[~Expectations for December!~]

Kicking off this post, our video sneak peek at Episode 5 in action! It gives a vague idea of what to expect for the content coming, but there's two things that should be noted. The first is that the sprite animation effects seen aren't finished yet, but you can still see one of these in action when Joey first enters the scene with him fade appearing in and lightly jumps to reflect his dialogue.

The second thing to keep in mind with this preview is that the font is in the middle of being adjusted still. You can tell that it isn't properly displaying certain letters right and so we're still looking into how to go about the font being used. The idea for the font as a whole, is to allow for better readability. We're still trying to figure what to do with the name text for characters seen though in terms of the colors displayed.

As a whole, what you're seeing in this sneak peek isn't fully final with those aspects mentioned above. The sneak peek shows off some of the new gui textbox elements in action and how those are used, sprite animation effect in that one example mentioned and a brief look at Episode 5 content itself.

(Music was turned off for the video.)

I know it's not a ton to look at right now, but we really wanted to share a visual look at some of Episode 5 content while everyone has been super patient with us. We'll be hosting another sneak peek at the content and some other features that's introduced with Episode 5 within the next week as we hammer out the polishing.

That said, we'd like to remind everyone that for anyone who has supported us during 2021-2022 with upwards of $5+ in support, will receive a special link to download v0.20 Episode 5 content free of charge. This is just one step in trying to make things right along the way for our awkward development period in the project.

v0.20 Episode 5 is being worked on extremely in these next 2 weeks before the busy holiday season to ensure we get it out to end the year on a good note as we move into 2023. We'll keep everyone informed, but please keep this in mind that we're doing our best to sort it all out besides our own personal affairs. <3

[~Messy Studios Team~]

[~CG art~]

MarxeDP and AjoseMp are doing something related to cg art this month for some improvements. We can't comment too much on this right now, but we should have some previews by the end of this month regarding these improvements. :P

Erika's cg scene for her episode 6 content is finished and we'll be sharing those previews right away! Starting on Friday, we'll put out 2 posts at the same time. One featuring concept previews for the cg art and a preview for sprite art stuff.

If you missed our previous cg art related previews in November, you can check those out below! (Supporters $5-10+ tier to view.)

https://www.patreon.com/posts/cg-concept-v0-23-74579938 (Juliet ep 6 concept)

https://www.patreon.com/posts/cg-finished-v0-74752271 (Juliet ep 6 finished)

[~Sprite art~]

Lisa finished up a ton of stuff in November and has earned December off, but she'll resume with sprite needs in January/February with the remaining KS oc's being tackled right away. From there, it'll be the small handful of remaining additions needed, expected to take until early Summer roughly before everything is finished. ^^

We'll have some previews for Erika, Zoey and Miki's last additions this Friday. The other stuff will be covered in a huge post by the end of this month.

If you missed our previous sprite related previews in November, you can check those out below! (Supporters $5+ tier to view.)

https://www.patreon.com/posts/sprite-preview-74115059 (Erika additions)

[~Music~]

ComposerJF is currently working on a special track that might be finished by the end of this month. I haven't heard a draft preview for it yet, so it's hard to say for sure. With the upcoming holiday season as well, it could be sometime in January when we hear this track.

Even with that said, since we've had ComposerJF tackling music into this year, a lot has been done and we're roughly thinking that the remaining music needs should be wrapped up by early Summer or so.

If you missed our previous music related preview in November, you can check that out below! (Open to public to view!)

https://www.patreon.com/posts/music-preview-of-74791660 (Heather Theme)

[~Gui~]

I received new confirmation gui assets and these will be included with the release of v0.20! ^^

Ideally as we move into 2023, I'm hoping we'll see new gui assets included into roughly every 2 game releases we do. We hope these new gui assets to be seen and used in action will feel nicely done and help as a whole in your gameplay experiences!

~Ending Notes~

That just about does it for this development report! As mentioned, we'll be doing a sneak peek within the next week sometime to showcase some more features and content from Episode 5. We're trying not to show off anything that'd spoil the whole experience of the episode, but just a taste of what to expect.

It's a huge episode, our biggest one for the game as a whole!

Keep informed and updated from our Patreon notifications, checking in on the guidepost, Kickstarter, Twitter or anywhere else you may follow our development from! ^^

~ From all of us at Messy Studios! ~