Let's talk about the future

Hello everyone,

I'll ditch SoVR subject right away: I asked for an extra week and I plan on sticking to it. We'll do our best to release SoVR during the weekend of the 23rd/24th. Things have been pretty slow for different reasons so once again, I apologize on behalf of the team. But this delay is actually the main reason of this post.

As I mentioned in the previous post, working on SoVR reminded me of something: the reason I started working on The Hunter was not because I feared working on the same project over and over again but because I needed a buffering time for art to be done. And basically, we're in the same situation all over again.

I need to explain a bit how things work in the back for you to understand why I'm taking certain decisions. You see, the major reason we're late is simply because we've been very slow. Normally I'm not that slow, but there was some periods where I was waiting for H scenes and couldn't work on them because they weren't ready and as a side effect of others being slow, I ended up losing a bit motivation.

Anyone pragmatic would ask "why aren't you hiring faster people, then"? Well, that's the tricky part. While on your side everything is mainly about speed (I mean, as a patron, the more regularly/fastest you get releases the happier you are), things are different on my side as a "recruiter". Yes, I'm working with people that are a bit slow, but as a counterpart, they have qualities I need to maintain a proper team. They work regularly, they work well, they don't leave the boat without any notice (at least not yet :x) etc...

Everytime I need to hire someone new, not only do I sigh about the time lost trying to find someone skilled enough (you'd be surprised at the kind of response I get when I post what I want in terms of quality and what they offer), but also about the fact that there's going to be a period of "training" because we do things in a specific way and even if they're good, the way we do things need to be addressed to. One of the best example for that are liquids. We have different kinds of inspirations for them so everytime we need to go over how it must be done. And while PeakJump spent a good amount of time making fully documented step-by-step tutorials for newcommers, that's where you realize that not everyone can do proper liquids (hell, to be honest, we're reaching a point where I asked PeakJump to deal with them again :/)

Anyway, I'm saying all that to say that even if they're slow, I don't plan on changing the team. If slowness is the price to pay for consistency, then be it. But that doesn't solve the main problem: the release pace.

I am totally aware that one release every 3 months is NOT a sustainable pace. I mean, it is when you make so much money that losing hundreds of patrons is nothing, but in my case, I can't really aford to do that. I need to give something during that time to make people wait. To avoid people leaving and losing money out of it.

So here we are again, ladies and gentlemen. It's SoV2 x The Hunter all over again. After this update, I will work on a "side-dish" to give the necessary time to the art team to do what needs to be done. But as you will see, things can't be that simple. So here are the points I need to respect if I want this to work out:

- It has to be small enough for me to be able to work on both this and SoVR at the same time (I can't aford to delay releases even more because of me.)

- It can't be a game with 2D drawn art (the whole team is on SoVR, it would be meaningless to make them work on something else)

- As a result of rule N°2, it CAN'T be one of my projects in wait as they are all 2D.

- It CAN'T be The Hunter 2 because as I mentioned in the previous post, TH2 is a huge-ass project and can't be considered a "side-dish". Moreover, I'm pretty certain I wouldn't have the mental ability to work on two monstruous game projects at the same time anymore.

- Anything JFC-related (Slice of School Extra Lessons, or the Fubuki Game) can't be selected because of certain reasons.

So here I am, needing something to offer you, and I can't do it with what I have in wait. Conclusion? It has to be something new. I never planned on starting a new project to begin with, but I have to do that to give you a little something for the wait. So I came up with two possibilities. And you know what? You'll get to vote to decide which one of those possibilities you want to see.

Keep in mind that whatever is chosen, it'll be treated as a REAL side-dish. Don't expect long ass stuff. It's going to be small updates, with maybe a scene or two and that's all. SoVR remains the priority no matter what. It's just that crackers are still better than having an empty belly :x

So here are the two projects I propose you (names aren't final):

The Hunter 2 - Side Stories

For those of you who are frustrated about not seeing enough stuff about the NPCs of TH2, these would present small cutscenes (barely playable, let's face it) where you'd see the NPCs you meet in the original game (Biserka, Catherine, Kenzie, Sasha etch...) living their life outside of their relationship with Kaya. It will allow you to know a bit more about them and see them doing naughty stuff as well.

Animon

In a parallel world, the young Kaya has decided to become an Animon master. She plans on fighting her way to the top thanks to her Animons, creatures she can catch and train to fight others. But she's going to show the world that Animons can have other uses as well... (Yeah of course it's a Pokemon game where you fuck the pokemon. If you ever got frustrated by Nyuu's Yarimesubuta where you only fuck humans, it would be the same, but with my rules :x) That game would be 100% Pixel stuff, though. I could hire a pixel artist for that, so it wouldn't change anything for the pace of SoVR.

VOTE NOW FOR WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE!

I'm going to leave the poll open until SoVR's next update is released. I'll announce the results then.

In the meantime, I'll go back to working on the game.

See ya! o/