February Plans and a Request

Alright, I know I need to get the monthly polls up. In fact, I'll be doing those later today. But I felt the need to make this post first. Before I get into the why of that, which will likely end up being more rambly than I'd like, I have a request. Specifically, the request is for those of you who may have accounts on F95zone or TFGames. I've been reluctant to ask this, both because I'm bad at putting myself forward (I'm an introvert's introvert), and because drawing attention to F95zone isn't really something any game creator is really comfortable with, given that it's as much a pirate site as it is anything else. It's also, however, one of the main places I get traffic from. 

(And let me stop here to say THANK YOU to my patrons, for not being dicks and posting all my patron-only stuff there. You guys have been amazing about not shooting me in the foot like that).

The request is pretty simple, though. For whatever reason, Haven's Port has failed to get much in the way of reviews at either site. Which have traditionally been two of the places where I get the most traffic from. Up until recently, Haven's Port even had a 2-star only rating at F95 zone resulting from two people who hated the game type being the only ones that had reviewed it. And even then, they'd done so in its early iterations.

In my constant struggle to keep my head above water, funding-wise, having the game not really reviewed well at either site is really hurting my efforts. Which is where my request comes in. If any of you have a few minutes of free time and an account on one or both of those sites...please consider giving Haven's Port (or even my other games) a review? An honest review, I mean. I'm not asking anyone to go drop 5-star awesome reviews on all of my work. I like to think my work is good enough to stand on its own. And if they're not, that just means I need to do better, not to try and manipulate the scales or something. 

So that's the request. Please, if you're willing to take the time and have accounts at either place, please consider giving an honest review of the game. It will help me a lot. The specific game threads/entries are Haven's Port (F95) and Haven's Port (TFgames).

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Okay, with that request out of the way (sorry it turned out to be a bit long-winded), I need to address the planning for this month. I'm going to be brutally honest here and admit that I'm seriously burned the fuck out after the last two months of constant scrambling. December was basically a hell month for me, for various reasons. And the overflow that caused into January made last month almost as bad. In the last few days, I've been trying to take it relatively easy, only working on bits and pieces like the Wallpaper and short story rewards, that are less stressful.

Frankly, that hasn't really worked as well as I'd hoped. Looking forward at trying to get a release of suitable size out for Left Hand Magic, in the shortest month of the year, all while suffering burn-out, has basically had me riding the edge of a breakdown. Which means I had to make some choices if I didn't want things to get worse. Most of those choices aren't really going to impact you or the Patreon work, since they're related to resource/time shifting rather than target goals. The one thing that does matter is the one I feel the need to warn you about now, upfront.

Simply put, I've set a target size for Build 2 of Left Hand Magic, rather than a target date. I've chosen the size to be doable within the month, at least in theory. But I won't be adjusting that size in either direction regardless of how long it actually takes. The goals, for reference, are thus:

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1) Add Talia's encounters/sex scene set (the equivalent of what each of the others already have).

2) Add the two additional encounters (with Animated sex scenes) that represent the start of each Threesome Path.

3) Get the first Major Event into the game, including the 4 path-specific solutions to the problem it presents. Each of which will have an animated sex scene of their own.

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This will represent a solid build by Left Hand Magic's standards. Seven new animated sex scenes, plus a number of encounters and such that are not animated. This is a number I believe to be at least theoretically possible within the short month that is February. 

HOWEVER, I will not be comprising on either size or quality. 

What this means is that, should I not be able to complete everything by the end of the month, I will do the same thing I did for Dec/Jan and overrun as much as a week into March. I honestly hope that it isn't needed, since in some ways it just puts the issue off and continues the problem. And if it happens, I'll have to make a new choice in March to try reigning the overruns in as best I can. Whatever happens, however, I wanted everyone to be aware of both my plans and what is driving those plans. And, well...now you are.