Just saw your patreon post and while I am excited for the 200 save slots (which I'm sure would be more than enough for every choice in the game.) and the mod support. (Even if I'm not quite sure if anybody would actually use it since it's not like with Skyrim were hundereds of mods are uploaded daily some of which are dlc sized ones heck some of them are pretty much a free triple a game.) I'm worried that it might get abandoned like many other ABDL projects or even kickstarter projects in general and I don't want to start any beef with anyone so I won't mention their name (Though if you've ever been to foxtaletimes I'm sure you know exactly who I'm talking about.) But somebody else upgraded to a better engine and actually abandoned the project and it had less things in it than before they upgraded to the better engine and they had no way of downloading the older version from before they upgraded.
Overall it should be a good change for everyone, from the game being more stable across different computer builds and os to just generally playing. We have a couple of small features in mind, but we'll be looking to open up mobile support possibly by Dec 5th's update.
The whole mod/patch support thing I can't say for sure if any fans will create anything, but if they do. We'll in most cases offer to advertise them. I'm no expert in all of this, but my understanding of this support is that if there's something like NTR that fans wish to create a mod/patch for the game. I can't say how the process is for all of that, but the option could be there. Same with patching out visuals if they aren't suited to someones liking.
I'll be honest, I do understand the concern as there is quite a bit of projects that do end up abandoned or let alone the whole kickstarter cash out situations in the past with game projects. It's one of those things where it's hard to really assure people, as you never know anymore sadly. A whole lot can happen in the time of development. Once again, the whole hard to assure people over the internet thing.
But for myself personally, I enjoy working on MA and of course funding has helped get it to where it's at today and continuing to see it help us even further. I'm sure I've mentioned it recently, but we have 4 cg scenes that were made this month already to begin our big push for 4-5+ cg scenes each month. Two of those scenes offer a different version based on your choice made prior. Much of the work progress overall is enjoyable, even if there is some stressful times with trying to balance my personal job, free time and project work. I'll continue to work on MA and our projected roadmap for finishing the game will still be sometime early 2022, possibly even late 2021.
I'll admit, it here. I, myself take maybe 5% of monthly funding and it isn't that I don't want to earn money from being able to work on MA or future projects. It's just that I know if I were to take say 25-30% or more cut each month, it's going to affect our other team members who also enjoy working on the game, but also makes sense they'd want some funding for their hardwork. It's not about being seen in a different light compared to them, but just naturally if a creator enjoys creating something, they'll do so within their power to make it.
To wrap it up, I knew as things were getting more busy lately. I was going to have to step down from handling engine work myself and pass it over to someone else, as before doing that. I was taking on writing, engine work and management. With getting someone to handle the engine work, it's a safe bet to assume most engine/programmers 9 times out of 10 will know Ren'py, rather than Tyrano, cloudnovel, etc. Plus with the timing of everything going on right now with our focus on adjusting and bringing the early game's content up to par with the writing quality seen from the route parts. It was seen as a good time to do this now rather than many more months later.
Our engine/programmer rest assured already has the content for update 0.15 ready and transferred over to Ren'py. It's been tested and the gui isn't 100% finished, it'll still feel very close to how the game felt and looked still. The gui issues are more about missing elements between tyrano vs ren'py, so we'll get those fixed up and looking more polished soon.
As for existing content, aka days 1-19 and the route parts. We're clearly adjusting the early stuff right now and working our way through, along with adding awesome new cg art to pair up with the updates. So we'll get all of that existing content moved over to Ren'py as we continue our process above, but in the mean time. We'll be offering two or three different versions of the game starting Nov 4th.
Update 0.14 - Will contain days 1-19+ route parts and give a overview of what we have created and is in the process of being improved, while transferring over to Ren'py. These improvements of old content will be first seen publicly with update 0.15 on Nov 4th.
Update 0.15 - Releases Nov 4th, open to the public. Will show off a new and improved version of "Day 1" now labeled as "Episode 1". Before it was 7000 word count, now 17,000. The existing content for that area has had it's dialogue and text quality improved, pacing and flow of events working better, while also expanding on existing and adding new fitting moments to connect everything better.
Update 0.16 - Releases Nov 4th, exclusive to supporters on patreon/ks for a month. Will show off a new and improved version of "Day 2" now labeled as "Episode 2". Much like the above, word count has been increased and new stuff has been done to it.
So update 0.14 will always stick around as a showcase of the game, the other two updates will continue forward each month. Sorry for the long post, wanted to be as detailed as possible and open about our process with everything.
