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Hey guys!
First, I want to admit something you’ve probably already noticed. I haven’t been great about keeping you all updated on my progress or providing much in the way of bonus content for the past few months. Yesterday I was letting this stress me out, and the only thing I could think of to address it was to come up with a plan to fix it. So that’s what I did!
It’s not a particularly new or groundbreaking plan, it’s simply putting together all the posts I’ve been meaning to make, sorting them, categorizing them, and putting up a timeline for when to release them. But I’m pretty damn excited for it, because I feel like I owe you guys some consistency.
I tend to go all in on whatever I'm working on, which is great when it comes to focusing on something, but not great when it comes to running everything else. For example, I had fun making all the pregnancy themed renders for May, but haven't posted any since. And I know most of you aren't here for that, but it's still a nice perk. Same thing with side stories and that kind of thing.
So to combat the feeling of falling behind (and then posting even less consistently as a result), I plan to spread posts out better. For example, when I first released the first few chapters of Taylor I planned to have weekly releases, which worked great for the first five chapters, but once I realized I wasn't happy with a few of the chapters I slowed down to edit them, and now the last few chapters have had almost six months between them. Instead, going forward I plan to release chapters monthly, allowing for more consistency without taking too much time away from game development to polish things up.
I'd also like to start making random renders a monthly thing, to start recommending other creators, and to start a series about writing advice and my experiences to show what I've learned over the past few years for anyone curious or looking to create their own stories, games or comics one day.
Perhaps most importantly, I plan to get back to monthly progress reports and check ins where I show you guys what I've been working on each month, instead of taking too long between them and writing walls of text.
Speaking of, what have I been working on lately?
Endowed - I believe I've mentioned it before, but currently I've been focusing on several different aspects for the next Endowed update. Adding a replay gallery for sexy scenes, for example, is something I've been meaning to do for both games for years. I figured it would be much easier for Endowed, as the game is only in its fifth chapter, so will be a lot less work to find and organize all the scenes in question.
I also want to give the option of whether to make the player experience to be more like a game with pop up notifications for achievements and for finding hidden content, or to leave it more as a visual novel where you're simply exploring the world and taking the path you want for people who don't want to be reminded it's a game.
In addition to adding the missing content from Chapter Five, like updating the soundtrack and sound effects, finishing up the introduction for Jazz, there will also be additional content with Sapphire which will introduce some of the hidden elements of the club and lead to the Bad Reputation path for the game in which the MC can decide to care less about what people think of him and pursue the girls earlier on.
There will also be a new prologue where we are introduced to the club back when the uncle ran things. This will be one scene, and serve as a way to introduce some of the fetish specific content in Endowed earlier on. It seems a fair amount of players have been surprised to find expansion, pregnancy, and other such kinks in the game appear around Chapter 4 several hours into the game, which is fair, so I thought this would serve as both a more exciting introduction and to also better warn people what they're getting into with the game.
Timeline - I don't believe the update will be finished in September, but I'm hoping to have it up by October, with the entirety of Chapter Six released by the end of the year.
Hypnosis - as we've gone a while now since the last update, I want to revisit the girls to keep them fresh in people's minds. First, I have been writing a continuation of Jenn's Diary that will go over the Broken Watch Branch to continue things from her perspective. Then I want to make a mini comic titled Daphne's Desire showing future content where the MC goes to visit Daphne on their trip to give a sneak peek at a future update.
I also plan to make a series of renders for the girls getting ready for the aforementioned Halloween costume party where they are struggling getting into their costumes because they keep growing out of them.
Unexpected - the next chapter is far along, as Werey has already made the majority of the renders for the game update, and the majority of the scenes are written. The main work remaining is simply tracking and planning out the different choices and paths they lead to, particularly as they will affect the game in future updates. I'll admit I haven't been focused on this update for the past couple of months as I've been working on Endowed, but it's close enough to being finished I'll likely try to get the next update out this month.
Stories - I currently have the next three chapters of Taylor written and polished up, the first of which I'll release this month. The main thing I'm waiting on now is visuals, as I want to add several more throughout the story. Also, I realized the last update was somehow missing half the chapter, so I'll recommend starting over from the previous chapter with the new update.
I also have several short stories I've been working on which I'd like to start releasing monthly as well and to have them sorted and organized by kink, including one with a Halloween theme I have been writing for the Spookspansion contest over on the expansion themed story site
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.
In Other News -
If you were wondering about the image for this post, one of the bigger external events to happen recently was the increased censorship making its rounds through the internet, first with Steam and then with Itch.
For those unfamiliar, payment processors led by Visa and Mastercard have been on a bender, suddenly deciding that it doesn't matter what content is legal or harmless, they are the moral police who will determine whether people can buy adult themed games or not. They have been blaming a small online group of political activists in Australia called Collective Shout (funny video about their hypocrisy
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) who sent a few hundred emails complaining about games they've never played, who have also been trying to take down games like GTA and anything else they find offensive, which is essentially anytime someone posts the human body not fully clothed. Because they think humans are gross, apparently.
Anyway, this has been more than a minor annoyance, as Itch has stopped working with Stripe to take their payments in order to continue allowing adult games on their site. This was great on Itch's part, but they have yet to find another payment processor, and continue to have adult games taking payments deindexed so they no longer show up in their search as they attempt to figure things out.
They removed both game pages for Hypnosis based on the name, but after reviewing it brought the paid version back online. For some reason the free version is still restricted, and I've been working with them on returning it.
The Itch page has been a great secondary resource, as it provides a valid place for people to find and download games without having to worry about sketchy download links from download sites with popup ads and all that. Throughout the internet there aren't really any legit places to host a game other than Steam, which my games are not eligible for due to the graphics engine used being Honey Select.
So it's frustrating to build a following and have things erased on a whim, with a lot of devs having the result of the past several years of their lives demonetized without warning, essentially making all their efforts in making a career disappear.
Personally, I've typically maintained the attitude that "this too shall pass", as sites pop up and disappear over time, so the best strategy is to make sure to use multiple forms of contact for fans to find me, but this time feels different.
Many players have attempted to clap back at the payment processors, figuring that if a few hundred emails is all it took, why not send a tens of thousands in response, along with making thousands of phone calls demanding these companies stay in their lane and allow platforms (including this one) to determine and enforce their own rules? There are several resources with ways to fight back for those interested, including
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Thanks, everyone!
