Straight!? The Road Ahead...

So we'll generically say that v0.017 ends with a cliffhanger and most of you are already half crazy with what's going to happen next. We have a ton of new faces around here so I wanted to bring some of you up-to-date with how this process works from a writing standpoint and what to expect from things moving forward for the game and the Patreon page. There's a lot to cover here so I'll break it down into sections. For those that don't want all the details and hate reading my nonsense, I'll drop a summary paragraph at the end for a quick read.

v0.018 Plans and Outlines

To write this story properly, we have to construct an outline. During the earlier parts of the game, the outlines were less detailed for a litany of personal reasons, but as you may have noticed (particularly if you've played v0.017), the story has become increasingly more woven together with hints that were dropped a long time ago. Essentially, we're starting to get to the point that we should be connecting dots. We should be seeing more of those previously unimportant conversations start to prove more meanginful in addition to some of the world-building and background content they provided about our characters. So moving forward, we need increasingly detailed outlines for the next few chapters-- so much in fact that we may be looking at outlining the rest of the game out generically to make sure things fall into place (Ideal goal). I've done this in the past several times, usually it's every 2 or 3 updates. For those that have been around for awhile, we did this back before v0.16 and outlined v016 and v017 together for obvious reasons now. It typically means that we switch the Overview tab progress to show where we are on outlining rather than actual game development.  That format may change several times as we figure things out. Ideally, I want to be able to present to the community a final chapter count and a final update count so we can emotionally plan accordingly--but we'll see how it actually goes. If we can't get that far--I'm not going to push it. This story has tons of surprises in it and that's mostly because we've left things flexible during the writing process.So don't expect much in the way of visible update progress over the next month or so. This shit has to work, folks and hopefully you saw how much this process paid off for v0.017. 

At this point, we're moving towards the finale prep, something that is a summation of writing terror, excitement, hope, but sadness at the same time. I've said it before but this game is a commitment--both for the creators and the readers. There is no reason for a player to sink this much time into a story only to have the ending flop. So we're going to take our time and make sure it works. Make sure it kicks like Bruce Lee and everything is tied up nicely as it should be. Now that everyone is good and nervous after v0.017, my vision is for that anxiety to pay off. We're not done yet, folks.

Patreon Stuff for 2020

So I'm kind of excited about the Patreon content for this year. While the story is always the main focus, we have to fund this project somehow--and that's where the Patreon donations come in. I refuse to charge for this project and I refuse to put ads into anything associated with it. It will purely be developed by a lead developer with a passion to tell the story, bolstered by his friends/dev team that have a passion to help him out, and funded by readers/fans with a passion for it. But, there's obviously a lot to juggle with that. We're going to try and spice up the Patreon content and add some new things this year. 

 Selfies: Expect more selfies to be released--most likely every month. We may actually change these to reflect a difference between Selfies pictures (more actual 1st person shot that look like they're taken with a phone) and have more "pin-up" third person shots but with the same ideas as the selfies. Originally, the selfies were supposed to be offscreen things that occurred in the game that were actually canon; but at some point they sorta become more fantasy pin-ups for fun and 3D art practice. So to clarify that, we may split monthly Patreon rewards into categories of selfies vs. pinup shots. That'll switch things up and give us more options to play around with.

 Wallpapers: Some have commented on the cinematic feel of v0.17, which I really liked and was really proud of. We may be turning some shots into official wallpapers and stuff. These may include existing CGs or custom ones just for funsies. More on that later.

 Behind the Scenes: So we get a ton of questions on the Discord "Ask Us" channel from people about the game development. I used to use the Tumblr blog for developer diary sorta stuff but Tumblr is pretty lame now that they censor content (don't get me started...) so I'm moving away from that platform because I really don't want to give them any attention. But I'm considering taking some of the common questions about game development as well as interjecting some personal stuff about the game/motivations/background/inspiration that fueled the project in the first place. Some of you are just really curious about the process. So we will be doing a series on Behind the Scenes stuff to include some common themes and questions people have about the game over the years. This could include screenshots of how the characters are made, diary notes on character concept, funny dev team stories, and even outtakes from us playing pranks on each other. It will also include more detailed and complete answers to common questions like "is Str8 a real story?", "Are Zack and Braden based on real people," or "Why did you choose the adult genre" or things like that. So I'm kind of excited for this part because I think it will reward fans of the game with an in-depth look at the process--think of it like watching some of those documentaries they have on your favorite Blu-ray movie...that kinda idea...

Patreon Merch

So a few months ago, Patreon started actually allowing us to sell merchandise through the Patreon site. This could include stuff like coffee mugs, t-shirts, posters, keychains and shit like that. We haven't looked into it in-depth yet but we're curious if there's an overwhelming interest in it. Like much of this process, things like that would require an investment by me ahead of time and I already got decimated by taxes so I want to make sure there's a decent amount of interest for something like this if we were going to actually do it. 

Patreon Content Ideas?

We're also looking for ideas or feedback from you guys on what you would like to see for Patreon-specific content. Keep in mind that we don't want to take too much time away from development but if you have things that you would like to see on the page/rewards, hit us up in the comments, the Discord, or send me a message if you want more privacy. 

Summary

1. The Overview tab will temporary show outlining progress with me needing to do another full playthrough. Expect minimal actual game progress for the short -term because we need to play things out.

2. Patreon site 2020 will include more selfies and may divide the previous selfies into selfies and Pin-up shots to make them separate. This may also include custom wallpapers. We will also start a Behind-the-Scenes series on the Patreon to answer more personal questions about the game and show game development shots periodically.

3. Patreon is now allowing merch. Would you be interested in purchasing merchanise associated with the game like keychains, t-shirts, posters, etc?

4. We're also looking for more ideas for what you want to see on the Patreon page in terms of rewards. 

So please post any feedback, thoughts, etc. in the comments or hit us up on the Discord or you can DM us for privacy. Thanks again for the support for this thing. Y'all will never know the impact of what you've done for me. 

-Aaryn