Chyos
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A review of the past year
🕑 Added 2021-12-31 08:01:02 +0000 UTCHey everyone,
This friday it's not only the end of the month but also the end of the year.
Because of that I would like to reflect on the past year and also look forward into the coming one.
The year started with Katherin's update in January. Alongside it I made updates to Tia's model which were discussed a lot. The goal of course was to improve her model, but my vision of that might have been a bit over the top. In a later update this year (in June) I sat down again to not only update all of Tia's scenes (except the one with Maui which I did last month in November) but also rework her model again to make it look closer to the original from 0.1 (less muscles and a bit brighter skintone)
But I'm getting ahead of myself...
Back to Feburary, Mira got an update here. I've also continued my work on updating character models. The result I acchieved with Mira didn't satisfy me though so in the end I had to rework her model again in October. All in all I liked the Sanctum update even though the aftermath really caused a lot of headache... The confrontation with Emily is still on my mind.
In March came Penny's update. For this I not only update Penny's model but also updated the MC model a bit. This, of course, was a tricky thing. I was fully aware that many of you have gotten used to the old MC dialogue images which I had made with 0.1... Even I needed a few months before I got used to the new dialogue images. But it was a necessary step. (the model for the MC didn't even look like the version from 0.1 any longer and since I didn't have the model anymore I wasn't even able to make new dialogue images for him)
After Penny came a 2 month's update for Bianca in April and May. This was a really long time in the pipeline.
I took a lot of time working on the story for this update. Setting up Bianca and her mother wasn't as easy as I first thought and the smaller models made it difficult in some of the animations I made for them.
Then in June came the rework update which I've already talked about at the beginning of this post. The biggest problem with this update was of course the broken save files... And so many bugs in the 0.3.9.5 release that I wanted to scream. It was really depressing when nothing worked and we had crashes left and right... A big thank you to all of you who did the tests back then! For me alone this wouldn't have been possible.
In July and August we then had the next 2 month's update, this time for Frisha & Liandra. This was again a killer... Liandra with her 2 routes and 4 choices... What have I even been thinking... On top of that came of course that Frisha also needed content for both of her routes.
After that came September where finally Verena got her update. Looking back it was the right choice to give her an update just to develope her character. I remember I originally wanted to press it into the December update from last year... That wouldn't have worked out.. At least not at the level it is now in the game.
October.. Oh yea we finally got pregnancy content in the game! This was planned from the beginning but I never really found the right starting point for it. Even when I made this update many of you told me that it would be to early and that I should wait with it. I know not everyone likes pregnancy content, but I think the result was fine and even for those who avoided the pregnancy there was new content in that update (I finally added the scene with Claire at the fire).
November and December, well I guess we all can remember since this is only a few days in the past ;) I reworked Maui which was again a small controversy. But I think the changes to her model were badly needed. When I made her model for the 0.1 release I didn't have any plans for her character. That developed over time and in the end I really regretted not putting more work into it back then. I also worked on a lot of other stuff... But I guess you can find all of that in the latest posts so I won't go into detail here.
So all together I've changed/reworked almost all models over the past year. Some only got minor changes some bigger. I've said at the start of the past year that I wanted to improve the graphics and I think I succeeded with that although I know there is still room for improvements in the future.
But for the coming year I have other plans on top.
The biggest is to finally add Kirlic as a new story hub. With new characters and stories.
For that to work out I have of course also to conclude some of the current storielines.
Of course as I've said before if you want more content for a specific character I can always do more and imagine something new, but I guess it is also nice to have stories come to an end and open up room for something new.
Another big topic is that we're now really close to my next patreon goal. Getting some real help with the game would be awesome. Even I have to admit that I've been overdoing it in the past months. This will hopefully get better, but to show someone all the details about how I work and where to find everything and to also match my quality level will take time... That will be work time that I have to put in first before I get something back. And of course this will also mean making a contract.. A binding consequence that I have to do right... I will probably have to read and inform myself a lot when it comes to it.
So for now this is all I can think of, a lot will of course come with time. Also a lot of the content decisions will come by your votes in the polls!
Thank you all for supporting me over the past month(s)/year!
I'm really happy about how this community and the game has grown. I hope it continues like this in 2022.
I wish you all a happy new year!
~Chyos
Comments
Herugrim
All the best for you in 2022! And everyone else here! I am looking forward mostly to you expanding your team and freeing up some time for yourself to focus on things you really want to focus on (not what the majority votes for - even though it can be a fine system). If expanding your team ever runs into a problem that's based on money, consider adding an extra tier or discussing the cost per level or such openly. I think most people in the community want to see the future of the game and for that we need you to stay motivated and healthy (mentally and physically) which eventually means building a team, because otherwise you'll either grind to a halt in terms of progress or burn out. At the end of the day, make the game that you want to make, not that others want you to make. I'd rather believe in the vision you have than see you be stuck following the ideas of others simply because they pay you or they scream the loudest. The best companies/products do not adjust their vision based on their customers, they simply do what they love and the customers who love that will follow them. As a random example: nobody buys an iPhone and then asks Apple to make it a little bit more like a Samsung or a Sony, they buy the iPhone because Apple does what they want and they believe in it. Anyway, stay safe, stay healthy - good luck with the hunt for team members!
Vestolord
YES MORE GREEN GIRLS!!!
