It's time for our Development Report! I do want to start off by saying that originally I was hoping to have some screenshot previews of episode 5 put together by this point to include in this report, but I'll end up having this included in another post sometime very soon as I gather up the materials for it.

To put it simply, for the past 4-5 days I've been very sick and so I haven't had the time to prepare things out as I had planned. It started with a fever early Tuesday with body aches and chills that lasted for 2-3 days, as it progressed I found myself getting physically sick every 2-3 hours, or roughly when I'd wake up from sleeping.

Not to get into too much detail, but I couldn't stomach any sort of liquids at all. Along with that, ever since early Tuesday, I had zero appetite and it wasn't until last night when I was able to feel my appetite return in full force. So I haven't ate anything in at least 3 days since this all started and what little I did try eating was limited to yogurt as I was too afraid to eat anything more complex in fear it'd just make me feel ill. >.<

I took a at home test that did come out positive for covid again, but I don't know what to make of that... Compared to when I first caught it back in early June, all the symptoms have been completely different. At first I thought it could be possible it was food poisoning somehow, but nothing really came to mind that could've caused that the day or so prior.

So to quickly wrap this intro section up.. I'm doing okay now, but it seems like things are uphill from here and mainly just letting it finish up it's course.

~August Dev plans!~

As many of you might be aware by now and in case you're not. I announced in July that our previous long running programmer Artie has returned to the project to help  once again! So we should begin to see content flowing along once again very soon.

I'm thinking that we should have the content for v0.20 out sometime this month without a doubt. I don't want to project a set date yet, but as I briefly mentioned at the start of this post. I'll be looking to put together a post that highlights previews from the new content and shortly after that, we'd expect it to be ready.

From there, my hope is to make sure the rest of this year has a steady amount of content releases that set the bar for what to expect from MA as a finished game as we continue with development. This will be seen in our inclusion of animated cg art being more common ground, meaningful choices and interesting game systems that have impact on how you personally go through each route. Just to name a few things to expect!

Once again, we'll be handing out v0.20 to anyone who has supported us at least once at $5 tier or above during 2021 or in the past 8 months for 2022. We haven't settled on what to do about our public release alongside v0.20 yet... One idea in mind is that we might offer a special v0.19.5 release for the public, which would include a glimpse into what episode 5 offers without it feeling like too much.

~Development Team!~

[~CG art~]

July was a big month behind the scenes for MarxeDP and AjoseMP, along with the help from Bandyrash. They finished up 2 cg scenes, one being from the $200-275 support tier and the other being related to Miki's route!

If you missed out on the previews in July for these, you can check them out here below. (Finished previews for Miki's route haven't been posted yet.)

https://www.patreon.com/posts/cg-finished-2-69437868

https://www.patreon.com/posts/cg-concept-v0-22-69631759

As we push into August, the cg art will focus on cg art related to Rachel's route and if there's time after that.. We'll see art related to Juliet's route. :P

[~Sprite art~]

Things have been busy for Lisa heading into the later half of Summer and so it's a little up in the air on what to expect for the time being. But I was surprised in July to see some Juliet related additions were finished up and so we'll see previews of those here this month!

As for what will come from August, it'll be a bit of a mystery. :P But hopefully in terms of Lisa's busy schedule right now.. I hope it improves as Fall begins to come around.

[~Music~]

ComposerJF has been working on the track meant for romantic and passionate moments of tender love making and overall butterflies in your stomach feeling. We should end up seeing the finished preview for this track sometime in August and then from there...

I think we'll return to tackling some route themes for characters. :P

[~Gui~]

I have a bit of a update for once that's a bit different than what I normally say regarding the gui section... ^^"

So, I've heard from Ds-sans very recently, earlier this week that they're going to begin tackling the screens needed in a set order. I told them that given their busy schedule between work and their own projects, that maybe as a laid back goal, we can shoot for one new gui screen every month until it's wrapped up.

That way it feels less stressful and a lot less to look at all at once to tackle. I'm hoping we can move forward with this sort of idea and show off some other gui that'd be added very soon!

~Ending Notes~

That about does it for this one! I do want to say I'm sorry, as I was expecting to have a bit more exciting previews to share with everyone patiently waiting for new content. Getting sick again really threw me for a loop and more so when finding out it's covid yet again.. >.<

I've heard that there's people catching it very shortly after just getting over it before, but I didn't really see that happen with anyone I worked with or heard from friends, etc. It wasn't until maybe 2-3 weeks ago when my mom told my Brother and I that she had covid again after she had it back in May, that it really hit me.

Unlike last time, I completely avoided my mother in any contact. Only running to the store to grab her supplies she needed to place them at her front door and be super safe. But luckily for her, she has been over it for a while now and this 2nd time wasn't nearly as bad as her first time with it.

I'm still unsure where I picked up covid a 2nd time, but it's hard to compare the two experiences for better or worse.. <.< I'm congested and have a light cough for now, where my first time felt like that was twofold and harder to breathe with. But dealing with a fever for 2 full days with body aches and chills is something I haven't experienced since I was back in middle school..

I think the best summary is... Avoid being sick in general as no experience with being sick has ever had someone remark how fun or great it was... XD

Beyond that, July was a pretty laid back kind of month in terms of personal time doing stuff typically on the weekend. I've been finding myself in a big reading mood in the past couple of weeks and just sinking myself into one book after another, which has felt like it's been a long while since I've last been able to enjoy it like that. So I've been enjoying that until very recently before being sick.

Anyways, I'll cut it at that for now... ^^" I'll try gathering up some stuff in the coming days to put together some previews as next week rolls in.

~ From all of us at Messy Studios! ~