End-of-Year Update & Plans Ahead

Hi!

We are very close to the holidays and the end of the year, so it’s a good time to sum up the last DLC, the whole year, and share a small plan for next year. Let’s start with the most recent thing – the DLC.

The reception was pretty much what we expected. It was mostly positive and many people liked it. The only exceptions were players who did not like the premise itself – the magical, holiday, wizard-like theme (probably the same people who don’t like the D&D arc). This was our idea from the very beginning, and I’m happy with how we delivered it. The story was simple and straightforward, with one main line, a small side plot, some funny twists, and a bit of naughtiness. As I mentioned before, there was no corruption theme in this DLC. Because of that, it was a bit separate from the main story. The world itself also has both fans and critics. That’s why this DLC was not directly connected to the main plot and was meant to be just a fever-like Christmas dream of Riley.

I also want to respond to the criticism that this DLC was a cash grab and that we released it while the main game is not finished yet... Yes, you are right. We could have waited one or two more years until the main game was done. However, we do not want to increase the price of the main game, and we also don’t want to release it in episodes with extra costs like many other Adult Visual Novels. If you bought Steps of Debauchery, you will get access to the final game in the future with no hidden fees. The money from the DLC helps us continue working on the game and improving it, which I hope you can see in both renders and animations. I understand your frustration, but the DLC is optional. You don’t need it to fully enjoy the game. For me personally, it was a break from working on SoD. Even though we used the same characters, it felt fresh and helped me avoid burnout and monotony. I don’t regret this decision. You may disagree with me, but I would do it again. That said, we are not planning another DLC right now. All future updates will focus on the main SoD story.

Now I’d like to briefly sum up our year 2025. For me, it was a very intense and interesting year, with many ups and downs. My emotions were all over the place. I couldn’t always fully focus on the project, but there wasn’t a single day when I didn’t work on it. A lot happened in my life, like my second job as a firefighter, which I eventually quit to focus on SoD, my wedding with the woman I love, and a few other happy or less happy events.

Even so, I’m happy with what we created this year: 3 updates plus the DLC. My original goal was to make 12,000 renders in total, which we didn’t fully reach. Still, we made around 10,000 renders in 2025 alone, which I think is a good result. I also had some creative burnout and fell into a bit of routine. Working on the DLC helped me focus on something different, and now I feel motivated again to fully dive back into Riley’s story.

I also hoped we would find an extra person to help with rendering, but that didn’t happen. I don’t want to lower quality just to release updates faster. On the bright side, Lorefen joined us and helped with basically everything: language mistakes and typos, easier script work, Q&A, and active developer relations. Thanks a lot, Oskar!

Now let’s move smoothly to our plans for 2026. We slightly changed direction. At first, we planned two different endings with a few branches, but they didn’t fit well with the game’s overall light tone. We spent a lot of time improving this. With the new plan, the game will have 5 different endings with optional branches (I won’t explain exactly what that means yet).

We want your choices, even earlier ones, to matter. However, this won’t be a simple choice of love interests - you won’t directly pick an ending with Elijah, Ivy, or someone else, because it doesn’t fit our vision of Riley. I’ll stop here so I don’t spoil too much.

The endings will be fairly smooth and will share some scenes, so we don’t get lost during development and so new updates stay interesting for every route. What does this mean for you? More scenes and more Riley content than we originally planned. What does it mean for us? We definitely won’t finish the game by the end of 2026.

The number of updates will stay the same. We plan to release 6 or 7 more updates, but they will be bigger and released with more time between them. We also don’t want to stretch the game forever. The final version will definitely be released in 2027. What happens after that? Who knows? 🙂

That’s all for now. My team and I are taking a short holiday break, and then we’ll fully focus on Episode 5.1, which will be available around late February or early March.

Finally, I want to wish you all calm, joyful, and happy Christmas holidays. I hope you feel that little spark of joy, enjoy the moment, appreciate small things, and let your inner child take control a bit more often. All the best, and see you in the new year!