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Heyo!
The Part X progress tracker is updated every 3-4 days, so visit my site if you're the curious type!
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Once in a while, it'll show an "Under Maintenance" page when I'm doing testing -- it shouldn't be longer than a day at a time, usually. If it ever says something like "can't access this site or ip", that's likely caching from a time where the site was down. To fix it, reset the cache for the site in your browser's preferences and try it again. That, or use another browser if you're in a hurry.
Setting up Phase II for the site has been keeping me busier than I would have liked, but I'll still be pushing out other content this week & weekend. Pinups and perhaps a random amusement -- drop by if you can!
Part X Progress!
The final two slow segments, those being F_Sun and S_Sun, are now over a third complete. The F_Sun seg is further along and will be switched from "currently rendering" to "near complete" sometime this weekend or early next week! I'll continue crunching as hard as I can to reach the fast segments, which can be ripped through at a fraction of the previous segment's time, as you already know.
Regarding concern of Part X's development time, I'd like to echo what I said in last week's comment section in case you missed it. A user brought forward a reasonable question:
"...When will the game be updated ? The last update was at the end of March. We are at the end of June. I thought the update was every month like my payment. Three months it's too much." -Max
I suppose it depends on what you personally find more important, more content per update or a slim dev cycle. If you prefer a 4-5 week cycle, then I can only reasonably create 4-5 weeks of content for that release. With more weeks per cycle, I can afford to create a more fleshed, comfortably paced story part than I would be able to with a fraction of that time.
At least for the Act I finale, I’ve decided not to compromise the story pacing and amount of content for a slimmer cycle -- I feel that me being thoroughly, ruthlessly meticulous is now more important than ever. If that’s unappealing, you can always rescind your pledge until release and then enjoy it!
Beyond that, there's not much else to report other than the more boring stuff, such as purchasing additional fans and PSU distribution to keep 25 GPUs cool and comfortable. As always, feel free to hop in discord or shoot me a message/email if you have questions about the story or process. I've got a couple to catch up on, but I'll be able to get back to you within a few days tops!
Part X Content!
For most of Act I, interactions between characters have been limited to 1v1 by the vast majority, sometimes having a third to join the conversation and inevitable dramatics. Particularly, the main household and its immediate members seem to use everything in their power to avoid seeing each other, at least all at once. Someone always wants to drag someone somewhere, for a relabeled date or something trivial.
While this certainly is a great way to get intimate with one specific person, it seems to distance the household's members from one another and refuses to address, resolve their many problems. With emotions caught in a confused, perhaps painful flurry, you will finally have a chance to act upon that opportunity. There will certainly be segments where you have your alone time with your particular loved one, but you'll also witness how all these characters fair when facing each other, all at once.
Who does The Youth respect, whose authority is she willing to submit to? Does The Matriarch really not mind her husband spending so much time with these young women, will she continue to be passive about it? The two men of the house; there's been attempts at apology and forgiveness, but will you continue to offer that even in light of recent events? On the final day at the final hour, who will leave, who will stay?
These questions and more seek to be answered, at your discretion. Nearly every character, both major and minor will appear in the Act I finale -- hopefully you understand why there's so much to develop this time around! You can still juggle multiple hearts if that's your choice, just be more conscious of who you kiss, where you are and who might be watching.
Here's another thing: don't worry about maxing relationship points for anyone but the main pairings for each campaign, F/D and M/S. Those two are the only ones that have specific game-changing differences depending how many points you gained during Act I. If you're not interested in those particular women in those campaigns, you don't have to worry either.
For the other pairings/characters, they're more open to you depending on your immediate decisions. You won't be forced into a specific, enclosed relationship path with anyone until the ending parts of Act III, so don't feel shy showing many if not all the ladies some love! I'm sure they will appreciate it. :]
Website Phase II - Users & Pledging!
Obviously the site didn't make last week's mark, which is kind of disappointing. Regardless of the reason behind it, I want to apologize for missing that. If you don't mind the read, I'll share the nitty-gritty of what's left before Phase II can be launched in in all its glory!
In short, the site-side technical stuff, design and other miscellaneous smoothing was all finished last week. What happened to be a larger nesting doll than I had anticipated was the payment processor and merchant stuff, requiring a bit more grooming before I'm completely satisfied with it.
For example, a very cool feature Patreon's billing system has is the ability to pay the difference between two pledge tiers instead of paying the full amount. This means paying only $7 when upgrading from $5 to $12, instead of the full $12. That's definitely one of the features I want to solidify before launching, as I'm sure there's many of you who want to switch tiers mid-month or to use the brand new billing option I'm including for convenience.
Which brings me to my next bit I want to share: the additional choice of a 3-month pledge, for each and every reward! Similar to many other subscription models, choosing to pledge three months at a time will give you a price discount, that discount being greater for larger pledges like the $20 CE Club. For those who plan to support myself and this story's development for extended periods of time, I figured you would enjoy this addition!
The rest of Phase II is related to setting up the payment processor's back end, all of the merchant stuff. So far, I've tested a handful of transactions to make sure everything's secure and that the user's pledge token unlocks the proper rewards/content. The primary payment processor and merchant account I established had to be carefully chosen, as some companies are more strict with adult content than others -- I'm sure you're familiar. PayPal in particular will freeze/shut down merchant accounts that sell adult content and services, so having them be our processor wasn't an option.
I thankfully found a processor that's both established (a subsidiary of VISA themselves, funnily enough) and doesn't mind a few ladies showing some extra skin. Plus, they let me bug them over the phone into the wee hours of the night, answering my many questions -- that's also nice! :]
Another kink I ironed out was the billing descriptor, essentially what will show up on your bank statement after pledging. It likely wasn't a concern to you before since all pledges on Patreon are simply labeled as "Patreon", regardless of the creators you pledge to. For those who don't want their support to me being one google search away from possible embarrassment with someone who shares your bank account, I've changed the descriptor to be more discreet. All pledges will show up as "GDG Patronage" on your statement -- GDG is a abbreviation that I haven't used for posting any of my content online and will not be linked, if that's a concern for you. If you'd like to avoid anything on any statement at all, physical or online gift cards always do the trick!
As I said last week, I'll be making transfers from Patreon to my site quite smoothly if that's something you're interested in. If you've already pledged on Patreon for the month, I will transfer that over to my site and you'll have access to all the same rewards, plus the ones exclusive for supporters on my site. I've shared two so far, the priority download for game releases and the uncompressed 4k version -- there's more in the pipeline, so I hope you'll look forward to it!
The rest of Phase II will be dealt with carefully since I want to have all features and whistles working perfectly once it's in the air. For the moment, I'll list it as coming out next week -- if it's out before or after, you'll be the first to know!
·
CE Club Nude Pinup Pack II [Complete!]
·
CE Club Nude Pinup Pack III [Complete!]
·
CE Club Nude Pinup Pack IV [Complete!]
·
Website Phase I Launch - Progress Tracker [Complete!]
·
Three more Part X previews [Complete!]
·
CE Club Nude Pinup Pack V [Complete!]
·
CE Club Nude Pinup Pack VI [Complete!]
·
(Coming this week!) CE Club Nude Pinup Pack VII
·
(Coming next week!) Web Phase II Launch (Users & pledges)
· Dev updates, previews, pinups & other goodies for all patrons
· Part X!
That's everything for now! I'll be putting more time into Part X than the site stuff compared to last week, hopefully blasting the greater portion of those last two slow segments. As always, fire a message my way via Patreon, email or discord and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks for dropping by and I'll hope to find you here again next week!
Best, lads. See you around!
Gumdrop Games
