Sorry this development report has taken a few extra days! >.< Awkward timing with the calendar dates leading into this month, kind of mixing up and delaying a few posts due to it.

Below is where we're at since our last dev update in August, we're a bit further than this since we haven't done a dev update post yet since the last one on the 26th.

-Final editing pass. 40-45% --> 60-65% done.
-Engine transfer. 40% --> 60% done.
-New assets added/functioning correctly. 90-95% done. (No progress)
-New feature/systems testing. 25% --> 40% done.
-General testing pass.
-Release.

Here's some public visual updates related to how things are looking! This is showcasing the new sprites updated style vs their current look in-game before v0.20. With the next update forward, this is how the game will look, but do keep in mind there might be some odd spots in ep 1-4 content. We'd like to lightly return to earlier content as a lower priority development focus and do some quality fixes after v0.20.

(See our Patreon post for the images for free, sadly the images are too big for Itch posts.)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/september-report-88783582

[~Expectations for September!~]

The overall goal is prepping for release of new content! ^^ We'll be sharing weekly dev updates leading up to our official date and we'll ensure our public fans are given a heads up 3 days before the release date.

Those who have been supporting us since 2021, even just once at $5 tier or has a collective of $5 support in total, will receive v0.20 for free! This is part of our promise to many of our supporters who have stuck with us during awkward development issues along the way.

I should note how this will unfold. Upon the release of v0.20, only active $5 supporters or above will have access to the content. On the very same day, we'll send out special download links that covers 1/3rd of the new content for free, once again, to those who meet the conditions mentioned in the paragraph above.

Then after 1 week, we'll send out the next part for free and then the final part in a week after that. This is a bit awkward, but we're trying to be fair about how we handle this update between those actively supporting, non active supporters that qualify for the free update and our public fans getting a small taste of what this new content will feature.

Upon the release of v0.21, content updates will be handled normally as follows.

Patreon Supporters = Access to v0.21

Public Fans = Access to all of v0.20

[~Messy Studios Team~]

[~Story~]

Not much can be mentioned right now, as last month's message related to the story...

We'll be diving into the mystery and unveiling the larger story set at the academy very soon! It'll be very exciting to read everyone's guesses and expectations for what's really going on at the academy.. Who's running the school and what is their purpose in having this setting in the first place? Answers will soon unveil, but as some answers become clear, new questions and surprises will arise!

As part of our quality fixes in future months, a few mini scenes will be fitted into fitting spots of ep 1-4 to help build up a better pacing of the main story parts. Not a ton happens during ep 1-4, unlike ep 5 feeling like a turning point, but there's still some supporting spots for the story we'd like to add in.

[~CG art~]

MarxeDP and AjoseMP have been working on a ton of cg stuff, much of which will show up as previews this month!

During the later half of August, we had a post that showed off our final adjustments being made to cg art. We know that the new style announcement months ago had some people on the fence and there's only so much we can really do to improve this, but we wanted to make sure the cg art feels like it pairs up with the sprite art visuals even better!

It's a bit of a subtle adjustment, but here's a tiny preview of how this looks and what can be expected for other characters. :P (Top to bottom: Top is our old style. Middle is our new style. Bottom is the new style with face modifications to better match the sprite art.

(See our Patreon post for the images for free, sadly the images are too big for Itch posts.)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/september-report-88783582

We'll see a good bit of previews in September to show off more of the cg art being updated.

[~Sprite art~]

Lisa has been mainly working on our final oc character Nike during last month and has recently finished her, along with Nathan and Karissa being updated in the new style! We'll be sharing a preview sometime this week or next week depending on how busy our Patreon posts are this week.

Next up for sprite stuff in the works! Something to do with the Nurse for addition outfit stuff, Garnet being updated in the new style and possibly some Juliet and Heather additions to finish them up. :P

{If you missed August's sprite art previews, you can check those out below! $5 support tiers needed to view!}
https://www.patreon.com/posts/sprite-preview-87192415 (Tara's sprite)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/ma-art-style-87340835 (Charlotte Updated)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/ma-art-style-87955572 (Joey Updated)

[~Music~]

ComposerJF has finished our final track needs for the base game of MA! Which means this is probably our last time we'll mention the section for music updates. 2 Years of working with ComposerJF has been amazing! I hope to bring them back on the project at the end for providing their musical talent for dlc content plans for MA once the game is finished. ^^

Our last track is yet to be unveiled, but once I pay it off tomorrow. We might end up having both variants of the track shared on Patreon by tomorrow! All I can say for now is the track's title is "Paradigm Shift".

[~GUI~]

I last heard from ds-sans about 2 weeks ago, but our last update was that the config screen was being wrapped up. So, we should have a preview of this sometime this month to showcase how that's looking. :P Ideally, if it's ready in time, we might get it put into the game with v0.20.

[~Ending~]

Hopefully with our continued dev updates being the highlight, it'll reflect and back how far along we are with the new content compared to our past. We'd like to continue these dev update posts, maybe not on a weekly basis, but every 2 weeks, 2 posts per month after v0.20. We'd like to visually show how new content is coming along, our progress % on each aspect leading up to each content release. ^^

If this is your first time joining along and you enjoy the project, please do consider supporting us on Patreon if you aren't already! Plenty of exclusive posts are made, at least 2 new posts every Monday and Friday, per week!

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!

Be alert! The only websites that are officially ran by myself and Messy Studios working on development of Messy Academy are the following list below. Any place otherwise is unofficial and they might be impersonating us for their own gain. Avoid payments/donating to other sources as it won't be helping fund further development into our game!

>Patreon<
>Kickstarter<
>Twitter<
>Itch.io<
>Pixiv<

(You can also find our official posts/account on these sites, but due to their nature we won't include links directly.)
>F95zone< (Username: Messy Studios)
>omorashi< (Username: Bridget1999)
>tapatalk< (Username: Messy Studios)

Be alert! The one and only official Discord server for following the Messy Studios team development is this one. >Invite Link< If you've come across any other server impersonating us, be sure to report your findings with me directly and steer other's interested in our video game project away from possibly scam attempts.

~ From all of us at Messy Studios! ~