issue28

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So unless I misunderstood, are scenes and dialogues with Azel going to get cut/altered? Like the lingering mouth-to-mouth kisses, etc.? That incredibly sucks if so. I love the sexual tension there. Guess I'll be holding onto the hope for years that an "evil modder" will make an "Azel Restoration and Extra Content Patch" or something. I'm sorry to bring it up yet again. It's just that I'm still working my way through my first playthrough, and the more I see of it, the more well set up it is/was imo, that it's a tragedy to think of it getting just dismantled and discarded.

Fuck Patreon, man. Is there a reason why more devs don't just move over to subscribestar or something similar? Is it because it's not as popular, and thus they'd risk losing a huge chunk of their financial support if they migrated over?
Dude...you really need to chill it with the cest talk. I get it is your kink but will not happen at least for a long time if ever.
 
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MrDL

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Nov 11, 2017
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Mind Drop #13 (02/23/2021) Another long, ranty post about an important topic called releases




Hey guys, first three renders are from the upcoming update and the fourth is part of the day 1 rework.
Got some big boy stuff to talk about so let's not waste any time

Game related stuff:
- Update near the 13th
- Main topic of the rant below so look down there :)

Dev related stuff:
- Not much to comment on since my week was spent moving and the only things I accomplished dev wise was making the character sheet. (But man, that character sheet took a lot of time. Waaay longer than I thought it would)

- Well actually another thing I've been working on is the organization of my files. But, for your sake I won't really go into detail about that

Personal related stuff:
- We're moved in completely now. Still a ton of work to do with unpacking things and setting everything up but we're over the biggest hurdle

- If I can give a piece of life advice. Always keep a friend who can lift heavy things.
Most of my irl friends are pretty small women and while I'm sure they would've helped out as much as they possibly could've I would've felt bad if they had gotten hurt or anything.
Same goes for the fiancee
I moved as much of the heavy stuff as I could on my own which was all but a few things and fuckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk I'm so sore and tired


Mind drop:
Okay, big boy topic and it's also a topic that could anger a lot of people especially because of how turbulent I've been with them.
Update schedules.

And before I really dive into it I want to say that I'm bringing this up now because I want feedback on it. Nothing is set in stone and it's merely just me talking about where my head has been at for a bit now.

So, why do I want to talk about update schedules?
Because even after all the changes I'm still having issues.
It's not a work issue, it's not a life issue, it's something with me.

I'm not sure what changed, I'm not sure when it changed but I do not feel right with the current update schedule of bi-weekly releases.

(Pre-emptive apology if my rant gets confusing or jumps around a bit. None of this is planned out and my goal is to be unapologetically truthful and that pretty much means I'm just gonna write down wherever my head goes)



So what's wrong?
A few things. All of them need some elaboration but to put it plainly. I do not feel efficient, I don't feel very satisfied, and I feel like things could be better.

Inefficient:
The reason why I feel inefficient is mainly because of the render cap. I think it fucks with my expectations of myself and while it's great for consistency and my personal life it's just not great for my work ethic. I think I'm teaching myself bad habits.
It's honestly hard to explain as it's really just a mental block and I'm really not sure why it's happening. Like I said the new schedule has been great for everything except my workaholic brain and I could always just remove the render cap but at that point why not just return to weekly releases? Well, I'd just be returning to the old problem of any issues = delay.
And it's not an effort issue. I work just as hard but there's a mental block where I spend more time second guessing things and going over already done stuff and for some reason I just hate holding back on my releases. It's the most flat feeling to have an update that's only 200 renders when you have 600 more renders you could show already.

Not satisfied:
I started this game with weekly releases. It was always how I envisioned working on it and there were always people complaining about "small updates". It's always been a complaint that bugged me because of how much time and effort I put in but I never let it effect me to a point of trying to make changes because I liked having weekly releases. I loved the instant feedback and gratification that came with it. I looked forward to release days and even when there were issues they didn't bum me out too much... until delays and stuff at least.
But lately I have not felt very excited or much satisfaction from releases. I think it comes back to the render cap and knowing what I have to show and not putting it all out.

While unique I think there are some major downsides to bite sized updates.
The biggest one being that they can be well... unsatisfying.

No matter how great a piece of entertainment is, it can be infuriating when you only receive it in small chunks.
Imagine if the finale of your favorite show was broken into 4 parts? It'd be much less smooth and way less satisfying.
But you're a fan and you're going to watch even if you know it'll be a lesser experience overall.

That's basically where I think I find myself now. I think a lot of people including myself have sort of gotten fed up of small updates. I at least have.
The more thought I put into it the less I can justify continuing on with them.

Things could be better:
There's an answer to my problems but it'd be a tough choice to make.
Update when it's done. When a day / week is finished I upload it.

It would fix my inefficiency issue because I could work my ass off with no repercussions if there was an issue in my life as there would be no deadlines.
It'd fix the satisfaction issue for me and a lot of players because you'd be getting the full thing, both the set up and the payoff as it's intended to be experienced without annoying pauses.

I've weighed the pros and cons so many times in my head. And it really boils down to the fact that "Update when its ready" has all of the pros of what would make for the best game and experience. And the pros of the "bi-weekly" release is mainly me fulfilling expectations.

Drawbacks:
Now there is one big issue that would arise if I took that route and it's pretty much what's holding me back from pulling the trigger on changing the schedule.
My patreon and tiers are all set up for bi-weekly releases. You guys pledged with those in mind. I feel like it'd be fucked up to just change them completely without at the very least getting feedback from you guys first.

My ideas are pretty basic to try and accommodate the tiers a bit. I would love suggestions or ideas on more.

-The first being early access. Higher tiers play sooner. Prob by 3-4 days each tier.
-Weekly polls for all patrons and some tier exclusive polls (Mainly Rachael client polls)
-Monthly render sets that would function the same as releases with rolling out to other tiers later on.
-Polls for those monthly sets
-Random individual renders (Not sets. But more singular pin-up style renders)(also polls for them)

Yeah, mainly images and polls. I don't want anything too crazy as I do want 95%+ of my focus to be on the game itself. But like I said I'm very open to suggestions.



Fuck... where do I go from here?
I guess I could address any potential worries.

You won't use this as an opportunity to work less right?


There's always been a feeling of "less work" around larger release windows. But you guys know how fast I work and what my goals are for a week. Usually it's 1 week = 100-120 renders. So if an update took 8 weeks then you'd expect it to be 800-960 renders long. And that will still be the case.

I thought the new work system was going well?
It was and I'm not happy that I feel the way I do about it because it honestly made a ton of sense and worked in every way except one that is very important to me. But there's a part of me that knows deep down that this is the right move to make.

How will we know when the release will come out?

I would still talk about the update and progress in mind drops. And I'd give heads up to when it's close to dropping.


This post is so weird. It's so fucking hard to write. I feel nervous and my stomach is in knots. I ordered food and it's been here for 15 minutes and I haven't touched it yet because I'm just writing this.

I hate making changes... especially large ones like this. It feels like I'm going back on my word and I don't like it. But I know it's the best thing for the game. I know it's the best thing for me. I especially hate having to fuck with the tiers but it's what would have to happen.

Sometimes I hate that I care so much. It'd be easier if I was the kind of person that could be like "Yo, I'm changing this because it's better. lolokbye"
Instead I'm the kind to write up a thesis on my thoughts.

But I'm not here to take your money, I'm here to give you a good game. And I think this is the best way to do so and that's all that should matter right? Everything else will work itself out and we'll figure it out.

Once again none of this is concrete. I'm definitely leaning towards this change but I'm not all the way there yet.
Nonetheless you can still expect that 400 render release on / near the 13th. (I say near just because the move is taking a bit longer than I thought it would, but it'll be close to that date)
The 300 render one planned for after that is in limbo with this change though.

Also just to quickly clarify. A lot of people always express concern for me whenever I express myself and my own concerns this way. I'm fine, I'm happy and life is going the best it ever has. I just really care about being honest with you guys. You guys mean the world to me and I don't take changes like this lightly. I know in the grand scheme it's not a big deal, it's the way most games are developed for good reason. But it never feels good to change and shift expectations.
I know the majority of you will be fine with this but I also know it's a big change that is coming soon after another big change. But I also feel those changes were always leading to this point. I also talked about how we'd try a few different things.
I considered going to monthly's but it'd just be the same issue over a longer period of time.

Maybe I should've structured this out more. I feel like I have a lot left to say. Maybe I'll elaborate further later on.

I know if I go this route I'll need to have more concrete plans for it. I'll probably pause for March as well just in anticipation for changes.

On a complete side note just because I was thinking about old me from the comments above but I feel like a different person than when I first started WVM. I was broke af, living in a broken home, not much going on.

Now I make more than I ever could have dreamed even with the pauses. Living in a home I never dreamed of living in, I have a beautiful healthy family and if things work out the way they should then I just might be a father soon. Life moves fucking fast.
And I'd never be where I am now without you guys. I'll never let you forget it.

I know some people are going to be really bummed out by this and that sucks. But the more I think and write down the more clear it becomes that it's where WVM needs to go.


I'm going to call it here. I don't need to information overload you guys. There'll probably be another post about this topic this week.

As always thank you all so much for the support.
Love you guys <3

(Would poll about the changes but with the post being public it feels a bit odd. Plus a different lighter topic is always welcomed.)

POLL: In your main playthrough, are you pursuing a relationship with Zoe?
Knew the weekly schedule BD originally had would be unsustainable and biweekly is too to make satisfactory progress with how much this has grown. Probably not a bad idea to have a "when it's done" public deadline with private deadlines for release milestones, have to retain some sort of deadline somewhere or else it could spiral out of control.

I had an ex that like to use "daddy" but thought it was weird when I suggested "papa" as a joke. :BootyTime:
 

RabidSloth

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Dec 4, 2018
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Dude...you really need to chill it with the cest talk. I get it is your kink but will not happen at least for a long time if ever.
Well I'll try to refrain from opening up Pardora's Box too far as to what constitutes "cest" lol. A duck doesn't become a chicken just because Patreon says so. But yeah, my apologies. Just had to get it out of my system. New player, first experience with the game and all that. But I get that just because a topic is new to me doesn't stop it from getting annoying for people who have already heard about it a thousand times already. In my defense that was a multi-question post, and I was just looking for info/clarification regarding possible future cuts etc. I didn't even use the hot topic word there.
 

issue28

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May 17, 2020
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Well I'll try to refrain from opening up Pardora's Box too far as to what constitutes "cest" lol. A duck doesn't become a chicken just because Patreon says so. But yeah, my apologies. Just had to get it out of my system. New player, first experience with the game and all that. But I get that just because a topic is new to me doesn't stop it from getting annoying for people that have heard about it a thousand times already. In my defense that was a multi-question post, and I was just looking for info/clarification regarding possible future cuts etc. I didn't even use the hot topic word there.
no man. i get it. just that if you keep focusing on just this one issue that will not happen at least for a while, you cannot get to fully enjoy everything else that this great game has to offer. i myself enjoy for example hard bdsm and humiliation, but that won't happen here so i focus on the other things that make this game great. as a side note i also like incest, i am a big fan of My New Family.
 
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RabidSloth

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Dec 4, 2018
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no man. i get it. just that if you keep focusing on just this one issue that will not happen at least for a while, you cannot get to fully enjoy everything else that this great game has to offer. i myself enjoy for example hard bdsm and humiliation, but that won't happen here so i focus on the other things that make this game great. as a side note i also like incest, i am a big fan of My New Family.
Oh I'm *very much* enjoying many aspects of the game, for sure! I can't really recall offhand another time where there were so many waifus that I enjoyed so much all within the same game. Usually it's just a handful of favorites at most! Plus for me it also ticks the boxes for harem, pregnancy (or at least the teasing of it), "Daddy" talk, one of the hottest traps I've ever seen (plus a second one that ain't too shabby either!), milfs, teens, romance, the fantasy I always personally had of being a basketball superstar, all kinds of great stuff!

Besides the "Yeah it'd be nice if there was 'cest too." aspect (which Azel would 100% not even count as imo, but that's a whole other discussion that I'm sure has already been beaten to death many times), I'm also personally very much against censorship. Not looking to start a political discussion about it or anything. It's just whenever I get a whiff of censorship, and especially when it's affecting something that I like personally, I try to get a grasp of the situation and learn what I can because it just irks me a great deal. Anytime something is announced to get banned, censored, etc, whether it's a game, movie, show, book, whatever, I immediately rush to buy a copy or two. So one of the reasons I was trying to find out the details was to see whether or not I should start to hang onto old builds of this game as it gets updated.
 
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issue28

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May 17, 2020
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Oh I'm *very much* enjoying many aspects of the game, for sure! I can't really recall offhand another time where there were so many waifus that I enjoyed so much all within the same game. Usually it's just a handful of favorites at most! Plus for me it also ticks the boxes for harem, pregnancy (or at least the teasing of it), "Daddy" talk, one of the hottest traps I've ever seen (plus a second one that ain't too shabby either!), milfs, teens, romance, the fantasy I always personally had of being a basketball superstar, all kinds of great stuff!

Besides the "Yeah it'd be nice if there was 'cest too." aspect (which Azel would 100% not even count as imo, but that's a whole other discussion that I'm sure has already been beaten to death many times), I'm also personally very much against censorship. Not looking to start a political discussion about it or anything. It's just when I get a whiff of censorship, and especially when it's affecting something that I like personally, I try to get a grasp of the situation and learn what I can because it just irks me a great deal. Anytime something is announced to get banned, censored, etc, whether it's a game, movie, show, book, whatever, I immediately rush to buy a copy or two. So one of the reasons I was trying to find out the details was to see whether or not I should start to hang onto old builds of this game or not as it gets updated.
Yeah I get it. On the other hand we all know there are ways to bypass the Patreon issue. So if BD wanted it to be a focus of this game at this point in time he would have had way of doing it. I am not saying he won't do it at one time in the future, I am not saying he will do it. I am just saying let's all focus on what actually is happening in this game then what it could be, because that is a rabbit hole we won't come out of any time soon :D . And to be honest even though I like incest i've never been a fan of mom incest so Azel incest posibility leaves me a bit cold. Mom always are very needy, clingy and usually vanilla. Aunts are better because they are usually the kinky type aunts. Sisters are always the best when it comes to the cest.
 

AmIReal

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Jan 21, 2018
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Yeah... I don't think TKA will let me abuse the twins...as much as I'd enjoy whipping their sweet asses :D :D :D
Ohh I meant that they would be the givers not the receivers. I think BB would probably have a problem getting whipped unless it was from there (Daddy) TKA.

Geeze why am I jumping into the BB and SB fucking rabbit hole. I need to run and hide if I keep this up. :p :p :p :p :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::sneaky::sneaky::sneaky::cautious::cautious::cautious:

Don't want to be force fed the kool aid, hallucinogenic popcorn, or the kool aid cookies.:whistle::whistle::whistle: walks away really fast trying not to get noticed time to fucking hide.
 

RabidSloth

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Dec 4, 2018
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Yeah I get it. On the other hand we all know there are ways to bypass the Patreon issue. So if BD wanted it to be a focus of this game at this point in time he would have had way of doing it. I am not saying he won't do it at one time in the future, I am not saying he will do it. I am just saying let's all focus on what actually is happening in this game then what it could be, because that is a rabbit hole we won't come out of any time soon :D . And to be honest even though I like incest i've never been a fan of mom incest so Azel incest posibility leaves me a bit cold. Mom always are very needy, clingy and usually vanilla. Aunts are better because they are usually the kinky type aunts. Sisters are always the best when it comes to the cest.
Yeah I've played a few games recently that had some "fun aunts" :ROFLMAO:. And there's of course the usual "sweet younger sister" and "bitchy older sister" trope, with a few exceptions. Caroline from Milfy City and Isabel from Midnight Paradise are two older sis's that I particularly liked that didn't fall into the "bitchy" category.

If I'd say this game has a "focus", I'd say it's harem. Though I agree that it's more than that and has a ton of great variety of both other kinks and girls. Yeah I'd love to get with Azel and Willow eventually too, but it definitely wouldn't be a deal-breaker or cause for deletion by any means.

As far as enjoying what's in there now, I just had the date with Shauna and loved it. Though I went with the "penis-play route" and was a bit shook by the results of it. She seemed to strongly dislike it. So I don't know if it will get expanded upon later, or if it was a sort of fake choice because we're supposed to have known that she wouldn't like it, or something of that nature. I was just hoping to suck on some lady dick! (don't judge me :p)

I'm also rooting for Jaime and Shauna to start having a sexual relationship with each other so that it can be a real triangle lol. But I've got a couple of more days to go yet.
 
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issue28

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Ohh I meant that they would be the givers not the receivers. I think BB would probably have a problem getting whipped unless it was from there (Daddy) TKA.

Geeze why am I jumping into the BB and SB fucking rabbit hole. I need to run and hide if I keep this up. :p :p :p :p :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::sneaky::sneaky::sneaky::cautious::cautious::cautious:

Don't want to be force fed the kool aid, hallucinogenic popcorn, or the kool aid cookies.:whistle::whistle::whistle: walks away really fast trying not to get noticed time to fucking hide.

He he. Relax. I ain't no snitch. They'll never know :p
 

RabidSloth

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Oh and another thing this game does well imo is the way it goes about letting you choose who you are and aren't into. Impressive considering the large cast.
 
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LN1982

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Ultimately it is Braindrop's decision but I do think having some sort of planned schedule and the deadlines that surround it will help him. My concern isn't that he would slack off, but rather it would be easy to slip into more reworks than just week one. Also, as has been mentioned before the number of things that go into a day in WVM is about three days or more in most VMs here, so even with his work ethic we would be talking pretty easily cycles akin to some of the other most popular devs on this site. I myself download and play it every two to three updates, to purposefully build a little time, and feel like that is a very substantial update. That is only about 1/4 to 1/3 a day. I think Braindrop is selling his work short in some ways, as I've never felt like those 1/4 to 1/3 day increments that I play at are small. Jumping from many incremental updates to full days like this feels sort of like going from ongoing daily patches to waiting between major release versions in software, and I'm not sure that actually is what is best... but maybe that is just me.
 

LN1982

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im sorry but WHAT!!! Stacy lost also Alexis :cry::cry::cry: and now 4 of my top 5 are facing each other Bailey, KImmy, Natalie and Zoe, i've also chose Liz over Jamie :coffee: fight me
Yeah, with Stacy and Ruby out, I went with Liz as well. Actually while in round #1 I only voted for two upsets, in round two I only voted for three higher seeds, I went full burn the brackets down mode in my voting.
 

OfficiallyGames

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May 23, 2020
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Thank you guys a ton for all of the feedback on my last post.
So I've slept on it and I've taken all of the comments and feedback into consideration and after seeing some of the major concerns I think it'd be a good idea to talk about them and talk about how I'd try to plan against them. As well as some other things.

The main concern that was brought up is a lack of productivity that can come with the new schedule:

As a few mentioned I'm not the first to go this sort of route where you only update when it's ready and without deadlines. Not all but a lot of devs that decide to go this route seem to slow down some.
And it isn't anything to do with effort, it can just be the nature of a looser schedule. You'd want to tweak things and be a perfectionist and it's easier to do and fall into that trap without a rigid schedule.

This is a very valid concern and one that I've already put a ton of thought into.
I would never try to claim I'm immune to this because I've already been there. That exact scenario is where I found myself with Day 7 final.
It's not the perfect comparison because on top of everything I was only a half functioning person at that point in time but still. I completely understand why some of you would be worried about this.

I'd like to think I've learned the signs of falling into that and I'd know how to avoid it. I also would like to think I learned how to get out of it. But in all honesty that's not a safe enough bet.
So let's talk a little about how I'd try to keep myself in line.

- Continuing the weekly mind drops and being completely honest about how an update is going with full weekly reports on it

- Render count in weekly mind drops
I'll post the amount of renders I made in that week so you guys can sort of check on how I'm handling things.
(Render counts don't tell the whole story. Some of my most productive weeks have been on weeks where I didn't render much. But they are a good gauge of overall work over a period of time. And of course I'll go into detail about where my time was spent. I have no issues doing that.)

- I'll plan out specific events better so I can give a realistic roadmap for each update.
As I work now I plan out all the scenes and everything that will happen in those scenes but I don't plan out the specific renders. Which is why it can sometimes be difficult to gauge how much time I need for something. But I'll work on fixing that. And luckily it's not a difficult fix.
- I'll set private timelines for things

On top of all that I'd be the first to tell you guys if I felt I wasn't living up to my own expectations of myself. And if this change happens and it doesn't work out then we could always try something else. There's no reason this has to be permanent.

Another big concern is amount of time needed for a full update to be made:

It's no secret Day 7 and Day 8-9 are both very large updates that both took / are taking a lot of time to make.

As the update schedule moves towards weeks instead of days I understand why you could assume the amount of time needed to make an update would continue to expand but it'll actually shrink.
As the story calms back down and some of the plot lines are completed / past the point they need to be for now the pacing will change.

Most full updates will be between 800-1200 renders. Which will usually include a few big events and a basketball game. (Sometimes the games will be 300-400 renders long and sometimes they'll only be 50.)
So given my expectations for myself and the private timelines I'd give myself you can expect 2-3 months per update.
(Also some updates would be shorter so potentially only 1 month for some)

The next full update after day 9 will be days 10-14. Then after that will be week 3.

And in the event that an update exceeds that timeframe I'd likely release it in 2 parts.
I wouldn't go more than 3 months without a release. Potentially less.

Betas:
- A few people brought up the idea of doing beta builds for higher tiers when I think a good chunk of content is complete. I like this idea but I wouldn't want to put any sort of timeframe on them. They would be more of a "when it works" kind of thing.

Why not hire help?
- WVM is my baby and I'm not good at managing others. I really don't want to give any creative roles to others that directly influence the game but there are some things I could use help with.
I've mentioned them before but I should hire a programmer and an artist. (In the works)
A programmer to help with some cool features like the calendar and interactive character sheets. And an artist for different team's logos and some clothing.

Losing the render buffer could be an issue right?
- I mean, yeah. Any time lost would have an immediate impact instead of a future one. But with a "when it's ready" update schedule it's not as crucial to have a plan for the immediate impact. I think I have to weigh the pros and cons and realize I as an individual work better without the buffer.

How would pledging work? When would you pause?

- My previous promise was "if I get the things I promise out, I won't pause." But now that there won't be many promises it's not the best thing to go by.
So I suppose I'm not sure yet. I'd likely just go off of if I think I did the work that you guys expect from me in that month. And pause if I don't feel that way or if things are taking longer than they should.

I won't be super duper hard on myself. Not everyday has to be a perfect day but I won't relax on myself either. I have enough experience to know what I can do and I'll just be honest with myself about it.

Why not just do monthlies?

- I mentioned in the last post that I think this route would have the same problems as the bi-weekly just over a longer period of time.
It does fix a lot of the issues for the most part but only sometimes. And in all reality this is a plan that would probably work, honestly I could make the bi-weekly plan work if I had to.
But I thinking moving to full updates are what would make me the happiest and would give me the best chance to consistently put out updates that I'm proud of. And in turn that gives me the best chance to deliver quality content which is at the end of the day the most important thing.

Regarding the polls I mentioned as potential tier rewards:

Just a quick note that all game altering polls would be held for all patrons, such as the client polls.
The tier specific polls are only for the tier specific content like monthly render sets and pinup sets that have no affect on the game. (Though some may be featured at some point in game)


Okay, that's all. Just wanted to clarify a few things.
Thank you all for the feedback. I was a bit worried that things would go south after the post yesterday but everyone has been really respectful in giving valid support / addressing concerns. You guys are amazing.

Sorry for the books these last two posts! I'll probably be quiet for a few days but you'll see me again soon. Once again thank you all.
Love you guys <3
 
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