Progress Report Week 52/1

First of all, we hope that everyone had an amazing Christmas and a safe and happy new years eve.

And that we hope that everyone enjoyed our 0.8.1 update.

We have mentioned this post a couple of times already, and our apology that we had to take this much time to get all the answers that we need.

We wanted to take all the time to think about everything, and don't rush to a decision.

Having said that, this progress report will be a very, very long post and we will talk about the

following 5 issues.

1. BA-Games & Naughty Attic Gaming

2. Sweet Affection.

3. Private Community.

4. You guys, the fans.

5. Closing Words.

1. Ba-Games & Naughty Attic Gaming

Let's start with the question that's been on everyone's mind the past 3 months.

"Has Boomatica come back, or did we have contact with him in any way?"

And the answer to that question is unfortunately a no.

Despite our best effort to contact him for the past 100 days, the team has been unable to

get in contact with him, at all.

We've been hoping that he would come back for the past 3 months, but are also slowly realizing that that is not going to happen anymore.

And we have accepted that Boomatica either doesn't want to come back or is unable to come back.

We hope that everything is alright with him though, and we want him to know that he will always have a place with us, with the team.

But, unfortunately... we have to start looking forward as a team right now and think about ourselves and the projects that we've been working on for the past years.

And in that light, we have decided that Naughty Attic Gaming is not going to be a temporary thing anymore.

Naughty Attic Gaming will be the permanent creator page for the team, and the name that we will continue to produce our projects on.

It's hard to leave BA-Games behind because it's where everything has started, and where we have good memories.

But, we know that it's in everyone's best interest to have a clear direction and clarity.

And with this permanent change, we create safety for the team, but also a guarantee that we can keep on creating the things that we love, for you guys... the fans.

And even though we wish we had better news, we hope that everyone understands it.

2. Sweet Affection.

Now, what does this change mean for our project Sweet Affection?

Luckily, it doesn't mean anything at all.

We can keep on developing Sweet Affection as we've been doing the past two months and the years before that.

We have all the assets, all the story, and all the plans right here with J..D.

We have the means to distribute our game through Patreon with Naughty Attic Gaming.

And we have the same, amazing team that's been working on it for years now.

So, to everyone that is worried about the future of Sweet Affection, you don't have to be.

We promised that we would continue it if our Patreon Page would grow sufficiently in the first 3 months, and it has.

And even if it didn't, leaving Sweet Affection behind is something that we could never do.

Whatever happens, Sweet Affection will continue in some capacity.

But, your support... your amazing support means that we can continue the development mostly as we've been doing for the past 2 years.

I am saying mostly because there will be a change in development plans.

People who have been active on Discord and have seen my progress reports on Patreon know that I've been struggling with keeping the same pace of development for the past two months now that even more work has been added on my plate.

A pace that is not only taking its toll on my health but also on my family.

Working 80+ hours a week on creating the actual content for Sweet Affection, and now on top of that dealing with the social and business side of it... It's basically causing me to spend every waking second of my life being busy with Naughty Attic Gaming in some capacity.

And even though I want to do that, and even though you guys deserve that.

It is something that I can no longer continue to do.

It will either have a negative result on my health or even worse... on the quality of content that we are producing. 

So, in that light... we have come up with the following development plan for the time being.

January 2022 : M&S Content + Side-Character Content. (Suzie in this case)

February 2022 : M&S Content.

March 2022 : M&S Content + Side-Character Content.

April 2022 : M&S Content.

Etc.

As you can see, we still want to produce monthly M&S content for everyone.

But, side character content will be added every other month.

We know that this is not perfect, and we wish that we could do more.

But, this is the only way that we can keep on guaranteeing the same quality as you are used to from us while ensuring we don't end up burning ourselves out.

Especially now that some of the side characters get into the animation cycle of the development, work on them will only increase more and more at each level.

We understand if some people are going to be disappointed with that, we are as well as a team.

I love working on their content, so incredibly much... and no one in the world wants to see their story being further developed more than me.

The only thing that I can say is that we are sorry and that we will promise to do our best with producing the content that will be delivered each month.

3. Private Community.

Unfortunately, Private Community is a completely different matter than Sweet Affection.

Not only are all the assets owned and only in Boom's possession.

The rights of the game are also 100% with him.

So, continuing it would not only be impossible in terms of not having the assets but also

very dangerous in terms of project safety and control.

However, we spend so much time and love in that world as a team, that we are not going to give it up either, we refuse to let another game project die that people love... that we love.

But, before I continue, I want to make it clear that this is not going to be short-term.

We have been looking into the possibility of restarting Private Community.

But, as a unique new project with different names and characters. (Still with mostly the same looks, but... slightly different)

However, some things prevent us from pursuing that idea for now.

- The obvious one is time. 

If I barely have enough time to work on Sweet Affection, working on private community would be impossible.

Now, that problem could be solved by hiring one or two people that can help the team, but that brings us to the next issue.

- Money.

Hiring people costs money, money that we don't have right now.

And we have been looking into volunteers the past few weeks, but... volunteers require a long  learning curve and mostly have a very limited schedule, and that is something we don't want.

We either want to hire someone eventually that can help us with the graphical side of Private Community. Or hire someone that helps with Sweet Affection so I can spend time on Private Community myself.

Best case scenario, we'd like to hire two people that can help with both so we can go back to big SA updates and start work on PC Full time.

But, that will require the Patreon page to go to $3.250 monthly. (To hire two people)

Or for the team to get started on PC $2.500. (to hire one full-time person)

We don't want to give anyone false hope that Private Community will come back, because quite frankly... we can't promise that.

The only thing that we can promise is that if we are able to start work on it, we will.

I know that that's not the answer that a lot of people have been hoping for, but you guys deserve the truth and we don't want to sugarcoat anything.

We've always been honest and straight with you guys, and will continue to do that.

4. You guys, the fans.

Now, I am sure that people will have a lot of questions, comments, or even doubts.

If we can help you with any of them, you can always reach us here on Patreon or on discord.

And, before I end this already far too long post, I'd like to take a moment to say one more thing.

When we created this new page, we were scared that we would have to stop development on Sweet Affection and that all future was lost for Private Community.

Scared, emotional, and more than anything... worried.

The support that you guys have shown us in the past 3 months, has been unbelievable.

It is only thanks to all of you that we are still able to do what we love.

And we will try to express our gratitude by doing our very best, every single month.

Thank you, from everyone on the team. :)

5. Closing Words.

I will post another message in a couple of days from now that will contain a short term, and also long term roadmap for Sweet Affection.

And it will also contain all the patches that we have and will have for easy access.

We will also re-design the Patreon page a little bit this month, now that it's permanent.

And as always, we will keep everyone posted about the progress and everything that is going on with our weekly progress reports.

And let's make sure together that 2022 will be a great year for all of us. :)

-Naughty Attic Gaming.