MoolahMilk Mondays 15

Hey peeps. 

Bad news, it's the last day of the month and I have to delay updates of 0.8 part two. 

I've been hoping to release this part by this month sadly, I think I'm about a week away. I will have to release this together with 0.9 on the month of November. 

I know, I'm just as disappointed as you are. But we are almost there. My mind is focused to complete season 1 by the end of the year so that we can move forward with the new system in season 2 next year. There will be restructure of patron tiers and episodic updates as I've detailed previously. I will explain more in post. 

It's regrettable but it has to be done. We just need to grind till season 1 is complete. 

Here is the post to update you guys on my process, some thoughts and information. 

As I have been getting many questions from you guys, I will detail all the information so far. I try to be concise but some peepos are new and haven't read previous post so I will try to summarize the stuff we've been talking about and I can just link them in this post when they msg me with common stuff. 

Before we continue to the post, just some TLDR of important info I want you guys to know!

TLDR: ***************

• I will allow claims up to version 0.9 (you currently have access up to 0.8part 1) Which means if you are leaving this month, you can message me on discord and I will still send the update to you when we release. 
• We are still on track to complete the season this year. 0.9 aimed for November and 1.0 Finale at end of year to celebrate NEW YEAR!
• For longer time patrons who are waiting for best time to continue playing, I recommend to wait till end of year to play the full season 1, it will be exciting. If you can't wait till then, 0.9 is okay to play as well because it will probably be the biggest update to date as it contains all the content for 0.8 part 2 that we were unable to release. 
• DM me on discord and I will try my best to reply to you. I can't get through patron messages as there is too many and it's hard to reply on patron. 

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UPDATE POST

• RECAP

Okay guys, I think some are confused as to where we are at and are waiting for 0.8 part 2. Especially patrons who just joined. 

 Let's recap our updates this year. 

We were supposed to release 0.8 update last month. The contents I had planned for 0.8 is the arc completion of Mia Pregnancy, Sophia Invisibility and Moon Date Events.

Some spoilers from images planned for 0.8 part 2**

Moon Date Event which introduce some Moon backstory and prepare her to be included in the house. 

Mia Pregnancy Event which displays pregnancy system in Maeve's lab

Sophia's invisibility event which introduce the superpowers and prepare for more Anomalies to be revealed in future. 

These three events will complete the arcs of all the main characters and prepare us for the finale which is Sage explosion. And it will end up with all 4 girls at the house. 

This put us in good position for Season 2 where we can start training mechanics. 

The plan was to complete these arcs for 0.8, finish the church event for 0.9 and then season finale to wrap everything up in 1.0. 

However, a problem begins when I had to add a huge portion into Sophia's event. Before Sophia event can be completed, the player needs to go to the bar to complete a quest, this bar even is meant to introduce the bar mechanics and complete the bar system with all the bar girls. 

Bar event 

 This bar event turns out to be very tricky as it includes repeatable in the bar toilet and the bar system. It is not a simple story event. 

The bar is one of the systems I want to continue in season 2 and it involves trainer mechanics. For example, the player can send the girls out to work and you can invite them to the bar toilet. It will allow for different costume to be worn and you can do various actions such as making money, and getting the girls to perform increasingly lewd actions in some type of trainer mechanics. It is important for me to get the base right before the full function can be apparent in season 2. 

Another complication is that the toilet involves MASSIVE amount of animations. I ended up grinding like a slave just to make these animations. Furthermore, I need to introduce the last bar character which hasn't appeared in the game yet. 

The last bar girl

I underestimated how much effort it required to make this and also I encountered various problems in the system that took me a long time to sort out. 

As such, I was unable to fulfil the promise to release 0.8 last month. Due to that, I decided to piece together some parts and release it as 0.8 part 1 instead so that you guys can check out some scenes and events (Which is why you see part1 and part 2) with the promise to release 0.8 part 2 this month. I've detailed all these issues in previous posts. 

I also faced further complications and issues. If you've played part 1, you would notice a flower minigame event with a group of kids in Moon's village. 

These kid's are important due to a major event that will happen in Sage's explosion. (I won't reveal the thing as it's a big spoiler).  Also, many seemingly insignificant details will be very important later in the game. 

At this point, the important thing is I need the player to feel attached to the kids before the finale event. The flower gathering event and final scene with Moon and her sister in the flowers is not enough to build relatability to the kids. I decided that I needed to add more events that involve the kids by throwing in a few quests so that the player can interact with them. 

I want the future scene to be impactful and a few scenes of the kids with a cute space humster (intentionally spelled hamster wrongly to elicit cute response)  is not enough to create emotional attachment in short period of time. 

Putting weird disabled orphan children that grab on your leg to gain sympathy from reader is cheap, below the belt tactic to gain fast emotional response but I do it anyway. 

Which leads us to the position we are in today, I have to delay the update once again. It is a feeling of so near yet so far. The problem is easily solved if I am able to just release events but due to the way the game is structured, I cannot release bits and pieces of events. I need to complete many things if that makes sense. If I continue to just release in order to meet the dead line, it will continue causing the problems we keep seeing up until now. 

My objective is just to complete the season and we can go to season 2 with all the new systems in place with a clear episodic structure. 

If only you guys can understand the position I'm in where it is so near yet so far. Like climbing up a mountain where you can nearly see the top but always never reaches!

Mia's Pregnancy Event

It is not straightforward. For example, I need to open the lingerie store so that players can start buying lingerie for season 2. I also need to complete the pregnancy system, which is why I need to add in those two characters you see in the store inside Mia's event. 

I hope you can understand how I feel, I want to release Mia's event but I have to sort out so many of these other stuffs. Besides, I also need to ensure that I can end those two events so that the player can have a lewd event. Make's sense? I have to constantly put out updates before the system can be established and because of the monthly pledge system, players are not patient to wait to see the full picture. 

Also, if I release, I need to take into account the coding and stats the player gather. If I just release the event, I need to put markers in the code so that when I finally finish the system, I need to refurbish it again. It really is better if I delay it and complete the systems first. 

It becomes a constant cycle of this which is why we have the game we see today. Which is why I have to say okay, I will release this part first, or this part first. it becomes a very inconsistent issue.

Countless people's comments who complaining about unable to finish certain parts of the game every update. But they don't look to see that as the game grows, new player can see the full picture and enjoy it more. As a result, I have to patch together systems and miss other parts and it just becomes a mess. 

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The weirdest part is we continue to grow faster and faster every month as the game progress despite ratings keep on going down and more negative comments come along. Which leads me to the conclusion that new players enjoy the game more and more but old players are unable to enjoy it every new update. 

So this leads to the decision to revamp the way I do episodes in season 2. I also really dislike the idea of having to cut corners and try to push out updates in this manner. I start to not enjoy making the game anymore as so many things I want to accomplish is unable to be done. 

I also want to address the issue of some people mentioning that I'm trying to delay the update by a month to get additional profits. Believe me it doesn't really work that way. Also, if my number 1 concern is profits, I will just continue releasing all these monthly updates. It's easy to do. 

If you notice our growth has stopped. Why? It's because I never release further episodes on online platforms. As a result, our top ranking continues to drop as there is to refresh of new players. Every time I release, there will be a huge wave of players who discover the game and because it's popular, it always mantain first page status. 

However, this is not how I want to continue to work on the game. As a result, I decide to bite the bullet and just push for the end of season. I am confident that by the end of the season, it will be worth it and players will be excited for the new season and we can get more players to come back. 

• Conclusion, Address to old time patrons. 

To end this post, I've noticed some same patrons from the first time DA is released and you guys are still with me till today. Thank you for supporting the game so far. 

Many patrons have been very encouraging and patient, and also supportive of the game. To all you guys I just want you all to know that I will push to the end for this game. 

The content I think is very good! So many events that I'm excited to release. Now we are also starting to get to good and exciting parts. 

Spoilers of deviant nuns from the church event in 0.9

 We just need to sort out the trainer systems and start our episodic release next season. Once we find our flow, we will be back on top again!

Do not worry, despite the challenges I won't let you guys down. I'm a player too and I promised the very first patrons when I started before that I will push hard and try not just to complete this game but also make sure this game is one of the top ones. So don't worry about the delays and be patient.  

At that time, nobody knows if this game will make it but now we are already top 100. If we didn't face all these problems the past few months I think we are easily in top 50 already. 

Turst me, I feel very sad as I don't want to disappoint the old timers who supported the game from the start and give me the chance to work on the game full time instead of just a hobby. 

Although we will get even more patrons if I just release the update, I think it's better for long term health of the game. Also better for my mental health as it is causing me a lot of stress to constantly play catch up. Let's just solve the problem here so that we can grow properly in future. I rather we stagnate now and lose a few patrons but be able to move forward smoothly, so please bear with the delay. It's not long. In November and December we will have big and nice updates in succession. Trust me the content is so good I really like some events I've made. 

All the patrons will come back in future anyway if the content is good! It's a marathon not a sprint. Furthermore, I really want to continue to do this beyond DA. So short term it really is insignificant. I just need to get the workflow and release structure down pat. It's only my first game and I learnt so much. 

Also, in future I will create games that can be sold on steam so the pressure to rely on patrons monthly will be less. (Although I am really concerned about the games that can be accepted into steam. I really hate the fact that developers are limited by what type of content we can make. Like it's just a game right? They force us to only release vanilla games and ban all the deviant games. To make it worse, they don't even tell us outright what games they accept. The rules are intentionally blurry and just the other day I was talking to this developer who spent 3 years to develop his game and in the end, it's rejected from steam store!) Anyway, I will stop ranting now and leave that problem for the future. 

And yes, some patrons I'm chatting with did mention they are not a big fan of DAZ style but it's because they haven't seen the art I can make with DAZ yet! Believe me it's really nice and if you like the art in this game you will love it I think. 

Regarding DA, I think the sadness will be worth it when all the things come together. All the things required is already here. I think the concept have proven to be attractive to players and we will only grow as we continue to put out updates in future. 

So guys, just be patient. Not long more! So many nun scenes that I'm excited to share as well! and of course the finale. I need to make sure the ending is good so that the players will stay for season 2. 

For those who are leaving this month (I know not everybody can afford to pledge every month) I highly suggest to wait till season 1 is finished before rejoining! That will be a really wonderful time to play the game. 

Also, from season 2 onwards, it will be much more worth it to be a monthly supporter as we will be able to establish nice episodes and various patron polls. So keep a look out when I update the patron tiers. 

My objective is to give something back to patrons as even though this game is free and I cannot sell it on steam when it's complete, at least it can be a community built game. You guys can vote on various things and factors. Once the trainer system is set up, we can start getting items and clothes and stuff so it's fun. 

Okay it's time for me to go. I hope I was able to explain the situation clearly. I will try to continue to make weekly updates but for the next few weeks, updates will be short and simple. Maybe I add in a few spoilers. I also have a cross promo with one of my best buddies coming up soon so look out for that! It really is a game worth playing while you wait for the next DA update. 

p/s: This two months will be crazy times for me, like really crazy so DM me on discord and wait for reply. Don't worry too much if I can't get back to you soon. I always mute discord to focus as I end up chatting with peoples all the time and hours fly by.

Speed is my energy!  

Much love 

MoolahMilk

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