An update on my status and the status of the latest Update

First, I absolutely hate all those corporate C-19 statements. Times are tough. People are sick and dying. Shit really sucks. At this point, we all know, and you don't need me to tell you that.

Second, guys, I'm not dead. Really. I don't like revealing too much about my personal life, because, frankly, most of you really don't/shouldn't care. But it may be helpful here. I have two day jobs. One is essential. One is can be done remotely. My wife's job can also be done remotely. Shortly after my last update, things went absolutely crazy in very short order. My wife's job, and my primary job were both moved to remote work. For both of us, this actually meant more work. A lot of it. In very short order. My hours for my second job were reduced. We have two computers: a desktop - my development computer, and an old Thinkpad- my work computer. During the day, I'm on my laptop and my wife is on the desktop. That's the whole day. I don't have much of a chance to work until very late in the evening, usually well past midnight. Any artwork that needs to be created or manipulated simply can't be done on my old Thinkpad. The files are far too large for the amount of RAM installed. During this impromptu quarantine, my wife has begun staying up later, and working longer hours. This effectively reduces the amount of time I have to work on the game. Any time I have devoted to the game since late March has had to come out of my sleep. It's not great.

Third, I haven't had much time at all to devote to ANYTHING in the evenings. I don't post much during these periods and I usually don't even check my email or patreon. There's simply no time. Responding to emails and writing posts can take a lot of time, and I simply haven't had much of it. I've devoted every moment I could to development. If you've sent me messages or emails since then, I haven't seen them. I know it's frustrating, and for that I apologize, but I've been making a lot of tough decisions lately and prioritizing my "free time" has been another of those tough decisions. For the past couple of months, I've been working until I literally can't anymore, and in the next few paragraphs you'll see why. I'll go through my messages and email later tonight and answer as many as I can.

Development:

“Just what have you been spending all that time on?” you may ask. In short, a lot. There’s an opening scene from “Malcolm in the Middle,” that perfectly sums up my work over the past 2 months. Hal comes home from work, flips the light switch on only to discover that the lightbulb is out. What follows is a string of events wherein one problem reveals another and another, until his wife Lois comes home to discover that the light bulbs isn’t changed. She ask Hal why he hasn’t changed the bulb yet, and Hal, who is now under the family car working on the transmission, covered in oil, responds in exasperation, “What does it look like I’m doing!” What have I been working on? Well, I’ve been changing a lightbulb.

The deepthroat training system I began working on in late January took significantly longer than I thought, as did the new work system, but for the Deepthroat Training System, I wanted there to be lasting effects from the training that would carry over from scene to scene. This lead me back to the problem I had with the Enhanced Discipline System: I couldn’t effectively edit the art assets for Ms. Pennyworth because I’d coded all of the scenes in the game for specific images that would not layer well. Let me be clear, when I began working on Bitch Breaker, I had absolutely no idea how to code. I knew how to display simple images, play music, and handle simple conditionals. This lead me to, for lack of a better term, brute forcing a significant amount of content through sheer force of will. If you’ve seen the code for the game, you know there is a LOT of it, and it’s really, really dumb. Which brings me back to changing that lightbulb.

I realized that in order to implement those new systems in the way that I wanted, I would have no choice, but to redo the image system for the entire game. Rather than displaying a static image for Ms. Pennyworth, the game now calls a dynamic, layered image that changes with variables. This means that I can now freely implement all the body modification, custom clothing, hair, and dynamic content I can think of. And all I had to do is rewrite the entire game. Every single scene. At the moment, I’m about 30,000 lines in, but back to changing that lightbulb.

Because I had now made all of the primary images dynamic, I needed to go back and add all of those dynamic options to all the other art assets where Ms. Pennyworth appears, which meant completely redoing ALL of that as well. Every CG needed to be redone, and while I was doing that, why not fix longstanding errors, and enhance those scenes now that I know what the fuck I’m doing. Are you beginning to see a pattern?

At them moment, the entire game is scattered apart in the garage, I’m dripping with grime, and I’m still changing that goddamned lightbulb.

Now, after all that, let me also say that it’s worth it. I’ve known that it’s something I’d have to do eventually, and that I wouldn’t be able to put it off forever. The work has been titanic, but the good news is that I’m almost there. I’ve added new system and made the game much better in the process. I’m genuinely really excited for you guys to see it.

Finally, in the interest of not going full Peter Molyneux, manage your expectations. There’s some cool new stuff, but it’s still basically the same game.

A few new systems:

Pubic Hair: Pubic hair is now dynamic. It grows and changes dynamically. At a certain Submission threshold, you can even tell Ms. Pennyworth how to style it.

Hair: At a certain stat threshold/story point, you’ll be able to dictate how Ms. Pennyworth styles her hair. This has stat effects that may affect scenes.

Bruising: If you get carried away with The Way of the Caveman, you will leave bruises which increase dynamically and fade over time. These bruises appear in four key zones: Face, Chest, Body, and Ass. These bruises have stat effects that may affect scenes.

Clothing: You can now buy clothes for Ms. Pennyworth and convince her to wear them. There are stat effects connected to the clothing which can have an impact on scenes.

Oh, and I also slightly updated Ms. Pennyworth's body to better reflect her personality. She's pretty fit now.

Pending systems:

Pregnancy: this system is mostly in place and awaiting the progression of the main game.

Breast Augmentation/Alteration: this system is pending. The basic code is in place to allow for it if there is enough interest.

Piercing: Body piercings are ready to be implemented and awaiting progression of the main game.

Tattoos: Tattoos are ready to be implemented and are awaiting progression of the main game.

I'm sure this post is riddled with errors, but it's the end of a long, long night, and I haven't slept in over 24 hours. To all of my patrons struggling through these strange times along with me, stay safe keep being the awesome people I know you are.