Yearly Review / Info Dump 2 / Weekly Report 44

As the title says, this is a sort of yearly review and info dump. It'll also serve as this week's weekly report and give an outline of the current plans for this year, as well as a few things to potentially expect. This review will be wordy and a bit all over the place, so if you are purely interested in the weekly report type of information, feel free to skip to the end (after the dashed line).

This year marked the beginning of development for Goddess of Fart's Island (GoF Island). There's been issues here and there, especially in the past few months, but overall I am pretty satisfied with the progress made this year. My mindset so far has been to treat GoF as my first part-time job, and this mindset will likely continue into this year, although this mindset may need to change for reasons I will cover later. This is the first game development project I've done, and as someone that has struggled with longer projects in the past (anything past a few weeks), it has been a pleasant surprise that I have been able to continue working on GoF at a moderate rate so far. In fact, I attempted to start development for a game similar to GoF Island in the past. It took only a few weeks for me to drop it, so working on development for a year has been an accomplishment for me.

Back to GoF Island, I'm first gonna talk about release dates. I have a love-hate relationship with concrete release dates. On one hand, concrete dates serve somewhat as a motivator for me to keep some semblance of a schedule for developing the game. This actually is one of the reasons I do weekly reports as well, as I'll post what progress I'd like to make to have a short term goal to work towards, even if I don't accomplish it. It's not uncommon for me to not reach the amount of progress I'd like to each week, but I would likely being getting even less done if I didn't post these progress goals. That being said, due dates, at least for me, are stressful.

I am terrible when it comes to stress. I do not have good stress-handling methods, and it is abnormally easy for me to become stressed. The tiniest, tiniest things can make me stressed, and when I become stressed, the feeling lasts for hours, even days. It is incredibly difficult for me to work on the game when I'm stressed, and anytime I do try to work on it while stressed, I usually make so many errors that I have to spend the same amount of time making fixes that I spent working on it while stressed. Meeting release dates, and even weekly report goals can often become a source of stress. This, as well as making the assumption I'll be working in 'top condition' every day (when that's rarely the case), is why for last year many short-term progress goals, features, or release dates weren't met. One of the things this year I'd like to work on will be setting better progress goals by distributing what I work on when as more logical times, and being more reasonable with what I expect to complete week to week. That's not to say I'm going to be doing less purposefully, just using my time more efficiently and being more realistic with goals I set.

[To be clear, I am not posting info like what is above for pity. I want to state this information for players and patrons to be more informed on the 'type' of developer I am, and what issues I have during development and even what I consider issues. This information is provided so you can better decide whether to become a patron, or even follow development of the game at all.]

That being said, it might seem strange then to hear the next thing I'll be touching on is me experimenting with the release schedule for the next update. The next update, defeat / capture content, I would like to handle differently than updates so far. Previously, I have generally tried to determine an area or focus for an update, and then waited until it was completed before releasing it (the show content, and recent updates that had to be split are exceptions to this, of course). With this update, I would like to instead try just working on defeat / capture content for around two months, and release what is completed every month or so. The updates will be smaller since it's only around a month's work of development, but they will come out quicker. Depending on how development goes and how reactions with this method are, I may return to the previous schedule method or continue with this new method.

For the last bits of info about the schedule, I'd like to touch on what will be after the defeat / capture update stuff. Right after this update will be a month where I will not be working on GoF Island. For the month after capture / defeat content, I would like to try my hand at 3D content. Frankly, GoF Island is one of many games ideas I've had, and 3d content is another thing I'd really like to try making. That being said, I don't have much experience with 3d stuff at all. I would like to have some sort of short animation made during that month, but I may end up with nothing to show at all. If you are a patron only interested in GoF development, feel free to pause your subscription after the defeat/ capture content! I should resume working on GoF as normal after the month of 3d stuff. Besides that, at some point I might be putting up a poll for the next GoF update content for after the defeat/ capture update and the 3d content month.

Next I'll talk about the long-term overview of GoF Island as a whole. Essentially, right now the plans are for four playable characters, each following their own mostly independent story on the island. They'll generally start in their own area and can proceed through their story without leaving their story areas, but they will be able to go into other neutral areas or story areas for other characters optionally. Will this make dialogue a hassle for covering all interactions with each playable character? Yes. It is a bit much for a first solo project? Probably.

At least for now though, I'm sticking with it! There's a reason the version number is still so low. Assuming I proceed with the amount of content I want to make, the game is no where near finished.

The last thing I'll touch is not a certainty, but something to keep in mind. In the later half of this year, depending on circumstances, I may be taking on a part time or full time job. While I can't say for certain, if I do take on one, it is highly likely it will affect the release schedule. I won't make any definitive statements yet since I am unsure how that will proceed, but I'm getting it out there now so it's not a surprise if it does happen. Once I become more sure of what I'll be doing, I'll make sure to inform everyone as necessary.

I've likely missed some stuff I originally wanted to post on this info dump, but I think I've covered the big things I wanted to. Finally for a miscellaneous thing, the discord group. The discord group has mostly been going well. As I'm sure is obvious by my name, I am a lurker, so as I've said many times, I'd like to thank everyone for your patience with my replies to messages. I previously didn't interact really at all with communities related to fetish content like what is in GoF Island, and even now it might take days before I respond to even short messages. Thank you for keeping the discord a positive location, and I'd appreciate keeping the positive atmosphere this year as well. As long as the discord group doesn't become a source of stress or a place of negativity, I am fine with keeping it going!

Thank you everyone for the support and feedback this year, I'm looking forward to seeing how the game pans out this year as well!

If I've repeated things I've said in the past, apologies! I tend to repeat things a lot without realizing it!

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Skip to here for after info dump / Weekly report:

This update I'll be trying to release whatever content I finish every month or so for 2 months. After those 2 months, I'll be taking a 1 month break from GoF Island to try working on 3d stuff, potentially a very short animation to post if I am capable. This week I'll begin image generation for the Mouse girl defeat / capture content. So far I don't have a particular order of the enemies I am going to develop the defeat content for, though I might decide on an order as work progresses.

Also, some bug fixes and the updated Walkthrough / Changelog should be coming soon!