To start off with our monthly dev report, I'd like to say firstly that I'm sorry February didn't have as many posts put out as I was hoping for. A little around the middle of the month, I had a house full of us being sick and while I did catch it myself, luckily.. it didn't affect me nearly as bad. (At most, 3-4 days that took me out the most.)

In case you missed our previous dev report, it covered our plan for the next 2 months roughly. It was setup that way, because I'll be moving across country and so I've been prepping for this since late 2024 for the project content, trying to get ahead in a solid spot so that once we start rolling out content, we have a bit set aside to keep things smoothly moving from that point forward.

While I know things are still iffy looking currently, I do come with some good news for this month and our game plan options in delivering said content. Let's get into this dev report!

This post will be split up into sections indicated by "[~Text~]" and the section below it, we're going to try to keep these condensed, but the main points will be outlined early on before we move into recent development team related mentions.

[~Behind The Scenes: Upcoming Releases~]

{Recap: Two areas of v0.22 are being inspected and finished up, looking at 1-2 test builds provided by this upcoming weekend and full release no later than March 15th. v0.23 (ep 1 QoL) is underway for writing phase, expecting to have that out by April 12th.}

Right off the bat, we wanted to have v0.22 out before we got into March and clearly we didn't quite hit that goal, so what's the status?

v0.22 has two main elements for the content being delivered that's being carefully inspected, the first one is the free roaming scenario. Which presents the player with six options that lead into mini paths that feel meaningful and impactful towards learning more about characters in a way we haven't seen in the game prior to this.

These scenarios should feel on par with quality expected from normal scenes featured within episode 5 and these ones feature the cast of bg OC and some bg student characters briefly involved, and while brief, I think we've done a pretty good job ensuring the time spent with them gives a good impression of their characters.

It's hard working with OC's given we're trying to be respectful and display those characters correctly, but with Patreon booting us off their platform over a year ago. We also lost contact with some of the OC's owners and so, if you're one of them and feel as if we didn't properly handle your OC correctly in this upcoming content. By all means, please reach out to us! We want to do them justice!

Mainly we're checking over this element for v0.22, making sure everything's working correctly.

The other element is a bit more important, that being the ending sequence for episode 5 as it involves the mystery story and so naturally we're not trying to expose too much, but also not too little. We're double checking through that content to make sure it's finalized without giving away too much too early.

I fully suspect we should have the programming wrapped up for v0.22 pretty soon! We're looking to toss out test builds that'll cover much of the free roaming scenario content, sometime this upcoming weekend ideally. From there, I highly doubt we'll do a 2nd test build before the release.

(Test builds for v0.22 are being provided to recent $5+ supporters, we have a list laid out. Possibly, we'll provide a 2nd test build that's for our higher tier supporters briefly before the release to be fair.)

v0.22 should be released no later than March 15th!

v0.23 is already underway behind the scenes and we suspect we'll be seeking a bit of feedback on some of the gameplay and quality improvements made to episode 1 during the second half of March, with the goal of releasing v0.23 by April 12th!

This gives a little wiggle room a few days before the moving date, in case there's a last minute fix needed.
 

v0.24 should be ready sometime around mid May, possibly sooner! I'm trying to give myself a month during the move to sort out a number of things while settling down in the new location. The sooner we have everything handled, the better though and I'll keep everyone updated during the later half of April into May as we get a date figured out. But we know v0.24 will be ready during May for sure! (It'll cover episode 2 QoL content.)

From there forward, v0.25 will dive into route content to mix things up. We'll most likely focus on route content during the Summer and slowly update the older episodes to include the female protagonist and other additions.

(We'll be taking feedback and input during those points, trying to strike a balance so we can please everyone between the QoL content and new route content.)

[~Team Developments: Art Corner~]

{Background Art Developments}

Last month we shared some bg art coming to the game, a few reworked existing locations redone and some new variants as a result of being able to redo them with our new bg artist.

 During February, we've been getting a lot of the dorm room variants completed for the cast! Currently, we have seven out of nine finished technically. There's some finishing touches being done to some of them, but we really wanted to take advantage of being able to redo the dorm room bg art that exists and set it up to have personal spaces for each of the main girl's rooms visually speaking.

We'll be showing off much of these through March!

We're still sorting out March's funding at this time, but I highly suspect we'll take a break from new bg assets being worked on for a while as we cover the costs on what's completed so far.

{CG Art Developments}

Heading into cg art mentions!

Last month, I had explained that for a while one of our two cg artists went MIA for a while and we sorted all of that out.

Marxe had a busy February, so he wasn't able to get much done, but he is currently working on updating episode 5's Bridget gaming club cg scene & episode 5's cg featuring Erika to be seen very soon!

Ajose on the other hand during February has begun working on updating episode 3's cg featuring Heather giving Erika a wedgie!

The previews I've seen for these are looking pretty solid, so I hope we can begin sharing some early previews for those here during March.

We're sorting out funding for this month, but I highly suspect we'll skip over on new requests for cg needs for March. Reason being, both artists have a mini list of paid work to finish still and I'd like to see that list shrink a bit more before overwhelming them further. We are going to be moving back to brand new cg art being worked on here possibly in April forward, with the priority being on new art and less on existing art being updated more sparsely.

{Sprite Art Developments}

With sprite art assets! We managed to get a bit of last minute stuff sorted out in time!

During February, Lisa worked on a outfit for Nova and Miki to be seen during their respected free roaming scenarios as v0.22 begins, so we look forward to how the free roaming scenario content come across to everyone playing, as we'll try to ensure we apply what works towards future gameplay content. ^^

Besides having those outfits ready last month, Lisa also is working on an MA in-universe mascot for Miki. This is going to be seen in the form of merch shown off in her dorm room, along with a casual outfit we'll see Miki in at future times in the game.

The mascot stuff is supposed to be our in-universe take on Sanrio (Hello Kitty) mascot characters, of course being completely original with the designs, names, etc. While I love Sanrio, I don't want to run into legal issues naturally and so we're putting together some original stuff that I'm sure Miki won't be able to keep her mouth shut about if a certain protagonist asks about said mascot merch. :P

Right now, I can at least reveal that Miki's favorite in-universe mascot is actually a duo! Twin magical foxes by the names of "Fizzy" (Girl) & "Fuzzy" (Boy). There's even a bit of written behind-the-scenes context for in-universe story for these characters and others, but I wanted to lightly give an idea of how these original mascot characters will sort of come across.

We'll see previews for these during March! ^^

While we're still sorting out funding for March, I suspect we'll easily be able to cover the costs involved for Miki's mascot character designs, assets for her dorm room in the form of merch and Miki's casual outfit featuring said characters too. 

{Chibi CG Art Developments}

Moving along, February was a pretty easygoing month for chibi related needs for the project.

The first thing we saw finished and shared publicly would be the Valentine's Day animated chibi of Lola, which we posted on Substar, along with our socials Twitter and Bluesky.

The second thing she worked on during the month was finishing up a special in-game splash art screen that's main purpose is a "WIP" sort of screen. This screen will appear when art is missing during development with a very clear message:

"This content is under construction! Keep up with the dev reports and release notes for future content to know when these have been completed!"

Ideally, we'll avoid having to use it for art that's missing for quite a while! But it'll most likely be used as a way to visually let players know when new released content has come to a stopping point.

Visually, the splash screen features a chibi Miki in a cute construction worker outfit that fits her sense of style, holding a shovel with a sort of half finished background illustration behind her. This screen will probably feature hyperlinks to our Subscribestar page as well, at least when it appears at the end of recent content to help point players to our main page at least.

During March, we'll have to see how funding looks, but I suspect there is a chance we hold off on new chibi related assets for the month. The main reasoning for this, similar to our cg art situation, there's a mini list of paid stuff we're waiting on and so we don't want to overwhelm them with more until it gets a bit more manageable.

{GUI Art Developments}

ds-sans provided me with a preview during February to show how the student files ui screen is coming along. This is part of the "Extras" for the game, to be accessed from the main menu and title screen.

While it's called "Student Files" it's pretty much a yearbook setup, where players can scroll through pages of the game's cast and read up their information, see their visuals and more! 

This is still in progress currently, so if it's ready soon. We probably won't see it added in-game until v0.23 or a bit further depending on priorities. 

We can assume that during March, we'll see the student file ui stuff completed sometime and shown off in previews. ^^

{SFX & Music Developments}

Last up! Apocalyptic Universe's mentions!

During February, we actually didn't request a new music track or anything, as we finished paying off a main one that was needed for v0.22 instead.

We'll hold off on sharing the recent one until after it's been heard in-game during v0.22 to avoid spoilers with it's connection. But we'll share previews for the other recent tracks that have been completed in recent times that'll also be heard in episode 5 content. ^^

Depending on funding for this month, we'll possibly begin work on another music track to help fill in more areas of the game with.

[~Development Report Conclusion~]

Taking the same format layout as last month's dev report, we hope it feels smoother to read through. I wanted to condense down more lengthy sections with a "recap" placed right at the start of a more lengthy section, that way if it's too much for some. They can get the main point in a short summary and move further into other sections with less reading.

With the upcoming move inching closer and closer, the pressure is still weighing down on me greatly. I'm trying not to let it affect me too much mentally while juggling everything, but there are moments where it just seems like another crack surfaces on the wall, wondering when it's going to come crumbling down. 

All I can do is really get lost in my work for the project, school and on the weekend try to get out for a while to escape from it all for the time being. The more occupied I stay, the better I think.

Despite that, I'd like to thank everyone for being more than patient! I haven't forgotten about trying to make things right and offer some bonuses for everyone that feels fair. We should hopefully get to see the first of that this upcoming weekend.

This week will host a number of preview posts for art and other stuff leading into the weekend!

[~Disclaimers & Project Information~]

If this is your time with us and you enjoy the game project, please consider supporting us at the low cost of our $5 tier on Subscribestar! Besides the public versions of the game we release, supporters can expect a number of exclusive posts up to 2 posts per week ranging from news updates, art previews, voting polls and much more! Some months do vary based on our development, but should be expected each month is the benefit of supporter exclusive versions of the game.

Those versions are always one update ahead of what we provide for the public for free to give thanks for your support! The support is what provides our team with covering the costs to add new assets into the game and keep development active.

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

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