Dev-Update + Patreon Special

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen.

My last Dev-Update here was quite a while ago, which is mostly cause I didn't want to come here with empty hands... AGAIN!! But today I bring at least the promised mini-arc with Susan and Albert, focusing on how their story develops after the events of the lab assault.

Susan's Spark:

This scene is my special thanks to all the people supporting the development of Gina's Gym, even in times when there is no current update. I also used a few of the bucks from here to commission part of the writing, as to not slow down the progress on Gina's story too much. Well, and working with Beriya was fun again, so if everything goes to plan, we will continue to collaborate on Susan's arc for the Patreon-Version in the future too.
The new scene is reachable from the chapter select of "New Game". Overall it is relatively short with 1.4k lines, but at least something to ease the wait for Update 6... I hope...

Here is the link: https://ginas-gym.itch.io/ginas-gym-patreonversion/patreon-access


That being said, let me give you an update on how the big update 6 is progressing. Sadly most of the team, me included, had busy weeks, but we nonetheless did make some progress over the last month.

Writing:

We're sitting at 8k lines by now, covering the main questlines, new streams, exploration and a lot of dialogue. A few things are still missing, for example a few of Gina's dates. but overall I believe we could complete all the planned content in 10k lines of pure text. I will still decide if the end of Xici's redemption story will be part of this and which girl gets to grow (a few are already set, but Gina 6 for example isn't decided yet). My current plan is to make those two scenes into a separate update, like the lab assault, and release update 6 earlier, but we'll see.

Art: 

We are currently at roughly 100 unique images and a total of over 350, counting different expressions and such. Art is of course always the last part to get finished, so we can still decide how many soul-crushers we want to tackle. As always, we pride ourselves on our complex scenes, showing what's happening instead of simple telling, though we will see what is feasible while still getting the update out. Of course depends on how much I can pester Belg and Fourbe :D

Coding:

The data restructure is finished and the new Starting Point with Act 3 set. My play testers have started testing the old content and the old skip, to make sure the data restructure didn't mess up the old content. The new scenes are starting to get put together in the coming weeks, giving us a better overview on where possible issues could arise. Probably combat again... need a few new enemies, even if combat is not a big focus on this update. Or the new growth mechanics for the girls... but seems all doable until art and writing are completed.

Music:

I finally got a volunteer, who agreed to make a few pieces of music to implement. Not much to say otherwise, but I may do a few tests on the coming updates on how to best implement and use music and give further updates then.


Guess that's all, promise the next dev-update will not take a month.
Have a lovely week, and I'll stay in touch.


PS: Do not touch the "update 6" folder in the game's directory!! I did not sort out any images, so there are SPOILERS in there!! You have been warned!!