The only option to support support Bflat on Patreon is $1/month. I recommend supporting Bflat if you enjoyed Agnietta, especially since it's not high asking price at all. But, economy's still tough so I understand that backing a dev at this time may not be ideal for some.
In summary, development has been lagging behind the dev's desired schedule but progress should accelerate since the groundwork has been set and familiarity gained with a new game engine.
Here's the latest update from 5 days ago:
Hello everyone, this is B-flat.
I'd like to start by wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Now, I must apologize.
I had aimed to release the demo by the end of this year, but unfortunately I wasn't able to complete it in time.
Due to some personal family reasons, it will need be postponed for a bit longer. I'm very sorry to have let you down.
For now, I will explain the current progress and the major milestones achieved so far.
Different parastism effects from the first enemy.
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This slimy creature may be familiar to fans of Demyra...it attempts to get inside Vita from all angles, including her cleavage, butt, and other sensitive areas...if it successfully does so, she may get impregnated and eventually give birth...
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Originally, we considered programming it to be able to get inside her skirt, but this caused graphical issues. So now Vita has to lose her skirt first before it can get inside her...though it can still slide between her huge breasts at anytime.
Pregnancy stages and effects.
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This is obviously a major part of the game, as Vita's clothes will need to change as she gets closer and closer to birth... We are currently designing multiple forms of clothing to reflect these different levels of being stretched and torn by her growing pregnancy.
Labor and birth
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We are experimenting with different body positioning to find the best looking angle for everyone to see. After testing standing, kneeling, and lying down positions, we've found the ideal angle would be to have Vita start off standing and shifting to kneeling, spreading her legs and leaning back as her belly gets larger and larger. This was a large amount of work to design the framework to fit this timeline, but it was a very important part of the game! Completing this will allow us to make variations in future as needed.
Emotions and expressions
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Now that the gameplay is being finalized, we've started working on Vita's facial expressions. While she is a very serious and professional person, it wouldn't be fun for players to see her be emotionless all the time. So we're carefully designing subtle but distinctive details into her eyebrows, eyes, and mouth to show her reactions to the madness surrounding her. Blinking and other small details are being added to give Vita as much life as possible.
The "Heart Lanterns"
There are protective communication lights built by "The Immune" across Vita's world. Their magical healing light provides a safe bubble from the plague. Unfortunately, they have started to dim over the years...and the people, animals, and land they once protected are withering away.
Specially trained people, such a Plague Doctors, can travel between Heart Lanterns. Their magical healing light records the state of their mind and soul, repairing any damage to their clothes and body. Though there are rumors that using them also has the side effect of resurrecting any monsters nearby...
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Gameplay-wise, they resemble streetlamps and serve as a combination healing/teleportation savepoint.
Dialog Interface for CG playback
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As a major part of the game that players enjoy is watching CGs, I have prioritized making the dialogue system interface with CGs for easier viewing.
Sprite skeleton creation: Different lying down positions
Vita now has graphics for lying down flat. This means we need to add various differences for parasites and pregnancy. You can see some examples in the pictures below:
These prone graphics will be used for various states, such as when Vita is out of HP, pregnant or in labor. Some enemies might also try to knock her down when using their restraining attacks.
Miscellaneous news
When I first started this project, I thought it would take only three months to release the demo. Unfortunately, it's now been six months and there are still some final details that require fine tuning first. Even outside of my family issues, it still likely would have taken longer than my original projections. The design learning curve was very steep since I had to learn the entire engine and skeleton modeling software from scratch. It took half a year just to familiarize myself with it to the point I COULD debug things.
However, despite my inexperience and misjudging the workload, it's now finally working smoothly.
I'm sorry to have kept you all waiting; even though the climb is longer and harder, I won't stop until I've reached the peak.
I appreciate your patience and support in this difficult time.
Thank you again and stay tuned for future updates!