CaramelCowboy

"Can we go already?"

Weekly Update

Hey everyone!

After I got back from my trip, I didn't really feel like taking a break since I already had some of the script work done for the next episode and I still felt like I was in the 'zone' so I decided to start working on episode 7. 

I have a few scenes written down so I'm going to render those first and then continue writing when I run out of stuff to render. I'll include render counts in the next weekly update.

Irrelevant life updates : I started learning to play the piano since I've been playing guitar for some time now. I eventually want to add my own music to the game because when I used to imagine making this story in my head into a game one day, I could always imagine the kind of music I wanted. I'm also learning how to draw characters for VNs because that's also something I've always wanted to do.

Sorry for the irrelevant stuff. The main thing to take away from this post is that episode 7 is in the works and I have a bold release date goal. I know some of you have said not to stress about rushing the game but don't worry, this isn't a rush. I actually think it's possible. I'll drop more details on the tentative date later on but know that this will be the quickest one yet.

Thank you ALL for your support and for being what I can safely assume one of the best group of patrons. I've read a few posts about how some devs have to deal with a lot of hate sometimes but you guys make working on the VN a real pleasure. See you in the next post!

- CC

Episode 6 (additional info added at the end)

Hey everyone,

The links for episode 6 are up. Before you download, please read the entire post.

As far as I can tell, there shouldn't be any major bugs. You may find some image inconsistencies which should also be minor and not horrible. Music and sfx is missing for the last scene or two but will be added within a few days. If you're someone who cares about that stuff, maybe wait. I had to skip the music for the last scene or two because I have to leave in 1.5 hours to catch a flight and I don't want to throw a random soundtrack in there. I want to look for one I like. Also, I'm exhausted so I worry that if I work on code, I might mess something up.

I proofread it a few times but I didn't get to run it through the software which finds stuff I didn't catch before. So you may find grammatical errors but they shouldn't be a lot. This too will be fixed within a few days after they've been reported.

A major let down for me personally is that I didn't get time to work on three bonus images and a 'scene' wink wink nudge nudge that was supposed to be in this episode. To make up for this, I'll have more bonus images in the next episode and more 'scenes'. Another thing is I put the character journal on hold just until I'm back from my trip. It was acting wonky and I was running out of time so I'll fix it and patch it when I'm back or if I'm in the episode 7 zone, I'll just work on that and introduce it then.

About episode 7 - As some of you might know, I have around 400 renders that I had to keep on hold because I ran out of time. So those renders will go into episode 7, of course. I'm kinda disappointed that I didn't get to include those scenes in episode 6 because there's finally ACTION. I've been waiting to work on action scenes since I started this. I can't say much without spoiling stuff so I'll just leave it at that. You should get the hint at the end of this episode. The good news is that the gap between episode 6 and episode 7 will be the lowest one so far. I'll keep you guys updated.

As always, I'll try my best to be more punctual and give you guys regular updates with short breaks. I've set a crazy goal for myself but I'll know if it's really possible when I'm back from my trip because that's when I'll know. I've started a real planning process now instead of just writing it down in my head. Here's hoping it works.

I hope you all have a great week!

- CC

edit : files in the link have been replaced. Corrected the typos I found and added the character journal. Note that the character journal activates at the START of the episode, literally before the first image. So if you've already played this episode but would like to check out the journal, load a save that takes you to the first scene and your journal will get updated. For those who don't want to do this, I'll make them proc again in the next episode so you can see it when that happens.

Some notes about the journal - The journal currently has the characters you met in the past. The new characters will be added in the next episode and then any significant character you meet along the way will get added live as you progress. The information in the journal will also get updated based on your interactions with the character.

If you face any bugs or have any questions, feel free to @ me on discord. Thank you!

Release date!

Hey everyone. I'm in the middle of coding and testing as I move along. I'm close to the end so expect the links on the 23rd-24th. I ended up postponing my trip which was supposed to be on the 20th to the 25th. Turns out I needed those 3-4 days. I'm slightly disappointed because I still have around 400 renders I can use but don't have enough time to code them without postponing the release which is something I don't want to do so these renders will be part of the next episode. The only reason I'm disappointed because these are really fun scenes in my opinion and are much needed plot progression scenes. I'm guessing since I had so much time to write when I couldn't work for that 1.5 months, I just wrote more than I could handle so I'll just have to put those in the next one. 

We're currently at ~1200 renders I think for this update. I haven't tested play-time yet but I'll maybe edit this post later when I do that. I'm feeling very good about future releases and I'm looking forward to any feedback you might have. If I don't respond to your discord messages, feel free to dm me or @ me since that's what I get notifications for.

Have a great week!

- CC

Weekly Update (Don't worry. The mask is waterproof)

Hey everyone! We've crossed the 1000 render goal for the episode so I'm going to start writing the code for the newer renders. I did write down more scenes that I wanted to show in this episode so we're probably going to go over 1000. I like that there are 1000 renders ready but I also had an idea that "This is the scene that the episode should end on." So I really want to get to that scene. 

As we're getting closer to the release date, I'm feeling much better about it and I have all of you to thank for that. This image is just a bonus that I worked on after I hit the 1000 mark. I'll keep you all posted and by the next weekly update, I should hopefully be done with the code, which means that I just have  to test for bugs, spell check, and add audio.

Thank you all again for letting me work on something I love and turning this hobby into something real.

- CC

Weekly Update

Hi everyone. Unfortunately, I've had an annoying mental fog this week and couldn't really focus on getting things done. Which is why I've decided to postpone the release date a little. It will still 100% be out this month as I have to fly out for a few days on the 20th so I'm definitely going to have the links up before that. There's no real reason for the lack of focus imo. My guess is that I just sat and wrote/rendered/coded too much without breaks and it just temporarily broke my focus. I was very embarrassed to make this post because I know it's been a while since the last episode and I have no intention of delaying the release and believe me I want to get this out there asap. 

I realized I hadn't stepped out of the house for 2 weeks and couldn't really sleep well so I'd get in bed by 2-3am then have anxious thoughts keeping me up for an hour or two and then randomly wake up at 7-8 feeling sleepy but also wanting to work. I wanted to be straight with you guys because I don't want to sugar-coat it. I just couldn't focus and that's on me. Payments of course are still paused and I'll just try to step away from my pc every now and then so I don't get burnt out again. 

Again, I apologize for the delay and I hope you have a great weekend.

- CC

(late) Weekly Update!

Hey everyone!

I'm working on the final renders which should bring us to 1000 and should be done in a week. I think I spent too much time animating this time and adjusting / finetuning that, took some time. I don't remember the exact number but I think there are around 2300 frames combined. As of right now, I'm done with the code for most of the renders already. I'll finish the rest while these remaining renders are getting done.

I tend to go quiet the closer I am to a release because I just forget about everything else and just focus on the VN. I probably need to go back to setting weekly reminders to keep you guys posted. Sorry for the late update! The next post will have the release date. Reminder that payments will remain paused for the coming cycle too as part of my "pause until release" decision.

Have a great week!

- CC

Weekly Update!

Hey everyone. We're currently at 510 renders and a couple of animations (should be 15) for this update. I should have another ~300 renders ready before I post the update. I'm pretty happy with how things are going and at this rate, the update should be out by the end of this month. 

If the renders do reach close to 1000, I'll postpone by a week or so just to hit that 1000 mark. I still need to render a free-roam scene and that should have 100+ by itself so there's a very good chance that we'll hit 1000. Currently still rendering animations and coding on the side since I can't use the program while rendering. As soon as those are done, I'll go back to rendering the remaining images. 

I can't believe new people are coming in and supporting the VN even though the new update isn't out yet. Grateful to all of you and I hope you like the next update. Have a great week! 

- CC

Weekly Update.

Hey everyone! Sorry for the late update. I delayed the post intentionally because I wanted to hit the 300th render before I posted this. So right now we're at 400 renders(100 from before). I wanted to finish 300 in a week but it took two more days instead. I should be able to hit the 700 mark by the next update. 500-700 is usually how many renders I include in an episode but I'm probably going to aim for this one to have ~900 - 1000. This is because I have certain scenes I know I have to fit in this update.

I don't want to give dates for the release yet and should have a tentative date by the next update. Random irrelevant info but I'm also dealing with this annoying thing that's been happening for the past two nights. I wake up with one ear half blocked if that makes sense. It goes away after an hour or two but it just feels weird. There's no pain or discomfort so I'm just going to wait for another day and see if this gets worse.

I hope you all had a good weekend. I should also have a non canon image or two with the next weekly update which is when will also go up on Steam.

Thank you all for your support and patience!

- CC

Weekly Update

Hi everyone!

Can't tell you how good it feels to be back working on the VN. I've created and rendered ~100 images so far. After looking at the scenes and scripts I've written, I THINK there's going to be way too many renders when I'm done with whatever I've written so far. This is not a problem of course but if I end up with too many scenes, I might just put some of them in the next update. This is a good thing because that means after this current episode is released, the next one should be out very soon since it already has some scenes. My reasoning behind it is that the game is also on Steam and aimed for 'x' number of episodes on the platform. I feel like having 30 minute episodes (example figure) and then one episode suddenly being 2 hours and then back to 30, might feel inconsistent. Anyway, this is just a thought at the moment.

I've paused payments for the next month too which means payments will resume after this episode is released. It's not going to hit me financially (I think xD) and it's a way to show you how grateful I am for your support. So many of you stuck with me even during the move and some of you have been here from the beginning. 

I need to work faster and that's what I'm planning on doing. This week, I want to have at least ~250-300 renders ready. Once I hit the 600-700 mark, I'll be satisfied. I'll of course try to do more because I've written so much during this render break but like I said before, if it looks like the renders are crossing 1k, I might use them for the next update. This move has really helped with productivity not just with the game but also irl. I'm cooking a lot now and eating much better too. It just feels right. Have a great week!

- CC

Back in business!

Hi everyone,

After a pretty long wait, I'm finally typing this from my PC in my new home. I wanted to post this sooner but I decided that I wanted to show you guys a render too so I waited for a bit until this was done. I apologize for this whole process taking so long. There was so much going on with the apartment and just when I was about to sign the contract, someone else approached my agent with a better offer so there was a lot of back and forth. I ended up giving them the better offer in the end because the place is quiet and away from distractions. I prefer living in quiet places where there's not too much to do around because based on my experiences, the 'fun' places are super crowded on weekends which is what I wanted to avoid.

I realize that I forgot to pause payments for the second month as I said I would so I'll be pausing the next cycle instead. Sorry about that! With regards to the game, I'm back on work mode so I'll start posting weekly progress starting from today. My place is filled with cardboard boxes as I type this but my first priority was making sure my files and assets were functional so I had to come create a scene before cleaning up. I'll do my best to work as fast as I can without compromising the quality of the game. 

The numbers dropped on Patreon but  I'm not too worried because I expected that thanks to the long gap. I'm confident we'll climb back up soon. Again, thank you all for sticking around and also to the new members. Every time I get an email notification saying someone subscribed, it still makes me happy because it reminds me how I get to work on this game thanks to you guys. Forever grateful to have you guys as supporters.

-CC

Life update!

Hi everyone. After a lot of apartment hunting and a lot of disappointments thanks to almost every real estate agent here using the old bait n switch, I managed to find a place and have signed the contract and paid the deposit for the place. My official move in date is at the end of this month which means I can start rendering!

I will be pausing payments even for the next month as a thank you to all of you for being patient with this whole moving process I went through.

I've been feeling super weird about not being able to do much since working on this game has been such a huge part of my life for a while now and I've been pretty disappointed that I couldn't do much even though I wanted to. Thankfully, I can start dedicating most of my time to working on the game again (finally). I'll be moving to a studio apartment as I don't really need too much space since I'll be living alone for now and I'm not a very outgoing person too so I don't need the extra space for people to come visit etc.

Again, thank you all for waiting and I'm happy that I can finally work on the game again.

- CC

Hey!

Hey everyone. I just wanted to give you all a heads up that I’ll be pausing payments as I don’t feel right keeping them on until I can start rendering. I’m waiting for some medical results after which I’ll be able to officially get a place. I expect renders to start in August and as some of you know by now, it doesn’t feel right to me if payments are kept on while I can’t do much. While it saddens me that I can’t work on renders right now, i know that things will be good after I settle in the new place and I’ll have a smooth workflow.

The script is super exciting and I can’t wait to work on it because there’s so much happening. I feel like this episode will check list a lot of ‘when will x happen’ boxes for players. I hope all of you have a great weekend and thank you for your support as always!

- CC

Luneira 🧝‍♀️✨

Hey everyone!

I just wanted to share this image I was working on. While I can work on my old laptop and continue rendering scenes, it often crashes (maybe thrice in an hour) because of much lower vram. I can fix this by reducing the texture quality like I used to in my earlier work. This will however create some inconsistencies when I start working on my pc again so I'm not going to do that. Instead, I've been writing a lot and this will be the biggest episode so far. I'm just focusing on writing and UI improvement for now like adding the journal for example until I can get to renders on my pc.

Hope all of you have a great weekend! 

- CC

An option to view details about the LIs (or characters)

Hi everyone.

Because I like to give even side characters some screen time, it might get confusing for some people to keep track of all of them. I was considering a button maybe on the top right corner of the screen or just in the menu that shows you a list of relevant characters you've met. For example, you click on the button and you see a list of characters with their faces. You then click on Talitha for example and you see a brief description about her and your choice based interactions with her. 

What do you guys think?

Making a splash 💦

Not part of the game but I missed working on Lanya so I came up with this. Now I can't wait to bring her back 😂

"So you're saying there's an elf in your sword?"

Hey everyone!

I wanted to start working on a scene because I just kept thinking about the next episode a lot and it would constantly distract me haha. So I figured that working on some renders on my laptop could help me stop obsessing about the next episode. The laptop is very slow compared to my pc but I really wanted to work on renders so I do what I can. I had to push my move a little ahead (still going this month) because I realized I backed up all my files on two external drives (just in case one failed) but I figured it'd be better if I backed them up using a cloud storage service too so I subscribed to one and my ~500gb of game assets would take around 5 days to upload safely. So now I won't have to worry about damage to the physical backup while traveling. 

I hope all of you had a great weekend. It's been raining a lot here so I spent my weekend struggling to wake up. I usually get that way when it's rainy outside. Thank you all for your support. Appreciate you all.

- CC

Random post

Thanks for the support, everyone. I've packed my pc and am ready to move. I wish I could've made episode 5 longer but I'll try to make up for it in the next one. Hopefully everything goes well with the move and I can get the apartment asap so I can start working again. Best case scenario - I get to start at the end of this month. I'll keep you updated. Thanks again! 

- CC

Episode 5.

EDIT : Links have been replaced. Fixed some grammatical errors and added the option to skip the first scene with Carmine. Please note that skipping the scene will lock you out of future Carmine content. 

Hey everyone!

The links for episode 5 are finally up.

No spoilers ahead, but I recommend reading this once you're done with the update.

First of all, thank you for being patient.
Somehow, after every update, something happens irl that takes me away from my work for almost a month or sometimes an entire month and I've never really gotten the chance to work on my game the way I know I can. The thing that will slow down my workflow this time, is the move to the other country. If everything goes well, I should have my apartment ready by the end of this month so let's hope it works out that way. I leave in two weeks so I couldn't really delay the episode any longer since I still have to pack. Overall, I feel like I got the message that I wanted the episode to convey, across.

Up until now, the story has been very light hearted and more of an introduction to most characters and places. With episode 5, I wanted to really throw the plot in there while still trying to maintain the pacing as much as I could. From the pov of my script, more could have happened in this episode which I will include in the next update. (These won't count towards episode 6 but will be added to this one. So the release of episode 6 will include some content for episode 5 too).

Please remember that the length of one episode doesn't indicate the length of every future episode. Some might feel short, some might feel long. There's a lot that has to happen in the story. And If I feel like an episode was 'too short', I'll always add more to it in the next update. The story is above everything else for me and I won't try to just speed this up for the sake of finishing it. The next episodes will start having more action scenes which I'm hoping is clear based on how this episode went.

I'll have to start packing up my PC as soon as possible (maybe even tomorrow) since I leave in two weeks and need to make sure it's packed well. If some bugs do pop up, I'll use my laptop to fix them. Nothing game breaking should show up though since this is a pretty straight forward update in terms of coding. If you find typos or errors related to text, please post them on my discord under the bug reports channel.

Sorry for the mini rant. Here's hoping that this move helps me really settle down and gives me the opportunity to work on the game uninterrupted.

I hope you continue enjoying the game.

-CC

Links will be up soon!

Hey everyone!

The links to the update will be posted soon.

(I want to say less than 24 hours because there are no major issues to fix but don't quote me on this.)

I've bug-tested and spell checked and things seem fine so far but I'm going to take another shot at it to look for any sneaky errors. Had a small issue with some not working properly but I should fix that soon too. Hope you enjoy!

-CC

Almost there!

Hey everyone! This should be the last preview since we're very close to the starting with the final touches (sfx, post work for certain renders, testing).

Current render count is ~550 but I'm expecting it to get to 600.

I decided to add another scene to this episode since I managed to finish it in ~50 renders so the next post will have the release date! All that's left is music and sfx and then I can finally upload the episode and share the link with you guys!

Welcome new patrons! Thanks for the support, everyone.

Preview!

Sorry for the delay, folks! Done with my visa work now so I should have a good estimate for a release date soon. I'll have to move to the other country by mid-late June. If for some reason there are technical issues with the PC due to the moving, I'll pause payments until it's good to go (worst case scenario). Thanks for sticking around!

Quick message for new Patrons requesting access to Gdrive folders

Thank you all for your support! I noticed some of you have been requesting access to folders on my gdrive. This is my fault because the folders aren't too organized and can get confusing if you go 'back' from the gdrive link shared here on Patreon. The game can be found in 'TSB 0.4' (link shared a few posts before this one). Ignore the other folders since they're there mostly for testing purposes. Thanks again! 

Random life update - I'll be moving to another country very soon (in about a month) . This is mainly for tax and family purposes so my fiancé and I can move to a place we're both comfortable in. Official moving will start only after the release of the upcoming episode. I'll keep you posted. Thanks again!

-CC

🏹

Update

Hey everyone,

I ended up 'trying' to clear my exams instead of dropping them. I probably wont get through this time but I just wanted to give it a shot since I had already paid for them. I've been back home for the past 4 days now and I resumed renders as soon as I got back. I'll have to speed it up a little this month because I want to release by the end of the month or at least the first week of next month. 

Working on these renders has really been fun for me because I can finally start introducing important characters. I had created a bunch of them maybe 3 months ago but they weren't ready to show up in the story yet. I was trying to be ambitious with two free-roam events this time but I'm probably going to have to stick to one event. They won't be confusing free-roams and will be very straight forward just like my other ones. It looks like this update will have at least 10 scenes if not more so it's taking me a while to create these scenes before I throw the characters in. I want there to be at least some variety since a lot of VN's use the same assets so I try to change colors / textures, add / remove props so there's a slightly more unique feel to the scenes. Most players won't even notice things like this but it's just something I think is important since there are 1000's of VNs out there.

Once again, I cannot in good conscience take your money next month and will resume payments in May. If you've been here for a while, you understand that I do this sometimes haha. To the new supporters, don't worry. Development does not stop when I pause payments.

Thank you all for sticking around and to the new supporters. I'm not sure what site my game popped up on but a few of you joined on the same day. I'm grateful.

-CC

Update

Hey everyone. This is more of a personal life update rather than a game update so feel free to skip this one. I just thought I'd leave this here for those who are interested since it kind of affects development progress.

So long story short, I didn't take graduating too seriously back when I was in college and just ignored it and started working instead. So I decided to graduate on the side. I found out at the start of this month that the exams for my final year will be in two weeks (bad communication from the university. It's just how things are in my country.) So I travelled to where I am now and decided to at least try. The first one went okay-ish but looking after at the books I have to study just a day before each exam, made me realize this is not doable and I'll just be wasting my time. So I'm just going to try them out later this year when I'll have another chance. I head back home to rendering in a few days. 

I'm posting this here so you guys are in the loop and know what's going on if you're interested. Sorry for the late post. All my focus went in trying to study. The next post will be when I'm back home in a few days with another preview of renders. 

-CC

Update!

Hey everyone,

Thought I'd check in and post a preview for those who aren't on the discord server. 

Progress has been good but I'm going to kick it up a notch because I keep coming up with new scenes I want to include and I really want to try to get all of them done in this episode. I've been trying to fix my sleep schedule ever since I got back since I've been up all night and sleeping at 4-5 am. Decided to stay up all day and pass out tonight at a reasonable time but hey, it's already 5 am so maybe tomorrow. I wanted to get this scene right and didn't feel like shutting down until I did. 

We're currently at 120 renders and 4 animations. I'm liking the animations and am pretty sure they're going to stick around. I mean animations like walking, or spell casting etc. Since I have the hardware to handle some simple animations, I might as well make use of it. 

Have a great week ahead!

-CC

Renders have begun!

Hey everyone. 

So my next trip got cancelled due to some visa issues. But it was a blessing in disguise maybe because I finally am home on my work PC and have started creating scenes and rendering them. Currently done with 40 renders and 2 animations for the first scene. I'll update you guys as much as I can. It feels good to be back!

Welcome new Patrons and thank you for your support. It's so exciting to see people still subbing even though I've had some delays. Really shows that the people sticking around genuinely like the project so far. Thank you all!

I'm going to try adding more 'every day' animations like I did in the first scene and see how that goes. I'll pop in next week for an update. Have a great weekend :D

-CC

One step closer to my work PC!

Hey everyone, 

My fiancé travelled back to her country yesterday and I'm heading back home too. Spent a day moping because long distance is hard. 

I paid for a trip 2 years ago which got postponed because of covid and that's the trip that I'm going to have to go for in two days (it's a 10 day trip). I am however having some visa issues so IF the trip gets cancelled, I'll FINALLY get back to work. I've been talking my fiancé's ear off with all the scenes I want to create as soon as I get back home. So even if my trip gets cancelled, I won't be dejected because that means I can work. 

Currently cleaning up my hotel room before checking out because I like to be a neat guest haha. I haven't written anything new for two days but have been refining the scenes I've written so far. I can't express how eager and excited I am to start working on these scenes and how much I'm waiting to release the update and have you all play it. I'm also considering adding a little recap before an episode starts just to jog your memory. It's small but I think it's a quality of life feature. 

3 am right now so I'll get back to packing and tidying up. Thank you all for the continued support and I hope you're all having a good week so far. PS : I'm still having discord issues when it comes to private messages so I apologize if I'm ignoring you there. It's not intentional. 

-CC

I miss rendering

Hey everyone, 

Hope you're all doing great. I'm halfway through the trip and I'm getting super restless because I know what I need to render and exactly how the scenes will flow but I can't work on renders here. Took a break from coding today because not being able to render was just getting to me more than usual. I just want to work on the update as much as I can because this is a such an exciting episode for me. I figured all my overthinking and stressing about it would only lower my productivity so I took a breather. 

I'm still using vpn for patreon and discord so I'm still facing login issues every now and then but I'll always try to update all of you when I can. 

Update wise, I can't give you a lot since we're still on code and I've been testing the game with just code and no renders but that just feels weird so I'm going to code away and test when the renders are in. I have a lot of scenes in mind and I hope I can finish all the renders once I'm back home. This page also needs a facelift so I'll work on an updated banner with current characters. 

As always, thank you all for sticking around. Putting this here for the new patrons - I know most of you tell me I shouldn't bother with pausing payments and as always, I appreciate it but know that me pausing payments won't hinder my progress in any way. I always want to put out the best I can for all of you and it's just something I do if I feel like I could have done more. I hope all of you have a great week!

-CC