An update. What happened and what's gonna happen.

Hey,

I want to open by apologizing to you all: our followers, previous patrons, and anyone who've played Duo and kept checking up on us. We left you in the dark for way too long and there is no excuse for that.
Also, sorry for the long read. There's a TL;DR at the end.

We promised new games. We also said that we’re putting Duo on hold but failed to provide any updates to you.

While we do have reasoning for what happened, we should have found a way to communicate them earlier. The truth is, I’ve been trying to write this post for well over a month and been struggling hard for the reasons you're about to read. 

Regardless, we'll try to do better from now on.

So, what happened?
Note: This paragraph describes a severe illness. If you or your loved ones are currently suffering from one and would rather avoid reading about the subject, you might want to skip it (I felt the need to do the same). 

In short - I got very sick. It's at a point where I dedicate most of my time to my illness.

[UPDATE 8th, Oct 2019] The paragraph below describes my battle with cancer, while I was still undergoing chemotherapy. Since this post gets a lot of traffic, I figured I'll throw an update here as well - I have since gone through radiation treatment and surgery. I'm happy to announce that this paragraph is no longer relevant and I'm officially cured at the time of this update. My latest health update can be found HERE.

[Original Message] 

Around the time of Duo 0.2 development, I started feeling unwell and noticing danger signs on my body. For a while, I was procrastinating. I’m not one for doctors and generally a healthy person. I was too scared to find out. Until it got to the point where I couldn’t ignore it anymore.

A short period later, after seeing multiple doctors and checkups, I got the message I was so worried about - It’s cancer and a nasty one.

I was shocked, for a while, actually. The type of cancer I’m dealing with, without going into details, is very rare and deadly. I’m a young man at my early 30s, which in one hand, helps my survival chance by a large margin. But on the other hand, puts me in that weird position of “why am I getting this? I shouldn’t be dealing with this thing now”.

So how am I doing now? Well, I’m far from being out of it. I’m currently at the chemotherapy phase and still have operation and recovery ahead of me. But the doctors and I see improvement and are optimistic. I’m blessed with a great loving family and friends who are always there helping me cope.

As for Kamo, and our projects. In my current stage, I have what I’d consider one fully productive week a month. Each month, I spend one week in chemotherapy, then roughly two weeks recovering from it. Side effects, both physical and mental, have been taking a toll on me, and I can’t always find the energy or time to work on a project.

I do, however, have a very ambitious project I’ve been working on when I can, and it feels great to do so! More details about it in this message.

Some of you who’ve been following us probably remember that we are a team of two people, and maybe you wonder why can’t we still release at least some content.

While that is true, we are two people. We are also best friends. He couldn’t find the motivation to work on a Kamo project knowing about my illness for a while.

I want to finish this segment by saying - please don’t feel bad for me. I decided to share the situation because I figured telling the truth will be easiest. I’m optimistic, I’m sure that this is just a short setback in my life, and when I do feel good, I feel great!

Who are we? And why is it important now?

As mentioned at the beginning of the message, we plan to try and involve you much more with updates and previews. For that, we figured it’d be better if we start using our nicknames in our messages.

Kamo Ink - That's me. I mostly do framework and game mechanics. For Duo, also story and some renders.

Kamo TTrick - My work partner and friend. Very talented Daz artist. TTrick focuses on character design, renders, and story.

Current projects

Duo required the attention of us both, which was impossible due to my situation. Instead, we decided it would be best for each to take the lead on a different project.
Duo is returning (with some changes). Still, we are keeping the other projects as well.

Currently, three projects are in active development:

• Duo - We are working on 0.3 and more. 
• Long Story Short (LSS) - A new VN by TTrick. Releasing soon.
• Sim Game - An adult sim game in early development (no ETA). By Ink.

Duo

We are bringing Duo back, but with some changes. Keep reading!

Most of you who are reading this probably care about Duo more than anything else in this post, and we totally understand that.

Yes, we put Duo on hold. We still stand behind the reasons we had.
The only reason we didn’t uncover back then was my health. Regardless, we never planned on ditching Duo.

During the downtime, we’ve seen lots of comments about Duo. Most of them were positive, hoping we'll bring the game back - and we are happy to comply with those people. Thanks for the encouragements!

Of course, there were also all the criticisms suggesting how we “don’t care about the game” because we have put it on hold. To those people I say - you couldn’t be more wrong. Sometimes when you love a project, you have to set it aside, instead of forcing it to a state you are not happy with.

So, what are the changes?

Duo was our no-compromise project, and we intend to keep it somewhat that way.
While we did deliver 0.2 at a reasonable time and the overall quality was good, we weren’t pleased with the version. 

We are changing our mindset about Duo releases and moving the game releases to “when it’s done” - meaning, we'll take as much time as we need to release a Duo version we are happy with.

Some versions are going to be shorter

Duo’s story is multidimensional. A scene may branch into, let's say, six routes. While you only see one path in a playthrough, we still have to write and render the other routes.

When is a new Duo coming?

Duo will remain a joint project of us. Which means, timing will be heavily affected by my health.

We have a small Duo project planned to release soon after LSS 0.1 (that’s soon). It’s not Duo 0.3 yet, but it’s really good. Stay tuned!

As per 0.3, we'll update about it at a later stage.

VN - “Long Story Short” (TTrick)

Preview render Lena & Alex

This is a VN, not a game. Unlike Duo, the story of this one is also much more laid back and revolves around simple, day to day scenarios.

Synopsis

You will be playing as a guy, who’s never really clicked with girls too much. You’d much rather spend your time on the computer than dealing with real-life relationships.

However, It’ll all quickly start to change shortly after diving into the story. Your best friend, Joe, has made a significant change in his life, and he is there to pull you out of your comfort zone into a new lifestyle.

Vanessa, Joe’s girlfriend, and Ann, her shy friend, are just two of the girls you’ll encounter early on in the story. Are you going to build a relationship with sweet, shy, Ann? Maybe you’d corrupt her instead? Heck, Why not try to steal Vanessa away from Joe?

Some Duo characters could make a cameo appearance in “Long Story Short”. However, they will not take significant roles.

“Long Story Short” is planned to be a short story. The first version is almost done and expected to be released very soon. Stay tuned!

Game - Adult Sim (Ink)

Hiring workers

This project is a sim brothel management game, similar to tycoon or hospital management games.

At its current stage, this project is far from being anything close to a game. At my current state, it’ll also be a while before reaching a playable state. Once it does, I’ll be publishing alpha builds. 

There is no ETA for a playable build, and since I can only dedicate a single week a month to this project, and due to its scale, it will be a while.

Game objective

Your main goal will be to build a brothel from scratch and grow in popularity.

You’ll need to keep your customers satisfied by providing them with services, whether it’s a specific worker to fulfill a fetish or the most straightforward need for food and drink.

Customers who fail to receive service in time will get bored and leave or even riot. This will ruin your reputation! Offer public and quick services such as dancers, hostesses, and watch rooms to keep them entertained.

Sandbox experience Vs. Story mode

While a story mode is essential for a game’s immersion, it’s not as important as the core game mechanics and content.

The game is being developed as a sandbox experience. Once it gets to a stable enough state, a story mode will be added. Don’t expect story mode during alpha releases.

Build, decorate and furnish your rooms and your brothel lobby

Usually, sim games will either let you use pre-defined rooms or let you designate rooms and furnish them yourself. Currently, the game is designed with the 2nd option in mind, which should offer a unique feeling and experience with every playthrough.

Workers and jobs

You’ll be hiring and managing girls and general staff (security, cleaners, vendors, and more). Traits, fetishes, and overall quality are a significant factor deciding if a worker can provide a service, how fast and at what quality.

As your popularity increase, better workers will become a requirement. Hire new workers or save by training your current staff.
The GIF above demonstrates hiring workers.

Sex Scenes

Animations of the low-poly models in the game could never compete with the quality of Daz3D rendered animations. For that, the chosen approach is a peek functionality which will play a rendered scene.

There’s one limitation, of course, renders will never be 100% accurate to the game model. But this can improve with time, and the overall quality of a render outshines this limitation.

Graphics

While I can do some basic 3D modeling, it’s far from being at a high enough level. Currently, I’m buying the 3D assets used in the game, which works fine for development, and some early versions. However, buying from different artists naturally makes inconsistent art style.

I’ll be looking for a blender artist in the future. If you are one who’s interested in this project and want to take part, hit me up with a DM.

Expect more info and updates about this project in the future. I can go about this project for a while, but would rather keep this message at a reasonable length.

A note about pledges and Patreon rewards

We are still sending refunds every month as we did since Duo has been put on hold.
With the release of upcoming LSS and Duo, we'll stop issuing refunds.

Patreon rewards might change soon. At this point, there are still no plans to tie game releases to rewards.

TL;DR: Sorry we’ve been away for so long, I’m currently fighting cancer and don’t have much free time. Expect a new VN “Long Story Short” to be released by us soon. Due to my condition, this is mostly a solo project by my partner (TTrick). Also, expect Duo back, but on slower releases.

We’ll also try to provide more frequent updates.