The Future

Hello everyone,

Time for the (probably) longest post of the year. I have so many things to say that I don't even know where to start. Let's just start with that: This will be a Visa/MasterCard-free post 8D

So... Everything I'm going to say in this post about other people have been authorized by said people. Don't take it as a witch hunt or whatever.

Usually, I do my best to share the responsibility of delays. I often say "we" or just "me" when I'm the sole responsible. When the problem comes from the art not being ready, I just say that the art isn't ready.

The problem is that we're reaching a point where I need to make things clear because it's impacting the game's development too much. And you know me, despite knowing that being fully honest is not the right move on the Internet, you need to get a better grasp at what I'll say during the second part of that post.

Let's start by not beating around the bush, for this release, the reason the art isn't ready is because PeakJump hasn't finished one of the two scenes I was planning for this update. And yes, I said PeakJump, meaning that there's still the coloring and the backgrounds to do. Hopefully, Aimless and Carlis should manage to handle this in a single week.

Now, since I had his approval, I'd like to spend some time talking about Peak.

I always talk about how long Peak and I have been working together and you know what? If you consider his answer to my first message is the start of our collaboration, then we've been working together for exactly ten years today. You want to know some of the stuff happening in the background? Well look at that, this is the first pixiv message I sent to Peak (so in July 31st, SoV wasn't out yet but it was already submitted to DLsite so I was searching for a new artist back then).

Peak answered me on August 2nd. Then on the 5th we spent almost 6 hours on Skype to talk about what I wanted to do, how I envisionned things etc. So technically, since he agreed on the 5th, it's almost 10 years but fuck it, you get the idea :p

As a side note, you see that kind of message? This is the kind of "boring" stuff that I hate doing right now: writing message to contact artists and see if they're interested in working with me. I grew up to hate it because not only you get negative answers (or no answers) most of the time, but now, even with positive answers you can end up with a negative outcome... That's the kind of thing I dislike having to handle :x

Anyway, at some point, you have to realize something: I think the hentai industry showed that clearly (especially with western artists): if two people aren't at ease working with each other, it blows up at some point. The fact that we've been working together for 10 years is quite a feat and I don't think many game makers could brag about this. I proves two things: I like Peak's art, I don't get bored of it, and I share a vision of hentai with him, and it proves on his side that despite working for someone else (which is harder than it sounds: I did it for 3 months only (writing stuff for someone else) and I abandonned because I had 0 motivation writing text based on someone else's desires :x) he still finds the content I ask him to do interesting enough to keep working with me.

But if things were all rainbows and butterfly, I'll still be on Patreon, racking thousands of $$ per months, making a 3D action game featuring Kaya and working on Slice of Venture 3 :x

Many things changed in ten years. We started working on SoV2 in early 2016. The first version was released around mid-2016. The v1.0 was finished in October 2018. We took 2 years to finish the game. There are 42 base images in SoV2. That means 42 base images in 24 months. That's almost 2 base images per months. Except anyone here who played SoV2 knows that some of these are HEAVY with variations. Remember the Blowjob content? I'm counting this as a single base image. If you add all the different males, girl positions and stuff, you could almost take 3 or 4 base images of time for each of these. So we're roughly at two

base image per months (and it has always been a sort of metric for me since it was how we started working together.) Except at that time he had a work on the side! AND he was drawing things for him as well. So I let you imagine the kind of days he had. Sure, for me, it was nice cause I got what I wanted for the game, but that wasn't healthy.

Things evolved and ever since he tried to rectify things to not drawn himself in work, we never managed to really find a proper pace. And that's where I'm a bit sorry but I'll have to say things: Peak is slow. He knows it. I know it. We know it. PeakJump is a perfectionist and while it has its pros, it also has its cons. And one of them is being slow. There are also time where he can struggle over specific things like faces for example and lose a whole day getting crazy because no matter how much he tries again, he never gets the face he wants (that was a running joke with Ayame in SoV2, for example. He feared drawing her because of that :x), and you can add to that the fact that sometimes, he's able to pull out something in 2 days, and sometimes, it will take two weeks, without any specific reasons. Sometimes he's go the mojo, and sometimes he doesn't.

And that implies something crucial: money. All men are born equal, my ass. Due to his drawing speed, Peak simply cannot put out enough content to have a decent income. Even though we increased the price of his commission together (because he kept using the old prices with me despite realizing that was too low at some point), since he can't produce drawing in chain to get a decent income.

So try to picture things: you're working 6 days a week to get a total monthly income that is lower than the minimum wage of the country you're in. Cause this is his situation right now: he's working on different projects to try and get money here and there (I definitely can't be his only source of income, we've already tried that anyway), he keeps postponing some to finish others and he's never properly "mind-free". Like, one morning, he boots up his PC and be like "Soo, what can I draw today?"

And there's one last thing: something I've been hiding for some time because it's personal matter but he allowed me to mention it. PeakJump doesn't live alone anymore. He has a girlfriend. And you know what? It's Hime. I'm not joking. They got closer when we went to Japan last year. So you have to add that on top of everything: you also want to have time for your personal life, especially when in a relationship.

Ever since the beginning of SoV3's development, we've tried to find a way to come around these hurdles. And we've basically tried everything. Nothing works in a way that satisfies us both. We've talked about it and here's the conclusion: Things can't keep on like this.

But there's another problem: We don't necessarily want to stop working with each other. I mean, if I'm playing the full egoistic card, it would be suicide to have someone else working on SoVR. I want him to finish SoS as well, and I'd love him to illustrate SoV3 book if that shit ever sees the light of the day. And on his side, he doesn't look tired enough of me to be willing to give up.

So the only possible solution is to compromise. And compromising means having effects on the developments of my games, on you as patrons, and on my global income, making things in the future actually even more uncertain ^^' But that's a risk I'm willing to take. There are moments in life where you need to make choices between people and money. The good old "Peak locked up in my basement" meme is long gone: we can't keep up monthly updates for SoVR. It was nice to be able to do it for almost a year, but now it's not possible anymore. That doesn't mean updates will take years to roll out. But if you take the next update as an example: there should have been two base images ready, there will only be one, I don't want that to happen in the future. I want updates to cover something planned. If it takes longer than one month then be it. Maybe some will take one month, maybe some will take 1.5 months, I don't know. It will mainly depends on how fast the art is done. And if I have to wait 2.5 months for a release, I'll do it.

And you know what? Even without all these problems, I'd have probably been unable to publish a proper update by the end of August because in the meantime (meaning between the last post and now), I learned stuff that make me unavailable for a good part of August.

You guys remember that I'm supposed to move at some point? I don't know if I mentioned it, but it's not just me. I'm moving with my family. Except we don't live under the same roof. So while we're all moving at the same place, it's 3 different movings that will happen. And guess what? 2 of them will occur in August. So I have to help my family for two different movings this month. Add to that the fact that for my parents, I have to help more than just the day of the moving (they're getting old so they need help to completely emptying the house before leaving, meaning spending several days to go an throw stuff to the junkyard or whatever.) So, yeah... I've been talking about Peak for the whole post but we're also reaching the point where it's going to be a bit tricky for me until I've moved and installed completely to my new home.

I know the stance about irregular releases is half-suicidal. The Hunter 2 was a great example for that: if you don't roll out an update every month, people unpledge. Having a monthly update is the best way to ensure a steady income. But like I said: people vs money. I WILL lose money from doing that, but I'm willing to do so if that allows Peak to breathe.

And that leads me to the second part of that post (yeah it was just the first part :x)

I perfectly know that not having monthly updates won't be enough to ensure a proper change. So I'm taking things further. Take notes, because I've laid out a plan that goes up to 2029. I'm going to go through each year starting now.

Second half of 2025:

Nothing changes compared to what was planned. I keep finishing Yuki's parts and Ayame will roll in (hopefully in September, if not, then later). The goals are the same, it's the time it will take that changes. The remaining updates of 2025 will be dependant of the amount of art we'll manage to produce.

2026:

The biggest change of all: I am removing Naomi, Reiko and Anaëlle as playable characters of SoVR post-game content. Yuki will have taken a bit more than one year to be worked on. If we take 1 year per character, it means SoVR will be in development until 2029. As much as I know it would be a great way to milk patrons, you know me, I like to finish my games (even if bad mouths have recently mentionned that it's not the case anymore (gotta admit that the last fully finished game was SoVO in 2021 so I can't really counter argue :x)). So the plan is to finish SoVR completely for the end of 2026. Ayame and Yuki will be the only two playable characters. As such, I'll probably add a bit more content for each of them as planned (notably stuff where they interact together).

That doesn't change the plan I've always mentioned about SoVR: I'll work into making it as Japan-friendly as possible (having the game translated etc...) and even (let's dream), try to get physical copies sold at comiket if by magic, the game is a success.

2027:

That's where things get interesting. Through the year, I will work on the secret project I haven't announced yet. I have high hopes that by 2027, all the art assets will be finished, so I'll be able to work with everything ready. As such I considering it won't take me more than a year to do the entire game. During that year, PeakJump will be able to work on Slice of School content. Due to the lack of deadline, he'll be able to work much more freely than now and should help in regard of our problem. This way...

2028:

If he manages to pull out the remaining content needed for SoS, I'll work on it at the start of 2028 and finish the game as fast as I can (once again, if all the art assets are ready, it will be faster.) During that time, whether or not PeakJump keeps drawing stuff will entirely depends on SoVR success. If it's a flop, then nothing happens. If the success is okay, then we'll see if people are interested. If the success is big, we'll definitely work on adding an extra playable girl as a DLC. If that were to happen, then Peak would work on the art while I finish SoS (In the (very faint) possibility that SoVR is a huge success, I could consider switching SoVR DLC with SoS if the demande is high.) Considering I don't think it would take me a whole year to finish SoS if I have the art at hand, I'd start working on SoVR in 2028 as well.

2029:

Branchings are starting to be numerous: It could either be a second SoVR DLC if there's some sort of success with the game, it could be Fubuki's Challenge, or it could be The Hunter 2. Could also very well be a DLC for the secret project if there's success as well. I don't know. Just keep in mind that I want to do what I've always said: finishing all my projects before going back to TH2. TH2 is my sandbox, I only need nito working with me for the pixel part but everything else is done by me so it'll be a bit like a "retirement" project where I can add whatever stuff I want, when I want etc... That's why I'm keeping it for the end (sorry for the TH2 enjoyers :x (you also have to keep in mind that TH2 is the project that interest the least people so if I want money to fund the rest of my projects, it's safer to do the 2D projects first before switching to a 3D project.))

Aaaaaaaaaaand with all that I think I've said everything I wanted. I probably forgot stuff, it's easy when you write so much. I feel like I keep apologizing but that the same time I feel like everytime I write a post like that, it's something negative, so yeah, I have to apologize. I'm sure some (many?) of you will be disappointed. I know some of you will be like "this is fine", others will just simply unpledge (well, after I've released the next update :p). But yeah. Blue Axolotl never was and never will be the huge studio it could have been, allowing me to pay the people I work with an indecent amount of money. But I don't care. I've faced lots of downsides these last years (basically since my Patreon ban) and I kept working because I know that even if you guys aren't the majority of those vanilla-loving normies, you like my games enough to allow me to keep creating them and just for that, I'll be eternally thankful. So thank you!

EDIT: I realized I forgot to mention one important thing: you have to understand that since I'm bound to wiating for the art, there's only so much I can add in an update without the images. As such, there will be cases where I find myself with "nothing" to do. And by "nothing" I mean that I can't exactly work on an update of something else in the meantime, we're talking about a period too short for that (between a couple of days to 2 weeks for example.) So while I don't know how things will evolve, I'll use that time for different things. I already mentioned everything about my moving, but I also want to use that time for other things. Notably, I'm working on a small update of SoV2 with quality of life content to have a sort of "final" version that I'll upload on DLsite while trying to (finally) create decensoring patches that I'll upload on the site. Just wanted to precise that, because it's important ^^'

I'll see you later for the next update o/