Corporate Development Memo (5/28/2023)

Hi everyone!

First, I think I am finally clearing out a negative issue with Discord, but one drawback of being a female dev with a game like this is that sometimes you get a few very obsessive stalkers that just...keep coming.  But enough on that, but a lot of that time and effort is now alleviated.

The first image is a test banner image based on a Steam sized banner.  I have been working on Steam for part of the week, learning more and more from a completely newbie perspective.  This version will only cover Episode 1-7 (a reason why I structured it that way) so Patreon will get Episode 8 first.  However, this version may include some new features, but I am taking it slow and steady so it doesn't mess with momentum for Episode 8.  Any feedback on other ideas for banners helpful as I am still experimenting.  But, I have been given a LOT of advice about this from more successful devs than I, but every game is different too.  So open to ideas...

I am at about 112 renders and 5,200 words right now.  So I am starting to get back into the the groove, and should start accelerating a bit as I get my sea legs for this rhythm back.  The hardest thing for Episode 8 is trying to make a good update within a smaller render count constraint, so I am trying to think ahead of time how to structure scenes, etc.

I will be working on the polls this week too, it seems there is some desire to split the sub one to gentle/harsh a bit more...so keeping this in mind for the future.

I've been doing these "bundles" for Itch and they've been great for two reasons...1) I am making new dev friends which is no small thing to me because it's really nice and 2) they are giving all of us exposure to new people to try the game(s).  

So if anyone has any good games/devs out there I should consider reaching out to, shoot me a private message here or more public on Discord ok. (prefer this than a public post here jusssssst in case the game is a bit problematic to Patreon like someone recommending the wrong kind of content if you catch my meaning) 

Some long-term planning notes: 

1) I am planning to buy a new PC in July.  My likely desired budget is between 4 to 6 thousand dollars, so those of you that are really good with tech, I would appreciate any leads!  This is a big part of what Patreon funds are used for, as assets do add up, but I want to keep upgrading the PC when possible.  

My basic criteria are as follows as desirables:

a) RTX 4090

b) 128 GB RAM (slower speed is ok but need more memory for rendering/DDR5, a good general rule of thumb for Daz is you need 3x the VRAM which is 24GB for the 4090, so you really want at least 96GB RAM)

c) Prefer Ryzen over Intel but open, cooling is important too (see e below)

d) Motherboard that can upgrade later ok versus starting over

e) COOLING -- I live in a tropical and humid area, and even with central air pushing hard in here, it would be nice to have a system that is that much more efficient at being cool...

2) I am taking a short trip for about a week to New York City and then down south to a town in Maryland in June.  I don't know the exact dates, but I will make sure and write a lot (I do super well in planes actually, no distractions...much if a certain guy doesn't talk too much haha!) and Anais is ramping up to help me render that week to nine days too.

I will be trying to get more into a pure normal workflow, but it's been a weird two weeks!  I appreciate the support, and I am going to keep grinding hard for all of you :)

Love,

Tess