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It's fascinating how fast one year can pass by in this world. I was thinking about it a lot lately, this one year anniversary, how the game I created changed me. It has been a wild ride that hopefully doesn't end anytime soon...But let me start from the beginning.
I think it all started in march or april of 2019. I found my first ever adult visual novel. Let's just call it "Dating my (female) Tenant", I guess. I never played a game like this before and was surprised that these kind of games are available on Android - something that still surprises me. I downloaded the game and was expecting something like your typical NSFW game - you press a button to have sex with a girl. Oh boy was I wrong.
After this I started to dive deeper into this genre. I found other games like that, games that give me a good story with lewd content as extras. Some of these stories hooked me right from the beginning and I enjoyed them more than I thought. Of course I also found a few bad examples, stories that dragged me in just to suddenly take a turn for the worst possible situation. I don't want to call the game out but let's just say this fire was dumb and destroyed the whole game for me
.
I joined several discord servers that were attached to these games and found amazing people there. I learned how some of these games are made and was fascinated. I wanted to give it a go as well but I didn't have anything to make characters yet - or anything else that would be needed to create something. I was searching and asking other game developers what they are using and soon after that I found Honey Select. This is where it all started, I think.
I started the character maker and played around with it. I used koikatsu before so it was not completely new for me. I immediately felt that this engine was the right one to create the graphics - a bit cartoony but not as anime style as koikatsu. I fiddled around for a few days and then made my first attempt at a character. This character was Sandra. But I knew that one character would not be enough. I started to make a girl that looks similar like Sandra but something was missing. As soon as I saw the cat ears I knew what it was - this was the moment I created Lucy. Soon after that I had Becca and I thought to myself hm...Those three could work for the beginning.
I had this thought in my head that I wanted to create a game that I would personally love to play. A game that features no unneeded drama, no points where the player feels betrayed or cheated on. No moments where characters the player invested so many feelings in get taken away for no reason. I never wrote something like this before. I learned the coding part pretty fast, the tutorial for Ren'Py is pretty good. But writing...How should I write? I'm not that creative. I can't make an amazing fantasy world with in depth lore and explanation on why things are like they are. And then it hit me...
Why not insert some of my own experiences into a story - but change the outcome to be a lot better than my outcome was so many years ago. Write it in a way that makes you feel good. Let good things happen that even out all the bad things you experienced. Introduce characters with stories you know too well - but help them in a way that cures all the pain they had to endure. Things like that went through my head and that's where I wanted to go with my story. Create something that I would love to play.
This all happened over a year ago. The pictures you see attached to this post reflect the changes. The very first menu screen for my 0.01 release that I only made available for a few people. And the current main menu screen for 0.13. The original models of Sandra, Becca and Lucy and how they look today. So much has changed over the years. Not only the game changed a lot, I changed even more.
As I already said in a few other personal posts, my life wasn't going in a good direction back then. I was without a job and living of almost nothing. I could barely afford my food and was just living from one day to the next. Some days I didn't even get out of my bed because I just didn't feel the motivation to do anything.
Now, over a year later, I'm in a much better mental condition. While I still suffer from bad depression phases they aren't as severe anymore. I recover faster than I did before and I'm more motivated to do things. I started to look out for myself a bit more as well, eating more healthy and trying to be a bit more active. While my working times are still a bit extreme sometimes I always keep a constant watch that I don't burn out.
I love what I'm able to do because of the amazing support I gained over this year. Every single one of you who enjoyed my game are the reason for that. Be it here on patreon by pledging and giving me some of your hard earned money or through messages where you tell me how much my game has helped you as well - how much it touched you because it hits too close to home. Seeing so many people enjoying what I created gives me the motivation to continue. And not only that, it gives me motivation to create even more things that hopefully will give you the same feelings My New Family does.
You guys have been insane over this year. Never ever in my wildest dreams and hopes did I think to become this big on Patreon. I see the numbers and still can't believe where I am right now, how lucky I am and how grateful I am for this. I will never take this for granted and I will always do my best to keep you guys entertained. Whenever I need a break or anything else you guys will be the first to find out about it. I will always be as transparent as possible when it comes to my development. The last thing I want is to become a dev that abuses the fact that people like what I do - I always want to deliver content for you amazing people out there. Milking will
never be an option for me and that is a guaranteed promise.
Phew, this post has been pretty long and if you made it this far then thank you again. You guys have been giving me so much more than you can imagine and no matter how often I say thank you, it won't be enough for me. But thank you, all of you, again. The next progress update will be on monday like usual and I hope to see all of you there. Enjoy your weekend as much as you can!
