With the lack of a development report during September and a recent game build/version release a little over 2 weeks ago, we've got some major catching up to do in this report! :P

First to start us off, if for any reason you missed the recent game build/version that was released. You can find those at the link below for both the public and support versions that was updated.

https://subscribestar.adult/posts/1094919

Let's get right into it!

[~Next Release~]

Our next game updates being released will be v0.21 for the public, which is our current supporter version of the game. That'll include at least 3 new scenes, which is about 10,000+ word count, 2 cg scenes that are animated and more!

v0.22 will be our next supporter version of the game, which is planned to feature the remaining episode 5 content: 4 new scenes, a little over 10,000+ word count, 3 cg scenes with animation and so on!

We don't have a confirmed date for these yet, but they should be estimated for late October. What we'd like to include within both versions is a little taste of what the QoL additions and fixes for episode 1 will be like. Which includes the female protagonist (Blythe) being playable, alongside many other new things we'll discuss below!

As always, we'll keep everyone informed with our news posts throughout the month to highlight how things are coming along and any announcements for a set release date.

Episode 5 will conclude with v0.22 and I won't mention spoilers, but this will feature content on par with what's already in v0.21 for expectations. We're thankful for any feedback and thoughts so far with the new features included, some of which is sound effects, animated cg scenes and new sprite and screen effects to make the experience a bit more lively.

So, expect more of that with v0.22's content! We hope to get the test builds out a little around mid October for $25 supporters to get a taste of this new content, but we'll also do some screenshot teasers generally.

Besides this, we're already sorting out our QoL additions and fixes for episodes 1 & 2. While the main focus is for episode 5's conclusion content, we do have some highlights for new additions and fixes already planned out for episode 1 that we'd like to discuss.

Earlier content in the game will be receiving the addition of the female protagonist being playable, but added with that is our current male protagonist being updated slightly. Both protagonists will be featured visually throughout the game in the form of a portrait window located on the left side of the text box. (See screenshot.)

This feature will allow the player to visually see how their chosen protagonist is reacting throughout the game's experience. We aren't sure yet if we want this to be seen during cg scenes yet, but at least for now our plan is to have it seen generally throughout the game.

(The hide textbox/ui button will also hide the protagonist portrait window.)

When the time comes, we'll want feedback greatly with this additional feature as we fear it might be a good thing for some players, but it might be confusing or not that ideal for others. This portrait would act differently than how other visual novel's function, this is purely only to display the protagonist, not other characters who are speaking.

Of course what is seen and mentioned here is subject to change. Let's talk other additions generally being introduced to the game!

{Gameplay Addition: Free Roam Scenarios}

Old fans might rejoice upon hearing about this one! Long ago, in the early versions of the game, we had moments between "chapters" called "free days" which allowed the player to freely choose how to spend their morning, noon and evening. You would choose a set location within the school and come across one of the main girls to hang out with in a number of mini scenarios.

Free roam scenarios is taking similarities of that old system and re-working it into the general gameplay experience! Let me paint a picture of how these will come into play.

During episode 1 while Erika is guiding the protagonist around, there will be a new moment when Erika points out the school grounds map. (See screenshot.)

This is a early preview of the main building's first floor, but once finished it'll have ground textures and showcase the surrounding outside school grounds. Everything is to exact scale and this will be seen in-game during this moment and will be something the player can access at times during the game.

Shortly after Erika points out the map to the protagonist, she'll mention that they have some time to kill, if you wish to check out a given location. Providing the player with a few choices they can choose from, but due to the limited time window... You'll only be able to check out one location before Erika suggests heading back to her dorm, as the game continues on-rails again.

One choice example during this will be wishing to check out the cafeteria, which assumes the protagonist is naturally hungry after arriving at the school. Erika will guide the protagonist to the location and the two will eat together and it'll showcase some background students we'll see throughout the game in other fitting moments.

Ideally, these choices will offer a impact on future scenes and possibly unlock character paths that would otherwise be blocked off generally.

Each episode, even route episodes will generally have one of these free roam scenarios appear for the player, offering at least 4+ unique situations for the player to choose from that'll feel rewarding and change up the general experience of the game.

We'll be getting a taste of this in v0.22 for episode 5, which will have the player in a scenario where they have a little bit of time to kill, allowing you to check out at least one additional club before meeting up with your buddies and continuing on-rails again.

{Gameplay Addition: Phone Interface}

Another gameplay addition being added is the phone interface! This is a lighter gameplay element in how it affects the outcome of the game, but it'll still feel fun to interact with it and offer some unique differences to your experience.

The main thing is that during the game generally, there are moments when the protagonist checks their phone or it's assumed they're texting someone. Well, that's where this interface comes into play!

There's two ways this will appear in-game.

The first method is on-rails, apart of the story unfolding when the protagonist needs to text their friend or girlfriend. The second method is done through notification alerts, which will appear on-screen throughout the game.

Both of these function the same way, where a phone ui interface screen will appear before the player and the screen will display a text conversation taking place. The player will be given set response choices they can make to affect how the conversation proceeds along the way, which might not seem like it changes or does anything right away, but it'll lightly affect or be referenced upon where it fits.

The second method as mentioned, is there to help make the game feel a bit more lively within the setting as another bonus. Let's give a little example of this below with Miki.

During episode 3 we don't see Miki at all and it isn't until the end of episode 4 before we see her again, well... Naturally she's still running around doing stuff in her day to day even if we're not hanging out with her and so maybe sometime during episode 3, the player will receive a notification alert from Miki, checking it to hear from her and get a idea of what she's busy doing or maybe she's just curious what you've been up to, perhaps she's got a random topic to talk about, etc.

Overall, this additional gameplay system will add another element of live to the game's world setting that doesn't currently exist.

{QoL Additions & Fixes}

Those are the main additions that impact gameplay majorly, but let's lightly cover a few things coming for episode 1 that's planned out so far!

A new scene is being added labeled "Disclaimer Prologue" which takes place upon starting a brand new game for the first time. It'll feature Miki and Erika breaking the 3rd wall to play out a mini scene to highlight some disclaimers about the game, our game development and official sources, along with some brief tutorial mentions for gameplay systems and how to access these tutorial/guides later if needed for a refresher. There's a unique cg scene art for this to hold everyone's attention as well, so it should feel fitting and fun as if it's part of the game itself, despite it being a important disclaimer screen technically.

A new addition adjustment to the prologue introduction. When the protagonist and buddies first arrive, there will be a moment that includes the summary about the game's story here. What I mean by that is, the summary about how the protagonist and buddies ended up at the school in the first place, which is already highlighted outside of the game as a summary, but it feels fitting to include it at the beginning of the game officially to set the scene.

A new addition adjustment for the teacher John. He's being replaced as a teacher by Tara, a new female character and so the current scenes that feature John will be re-worked a bit in dialogue and visuals to support this new character instead. There will also be some light adjustments and fixes for the school's rules being mentioned, along with some other world building elements.

A new scene featuring a mystery character will appear to help support the main story's mystery and help kickstart the protagonist's drive to look further into what's going on at Pembroke Academy.

There's more of these additions and fixes being done to fully highlight everything, but I think today's mentions is far than enough for the time being! :P

[~Team updates~]

Let's get into some updates on what the team as a whole has been up to recently! We've had some progress halted in our art areas, but we'll highlight some updates on what's been going on with those involved.

{Writing, Editing & Programming}

Much of the above already highlights what we've been doing in this regard on the team, but mainly we're focusing on episode 5's conclusion content in the past 2 weeks and we're starting to get the programming phase going for the first scene and shortly, the second scene will be added to the engine.

Then we'll be doing some in-house testing on a general level to workout any major issues before we get the first test build ready.

We're hoping to continue our efforts during the weekdays and by the time our next news post comes out, we should have a decent idea of where we stand and what we can deliver without a doubt beyond the episode 5 content. Mainly the episode 5 content is shaping up well, it's the addition of QoL stuff for episode 1 & 2 that we're unsure of, for how much time is needed yet for those to be ready.

Once again, we're at least hoping to include a little demo of the QoL stuff for episode 1 if nothing else, but the main bulk will be the episode 5 content being concluded for October's update.

{SFX & Ambient Music}

We've been putting the sound effects on halt for the time being, not due to funding concerns... But rather my own personal audio direction skills being lackluster. >.<

What I've discussed with our audio designer is how we could approach sound effects, where they're going to take over mostly on the actual audio director role. I'll toss down spots in the script where I think a sound effect should appear generally and they'll be creating the sound effects for the screen play directly based off the script itself.

How we were doing this before was that I'd suggest we need a few diaper crinkling sound effects generally, they'd be created and then when time came to pair these up with moments in the script, it felt underwhelming. So, moving forward, they're going to be creating all sound effects based off of reading the script and playing into trying to match these more directly to fit scenes.

While sound effects are on halt for now, they've started work on additional music tracks needed for the game and we should be able to hear the first one with v0.22 as it's meant to fit with the club room location.

This will be a huge help, because recently with episode 5. I've been toying around with the sound direction as a whole, including the music that exists and trying to sort out how music comes across, when the game should naturally have quiet moments and we're not quite there yet in-game with v0.21. It'll take some time to get more music tracks finished and added to the game, but each update should begin to showcase progress on this. ^^

{Chibi CG Art}

Starting in September, we hired on Bandyrash, who has worked with us before in the past on a few cg scenes and holiday pieces. We decided to bring her onto the team as our chibi cg artist!

We'll fully get to see her skills on chibi cg scenes for the game in November, but for now, we'd started by having her work on some chibi sticker/emoji's that are being added to the Discord server and these will be featured with the new phone interface addition!

So far, there's 22 of these in the works, with an additional 14 being ordered for this month! With that, we'll be good on chibi sticker/emoji's for the time being. We've already begun sharing a few early sketch previews of how the first 22 of these are coming along, but we'll showcase the finished versions during October!

{CG Art}

Recently Marxe has been working on the official map layout for the game's setting as we've seen a early preview for that earlier in this report. This is because Marxe is fully caught up on cg scene art until Ajose can provide them with something to work on.

In case that's confusing, Ajose does the drawing phase for cg scenes, while Marxe does the background and coloring phases. So, without Ajose's workload, there isn't much that Marxe can do without them for now.

I've heard from Ajose about 3 weeks ago to confirm that his power, along with many others in Venezuela was indeed knocked out and you can draw the conclusions for yourself with what's been going on over there in the recent 2-3 months. After that update, he went silent again until earlier this past week and once again, power and internet was affected.

Since then, he's been back and it seems like everything is stable for now. So, he's going to begin working through some stuff once again and pass anything along to Marxe in the event anything else pops up, but I've got my fingers crossed that they'll be fine.

Marxe had some recent tragic news last month with his gf's father passing and the couple are now in the process of saving up to mainly make the move into northern Argentina to be with her mom to help out. He suspects the move will take place sometime before December and will keep me updated, but overall we're in a solid spot for cg art despite the halts on art.

{Sprite Art}

Since early September, Lisa has been working on creating the remaining sprite characters even in early sketch form for now to help visualize how these characters will look alongside the others.

I've actually received a preview for one of these remaining characters and once I have the next character's early sketch, I'll put together a small concept preview of the two together. ^^

I don't want to mention who these characters are in this report to avoid spoiling anything, but they are support role characters to be seen within certain routes for the main cast. More details about them will be added in the concept previews!

{GUI Art}

We hope that the recent gui additions seen in v0.21 has been really exciting! We're currently working on the phone interface ui elements to make sure we have that ready soon enough, but there isn't too much else to report here.

Much of what remains is for the "Extras" button on the title screen, but as I receive previews of the gui elements, I'll share those with everyone. ^^

[~Conclusion~]

That's it for this development report! I wanted to make sure it highlighted quite a bit to make up for the lack of a report last month and even more so to discuss some exciting features being added to the game soon!

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