Hello everyone! As many of you might already know from the tail end of May, I've shared the news that we're a little delayed on v0.20 and that we do want to at least get some content out soon as possible in the form of episode 5 part 1, then we'd have part 2 ready as this month moves along and still have something to offer physically in the time being.

Along with this, as some of you might already know about if you're in the discord.. Last weekend on Saturday, I woke up with what I thought was bronchitis given to me from my mom while I was trying to help her out for a few days before the weekend while she was sick with a bronchitis infection. (Thankfully her situation is better and she's doing well now after antibiotics to fight it off.)

Even with precautions taken while helping her out, I woke up last Saturday feeling terribly weak and had the signs of a cough coming on. I figured I caught what she had and started taking a bunch of medicine to possibly weaken it early on or help avoid it from getting worse later on, etc.

Not to drag it out.. But as this past week went along, I went to a walk in clinic and they wanted to do a covid test to rule it out. About midway into the week, they called me and told me that I am positive for covid. Naturally I'm a bit confused cause they originally told my mother she didn't have covid, so I'm not really sure where or how I managed to pick up covid if my mom didn't have it during last week, unless the timing of onset becoming sick was just super perfect, but no matter how much I try to second guess what or how things happened exactly.. I'm still sick regardless.

So for the past week and into this weekend, I've been worn out and mainly finding myself sleeping/napping and at best, I put the tv on when I can't force myself to sleep or check my computer for a few hours before I get tired again. I would like to say I'd be over this in a few days, as I really do need to get things moving along with MA and return back to work once things are cleared up. But I've already had false hope that I was nearly over it days ago and then it felt like progress went backwards before going forward again. >.<

So to make this long drawn out wall of text short... I've been sick with covid for about 8 days now. The moment I am over this enough to feel somewhat normal, I'm oddly eager and energized in wanting to get things moving along super quickly for MA.

~June Dev plans!~

As mentioned, I'm sick right now.. But for those who have followed along last month. You'll also know that there's a situation with the programming on-going that is being sorted out.

I can't say exactly when we can have v0.20 (episode 5 part 1) uploaded and ready given my situation on top of the mess, but I'm going to be trying my hardest to push that out for everyone in the early half of this month.

Then, I hope for the rest of that content to be ready by the very end of June at worst.

From there, I'll have to do some planning and searching around as we head into July to keep things moving along on the programming side of things. But I mainly want to deliver v0.21 within July regardless of how things proceed and if all keeps moving well... We'll shoot for v0.22 in August, v0.23 in September and pretty much we want to make it so that the rest of 2022 releases new content every month, this is to make up for our awkward start into 2022 and the problems that followed.

If this proceeds well, we should end 2022 with enough updates that hopefully overshadow how awkward the starting half of 2022 has felt from us. No point in beating ourselves up for what could've been, but rather just move forward and do what we can for the future!

~Development Team!~

[~CG art~]

MarxeDP and AjoseMP ran into some issues in May that slowed progress on the current cg scene, but the good thing is that this cg scene is meant for v0.22 content and so it isn't a major issue right now.

The next cg scene in the works right now without major spoilers is focused on Bridget for v0.22 and that's all I can share. We should begin to see some concept previews for this one in the coming week as Marxe is coloring some of the variants now.

The next cg scenes planned are for Miki and Rachel's routes for v0.22, so not much can be said about those yet. I hope to have these paid off and started this month and see how they progress along.

In case you missed it and wish to check out the recent cg art finished in May, you can do so at the links below!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/cg-concept-3-66264319

https://www.patreon.com/posts/cg-finished-3-66407829

[~Sprite art~]

Lisa did a ton of work in May, finishing up some additions for Brandon's sprite. She also managed to get Miki's and Bridget's additions done too! We'll be seeing a preview of Bridget's sprite additions here this upcoming week.

The plan for June isn't quite set yet, but we could be expecting to see some more kickstarter oc's being tackled in June or some more light additions. If it turns out the be the kickstarter oc stuff, I'll reach out to those who are still waiting on Kickstarter and let you know that we're progressing along with your oc or when you can expect to have your's done. (We have around 4 oc's to tackle still.)

In case you'd like to see the sprite additions recently done in May, you can do so at the links below!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/sprite-preview-2-66367644

https://www.patreon.com/posts/sprite-preview-66814555

https://www.patreon.com/posts/sprite-preview-2-67050738

[~Music~]

ComposerJF is in the middle of working on the main theme for MA! I actually just received another update from him today, showing off about half of the track and I'm pretty excited with how it's coming along so far!

Hopefully we'll have the finished track in June and share it with everyone right away when it's ready. It'll be interesting what everyone thinks about the main theme of MA! ^^

[~Gui~]

Ds-sans should have some previews for me this month based on what I've been told, so I'm excited to see how those will turn out! Not too much else to mention sadly outside of that for this.

~Ending Notes~

That about does it for this news post.

Even though I'm sick for the time being, it's odd to say given how worn out you can become when being sick.. But I feel renewed and energized to tackle development needs and get things going more so than anything. (Probably thanks to feeling helpless for a week of being forced to sleep or not do anything exciting.. ^^" )

I just hope that once we do have v0.20 episode 5 content out and prove ourselves physically on that front, that it'll surpass the hype tenfold! A ton of work has went into episode 5's script for the writing and tons of surprises along the way that have been super difficult in holding back on mentioning, but most of all.. I'm really happy with the amount of choices and meaningful decision making to be seen in the episode.

It should be a good basis for what we can expect on quality of life fixes to earlier episodes in the future as lower development priority. (Key word: Low priority)

~ From all of us at Messy Studios! ~