November's behind the scene

Hello everyone, Keyko here, back with our monthly discussion about progress. October was one of my busiest months as I’ve mentioned in passing when we dumped Dylan 4, sorry about those little issues, there were a few I’ve noticed AFTER releasing and I was, like, damn. How did I not see that?! They’re already fixed by now, but I felt bad, especially when the sprites break, those kill the mood the most for me.

Someone during a Q&A asked me, it was a genuine question, if the writer had changed or something and I’ve realized the implications behind that question just recently. It was like the opposite of a backhanded compliment. My writing has improved so much that the old one feels written by a completely different person and I can’t blame them for it. I don’t recommend it, but if you read the new Day 2 over the old one you’d notice a HUGE jump in quality. Which is why I’ve been fidgety about keeping this update on Patreon. It should be out there and improve everyone’s experience but I gotta endure until November 9th. I wanted to release it on Anniversary Day.

Speaking of— Anniversary. I’ve decided to tease a CG, but I won’t be the one picking. I thought I’d make a poll and see what the majority wants to see. Blake wins? You get a future Blake CG teased. I will also announce that I’m down to increase the amount of art across updates. We’ve been steadily offering one illustration each update, but it could be two sometimes, like, we’re growing. We have a stable 150, sometimes it goes a little lower, sometimes it gets higher. So I can’t do two all the time, but I will when the opportunity arises. I’m hoping to touch the 200 ceiling, that way I’ll have less wallet pulls for me to do. The third announcement is about Liam. His D4 will be the first route with a triple CG in it. He’s scheduled for next year, so it's gonna take a while, but this is my way of saying that I’m doing all I can to improve this project. I’m willing to get down and dirty, to go back and dive into old content and fix it all, which I did, we’re almost there. N2s and early D3s are left. Then… we’re fully caught up? No way. It sounds like a dream to me.

And, little addition, I’ve been buffing old content with additional CGs as well (Liam N3, Dylan 3A) I felt like they deserved it. Those scenes were important enough to earn that PUNCH. I’m sure there are many such cases and I can’t always do that, but I will when things move favorably our way.

For December you’re getting Ryan 5. Why? My husband likes Ryan. It’s my gift to him. Ok, a more serious reason is assets. Other routes demand new characters to be designed and they’re not ready. My husband is busy with work and can only make a new sprite sheet a month, I don’t want to overwork him when I can work on something else in the meantime. He also works for free and, if any of you commissioned before, making a brand new character from nothing is expensive. Making 5 sprite poses for it is also expensive. He… also paints them. I’m sure he’d be down to speed things up for emergencies but we’re not in need. We steadily release an update every month, which is the most active a VN can be, right?

Phew, I think I got it all out? I wish to remind everyone that most of these changes, these upgrades come from you approaching me, talking to me and I learn, absorb more knowledge and get better at it. Do not be afraid of reaching out if you have anything to say. It’s my job to filter through feedback and be like, yeah this is useful/isn’t.

Ok, concluding this devlog with… him. This is Eric. Who is Eric? You know, but you don’t know. He’s mentioned, not by name because it’s not a name he likes to say or even remember.