Brief update!
Our plans have changed around a bit and there's quite a bit more involved things going on behind the scenes, but I'd like to give some update to what is going on and what can be expected.
First off before I explain what's been causing some delay here recently, I'd like to talk about the upcoming Episode 5 content that'll be coming along in June. We've decided it would be best to split this episode into 2 parts for release as a win win situation to our own troubles, but to give content as soon as possible as well.
Part 1 will consist of roughly 3-4 scenes (writing) from the episode, which may sound pretty short, but I assure you that the biggest scenes take place early on and so you shouldn't fly through it too quickly either. There will be a decent amount of choices and interaction options given to you throughout the whole episode that range from informative about the world/setting to more meaningful choices that affect outcomes later or shortly after choosing them, visually and dialogue wise. This first part is nearly ready and should be expected soon for our Patreon supporters, but then it should be out for the public by the end of the month.
(Those who have supported us at $5+ on our Patreon at least once during 2021 or in the early months of 2022 will receive personal inbox messages from me on Patreon offering both part releases for free as part of our promise to give back during our awkward development period in the project.)
Part 2 will of course have the rest of episode 5, roughly 5 more scenes and some surprises that really kick things into gear with the mystery going on at the academy. As expected from above, this episode is our biggest amount of content to date and has been carefully crafted to offer plenty of choices and interaction throughout to make the experience better we hope! We'll take feedback into account after the releases on episode 5 and later as part of a lower priority focus when we do quality fixes for episodes 1-4. We'd like to apply what works well with episode 5 into those episodes in terms of choices/interaction for a better experience.
Just to give some ideas to what choices and interaction we have in store for the players.. There's choices similar to what we've seen before that have a direct impact visually or dialogue change wise still being used. We also are going to see a return of what we're dubbing "Information choices" which is on the same level of episode 1's choices when wishing to learn more about the school rules, purely meant to expand on the world/setting to better immerse yourself. (A good example of this in episode 5 is checking over some details about clubs at the school, learning how they function in general and what limits there are to them, etc.)
Two big aspects being added in time are the following...
"Items" As it might sound like, during the flow of the game. We'll have key points and choices that allow the player to gain items that can later be used in a few different ways. One of these will be given the option to exchange a given item for another more useful item that benefits you better, but for the main part there's key moments when the game will check if you have a given item and see if you'd like to use it. (Example of this: Early on in episode 1, while Erika is tidying up her dorm room. The player can take a moment to look around and examine their surroundings for a limited period of time before events continue forward as normal. In this case, let's say you can examine Erika's dresser and choose to pocket a pair of her dorky panties. You can later have two or more key moments in the game where this item is called upon or other items like it..)
(Maybe in one case instance, while hanging out with Joey and discussing things, he wonders if you have anything to offer him for a item he'd be willing to trade you that might help unlock special dialogue/visuals for say Zoey. You can choose to trade Erika's panties to him for this outcome, but on the flip side.. You can choose not to and hold on to them longer, then at a point within Erika's route. You'll be given the option to reveal Erika's panties to her and see how she reacts or what it changes up exactly by doing so.) It should be noted that not all items and exchanging/giving them will turn out with good results though, adding some challenge and wits to play around when doing new playthroughs. (A example of things going wrong would be.. Taking a pony figurine from Erika early on, then being able to offer it to Miki later. Miki being good friends with Erika knows from experience how special those figurines are to Erika and will become upset at you, knowing she didn't just give you it and that you must've stole it, leading to her berating you in her own fitting way to her character.)
This would then possibly change up some dialogue in future moments with Miki or Erika based on this interaction for better or worse, etc. But the main point of "Items" is to offer another element of unlocking and changing up some events along the way, mainly with dialogue, but some items will be applied to cg visuals too.
"Diaper Key Choices" Is something that begins within route content, where it can be split into 3 aspects. "Potty Training" "Caregiver" and " Diaper Encouragement". There will be key moments and choices where you as the player can help shape the route content a bit further in your own personal direction. So to give a rough idea how this is being planned to work is as follows...
(Let's say early within Miki's route, she has a accident but fitting to her character. It doesn't bother her too much, but you have some thoughts about it.. You'll be given 3 choices. You can push her to follow you to the nurse's office to get changed asap into a fresh diaper, along with trying to encourage her to not just have accidents so freely like that and to help add some control over herself. = "Potty Training" Which little by little, your efforts in these kind of choices along the way will help shape Miki to control herself better and only use her diaper when more in private and knowing when to do it to get changed instantly, helping shape her to get out of diapers completely if possible. This is sort of a way of going about things for those who like the aspect of potty training, seeing progress in that sort of way and possibly less intense diaper content for their preferences in routes.)
(Taking the same thing above.. You can instead also choose to encourage her to stay in her dirty diaper for longer periods of time, which also affects visuals similar to the above. If you choose this, the rest of the episode for Miki would instead display her in a dirty diaper visually during events, both cg art and sprite art, but some minor dialogue differences would appear during the episode's events from being in a dirty diaper as well. = "Diaper Encouragement" Which little by little, your efforts in these choices will help shape Miki to enjoy using her diapers even more so and choosing to wear them even during rare moments when visitors are allowed at the school. This sort of leads to the idea of wishing to keep Miki in diapers regardless of how events play out to the end of the game or beyond, but sort of leans in for those who want a bit more out of dirty diaper sort of content vs the above potty training path.)
(Lastly, taking the same thing above.. You can also go a middle ground sort of option by asking if she'd be comfortable having you change her diaper in private instead of the nurse. This would possibly lead to a mini-game roughly planned for the game, where it'd show Miki laying on a changing table/bed in similar fashion of cg art visuals, but there would be interaction with the visuals. You'd be able to use your mouse cursor to click and drag, to lift her skirt and go through motions to change her and keeping an eye on her heart rate or nervous meter that'd build based on how direct you are or too hasty you choose to be in actions. More or less, offers a mini-game that rewards you for doing things right vs what many games do where failure tends to reward you instead, as we all know how annoying it can be to "fail" to be rewarded while "winning" doesn't reward you. ^^" But this of course is the "Caregiver" path.) Little by little, by doing these choices, it'd help shape and condition Miki to rely on you and pretty much, this is meant to give a bit more of a AB (Adult Baby) aspect to the game's route for those who like that.
A minor aspect added to the "Caregiver" path mentioned is the question "Well how do you expect Heather to be willing to allow herself to become babied?" ..Let's just say certain characters in this path would turn the tables around onto you instead.
Adding yet another aspect seen in dialogue and some visuals.
.............
Now with more exciting stuff out of the way to help pump everyone up.. I can go into some detail about recent delays and what's been going on lately.
To put it simply and not to cause any issues, early this year we lost our long time programmer Artie, who for personal reasons needed to step away from the project. We managed to find a new programmer back in January, shaping them up to know the expectations from us as a team and vice versa, overall about the project and how long it'd be on-going for, pricing, etc. Laying everything out in front and getting them prepped to take over as we headed into February, which led to testing them out on their skills with our v0.19.5 release that upscaled the game from 1280x720 to 1920x1080 quality, both in engine and assets being replaced with higher quality ones.
This took longer than I originally expected and we didn't get it done until mid March with some issues along the way, some bugs or visual issues, etc. I didn't want to judge too harshly given what I was asking of them as their first real programming test on the project was to replace and fix up episodes 1-4 visually and sort of get accustomed with the coding that existed for the game to their liking, etc.
Of course our next goal was to get episode 5 out shortly after this and had some troubles with this on my part as well, but I think the general idea here is that v0.19.5 was very much a testing period and cutting slack in general. But there's been some issues even with episode 5 that make me think that this isn't going to work long term sadly..
My plan is to have them finish up episode 5 and we're doing the split into 2 part release of this content partly due to this to offer what content is nearly ready and hope the rest is all sorted out by the end of June for having episode 5 done overall. Then as we head into July and begin to focus on v0.21 (First route content) We'll be trying to find a fitting programmer to take over from there and hopefully for the long term, so July might be a bit bumpy on how soon to expect v0.21 right after episode 5.. But I'd like to get a new programmer up to speed early on in July and get them to have everything ready in-engine by the end of July if possible to keep things moving along quickly on releases without a hitch.
Another aspect that came unexpected that no doubt had some impact on getting this first part of episode 5 out quicker, has been that at the end of May. I started coming down with some sickness, that at first I thought was a viral thing going around our area by the sounds of it, but it turned out to be covid. For much of this past week or nearly 2 weeks now, I've been sick and while I've been better in the past 2-3 days now. The rest of the time before that was pretty rough as my days were limited to sleeping, resting in bed, watching tv and messing with my phone for the most part with how fatigued I felt and it sucked..
Thankfully as mentioned, the past 2-3 days has been the first in feeling somewhat "normal" again. I have a normal cough at this point and luckily I've been able to sit at my computer, focus on more involved tasks without losing focus or feeling like I'd pass out regardless of how much sleep I had. So.. Needless to say, I've stored up a ton of energy and very restless in wanting to get development moving even more so than ever before after that mess. I'm very thankful for everyone who has been super patient with us so far, but it's my personal goal to ensure that the 2nd half of this year makes up for our lackluster development period so far in a big way.
My rough goal of this will have to be seen with the upcoming releases for Summer, but I'd like to shoot for getting new content out every month for the rest of this year to make up for how awkward things have been. Then after a brief holiday break during December, as we head into 2023. We'll then swap things to be released every 45 days instead of within 30 days, so we don't burn ourselves out, but also to manage things better.. But for 5-6 months of releases within 30 days.. We've done it in 2020 before.. So I believe we can put ourselves to the test once again for a limited period of development to make up for things.
Thank you everyone once again, so much for a "Brief" update.. ^^"
