waiting for when I'm done with Waifu Wonderland. I'd like to be able to make it, and I think it would be a lot more popular since it'll be animated, use parody characters, and have more of a story. But Waifu Wonderland needs to be done first. The end of the lab storyline would lead directly into the game. I'll likely end up making it in Twine, since I just like using that engine. I had planned on using VaM for the scenes so I could add an absurd number of characters, but another fun thing about my laptop is that my VR headset doesn't work on it. So instead I'd be using Blender. Using parody characters means there's no real possibility for a retail release, so I'd be able to do a lot more with it than WW. So yeah, the third option is the one I'm leaning towards. If anyone wants one of the other two options, let me know now. If enough people say that they want WW to continue, I'll be more than happy to keep developing it. Maybe I'll do a poll. Either way, once I finish the current version of the game, that's when I'll be making my final decision on what to do.

Edit: I thought of a 4th option. I go back to the original version of Waifu Wonderland, where I use existing artwork rather than all original artwork. Since it looks like I'll scrap the retail version, it wouldn't be an issue anymore. I'd be able to better realize the vision for the game in the little time I have before I move. At the very least, I could fill out the current areas and introduce the housing tier. I would put in credits for any artwork that isn't mine, and I wouldn't use more than just one scene for unoriginal characters, and wouldn't use CG from other games, so that it's more like promotion for the artist and their work rather than a replacement. I know a lot of people don't like the idea of using other people's work, and I completely understand that sentiment and do agree with that when it's wholesale theft without any kind of credit given. I'm not sure if it would be allowed on itch if I did this either, so I may have to cut that version if I did this, but it is something I can consider.

Progress - 

And now for actual progress!

For all the reasons above, I didn't get too much done, but I did make some progress. The biggest amount of progress was on the collectables rework. It's turned out to be a much more time consuming process than I had expected, but it's coming along. I have about 3/4 of the collectables in the game now. The goal is to be completely done by the end of next week.

I've also programmed in Kaori's new scene as well her pregnancy and the ability to unlock her if you didn't choose her at the start. You'll just need to buy the apartment then go and visit her. I've started working on programming in pregnancy, new scene, and unlock for Ayako as well.

I also started working on the random Beach Babe artwork. To try and speed things up, I put together some references using Koikatsu instead of doing my usual process. That way I could mostly just draw what I see. Here's the sketch for the ponytail version. There's also a long hair version. I had planned on also doing more than one style of bangs, but since I'm likely on a super heavy time crunch, I'll probably just do the two. I had planned on doing more than one type of swimsuit as well, but I'm probably going to cut that too.

That's the sketch so far. I'll likely make some adjustments and fix things as I notice them while I put down the colors.

That's everything I was able to get done. For the current version I still need to finish the collectables rework, implement Ayako's new scene, unlock, and pregnancy, implement Shiori's new scene and unlock, and then implement the working girls new scene and pregnancy. The artwork is all done, so it's just a matter of programming and then testing. I'd also like to finish up the random beach babe, but I'm doing to do everything else first and see how long that takes. As long as my job lets me have a day or two off each week, I should be able to get all of this done, and also finish up the random beach babe, by the end of the month. We'll see what happens though.

Thank you to everyone who has stuck around. It really means a lot. Without all of you I wouldn't have the motivation to work at all. I hope that everyone looks forward to the next release!