Blog XXII - 0.04.00 Update and July Retrospective

Hey, everyone! Fae here through all the shitfuckery that’s been happening with Itch to bring another monthly retrospective blog post, as well as the latest major update for you glorious Patreon supporters! As per the usual we’ll start with the update notes, and then we’ll move into the retrospective and transparency update for July. Let’s get into it all!

For Itch:

Hey, everyone! Fae here through all the shitfuckery that’s been happening with Itch to bring another monthly retrospective blog post! There’s no update to the public build today, sorry (but there is a major update on the Patreon, so maybe if you’re inclined to help the project out over there…) but that’s no excuse not to keep up my public-facing accountability efforts. So let’s get right into it!

V0.04.00 Update Notes

Day 4 has arrived, and it’s a bit bigger than you might expect! What all is here today?

- Day 4 Part 1: Take part in your shift aboard the Dreamer, which may be very different depending on if Rael’s made a mess of some things. Proceed right into the second half of the day, with new social and Event scenes for time with Anwill, Caleia, and Sam.

- New CGs: New Event scenes means a new chance to get intimate with a member of the crew. Six new CGs are available to be discovered by enterprising (and spicy) readers!

- Credits Update: Once more, the credits have been updated to reflect the state of Patreon’s support as of the night before the update proper. Thanks so much once again for all of you who have chosen to help support Void Dreaming!

- Bugfixes and Typo Corrections: As ever, there’s been some more corrections throughout the story so far to tidy things up. There’s also been some corrections to Caleia’s first Event scene since some CGs weren’t showing up properly in certain circumstances.

Do note that if you’re hanging out for Bromm’ka’s game night, fear not! You’ll not be experiencing it today, but the vast majority of Day 4 Part 2’s release will contain the adventure he’s prepared for Mizz, Tulemeni, Zuberi, and yourself. You’ll also have to wait another month to see just how the day itself ends…

State of Affairs

Without mincing words, July has been a very trying month. Obviously the Itch situation has made things incredibly frustrating, but life in general has been just a lot lately. We’ll see if August is a bit better, but in the meantime, I’m still hard at work! Let’s see what all I got done!

- Since the initial release, Void Dreaming’s various versions have been downloaded from Itch.io just under 8000 times now. I fully expect the rate of downloads to taper off somewhat despite now being reindexed, but at least for the moment the Itch shitshow actually resulted in a lot of traffic for people trying to get a hold of everything before the inevitable Itch purge begins.

- Void Dreaming’s rating there is also holding steady. Readers are happily keeping it at that overall 5 star rating that, yes, it’s still just technically 4.9) thanks to your kind ratings. Of the 208 total reviews, 199 of those are those incredible 5-star ratings; so close to 200! Thank you all, so very much, for showing Void Dreaming such love and appreciation!

- Meantime, the Patreon continues to grind along and draw support for Void Dreaming as well. While we’ve not seen much growth on the Patreon this month (we are currently on 206 subs, including 37 who are subbed at the higher Officer tier) the project is still in a pretty good position. To everyone here supporting Void Dreaming, once again my most heartfelt thanks and gratitude go out to you. I hope I can continue to be worthy of your support!

- Over on the Discord, the poll results have been very telling! More will be coming as the year continues, but we’ve now got a delightful 207 members chattering away. It’s been wonderful to talk with the readers there and see how people are finding the story, and life in general.

- And finishing up with the Void Dreaming Bluesky page, we’re now up to 865 followers! It’s a wonderful way to stay up to date with what I’m doing, with other cool VN projects, awesome fanart and, more lately, the incandescent fury that comes with authoritarian censorship. Fun!

Transparency - August 2025

It’s time to give the monthly transparency update! It’s the start of a whole new month, so where are we at now that we’re getting into August?

Writing and Programming

- Day 8 writing and programming continues apace! I’ve been implementing a bunch of little scenes and a few of the more major ones for good measure. I didn’t get as much done this month as I would have liked, but I still feel good about where I’m at. I’d say I’m about 60% of the way through the writing and programming of Day 8. I’m definitely not halfway through the Day 8 Part 2 writing, but I’m close enough (and have budgeted enough extra time) to feel comfortable.

- I had originally intended to get the planning and initial writing for Skipracer, the short story for Patreon’s October update done this month, but that was shunted in favour of prepping a lot of things in the background for Day 8. Seriously, Day 8 is a nightmare for me and I really hope everyone appreciates it when we get there!

- Fortunately, updates haven’t been too necessary this month. There’s been a lot of minor fixes in the background as noted in the update notes for the 0.04.00 build, but nothing that needed immediate tending to. Huzzah!

- While there’s those few bugfixes in place for the 0.04.00 update on Patreon, nothing is particularly bothersome for the Itch build; it’ll be getting a full bugfix pass with the Day 3 release in a month’s time!

Art Assets

- Rico’s had so much going on this month and so hasn’t got the next batch ready, but I’m confident that the next batch of backgrounds will be ready to go by the update next month! In the event that they aren’t ready, please be kind to him; he’s doing a lot of stuff behind the scenes and he has my full confidence. I won’t be delaying the next update, but some backgrounds may need to be added in later to account for real life shenanigans. I know you’ll all be understanding if it comes to that. You’re all so awesome, and he has good reason to have delays!

- Day 4 CG work from Vallhound is complete and implemented and looking damn good as you’ll see once it’s in your hot little hands. Y’all are in for a treat with this one! Further, I expect to broach the subject of further CG and splash screen batches with Vall this month to be completed in the months to come. Exciting!

Project Finances

- Patreon’s earnings are pretty steady; while the sub count hasn’t changed much since the end of June, the end of July has seen the monthly income sit at a comfy AUD$1.6K per month. That we didn’t really lose too many subs with the short story update has been really, really encouraging, and it’s absolutely wonderful to know that I have the confidence of the supporters (and if I don’t, please do know I’m always here to accept criticism and suggestions).

- My personal funds are finally coming out of the weird spot that they’ve been in lately. Through it, a cost I was looking forward to incurring with my personal money has been taken off my account’s shoulders (thanks dad, once again I’m incredibly grateful!), leaving me in a far more manageable position than I expected to be around now. Further, there’s been a little good news on the front of my tax returns; it’s looking healthy enough to fully fund what I need for the next set of art, so as soon as that money comes in, it and the Patreon will be drained for yet another surge!

- On that note, there may be some changes to Void Dreaming’s behind-the-scenes operations in the near future. Might be registering myself as a business with all the shitfuckery that it entails, building an actual official name around all the work I’m doing… it’s a lot. My immediate future is going to be very busy. These are all good things, mind! My ability to handle all of the financial side of this better just means that more of the money supporters (and I) put into this project can be reinvested into bigger and better things! Running Void Dreaming at an overall loss might, for the moment, actually be the best thing I can do!'

August’s Goals

- Finish most (if not all) of Day 8 exploration content.

- Continue refining Day 8 programming; this shit is the most complex system I’ve built

- Full testing regiment for Day 4 Part 2 content

- Finish initial draft for Skipracer and dispatch to beta readers

- Arrange next CG batch with Vallhound for Day 5 content

- Further investigate potential UI update if finances allow (OOOH!)

Upcoming Main Updates:

Sep 6th: Day 3 - Wraiths (Public Release), Day 4 Part 2 (Patreon Release)

Oct 4th: Short Story Skipracer (Patreon Release)

Nov 1st: Day 5 - Mendacity Part 1 (Patreon Release)

Release Plan Status: On Target

I’ll be honest, I thought I was going to be reporting a much messier set of figures when I got here. Being able to scroll back a few lines and see the release plan status as still being on target is incredibly affirming. Knowing that despite the scale of Void Dreaming I’m not only keeping up with my release schedule but keeping enough money coming in to ensure there’s art flowing in as needed is absolutely wonderful. Similarly, the financial situation I’m in right now potentially allowing me the chance to actually establish proper UI for the project is immense.

To that, I’ve actually spoken with Vallhound about the future of the project, since I know a lot of people are worried about its scale and my ability to continue to roll it out as aggressively as I have been. In case you all would like a little bit more of a window into what goes on behind the scenes, I crunched some numbers during this month and made some assumptions about income moving forward. I was able to plan out a lot of different pieces that would be necessary from Vall, ran through the existing costs based on what I paid for other similar work from him, and if everything holds then we’ve got CGs, splash screens, non-spicy CGs for important moments coming up, not only sprites for new characters but new sprites for the whole core cast as well. Thirteen months worth of planning is in place to ensure the art assets will be there, and this planning is viable if the support for the project holds steady. That’s right: I’ve planned the art for the project as far in advance as the writing, and it all looks very doable!

So if you’re worried that Void Dreaming is too much for one crazy man to do… you’re right. But I’m doing it anyway and, thus far at least, it’s all looking a lot more stable than the author! I’m not letting a little thing like sanity get in my way, thank you very much!

But that’s all for now! Expect bugfixes and typo corrections as needed; I’m sure some have slipped the net. With any luck it won’t go as badly as last time; I’ve prepared a lot better for this one… and we’ll see if I eat those words very shortly. I hope you all enjoy this first look into Day 4 of Void Dreaming, and don’t worry. There’s still so, so much more to see coming up soon.

Until then, stars guide you.

- Faora