Progress! Story dialogue is now functional in game loop!

I managed to meet my goal this month of having the story dialogue functional in the game loop.

That means right now the game will play from the intro, and in theory, to the start of Act 4. And not just sequentially but as part of the game loop with phases and days. Of course, though there's little to no presentation to it, only the bare minimum for functionality. 

This is a crucial milestone and what we've been working towards all this time. 

What's next?

I won't be going immediately to cinematics, first me and the writer(s) and some others will pour through the dialogue in game to see what feels right. And likely some adjustments will be needed mostly for pacing.

Depending on how this goes a test build release for higher tier supporters may come to get feedback on the writing. (There is a possibility this will happen this month but no guarantees, depends on scope of changes)

Then we will focus on tying dialogue to progression systems, gating events with certain stat requirements. Those stat requirements will be accompanied by activities to affect those stats. Again, much of this added without cinematics. This will also include a range of UI updates and other functions needed for this.

After this another test release will likely come. (This will be the focus of next month)

Once the core of that setup is in place full focus will be on cinematics and content. Making sure what needs to be animated is animated or at least has a pose. Making sure sex scenes and other special scenes are animated.

Certain outfits will need to be implemented for story reasons meaning I'll be doing the relevant work in bulk. More than likely regardless of story significance the majority of the outfits shown previously will be implemented during this time. Maybe a few extra's depending on what I feel is important after reading.

Various sex scenes will be animated during this time, likely unrelated to sex sim specifically for now just dialogue driven stuff.  

Once this is done or at least in progress proper broader releases will start, and once it is complete and tested to be solid the steam release will come. (I'll provide a better time frame as this period gets closer but clearly this is minimum 2 and a half months out.)

The broader released version will likely be something like v0.5.0+ so when we get closer to that you'll know when it's close to itch and then close to steam.

There is one aspect that may not be completed by this point and that's the mini-game to determine player income. This will be semi-optional and aims to be similarly robust as the Cabaret club minigame in the Yakuza series. If this will be finished before the steam release will be partially up to the publisher. :P

Conclusion

And that concludes this rare mid-month update! There is unlikely to be a build for anyone though builds have been made. They'll come out when they make sense to at that stage in development. But hopefully this post gives an idea of the overall gameplan.

Thanks again for your support! More updates soon!