The dev finally cleared out the sequel situation in the patreon post.
Basically this is the season finale. The new season will be a different exe, but still the direct game continuation.
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To clear up any confusion, regarding the next season/sequel:
At the current pace and how overwhelmingly shoot-focused the releases are, the story progresses too slowly. It took two years of development time to finish Meredith's arc, how much longer must it take to complete the rest of the story?
For us to have a shot at finishing the project, I must impose a few changes to speed things up so I can finish the project in a reasonable time-frame. At this rate, it can easily take up more than a decade.
A sequel, instead of a continued release, is a better approach for multiple reasons:
1. Reduce file-size bloat. Now it's approaching 8 GB, and I'm constantly having to re-upload files because it just. keeps. failing. There are methods to alleviate file size problems, but I'd still like to post a version without any compression.
2. Reduced Variable bloat. There are a lot of variables in Game of Hearts, and not all of them are relevant for future releases. A fresh state keeps things cleaner, and I plan to use different methods of recalling choices and character states in the future. The internals of Game of Hearts are cumbersome to navigate, file names(music, images, and animations) are difficult to keep track of and recognize.
3. A different vision of how the renders will be presented. It no longer matches my past renders and presentation.
4. UI and Font changes.
The sequel is a continuation of Game of Hearts. It moves a bit faster and contains a more varied cast of characters and situations, with an updated look and UI while keeping file size reasonable to an extent.
Again, I must repeat:
There will be new married/romantically involved people to deal with.
All the characters from Game of Hearts will also be present, although they will have to take a step back to allow the new characters space to shine.
