MEREDITH WINS!

Final results:

With 70 votes over Kim's 51, Meredith will be the first new character added to Joker's Trip! Congratulations Meredith! (And better luck next time, Kim! We'll see you again another time!)

If you came from my (TT) personal patreon, you'll already know how much I love analyzing poll data and marketing.

Our prediction was that Meredith would ultimately win, but that Kim would have the more vocal fans--and we were right! On the whole, we saw a lot more comments cheering for Kim than Meredith here and on social media. My guess is that Kim's fans, like us, predicted Meredith would prove more popular in the vote, and so Kim needed more support. (And I'll confess, I voted for Kim with the same thought in mind--that she'd need all the help she could get). Ultimately, MILF is a slightly less popular category than hot goth mommy, even if the people that love it really love it.

But don't fret! She'll be back later for another poll and you'll get a second chance! Every character we propose will be added eventually! And hey, 42/58 isn't so bad at all! That's still pretty close. Our worst fear was that it'd be a total knockout, and fortunately it wasn't.

What did we learn and what would we change the next time we do a poll? For one thing--video first. Releasing the introduction video at the eleventh hour was mostly to do with scheduling. I have been Turbo Busy all this past month and so we just didn't have the time to get it together, and it took longer than we thought. Next time, an introduction video will be higher priority. (That said, it did help Kim to rally her numbers! She'd been doing a few points worse before we let you see her bra.)

So when do we get to play with Meredith?

...not for a little bit! We're still working on the gallery + crowd update, still aiming for early July. The good news is that the art and script for Noriko is completely done, and Rosalie's will be next. I plan to have a devlog for you later this week about the process of making a CG, which will include a preview of Noriko's new CG, so look forward to that! These new CGs are considerably more ambitious than the ones currently in the game, hence the delay. But they'll be worth the wait >:]

Once that's done, then we'll work on adding Meredith to the game. We haven't been able to start work on her yet because a) still working on the gallery update but also b) we couldn't start until we knew for sure who would win! Adding a new character requires bringing her to parity with the existing ones, so that's a lot of dialogue to write, plus 4 CG scripts, and a special crowd sprite. Lots of things to do!

We'll keep you posted with regular devlogs and updates, and thank you so much for participating in our first poll and supporting the game! Once we get closer to the crowd/gallery update, there'll be another poll for the promotional art. Keep an eye out!

--TT

Hi it's me Leo, just wanted to add to the post. Yeah, I voted for Kim too. Of course I would, I begged for her existence like the dog I am. But to the winner, the spoils. I'll be writing A Lot of Meredith dialog for a grip. Also, the new features, including the eponymous Gallery of the Gallery update are in place, just need to be tested thoroughly.

-LG