Saw the following on a Patreon message, though not through the main Patreon page for the game, so maybe targeting former subscribers...? Either way, looks to be good news, potentially. Glad to hear that the dev is doing better if nothing else. Says something may show up tomorrow, apparently, too. I've resubscribed now just in case.
"Hey it's Vic. Astral Lust hasn't released new versions in quite a while, and contact with me has been lost. I've received many emails and messages, and it seems there are rumors that I've died, that I have cancer and many other rumors. I want to let you know what's going on, and what's the future of Astral Lust. Let's start with the most important question to all Astral Lust fans out there - Is Astral Lust going to be abandoned? The answer is NO. The next update will come out TOMORROW as a public 0.3.0 release. 0.3.1 is planned to drop next month, with an ETA being 12.10.2024 What has been going on with me? My health fell in late December, and in early January I couldn't get up from the bed. I've had serious immunity problems since early 2022, when I contracted a serious illness - the worst one I ever had. Although I was eventually cured I started getting increasingly ill, with 2023 being sick more often than healthy. This year began with a heavy illness, that weakened my body to extremes, and often I couldn't even get up from bed for hours. It took a long time before I defeated this illness only for the next to start soon after - this time I almost died - not only was the illness more dangerous to my life than the previous one - I was misdiagnosed and got the wrong meds. The result was my state getting worse. Illness clouded my mind and destroyed me not only physically but also mentally, it made me delusional and unable to differentiate dreams from reality. I was constantly passing out unable to tell the time or date. Moreover, many tragedies happened in my life, and people died. My mental state finally collapsed completely and I went through a serious mental break. It took me months to find a reason to fight for myself and start recovering. As of now my immunity problems were addressed with strong meds, and my immunity has improved - I'm now on the low end of what's normal, and that's a major improvement for me. I told you about me, now let's talk about the game. After fixing many bugs I finally finished developing 0.3.0 in early January and uploaded it to Mega overnight, the thing is - I couldn't get up from the bed the next morning - the illness I was suffering from showed its fangs for the first time. That's basically how 0.3.0 ended up shelved for months. That brings another question, why I would release it tomorrow and not right now? The answer to this is that I want to do some bug hunt. While I bug-tested the game back then and checked all things in the changelog one by one - I want to make sure it's all working as it should. It's normal for a bug or two to pass even the most strict tests. What about Astral Lust's future? I reflected a lot on many things, on my mistakes and successes. Since my health has gotten better, I want to get myself a set schedule and plan for future development. Before all of this, I made a roadmap for 0.3.1 - 1.0.0 - full release. Now, I want to realize all of these plans. What does that mean to development? I want to maintain a steady supply of updates. Minor updates like 0.3.1 or 0.4.2 will need about two weeks of development, and major updates like 0.4.0 or 0.6.0 will take around a month - up to a month and a half. Most of my plans focus on adding new events. Each major version is going to have a clear focus 0.3.x will focus on Lexi and Mina, with their storylines being completed before 0.4.0. (The main storyline. Side events will still be added in future releases). ---- I used to believe one shouldn't talk about their health and problems, it was integrated into me as a child, that one shouldn't show any weakness and always pretend to be strong no matter how bad one is. My views on this started changing due to my partner and I'm thankful for that, she opened me up. The communication failed on my end, and I want to fix this in the future. I'll do my best to maintain a pace of 5 posts a week. I'll post about AL plans, progress, and development. Everyone following Astral Lust will be constantly updated on its progress. I don't ever want you to be unsure if I'm dead or alive so, I'll make sure to let you know about any illnesses or issues I might have before they become critical. If I'm unable to let you know myself, I'll get Chuck to let you know through Discord about my state. It's 1:30 am here, time to sleep Goodnight, see you tomorrow! WE'RE BACK! "