[~Expectations for January!~]

Before diving into this, I'd suggest checking out our New Year's post >Here< First.

Already read it? Okay! Our plan with December was a bit too much for us to tackle, a bit too over my own head honestly.. >.< I knew the holidays were going to be extremely awkward to work around for the team and myself, but as things progressed along.. It was just pointless during the last week of December really.

(Not to mention besides the holidays we had some on the team become sick, which is just really awkward timing during the holidays in general.)

I understand how many are feeling about things, but it's a new year and we're already making waves behind the scenes to ensure that this is our biggest year of development for the project as a whole! That isn't a understatement as there is a lot of major goals and milestones, announcements for the game that'll really highlight major progress.

Many of these things will be shared very quickly after we release v0.20 (Episode 5). Which is set for the release date of Jan 20th. We'll be sharing some of the sneak peek previews with everyone from now up to said release, but we will be trying to exclude showing off some spoiler moments in these sneak peeks. That said, they'll visually show everyone how things are looking.

One thing we want to do with this year, starting fresh is offer major insight into what our team does from start to finish for a given release of new content. This is something we'll showcase after v0.20's release leading into February.

(There are some gui and quality additions that were planned for v0.20's release, but due to some other announcements in the near future. We decided to properly hold back on these until the timing is right. Priority on majorly new content to enjoy > minor additional bonuses. Said additions will come with v0.21 and v0.22. More details on those to come!)

[~Messy Studios Team~]

[~CG art~]

MarxeDP and AjoseMp are currently working on some stuff that'll be announced as we head into February. I hope it'll be a exciting announcement for fans!

Sadly there isn't much else to report on with this, partly to do with the holiday season and some stuff that can't be shared yet.

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

https://www.patreon.com/posts/cg-concept-v0-23-75722663 (Erika ep 6 concept)

https://www.patreon.com/posts/cg-finished-v0-75924389 (Erika ep 6 finished)

[~Sprite art~]

Lisa was fully on break during December, but she is now working on tackling the remaining KS oc's! Our first one expected to be finished during January will be Adriana. We'll be sending progress previews to the oc owner throughout the month to ensure it's looking good. ^^

Besides that, Lisa is also working on some stuff that'll be announced as we head into February roughly. Once again, it should be exciting to share!

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

https://www.patreon.com/posts/sprite-preview-75759022 (Erika, Miki & Zoey additions)

[~Music~]

ComposerJF has just finished our next track, which was commissioned back in mid November. We'll be sharing a preview of that... Right after this post actually! :O

The next track is already commissioned and is set to be another slice of life related background track, something that feels like it's needed. :P

[~Gui~]

I have to contact Ds-sans this weekend to check-in about gui updates, but I was told that something should've been worked on during the holiday break period, even if it's a minor screen or something.

Even if there is a new gui asset ready, we'll be looking at having it added with v0.21 set for February since we don't want to delay v0.20's release any further. 2023 is a fresh start to move forward after all!

~Ending Notes~

That about does it for this report! I also wanted to add, that one thing taking place sometime late January into February is that we'll be updating our Patreon support tiers, perks and trying to better reflect what feels worth each support tier.

We're aware that some of them have some benefits that aren't exactly panning out, so we'll try adjusting those and when we do, we'll have a post that'll highlight any new changes related to those. We'll most likely offer some of these benefits for a month or two to supporters even under certain tiers as a taste of what those benefits are like for free. (Part of giving back during our awkward 2022 development year and also see if supporting higher tiers feel worth it.)

Keep yourself informed and updated on development by following Patreon notifications or bookmarking our brand new >Guide Post< for 2023. You can also continue to keep updated through our Itch.io page or Twitter as well!

(We'll also be attempting to expand into other website/platforms moving into February.)

~ From all of us at Messy Studios! ~