We got a lot to go over in this month's news post, talking about development in general for the project and some change of plans to adjust around our situation taking place currently to do the best we can revolving things and keep everyone informed the best we can.

Before we jump into it, please understand that behind the scenes in development things are very stressful right now with our given situation. It's very difficult and there's a lot going on in decision making that will be unfolding along the way this month in response to everything in order to correct and set a path forward for this year in development. To put it simply.. There's factors and hard choices to make that, either way I go about doing it.. It will result in a bit more bumpiness in our development efforts.

Please bare with us, I'm trying my best with the situation that's already very difficult to manage, more so with it being out of my hands and less control directly over it.

Let's get into this news post, it's going to be a long one..

~March's Dev plans!~

As many of you are wondering about the situation for v0.19 for the public and v0.19.5 for supporters, how that's coming along and what we can expect. I have news to share with everyone regarding this.

The original plan was that I'd have v0.19.5 in my hands in a better shape than what I received and play tested late into the night of Feb 28th, when it was expected to release. I decided personally to cancel all plans on releasing v0.19.5 as a personal choice, because the quality of the content being offered did not line up with what our supporters/fans have come to expect in the past year from us when it comes to content or how the game looks visually.

No ill intent towards our programmer trying to do their thing, as it was still impressive to see what they managed to get done that was in better shape. But sprite positions on screen for every existing scene in the existing game were very off centered to the left of the screen as a distraction, along with some scenes having awkward sprite movements that felt broken, or simply sprites being off screen or half way off screen in some cases.

It just isn't what I had expected and probably a bit of communication misunderstandings involved among myself and the programmer on what we both had in mind would be ready status.

The plus side besides that, the rest of the game quality wise looked up to par with the ideal upgrade to 1920x1080 HD quality. But I just personally felt that it would feel insulting to our supporters to release what is already a heavily visual focused update for the game, with the visuals being very awkward and broken in many ways at that given time. So I'm sorry for delaying and holding it back from releasing for this reason, but it very much feels like the state of v0.19.5 as of right now is one step forward, two steps back.

I've talked with our programmer today to pass along a list of fixes that are needed to v0.19.5 before it's more ideal and ready for release. They made it clear to me that they should have these fixes done by March 22nd-30th, but with the order of priority of what they're fixing. It is possible that if they manage to fix the X positioning of sprites by March 15th. (Their estimate) That I will probably ask them for exported builds of the game in that given state as it should be more ideal for release...

This should include all of the existing game's content is what I'm told.

I know this has been a very bumpy start for 2022, but I had expected with the preparation plans done in January leading into February, that we'd be in a better spot when it came to engine related development to smoothly move along with things without this much bumpiness. Sadly it's more than I had expected and really all I can personally do is be as patient as everyone else has been, give the new programmer a proper chance as this is their first real test with working on the project and so we're seeing just how things are unfolding in real time, same as many of you awaiting for new content.

So simply put... Expect v0.19.5 to be ready at best.. March 15th. At worst, March 22nd-30th. This of course includes v0.19 for the public. Again, I know this isn't our ideal scheduled plan for kicking off the year, but there's a lot more unexpectedness than I had thought would be involved to get things moving along and sadly my only option within the current moment is to be patient, calm and give them the proper chance to get things moving into gear again.

I'm greatly sorry for how things have unfolded so far once again. I want to make it very clear though, that I have no intention of stopping this project regardless of how bumpy things have been in past months and our current situation.. There's been way too much time, effort, money and love put into this project by all of us on the team to let our lowest point in development struggles pull us under.

So... No! We aren't letting this stop this passion project!

It will no doubt be bumpy for a bit and as things unfold this month, I have plans in place to ensure one way or another, that development will move forward. We'll keep everyone informed each week this month on the engine situation and move past this together.

Q: What does this mean for v0.20 release?

A: Our current situation with the programming and testing things out, leaves us in a very awkward spot. Honestly based on how v0.19.5 is coming along, realistically expect v0.20 to be maybe ready in late April. (This can change, but we're talking about really testing our new programmer right now and seeing just how that unfolds with the given content.)

A: Correct. v0.20's written script is done and ready. But even with it done and ready, it still has to be put into the engine and properly tested. Given our current situation and the expected outcome for when v0.19.5 content will be ready with their estimate. That means at best, they won't begin putting v0.20 content into the engine until later this month after they finish and have v0.19.5 content done.

This situation can change and unfold differently, which I am prepared for and figuring out the best decisions in development to keep things moving forward. Again bare with us, please. This isn't all on one person who has direct control over demanding each person on the team when they get something done, more so when I'm trying to be patient and give them the chance to prove themselves, etc.

So lastly... The good news is v0.20 content is ready for engine work asap and most likely v0.21 content will be all written up and ready for engine work as well by the end of this month, meaning engine wise.. There will be plenty for them to get through at the end of this month and in April. (Progress on writing is still moving forward, not effected by these delays, same goes for cg art, sprite art, etc!)

Q: So does that mean v0.20 and v0.21 content could release together at the end of April?

A: Honestly, right now let's take things one step at a time with how awkward development is in it's current state and our engine situation on-going.

We'll keep everyone informed naturally along the way, more so with the current situation and how things unfold, what our plans are based around that as there's much going through my mind right now for decision making.

Q: How am I supposed to trust what you tell us?

A: We try to be as open and honest about our intentions since starting the project back in late 2019. That's honestly nothing we can force upon anyone, you'll just have to believe what you feel in right for yourself and if that means holding off on supporting us for a while. That's completely fine, our intention isn't to trick anyone and steal people's money.

I won't lie, funding does keep us going and covering costs towards the programmer, sprite art, cg art and much more. We're very thankful for said support, because we clearly wouldn't be where we are currently in development overall without it, that's for damn sure!

But development and managing a team isn't as cut and dry as many might assume the process is. Maybe it isn't for some, maybe others it's worse or doesn't work out, etc. But there isn't a golden standard for what happens in development for any given big name company or down to the indie teams working on something. Things can get crazy for big companies or small indie dev's, it's just that much of the time they don't openly talk about that or share their troubles with people or offer any updates on what is going on, etc.

We try to at least keep everyone informed regardless if what we have to share is good news, bad news or meh. We don't want to leave any of you in the dark, but there are times where even I as the lead creator, writer and management of the team feels in the dark. So please understand that while it might be frustrating to you, it's just as frustrating for myself when one thing falls apart unexpectedly, but that's game development and management in general.

~Development Team!~

~CG art~

MarxeDP and AjoseMp finished up a cg scene that we shared previews for last month, with their current focus being on the next two cg scenes planned for v0.21 content. No spoilers, but clearly v0.21 is our first route episodes that'll feature Nova, Heather and Lola.

So I think it's safe to say we'll share some previews for these, as they'll be worked on this month.

Along with that, MarxeDP has provided me with new diaper visuals and effects added to existing cg art that we had planned to get done in January, with all of that wrapped up last month! So little by little, we'll add these into the game sometime once things are on track development wise for releases again. (Some of these might've managed to sneak into v0.19.5)

We'll have some previews of these new visuals and comparisons to their previous looks coming up this month, so stay tuned for that!

~Sprite art~

Lisa hit February pretty hard with finishing up the 2nd kickstarter main oc! Which means there's about 4-5 support oc's remaining that we wanted to get done this year, so we're very ahead of schedule on this! ^^

March will bring with it two different outcomes for sprite stuff. Either we'll end up seeing one of these support oc's for previews later in the month, or we'll see some sprite additions needed for Miki and Brandon's sprites. (No spoilers) It'll be interesting to see which focus it'll be that fits for Lisa's schedule!

~Music~

ComposerJF has provided a perfect timing update on Miki's Theme track as I was writing this post out! It's sounding very good so far and I assume it'll be ready for sharing with everyone this month for sure!

Very hyped up about that and I'm sure Miki will be as well! :P

~Gui~

Ds-sans has been a bit busy lately, but we should see some more previews for the finalized gui sometime through Spring.

~Ending Notes~

Even with ending this news post, I want it to be super clear. Even with how awkward and bumpy the current situation is right now. We have no intention in canceling or stopping this project!

I'm going to be monitoring how things unfold with the engine work this month and really think things through as the situation unfolds. One way or another, I'll have some decision making to do as this month moves along and I see how things are coming along first hand. These choices won't be easy and I can hope supporters/fans can respectfully understand how difficult the situation is right now and what is being done to ensure we get moving again.

Again, we'll keep updates on how things are going each week with this. So expect to hear back from us regarding how this is unfolding by March 9th, as I should get some sort of update on the engine process before that point.

Thank you all from the deep down for being extremely patient and to those supporting us along the way even still, we can't thank you enough while we're sorting everything out development wise! We aren't forgetting that and hope to make up for it as these months move along. <3

~ From all of us at Messy Studios! ~