Progress report on Shadow Island R9

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the small amount of news.

I have to say, this is related to me getting really burned out between managing the Tyrant Quest release and working on Divimera. When I get burned out, I get hit by a sudden wave of exhaustion and get cold sores all around my eyes. But I'm starting to feel better, Tyrant Quest doesn't require my attention anymore at that point, and hopefully, this bad episode is coming to an end.

That said, we have been working non-stop on Divimera R9, this update has been very challenging so far for two reasons:

- The hat quest and washerwoman lady/Molly whole shenanigan was extremely complicated in terms of logic, we must have rewritten that whole thing so many times before finding the right way to conclude it. But we are getting there.

- This update has a lot of new places/shots on the island but the background artist is having trouble irl at the same time, which makes me think I may have to use AI to generate some backgrounds as a last resort which I want to avoid at all costs, I'm still hopeful we can finish everything and maybe me being tired doesn't help with the prospect so don't want to dwell too deep into this as things may improve. I hope his situation gets better with time but I also need to take some actions to create a safety net for the project in case something goes wrong.

That's why I'm looking into hiring an additional background artist for Divimera, the idea would be to find someone that can output a very moderate amount of backgrounds on top of what Anir does, only focused on exterior backgrounds, but that small amount added would be enough to make everything works without the extra stress that is inflicted on me and Anir right now, however, I'm having big trouble finding someone that shares a similar style, if you think you are up to the task and interested, don't hesitate to contact me or if you know someone, don't hesitate.

Otherwise, the Molly scene was fully finished and it's one of the best-looking hscene so far, in my opinion. Great work from Kojack, consider supporting him on Patreon if you want to give him some personal appreciation: https://www.patreon.com/kojack. I'm also looking into a lot of references so that the scene with the Washerwoman can have a good position. To make it even better, this situation with her will grant the player some sanity back so that the quest actually gives you something interesting outside of just getting a nice-looking scene.
For Molly, we will also add an additional reward for completing her quest in time but that one might only be included in a future version, in the form of a lewd kiss.
We have also made a new scene for Charlotte in her bedroom which is very silly but funny (not with sexual content but that builds up a cool situation for her next hscene as you will see).

In terms of release, currently aiming at late April/Early May. The sooner the better.

Again sorry for the trouble, and I hope this post can bring some relief to some of the questions.