Poll Results

Alright, everyone. This should have been up yesterday. Unfortunately, I was suffering from a blinding migraine (as in, literally, my vision was all fucked up from it) all of yesterday. Not a new thing, but something that only happens when I push too hard an wear myself down badly. More on that with the next progress report. For now, let's just tackle the Poll Results.

Arianna's Future Poll

I'm going to deal with this one first, since I feel it's the most important of all of them. I'm honestly a bit chagrined that I could only draw about 25% of you into voting in it :-(. Regardless of that, the result is...clear but a bit less so than I could have wished. The vote resulted in a 59% victory for keeping Arianna's content to the original plan, versus switching her to a lesbian-only route. While that's obviously a clear majority, the fact that 41% of people wanted the lesbian-only option is...frustrating. Not because I'm against that, but because I genuinely hate that I feel I can't do both, when so many people obviously want it :-(. 

Unfortunately, there's a reason I'm not willing to split the route like that. I'm trying really hard to keep Left Hand Magic on a timeline to release fully next fall. As it stands, the game needs roughly another 10 builds. Possible one or two more, depending on how things go. It might not seem like it, but that's my current estimate for completion. If there's anyone that hasn't realized it...content density for the game has been increasing for each week. 

This isn't an accident. It was intended to be that way from the very start. At the beginning of the game, you have the chance to explore each girl a bit to see who you click with. But the farther and farther along you go, the more you narrow down to a single route. This means, however, that the deeper into the game you get the more content each individual route has to have in order to fill up the time in each week. On top of that, I've tried to scale the relationship content so that it feels like each interest and escalation is a natural progression. With you getting more and more involved with increasingly complex scenes/kinks as you go. 

I think I've done a good job of it. But it does meant that I'm expecting the last two 'weeks' of the game to take 3 builds each (minimum). Plus 1-2 builds for a comprehensive epilogue for each route. Then at least 2 builds for the New Game+ harem route (which will be more kinetic, with limited choices). That's an absolute minimum of 9 builds in addition to the current one. Probably more like 10-11. Particularly as I need to start fixing some of the existing animations I'm not happy with as I go. 

Adding a full lesbian split for Arianna's route would add at least 2-3 more builds to the game. And, just incidentally, push it from finishing in fall of 2024...to sometime in 2025 -_-. Sorry for the long-winded explanation. But, given how the poll went, I wanted people to understand why I'm not just going with 'both.' 

Left Hand Magic - Focus Poll

*Whew* A much simpler poll! Gaining 53% of the vote, Trix won rather emphatically. I admit, I've now given up fully on predicting this particular popularity contest :-p. While she was always my personal favorite, Trix has gone from being one of the lowest vote percentages to this rather firm win. 

Honestly, the only girl that's been consistent is poor Revina, who always seems stuck at the bottom. Which, to be fair, I hope has less to do with people not liking her. And more to do with the fact that she's the only girl that doesn't have niche content of some type. Her secondary kink poll ended in the patrons of the time simply choosing to have me double down on the Bondage themes with her, rather than giving her a special niche. I think, though, that doing so has kinda screwed her for attracting a following. 

Ah well, it is what it is, and I don't think she's disliked. Whatever the case, Trix is the winner this time, and will be the first one to get some Week 5 content.

Short Story Poll

Ooooh boy. This one was actually pretty close, at least by the time the vote weighing was taken into account:

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Andrea of the Silver Key: 95

Eros Academy: 81.67

The Starship Promise: 71.67

The Ruler's Companion: 30

An App for That: 20

Aylia and the Magic Shop: 16.67

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O.O.

...

...

What the heck just happened?! Seriously, I had to actually double check to make sure I wasn't hallucinating from the migraine meds or something. A story that, while it's always gotten some votes, hasn't been updated in over a year (13 months!) shot to the top like a cork. Meanwhile, two stories that have consistently been at the top (Magic Shop and App for That) tanked hard. The Starship Promise, which I'd almost given up on, played with the big boys and girls, too! You lot sure know how to be unpredictable :-p.

Well, however it happened, Andrea of the Silver Key secured it's victory this month. Though...I'm going to have to reread the whole thing myself at this point, and dig through my notes, to even figure out what was going on with it O.O. Thankfully, I do still remember more or less where I was going with that story, even if the details are a little fuzzy at this point.

Mixed Media Short

Ugh! A tie! Haven't had one of those in a while. The Virtual Trap and A Bet Maid both took 40% of the vote. The few times I've ever hit a true tie like this, I've just picked one. And so I will do again. In this case, since A Bet Maid hasn't been updated in a while, I'm going to go with it for this month. It won't hurt The Virtual Trap to take a break. And, honestly, A Bet Maid is a bit less intense in it's demands on me anyway. Which will be helpful this month. So, look forward to a new release of A Bet Maid!

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That's it for now! I'll probably put up a Progress Report in the next day or two.