Captain Crystallo

Dev Update #31

Welcome everyone to the last Development Update for Chapter 9. Since the last one, I have:

• Created 376 still images

• Made 2 animations for 1 sex scene

• Wrote the script for 8 scenes

• Started selecting the soundtrack for the episode

I still need to write and render 3 scenes, and then it's time to put everything together and prepare for release. Power outages have become a big problem lately, but I still hope that I can finish everything up in a reasonable timeframe, so the next time you'll hear for me is going to be the release schedule for Chapter 9.

As always, thank you for your patience and apologies for testing it so much.

Dev Update #30

Hello everyone!
I'm slowly getting back into a decent state of mind, so my workflow has improved. It's still not perfect, but I'm getting there.
Since the last update, I have:

• Rendered 242 still images

• Made 4 animations for 1 sex scene

• Wrote the script for 12 scenes

There's still some ways to go to the finish line, but at least I can see it now, so that gives me some confidence.
If I continue to have electrical power (which is under threat due to renewed attacks on our critical infrastructure), I hope to publish the episode by the end of Autumn, but no promises.

Thank you everyone who's been patient with me for so long. I greatly appreciate it and apologize for the frustration of having to wait so much time in-between episodes.

Dev Update #29

Hello everyone!
This is going to be a quick and painful update.
Since the last post, I've only made about 30 still renders, 5 animations, and written the script for 4 scenes.

The reason behind such nearly non-existent progress is that I've been going through a divorce in the last month, and that has taken a huge mental toll on me and eventually landed me in the hospital with some heart problems.
When I returned home, I caught a viral infection and spent another week in bed, recovering.

Only in the last few days, did I start to feel like a living person again, so I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things, but I feel so disconnected from "Seeking Closure" right now that it will take a while before I'm back at 100% again.

I'm afraid to even make any estimations regarding when Chapter 9 will be ready because when I was writing the last development update - I had no idea what kind of hell awaited me in July/August.

I'm very sorry for this mess of a development cycle. I'll try to do better from now on, regardless of the circumstances in my personal life.

Hope all of you are staying safe and healthy, and wishing you all the best!

Dev Update #28

Sorry for the long break in-between posts. Here's what I've done since the last update:

• Rendered 128 images

• Written the script for 12 scenes

• Created 18 animations for 3 sex scenes

My life situation continues to be a mess, so I can't focus on "Seeking Closure" as much as I'd wish. I made some good progress with the script and the animations during the last month, but that came at the cost of fewer still renders. It's too soon to predict when this chapter will be done. I'll try to do more in July, and hopefully will give an estimation next month.

Thank you to everyone who sticks with me through all of this. Hope life is treating you well!

Dev Update #27

Welcome to the first development update for Chapter 9. Since the release of the previous episode, I have:

• Rendered 268 images

• Written the script for 6 scenes

• Created 5 animations for 1 sex scene

• Made some additional small adjustments to Chapter 8

I took a 1-week break, so it wasn't the most productive month, but I plan to ramp up the speed going forward.

As always, thank you for your support!

Chapter 8 (including Android version) is now out for Emerald ($2) supporters!

You can grab the latest version here!

Happy Easter to all those who celebrate!

Chapter 8 is now out for $5 (Ruby-tier) supporters!

You can grab it from this post!

Thank you for your support!

Chapter 8 is now out for $10 supporters!

You can grab the latest version here!

Chapter 8 is now available to $25 supporters!

Chapter 8 "Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Hearts" is now available to $25 (Diamond Tier) patrons here, and it includes:

• 27 scenes and a large number of variations that dramatically affect the fate of several characters based on your past choices

• 2014 static images

• 3 animated sex scenes

• 41 new music tracks

• Updated gallery

Chapter 8 Release for PC, Android, and Mac

Chapter 8 "Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Hearts" is now available to $2 patrons, and it includes:

• 27 scenes and a large number of variations that dramatically affect the fate of several characters based on your past choices

• 2014 static images

• 3 animated sex scenes

• 41 new music tracks

• Updated gallery

You can download the game here:

PC:

MEGA - GoFile - Pixeldrain

Android:

MEGA - GoFile - Pixeldrain

Mac:

MEGA - GoFile - Pixeldrain

Download and replace the files in your Seeking Closure\game folder to apply the fixes that have been done since release:

GoFile - Pixeldrain

This chapter deals with a huge number of variations and variables, and while I tried to fix as many mistakes as I could (and there were a lot), there's a high chance you can encounter errors or continuity issues.

If you experience any crashes, see a scene that breaks the continuity, or some character references an event that didn't happen - please pause your playthrough and let me know. I'll try to fix your problem as soon as possible so that you don't ruin your experience and save.

As always, thank you for your support and I hope you enjoy the update!

Chapter 8 Release Schedule

Hello everyone!
After a painfully long development process, Chapter 8 is finally just around the corner.

I'm sorry it took so much time, but hopefully this will be the longest development cycle for a while and the next updates will come out faster.

Thank you for your patience and support!

Dev Update #26

Welcome to the latest development update for Chapter 8 of "Seeking Closure". Over the course of the last month, I have:

• Rendered 376 still images

• Written the script for 10 scenes

• Started putting the entire episode and code together

Sadly, I greatly underestimated how much work was left, so a February release isn't happening. I had a nasty fever and cough for over a week so couldn't make any progress during that time and that hindered me quite a bit.

Additionally, I need to make a lot more renders than I thought. If I would have stuck to the original vision of the ending for this episode, it would have felt too abrupt and unsatisfying, so I'm trying to add more depth to it before I continue to put the episode together and polish it.

I apologize for failing to meet the predicted release timeframe, but I don't want to rush things.

Thank you for your support and patience and I hope I'll have some better news soon!

Dev Update #25

Hello and welcome to another development post for Chapter 8.
I took a short break during Christmas season, so there was a brief period when I didn't work on my game. Still, since the last update I managed to:

• Render 302 still images

• Create 6 animations for one sex scene

• Write the script for 9 scenes

• Make 100+ renders to accommodate certain Chapter 6 changes (existing saves should still work)

At this stage, I've decided that this release will be broken up into two parts.

Chapter 8 will deal with the last day at the resort and its immediate aftermath. The events that happen in-between the past and present timelines will be covered in a separate update since I don't want it to just be 5 renders per path with a bunch of text. I want to ensure the player can emphasize with the MC better.

My plan is to release Chapter 8 in February, but I can't name an exact release date yet. The next dev update will be the last one for this cycle, so expect more concrete information then.

As always, thank you for your support and take care!

Special Renders for Anna and Elena

Wishing everyone a happy, peaceful, and cheerful holiday season!

Special Renders for Micaela and Katy

Special Renders for Julia, Lara, and Clarissa

Special Renders for Fleur, Susan, and Denise

Dev Update #24

Hello folks!
Time for another report on what I've managed to do during the last month:

• Rendered 283 still images

• Created 9 animations

• Written the script for 12 scenes

• Along with Kuokaman, started reworking some of the problematic aspects of Chapter 6

I'm not happy with the amount of work that's been done, but I've started having power outages again this month and my anxiety levels are at an all-time high, so that makes it harder to focus on my creative pursuits.

It's still tough for me to predict when the Chapter will be ready since the electrical power situation can become even worse in the coming months. Hopefully, I'll have better news to share next month.

I'll try to make some special holiday-themed renders in the coming weeks to add something more cheerful to my Patreon feed:)

Hope everyone has a peaceful and joyful holiday season and thank you for sticking with me!

Dev Update #23

Hello everyone, it's been a little while! Welcome to the first dev update for Chapter 8.

I've spent the first two weeks after releasing Chapter 7 fixing some of the issues, rearranging a few scenes for better logical continuity, and making some extra renders to accommodate those changes (about 50 in total)

After that, I got to work on Chapter 8 and so far I have:

• Written out and planned out all the scenes and their variations for the chapter

• Written 13 scenes

• Rendered 408 still images

• Created 15 animations for 2 sex scenes

Those seem like solid numbers, but this Chapter will once again be the biggest one yet (as it will have the largest number of different variations), so there is still a lot of work to do before I can even estimate when it will be finished.

I'm considering breaking it up into two releases. One would cover the last day at the resort and its immediate aftermath, and the other would address everything that happens during the 5 years in-between the two timelines. I'll have to make some more progress into developing Chapter 8 before I make a final decision about this.

As for any potential reworks, I've made drafts for several rewritten scenes, but haven't been implementing any of them yet or making extra renders, as my focus is on Chapter 8.
My current plan is to initially release the next update without breaking anyone's save and then to add all the reworks for the Steam release.

That's about it for today. Thank you for reading and your support and feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

Cheers!

Open Development Discussion

Welcome to my open development discussion!

As we’re approaching the end of Part 1, it’s time for me to decide how I’m going to tackle a lot of the issues that have been bugging me for the last couple of months. If I want to make any notable changes to the first half of the game, it has to be now since I don’t want to return to Part 1 once it’s out (outside of the necessary bug fixes, obviously).

Throughout Seeking Closure’s existence, the main three critiques I received were:

• I hate that Julia is the default girlfriend in the present timeline.

• Being in the present feels confusing since I, as the player, have no idea what happened in the past so I don’t know which decisions to make.

• I want to spend more time in the present to get the story going and have a reason to care about the characters introduced there.

The second and third points contradict each other, so with that alone – I can’t please everyone, but there are still changes I can introduce to ensure the game is more enjoyable for players who will discover it in the future here or on Steam.

It’s fair to assume that if you’re reading this, you’re already invested enough to stick with the game even if I keep everything as it is, but I need to consider future players as well.

When I devised my visual novel initially, making Julia the mandatory girlfriend felt like the only “right” choice for the story I wanted to tell. However, after 18 months of development, I regret this decision, particularly since I want to place as big of an emphasis on “player choice” as I can.

In my original storyboard, I wanted to add one chapter in the Present for every two spent in the Past until it catches up to the “current day”. This would allow me to give all the necessary backstory while also developing the characters introduced in the Present. Since I didn’t have any experience creating a story like this, the concept looked fine on paper.

However, I quickly realized that I’d written myself into a corner since it’s not possible to spend a lot of time in the Present timeline without other characters (or the MC) referencing past events. Nevertheless, I couldn’t freely reference the Past since you as the player haven’t experienced it yet and didn’t make the choices that will shape it. This wouldn’t have been an issue in a kinetic novel, but that’s not what I’m doing here.

Chapter 4 was already a bit messy. Even though it didn’t force you to commit to anything, you can have Fleur/Susan/Micaela show renewed interest in you (based on your choices in previous chapters), but since it’s possible to be completely done with them by the end of Part 1, their behavior can make 0 sense in retrospect depending on your decisions.

As such, I decided to stick to the Past timeline until it’s finished to avoid making that issue even bigger. This resulted in all the girls that are only included in the Present feeling forgotten and it will be an uphill battle to make the players care about them later, which is an issue since they have an important role to play in the story.

Another point of critique is the hairstyles of the girls from the past being very different in the present. Similar to most people, I prefer their past looks too, but at the same time, it would be weird if most of them kept the same hair for 5 years. On the other hand, is realism important in this case if the new hairstyle makes people like them less? I honestly don’t know and I might resolve this problem in a poll on a girl-by-girl basis.

With all of that being said, I’m currently considering several options while I gradually speed up development for Chapter 8.

• Keep everything as is. The laziest option, but one that a lot of existing fans and supporters will likely prefer since they’ve already played through all the problematic parts. However, I obviously would like to receive more supporters over time, so it’s not the optimal solution for me.

• Only make minor tweaks throughout Part 1, changing and expanding some of the dialogue to be less confusing and/or committal, while also adding more options to abandon paths that you’re no longer interested in.

• In addition to the above, rework the Julia-related content in Part 1 to make her an optional girlfriend and have a separate choice at the start of Part 2 (or in the end of Part 1) for players who will continue their old saves.

• Remove all the “Present day” scenes outside of arriving at the hotel and having the “flashback”, while keeping (and adding more) scenes of meeting Julia to build up her character without making her MC’s girlfriend by default. As such, at the start of Part 2, it’ll be up to you if Julia comes with you as your friend or love interest. Another benefit of this approach is that when you start talking to the present-day versions of all the girls, you’ll have full information on how your relationship developed and if you’re still interested in them. The downside is – it makes the story more linear, removing most of the “What happened? How did it come to this?” intrigue from the present timeline. However, since it isn’t delivered in a compelling manner already, maybe it’s not that big of a loss. If you’re a returning player, another drawback is that you’ll have to replay most of the scenes from Chapters 1 and 4 in Part 2, which will feel wonky and immersion-breaking if you continue your old save(s).

• Reframe the entire story and finish everything in the past, pretending the present timeline never existed, as the MC gets to ride into the sunset at the end of his vacation. This option completely abandons the premise of the story I wanted to tell, but I’m thinking about it for two reasons. Firstly, since there are no signs of the war ending anytime soon, I have no idea how long I’ll manage to avoid getting enlisted into the military against my will. As such, I can disappear any day without warning and you won’t get any closure for the game at all. Secondly, the current projections are that I’ll have electrical power for only about 6-8 hours out of 24 a day, starting from November, and if that happens, this will bring the development process to a near complete halt. I don’t want to choose this option, but if the consensus is “better an unplanned ending than no ending at all”, then maybe it’s the “right” thing to do.

My mind has been split between all these different options for months now and I still can’t commit to a single direction since all of them have significant drawbacks.

As such, if you have any thoughts on the matter, or if you would like to suggest a completely different option, I’m open to hearing you out (even if it’s related to something relatively small like the hairstyle dilemma). That doesn’t mean I’m going to do what someone else tells me to, but it might help me make a decision, while I continue to work on Chapter 8 since most of it is set in stone regardless of anything discussed above.

A part of me didn’t want to write this post since I don’t want to disappoint and upset people who will provide solid arguments that I won’t listen to (since it’s impossible to satisfy everyone), but I still decided to publish it in hopes of gaining some unique insight that I’m lacking at the moment.

Chapter 7 is now available to Emerald tier subscribers

You can download the latest version here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/chapter-7-thread-111619821

Chapter 7 is now out for Ruby ($5) Tier Patrons

You can get the newest installment here.

Chapter 7 is now out for Jade ($10) Tier Patrons!

You can grab the new update here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/111619821

Thank you for your support!

Chapter 7 is now out for Diamond Tier subscribers!

You can grab the episode from this post:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/111619821

Chapter 7 "Following the Thread" Release for PC, Android, and Mac

Chapter 7 is now out for PC, Android and Mac and it contains:

• 22 scenes (with significantly more scene variations than ever before)

• 1396 static renders

• 9 animated sex scenes

• Updated gallery

• 31 new music tracks

You can download the game from here:

PC:

MEGA - GoFile - Pixeldrain

Mac:

MEGA - GoFile - Pixeldrain

Android:

MEGA - GoFile - Pixeldrain

Please report any issues you might encounter. As the story progresses, there are more and more variables that I have to juggle and while I test a variety of different paths, I'm afraid there will be more things that I miss with each release.
If you have any sort of problem or narrative inconsistency, let me know, and I'll try to fix it as soon as possible.

As always, thank you very much for your support and I hope you enjoy Chapter 7 of my game!

Chapter 7 Release Schedule

One final delay for a development cycle that was painfully full of them.

I really tried to finish working on the chapter today, but that's just not happening. I hope a one-day delay won't ruin anyone's plans to enjoy the next installment of "Seeking Closure".

As always, thank you for your support. The wait is almost over! 

Last Dev Update for Chapter 7 (#22)

Welcome to the final update for Chapter 7!

Sadly, I failed to finish it by the end of August and I'm very sorry for that.
I've pulled a couple of all-nighters trying to meet the deadline I've set for myself, but that just resulted in me getting a fever that lasted nearly the entire week and with power outages being back, I've been knocked back again.

I'll post the finalized release schedule in a day or two, but expect Chapter 7 to be out for Diamond patrons next Friday (September 6th) and the other tiers following that.

In terms of pure numbers, over the last month, I have:

• Created 362 static images

• Rendered 16 animations for 2 sex scenes

• Wrote a couple missing shorter scenes, and did a whole bunch of image and text editing

There's still some editing I have to do, about 40 renders that need to be made, 3 animations I need to re-render for various reasons, and then comes the play-testing.

Thank you for your patience and I hope the episode will be worth your loyalty.

Dev Update #21

 Welcome to the next development update for Chapter 7!
During the last month, I have:

• Rendered 245 images

• Created 16 animations

• Wrote the script for 8 scenes

• Started playtesting and adding music to the first scenes of the chapter

The past 30 days have been horrible in terms of power (I often had electricity for only 8 hours out of 24, with 4 of them being in the middle of the night), so that meant less renders than I would have liked and a lot of late-night work hours.

The good news is that the power situation has improved in the last few days and if no new attacks happen, I should be able to restore a healthier and more productive rendering schedule.

The next development update should be the last one before release, but I currently have no idea when it will happen. I'm aiming for a August release (if I continue to have power), but that's as precise as I can be at the moment.

As always, thank you everyone for sticking with me through all this mess. I greatly appreciate it and I hope things are going well for you.

Cheers!

Special Renders for Katy and Micaela (#49-54)

These don't look particularly good, but I didn't want them to go to waste, so posting the renders anyway.

Special Renders for Julia and Denise (#41-48)