Sitrep/Plans for August and Onward

Alright! This is going to be a bit different from usual progress reports, as I've got a few extra things to cover...the first of which I hope I don't get too many rotten tomatoes thrown at me for. Okay, ripping the band-aid off in 3, 2, 1...

For the months of August and September, I will not be doing the second short story for each month. (The Patron Voted story will be done as usual)

Now, before anyone protests...please allow me to explain. The reason I'm doing this is in an attempt to free up some time to begin getting a head start on a bunch of stuff necessary for the New Game in October. In example, this month, any time I manage to pry free by doing this is going to go toward experimenting with a couple of different game engines and trying to figure out if animation is technically feasible. 

As far as the game engine thing goes...I personally dislike Ren'py. Half because it is poorly documented. And the other half because the creator of Python, which it uses for scripting, was a complete and utter psychopath as far as I'm concerned. Who the hell thinks it's a good idea to use indentation/whitespace formatting as your means to separate code blocks?! That is nightmarish moronic. Like, literally, I've actually had nightmares about it since I first learned there was a programming language where some utter imbecile thought that was a good idea. As such, I'd really really really like to find a good alternative. Visual novel maker was NOT it. And Tyrano Builder was eliminated previously as well. This month, I will be experimenting with Game Maker Studio 2, Suika2, and possibly a VN framework for Unreal. Hopefully, one of these will provide me an alternative I feel like I can work well with.

Then...there's the animation thing. As I'm aiming to make this next game as professional-grade as I possibly can, I would seriously like to be able to do animated scenes. Oddly enough, my very first game for this Patreon(Eros Academy), actually did have some animations. They were simple 2-3 render loops, very clumsy...but they existed. With a LOT more experience under my belt, I'd love to take another stab at them. But before I commit to it, I need to do a feasibility study with whatever engine I settle on. Part of the reason Unreal in particular is actually somewhat attractive (despite being hilariously overkill for a visual novel) is that there is a Daz3d->Unreal Bridge...that I currently have zero clue how to use. Put bluntly, I need some time with a boatload of tutorials, Daz3d, and whatever engine I choose, to sort of if it's realistically possible for me to do animations in the upcoming new game.

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Next up is the New Game Polls. A few days from now (after I get the regular polls up and give them a few days to get a running start), I will be booting up the first and most important poll regarding the New Game to replace Chastity Quest. The first one will run for a full two weeks and will be about which of the three New Concepts(Wayfarer Station, The Starship Promise, Left Hand Magic) will be chosen for development. After that, at least two additional polls will run, possibly three (depending on which game is chosen). They will be related to Art Style, Male/Female protagonist, and Futa Content inclusion. Each one will run for around a week each, meaning they will wrap up sometime in the middlish of next month. Essentially, just in time for me to start planning for October's first release of the new game. 

These polls will have a MAJOR influence on the direction this Patreon Page takes over the next 1-2 years, so please make sure you vote in them when they pop up! I will be running separate polls for Patrons and the Public, with the votes coming from Patrons weighing significantly more than the public votes. Retaining as many as possible of my amazing current patrons, by ensuring you guys are happy with the direction I will be steering the ship, is a high priority!

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Aside from these differences, the rest of the month should look fairly familiar. We have (hopefully) the very last build of Chastity Quest. The 'hopefully' bit is just about whether I manage to squeeze in all the remaining content needed into a single build. I currently believe, baring major mishaps, that such will be possible. If not...well, we'll deal with that if it comes to it. There are a couple of different ways it could be handled, each with pros and cons.

 The monthly wallpapers for Royalty Tier members are actually rendering right now (or, the first attempt at one of them is), and I will be posting the polls for the Short Story and Comic tomorrow. And...that should be everything? I hope! Sorry for the long read guys, but this is going to be the start of several crazy-packed months!