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Following the Ep3 release a couple days ago, there's some things I wanted to follow up on. It's been a hectic week, which included a 36-hour marathon Wed/Thu in front of my PC with only a 3-hour nap to get last minute work done. I've since taken the last two days to try to unwind a little bit before sitting down to write my thoughts.
There are many parts of this release I'm very happy with. Of the good things, I'm mostly proud of how much better the renders look to me, most notably the characters' skins.
Following the Ep2 release, Kentyrr (artist for Chasing Sunsets), had taken an interest in TaH and (unintentionally?) got me motivated to improve this aspect. He was kind enough to discuss and share a lot during this time, and I put in the effort learning finer details. This was a very big step in my development journey, so if you're a fan of the direction TaH visuals have gone, be sure to tell him your appreciation if you ever get the chance.
Here's an example of the leap in quality I was able to make.
To address some other thoughts that have come up... TaH is meant to be a story-driven game that also happens to include the MC's romantic and sexual situations. I've always had a target in mind about how much of that content will be included per episode as I know a majority of players anticipate it. I've even stated once before that the frequency will likely increase as relationships & flings gain momentum.
The first half of Ep3 was a lot of setup, whereas the second half will see more payoffs from this. If this update seemed like the sex/story ratio was low, it's because of this. Hopefully it averages out.
I also intended to have animations for the dorm room content, but there were issues with what I had rendered and no time to redo it before the deadline. I had a choice... Fix it and delay the game another week, or work with what I could.
Which bridges into the next topic... There are a few things that I was not able to do that I wanted in Part 1, and I plan on fixing them in the next update that completes the episode. It's something I'll probably talk about later on, but this will almost certainly mean updating those lewd scenes to my original vision with animations.
And lastly, to address what Bonus extended scenes are. These will fall under two categories. 1) It's a real event that you get to witness but the MC doesn't. Or 2) An NPC is describing an event (either accurately, embellished, or incorrect) to someone else and you get to witness their telling of it. Sometimes it's clear which it is, sometimes there's some ambiguity.
Why do these bonus scenes exist anyway? The TaH game design is following the MC exclusively. As a player you never see events that he's not part of or around, and he's the only character you get to see the thoughts of.
Since I use Patreon as a way to get compensation for my work, I felt obligated to offer higher tiers
something extra. Bonus scenes were created later with that purpose: additional content for those who wished to be even more generous financially. I never intended to "strip down" the game; this was me trying to add on top of it.
Final thoughts... Occasionally it's hard to give direct answers to questions because it can spoil future content and plans. And sometimes I give poorly worded replies out of mental fatigue or just being sloppy. Developing this game is not easy; it's very taxing with my time and financially, but I do try my best.
So as I take one more day off from development before starting the grind again, I hope this latest release gave some hope and anticipation for what comes next. Thank you all for supporting me, the encouragement and kind words. The road ahead is not short, but I intend to make it worth it.
-ckr
(Too tired to proofread. I hope it all makes sense!)
