Development Update #36 - Plans for the Open Alpha.

Hello there everyone. I'm here today writing this new development update for you all to understand what I'm working on these couple weeks.

So you all already know I'm working on the extra routes for Karnal's third day. With them, all the new expressions will be added back to the game so no more having to read what he's expressing you will be able to see it.

But, as much as I want these routes to be good they are not satisfying me enough, so I did a small pause on them to work a little on something extra:

-- The Animations:

I'm thinking of adding a new animation to all the portraits. To do so, I need to work properly and calmly not to broke the code, but essentially I want that every time a portrait is shown, at their eyes blink. To do that, Wagner will need to draw the eyes open and close, the more "frames" he draws the more detailed the animation can be. However, there are bigger plans for the art of the game, so I decided to push the animation process to a later date since I'm working on a very tight budget and Wagner's being a cutie pie to me by working with me on this game, I cannot just overload him with work. So for now I will make him work on the backgrounds. Especially some new backgrounds that are needed to Day 1 and 2 with Wagner and Karnal to look completed. 

-- The backgrounds:

Right now we need the following backgrounds to be completed OR re-designed entirely for Day 1 and 2 (or day 2 and 3 on the game save info), so the routes can look "completed": 

The Tennis Court (and some variations if possible).

The Beach and Beach Stall.

The Park and The Clearing.

The Hotel Restaurant, Hotel Reception and Lobby (which are in the same area but from a different angle so the player can actually see the waiting area where people can sit and talk with each other there), the Elevator Lobby and Inside the Elevators. 

In the end, we have around ten backgrounds that need to be designed. and that's a lot. But I think they are all necessary for the next step:

-- The Open Alpha.

So you all know that I'm planning an Open Demo for years now. The Open Demo would be the only release for the game that would be available for the public. But I noticed that with the peacing of the game I won't be able to release it so soon, and it's not your fault guys. Sadly I don't have a job outside this game anymore, so I don't have any extra revenue to invest in the game, and I can't demand free sh** from the artist either, that's just fucked up. In the end, the pacing which the artwork is being made is more and more slowly than I wanted and I don't want to stay another year without a public something for people to check how the project is going.  Since I trust this project has potential and I know all of you do too,  if not I wouldn't have patrons with me for more than sixteen months now (no matter how much they give me I'm glad I can count on them for so long), I want this game to succeed. But everything in life revolves around money, to get the money I need more Patrons, to get more Patrons I need a better preview open to anyone who wants to check it. 

So instead of waiting to have enough content for the first three days of the game (excluding the Day 0), which would add at least six to ten more backgrounds to the game, I decided to create the Open Alpha.

The open alpha is the first "demo" of the game, but instead o being a demo, it will be exactly that: An alpha open for the public. BUT, don't misunderstand me, please: This is not an alpha I will keep updating like the closed alphas, no, no. Bu the time it's released I will name it a Demo too, probably Demo 0.5 or something like that, because I will only make another demo, the 1.0 for everyone to play later, and that Demo is the original demo I wanted:

Let's compare a little for you guys to have an idea:

The Original Demo, the  1.0 that I wanted to create would have:

Three entire days completed for Karnal and Wagner:

Which would include:

• All the backgrounds for the three days completed, and the third day would have at least two special scenes for Wagner and Karnal.
• Sound Effects for any animations, and for comedic relief sometimes.
• Better Music for at least the Intro of the game.
• A Credits section at the end of the Demo.

The Open Alpha I want to release that will be named Demo 0.5 will include:

• Day 1 and 2 for Wagner and Karnal's Routes.
• A Credit for the game.
• A Redesigned Credit Game intro.

What is the Redesigned Credit Game intro though? Well, it's simple: I want to, before the main menu to start, to play a little music with all the Patrons who helped the project so far. I want to color them by the time they are helping me, so any patron who's with me for a year or more would have a yellow glow and bouncing name. That would also apply to any Tier 4 patron with more than five months and any tier 3 with more than ten months helping as those tiers. Any tier 2 and 1 patrons helping for more than fifteen months will also be glowing yellow and bouncing. By this little opening act, a huge Thank you Message will be displayed for any nonpatron who access this Demo to understand: The game only exists because of you all. Especially those who are with me from the beginning and are helping me for such a long time. I'm still in the process of designing this screen and how it will work and impact on the game, but I think it's time for this to happen.

However, I can only finish this and release it to the public with the Backgrounds finished. So that's what I'll be asking Wagner to do right now.

The Start game screen will also feature some differences in that version, for example, The Change Log window will be gone from it, and the usually Credits Window will be a button before the "Exit" button and with a different color scheme so anyone can click it anytime.

On the small bar below, I will try to add a better Patreon Link to make it more evident there and also a link for Wagner's and My own twitter webpages. 

Those changes to the Main Menu will probably reflect on the current alphas too, It all depends on the way Godot allows me to do it. If I can do it separately and just hide the new buttons and show the older ones, I will see what will look better for an alpha. We'll see. 

As I said, this all takes some time to develop, but what I'm sure it will take more time to do is the backgrounds. However, as soon as I can finish the Demo 0.5 or internally here for the patrons what I like to call it: The Open Alpha before the final Demo, I'm sure this will help us grow a lot since after that All nonpatrons will be able to have a version of the game they can share to any friends and people can get interested in the project enough to start helping.

And I won't lie, if we could get to half of the amount some Furry Visual Novels are making weekly over there on Patreon, whelp I would be able to even hire another artist to work on the backgrounds alone and make Wagner work only on the Sex scenes and Bonding Scenes for this game instead, I would even be able to pay for actual music on the game instead of relying on free stuff I cannot edit on the internet without being sued. 

Just a friend is not a visual novel super big. BUT it's a big enough project that takes tons of time and dedication to finish it. With three playable separate routes, with three characters with different personalities that will make you as the player to know more about the main character, Aiden a bit more on every route, this game will give people a good amount of time of gameplay. And that's not even considering the possibility of cameo appearances between the routes, for example, there's a wolf on the Beach, a Tigress on the Hotel, another Wolf on the Pool, a Cheetah on the Bar, that could easily be changed in gender and even species to be a cameo character from some patrons in the future as a new tier 5+ limited content with some rules I already explained before here. Hell, this game has enough areas that I could make another two new routes with new characters if I wanted. But the scope is already too big right now with the amount we make and I can't try to bite more than I can chew right now.

So, for now, I want to thank you all, and I want you all to know this:

Karnal's route will be finished, don't worry. I'm working on an early demo with less content but that will be also a celebration of all you guys who are helping and helped this game and I want to make this demo to focus on that first before the game starts. 

There are some modifications I need to make, and I don't want them to influence the current Alphas we have for the patrons who are constantly being updated here on Patreon, so I need to be careful about how I make these. But I'll do. Let's just hope all the backgrounds can be worked quite fast, I'm also asking Wagner not to make those heavily detailed backgrounds because right now, I don't have enough money for that, and I don't think he would be able to finish ten heavily detailed backgrounds in two or three months, sadly. But we'll see how we manage it.

Again: Thank you all for your help. I'm gonna work harder than I'm doing already to finish this milestone, we desperately need something out to the public and it needs to look as much finished as possible, and I DO NOT want to release a game with Blank or Sketch backgrounds! 

So, again, again(TM), thank you all for your help all these months! See you all later.