Status update / check in!

Okay, I thought it was about time to catch you up on all the work I've been doing and where I am with this update! I don't know if any of you have ever worked on a project like this yourself, but honestly some days it feels like whack-a-mole. I'm loving using Git and Jira to keep track of my progress, so that at least I can see that I am making forward progress, but at the same time, it's like each thing that's added or tweaked causes some other new issue to solve ...

I won't bore you with the gory details, but just rest assured in knowing that I've been going full steam ahead, and putting a lot of my time into making sure that all the resource files (especially the player save system and the chapter update stuff) is hopefully gonna be robust enough to work once I'm a few releases down the line - meaning I won't have to keep saying things like "Uh, this new version is gonna break all your previous saves" or whatever. I can't make any promises - heck, knowing me, there's every chance the whole thing will just self-combust when I hit 'export' - but I'm at the stage where I'm about to run off the Prologue version (0.5.0) and the Chapter One (0.5.1) and test them both out, making sure the saves are compatible from the previous version on install. Meaning, fingers-crossed, whenever i release a new version for you, you'll be able to just install it and carry on from your previous save.

Like I said in my last post, all this kind of work is hopefully gonna get easier and easier down the line. If i get this working now (and, note to self, make sure to clearly document my workflow), I hopefully shouldn't run into any snags on future releases ... or so I hope!

Speaking of releases, this won't affect you guys, but I'm hesitant to even publically release until we're at the point of it being Chapter Two (for you) and Chapter One (public version). Like I said, this won't affect you at all - I'll still be sharing the releases as I go with you, working as fast as I possibly can, I just mean after the super shitty reviews the last version(s) have got, I might hang fire with the public release until there's at least a polished on-campus week's worth of content and one big cut scene with whichever mistress you choose. I can already hear the moans and groans on TFGames if I put out the first public Prologue release and it ended on going to sleep at the end of Day 1!

Oooh, and speaking of polish, holy shit!, I almost forgot to share the most exciting development of all and I hope you love this as much as i do (feel free to let me know your thoughts either way in the comments!!) but ... I've been having some fun with AI (namely the nsfw-friendly image creation site Mage Space), reworking the backgrounds and character images. It's been a super fast and honestly scarily painless process so far and I'm loving the fact that I can finally have the characters show different emotions (and get naked!), which means that hopefully the game will be way more immersive to play.

Here's some old/new examples for ya!

The title card:

And a screenshot from the game itself:

I don't know if you're like me, but I got kinda attached to how the characters looked in the original images I picked - Amy's so damn cute - but there was always gonna come a time where I'd need to switch them out for either lineart drawings or something else, and honestly I'm blown away by how good the AI images are. (Did I already mention you can pose them and make them naked, mwhahaha).

I know I said I'd be setting aside working on the art update until after I got the content written, but I really want this new version to be 'it' and I figure it'll make a hell of a lot more of a splash when I publicly release if I get all the images done, too. I've already rattled off all background images for the campus, all images for the Ethan paperdoll and boymode clothes, and character images for everyone you meet up till the end of Chapter One (including various expressions - happy, angry, shocked, neutral, etc - for the main players). Plus, Patreon (and maybe even Itch.io where i eventually plan to sell a version of the game waaaay down the line) are definitely iffy about adult content based on actual photos and vidoes. It's sooo close to straight up porn and I want this game not to get bogged down by any of that red tape, or, heaven forbid, the stock model that I've been using for Heather or Amy or whoever somehow gets wind that their image has been used for a devious crossdressing game and for some reason hates the idea!

So yeah, I'm hoping you're all as on-board as I am on this visual update!! Like I said, I'd love to know your thoughts (good or bad!) in the comments.

Final thing: I'm gonna be sending you all discord invites pretty soon too - I already have a server set up although it's totally bare bones right now, other than a channel where I'm posting my git commits to keep a (soon-to-be) public record of the work I'm putting in. But once I have it set up and figure out how to loop it in with Patreon tiers, etc, I'll shoot you all an invite, should you wanna come hang out and pester me with questions etc, haha.

Alright, back to it!

Dana x