MessyAcademy
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January Development Report!
🕑 Added 2023-01-06 07:26:26 +0000 UTC[~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! ~
Comments
I also managed to get ambushed by the holiday illness so my 2023 could have started better but I'm getting back on track. ❤️ Projects like these are always difficult. Things are moving forward and you're fixing and improving all kinds of things but you always have that ever present deadline (real or imagined) and others unrealistic expectations hovering over your head. You and the entire team have had to navigate through a whole host of issues, which for anything other than a labor of love such as this would have been too much to keep going. One of the first things I learned when I started engineering prototypes was that however simple something seems, on the first try for everything that goes right two more do not and a third unknowns gets discovered. I think this is just as true for making games. All in all I think you have done an admirable job getting around the obstacles be they illness, inexperience, time or turmoil of other kinds. Sure it's delayed but in the end you having the ability to do so is what is going to give us what we want, not what you have. Just please remember that whatever you may think you owe us make sure to take care of yourself first. I do genuinely worry that you put more energy into this project than you have to spare. Nobody has infinite spoons. Please give my love and support to the rest of the team as well for their valiant work! ❤️
Big love for the kind words! Hope your start into 2023 is going well so far! <3 ADHD and many other things sadly feel like they're forgotten about when working with people or expectations placed upon others. >.< As if that's not bad enough, just simply the day to day happenings alone can be a lot to tackle while trying to also put together a project of any sort. I think we all have our ups and downs, what makes us special and there's no doubt about it, that even this project has some issues along the way. In the end, the important thing is overcoming those bumps along the way no matter how things look along the way! ^^
Things are still moving forward so I'm not going to complain. ❤️ This project reminds me of most of my hobby projects as it's pretty much exactly me trying to accomplish anything big and forgetting about ADHD being a thing.
