Welcome to our first official Development Report! In case you're unaware, we've made some changes to how we approach sharing news and keeping everyone updated on development. Instead of 3 general news posts per month, we're instead going to have one big Development Report at the start of every month, followed by mini new posts roughly at the end of every week during the given month.

This should keep everyone informed as to what we're doing in development a bit better.
With that context out of the way! Let's get into some big announcements!

~Announcements!~

We have two announcements to make as we move through July!

(Announcement #1)

The first thing to bring up is that a fan has reached out to me late in June with the offer to help translate MA from English to German! After some back and forth with them, it was settled that we'd give it a shot and currently they're in the middle of translating Episode 1's script.

With that said, it is a lower priority in terms of overall development focuses. So I can't exactly say when we can expect to see this mentioned German version of MA being offered for download, but I will say I'm very interested to see how much demand there is for something like this or how it'd affect bringing new fans or supporters along as a result. <.<

I think it's safe to say we'd love to offer MA in other languages towards the end of development based on how much demand there is for them. Of course the higher the demand and interest, the more likely we'd look into translations of the game. For now this German version of MA at some point in the future will be sort of seen as testing the waters so to speak. :P

If you're from Germany, shout out to all of you! Let us know your presence!

(Announcement #2)

The next thing to announce is even bigger news! As many of you are aware or might not be aware to the current programmer situation. We've had some very bumpy and awkward issues with our current programmer in general working with them, still trying to be professional and not rude, but it dawned on me that they're not going to work out long term. Sadly I gave them a little too much extra time in hopes that they just needed some time to get used to the project, but there's too many issues to count beyond that in general working with them sadly.

I had hoped to give them the chance to get even part of Episode 5 done and ready during June, but I had the feeling I'd need to begin my search in finding a new programmer asap when it was taking longer than I had thought it should for a few scenes and even now I'm waiting to hear back from the current programmer, even after I've kindly let them know that heading into July, I'd be letting them go for a new programmer.

Sooo... I'm awkwardly awaiting to hear back from them this week sometime I hope, as I have yet to receive the most updated Ren'py project files needed in order to hand those over to a new programmer for them to pick up the pieces and move along with things. Otherwise we'd be looking at having the new programmer take the v0.19.5 Ren'py project files and start on Episode 5 freshly as there wouldn't be anything else I could do.

But! While that might sound like a doom and gloom scenario, if that's what it comes down to... I do have a new programmer picked out and one that I know can get Episode 5 in the engine and working properly in record breaking time based on their track record!

Artie will be our new programmer moving forward in long term development once again!

Before I could begin really searching around for a new programmer and banging my head against the desk in dealing with sorting through a group of possible programmers.. ^^" He luckily reached out to me at the end of June, asking about the situation and surprised me with offering to take the reigns as the programmer for the project again. (For anyone new, Artie was our original programmer from roughly Oct 2019 to Jan 2022 before stepping down.)

I think it's safe to say I fully trust Artie with programming for the project and I know how quickly he manages to get new content into the engine, in general working with him has been smooth in the past. So I have no doubt in my mind that we can get things moving along for updates again with him on board!

With that said, I technically have some loose ends to sort out still with our current programmer before Artie officially begins working on Episode 5 content and trying to figure out if we'll have a starting few scenes to work with or if we'll be forced to start fresh. Either way, I'll keep everyone informed and even if we do have to start fresh on said content for the engine, it shouldn't take more than 2-3 weeks tops given the awkward in-between programmer situation highlighted.

So to put it simply.. Artie is back semi-officially! (Will be fully official once I hear back from the current programmer and if they don't get back to me by the end of this weekend coming up, we'll move on and make it official.)

I'd like to say I'm deeply sorry for how awkward things have been once again, not only in the past couple of months with the current programmer being replaced, but before that as it's no secret we've had some major struggles in development. I'd like to make it clear that with Artie on board, I'm looking to push out update after update similar to how we did things in 2020. So after we can fully and physically show that Episode 5 comes out here in July, we can expect the first route episodes in August, followed by a few more in September! ^^

~July Dev plans!~

We're in a awkward period right now in waiting to officially move on with Artie, as I have to receive what files the current programmer has and hand those off to Artie to make it official for him to begin work. (If by chance that doesn't happen, Artie will just have to work with v0.19.5 Ren'py files I have already on hand and he'd have to do Episode 5 fresh for engine work, but in a quick manner.)

Regardless of which option ends up happening, by the end of this upcoming weekend, if I don't hear back from the current programmer. I'll hand Artie what I have for files and we'll get this thing going asap!

Overall, by the end of July we should begin to see updates moving along steady in a similar fashion as our 2020 year in development, which had us releasing new content roughly every month.

(As promised months ago, v0.20 will be sent out for free to anyone who has supported us at $5 tier at least once during 2021 or in the past 6 months for 2022, including July. This is part of our way of making things right for the awkward development period and we'd still like to do something else to give back this year after this. Thank you all once again!)

~Development Team!~

[~CG art~]

MarxeDP and AjoseMP have recently finished up the cg art related to Bridget's route episode planned for v0.22 content. We'll have a final preview of that shared later this week!

MarxeDP had covid shortly after I was getting over it, but I'm happy to say it sounds like he's fully recovered and over it as well now!

We have two cg scenes in the works for July! The first one is related to Miki's route episode planned for v0.22 content and the other one is a $200-275 tier request! They've decided on having the Episode 2 swimming race moment become a cg scene, which features Nova, Miki and Brandon!

In case you missed any cg related previews in June, we've listed those below! (Bridget route spoilers)

https://www.patreon.com/posts/cg-concept-v0-22-67693523

[~Sprite art~]

Lisa is currently working on a mix of sprite stuff as we head into July! The main stuff is the next two Kickstarter oc's Chelle and Adriana in that order.

She has made a mention to me a couple days ago that with her uni classes for the semester ending, she's been more busy with focusing on that and so it's one of the more busy months for her right now. So we might be lucky to see some previews in July related to sprite stuff, but this is why things feel a bit slow on this for June and into July.

She has requested some minor additional stuff needed for sprites in case it'd be easier for her to tackle a minor outfit or something vs a complete sprite character in the sense of a oc for July. So I did pass on some details for some sprite additions needed, but even those aren't exactly needed until sometime in September.

So if you're waiting on your oc previews, please bare this in mind for now in case I don't reach out to you directly in the coming week or two. But ideally those are higher in priority for July or August as things calm down for Lisa's classes.

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

https://www.patreon.com/posts/sprite-preview-67498630

[~Music~]

ComposerJF managed to finish up the main theme for MA during June! I'm very happy with how that turned out and I'm curious that I haven't heard any mentions in regards to it yet by fans/supporters, but that's okay! ^^" In general I hope it'll feel very fitting for not only the title screen, but also during key story moments where it'll play.

The next track has been paid for and in the works for July! In recent months we went from doing Miki's Theme, Nova's Theme into taking a break with the main theme needed and now we're going to soon hear the ideal track meant to be heard during romantic moments of the game. :P

This next track will be heard during not only romantic general moments you'd expect for kissing scenes or having a heart to heart passionate moment, but it'll play during adult scenes that have this tone set to them, where more lust filled adult scenes will make use of another track we've done in the past that's more fitting for that tone.

In case you missed the recent track preview, you can check it out below!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/music-preview-68350493

[~Gui~]

I've tried reaching out to Ds-sans at the very end of June for a general update, but I'm waiting to hear back. Ideally we'd see some major previews on the finalized gui elements this month if all goes as planned.

~Ending Notes~

Everyone still awake? :P Seriously though, I hope some of the news shared here today fuels some excitement once again! I know some might be on the edge and holding back any hype until they see things physically for themselves as July unfolds. That's perfectlly fine! ^^

Besides the project stuff, I haven't had much time during June to really enjoy Summer with being sick early on in June and getting back into the swing of things work wise again. But I'm happy to say this past weekend I managed to get out with my Brother and his gf to enjoy myself, it was a much needed moment to just unwind and really take in the Summer.

In my free time, mainly on weekends, I've been reading through the Love is War manga series after having finished season 3 of the anime to compare how the two are similar or what not. :P Been also playing my Switch a little here and there, trying to make progress on that Chrono Cross remaster they released not too long ago as it's my first time really playing it. (I faintly remember my Brother playing it long ago and he owns the original, but I've never played it first hand and only really love the music from the game.)

I'm enjoying that mainly so far, but I'll probably end up picking up Splatoon 3 when that comes out in the near future and while I typically don't hand out certain information. I'll probably share my friend code for any fans/supporters who own a Switch to add me. I would like to say I'd be willing to play stuff with everyone as well, that'll probably have to be setup as dedicated days on the weekend and times so that many of us can all play something together. ^^"

Just something fun to do on the weekends for a few hours if people wish to get together a bit like that. :P

Anyways! That's about it for now, but be on the lookout for our "July News Post #1" coming sometime next week that'll highlight how things are moving along in development behind the scenes and also our cg scene preview in the next few days!

~ From all of us at Messy Studios! ~