MessyAcademy
patreon
Quick news update!
🕑 Added 2020-01-09 05:00:02 +0000 UTCHi everyone! ^^
Just wanted to mention thank you to all who voted on the feedback poll regarding the demo that was released. Just as a friendly reminder, there was a hotfix that replaced the old download links. (This was on Jan 2nd I believe) I sent out a post update to mention the hotfix was live, but I guess the old download links were still there instead of the hotfix links.
So in short... <.< If you didn't re-download the game from the links after Jan 2nd. You're most likely still playing the version that has some minor bug issues in it. >.< In order to ensure you do have the hotfix version, the download zip file should say "Messy_Academy_Reboot_Demo_Hotfix" or something along those lines with "hotfix" in the file name.
In other news! We're getting cg scenes worked on for this month once again. We have one in progress currently, which will show up in day 1 section 2 (erika flashing her diapered butt). Then we might be able to have the funding for a 2nd cg scene as of right now, which will end up being Juliet's cg scene during day 2 section 2 (helping put her cat tail on).
A big update that I'll be trying to include in January's update is that we managed to get enough funding put towards the final GUI art elements for the game! ^^ Which means one less thing to worry about later, previews of the new GUI will be seen once ready.
The next goal which I've already contacted an artist about and have things set in place for it. Is that we're looking to begin getting the final bg art added to the game over the next couple of months. Cg scenes are the most pricey of everything right now, but each Bg scene done will be roughly 30-40usd each. With about 18-20 total backgrounds in the game, this will cost about 600usd on the lowest end or 800usd on the highest end. (price range is based on how complex the background art is per piece, including day/night and season changes to art.)
By doing this, it'll stick us in a good spot to see new art sprites added monthly, at least 1-2 cg scenes (based on current patreon funding, can increase/decrease) and hopefully 2-3 backgrounds done per month (can also increase/decrease based on patreon funding per month). We're always trying to be very open to our supporters and anyone in general about what our team is doing, costs and anything important. Because we want people to know what their money is supporting, who we are and if you can trust us, etc. Below is just a rough sample idea of where the current funding per month is actually being used on.
(this example is using 250usd as the monthly budget.)
Cg art - 75usd per cg scene (at the lowest) (more characters in a scene = more money)
Bg art - 30-40usd per background. (based on complexity, day/night time and seasons)
Sprites - 10-20usd roughly (with added rev share bonus monthly.)
Editor - roughly around 10% rev share, possibly not quite that.
Programming/writing/lead direction/etc. - 0usd (this is all what I personally cover in the project and currently I put 100% of what rev share % I make per month right into helping build the other aspects. I don't mind doing that, because it's not really about the money to me personally. I have a job outside of the project for income, this is purely my dream to see this project come to life and future projects. Even if that means little to no actual profit in return, I'm okay with that. So long as I can see the completed project ^^
I've always seen it that being open to those who support you should be a key factor. It would be like paying for early access to a game that ends up staying in early alpha for 5+ years and while they update and inform what's coming, it never feels like you know where or what your money is going towards. Will the game ever be finished? Did they take our money and enjoying it, not caring about when or if they complete the game? etc. That's what I personally would feel as a supporter and so I have no issues with being 100% open about the behind the scenes and making sure there's updates often. ^^
Anyways! This post is getting out of hand >.< the main point is that Messy Academy should see some very awesome progress visually within the next few months. By summer leading into the end of the year, we'd be looking at music/sound effects being added and getting mini games programmed into the game. (this should leave voice acting as a final thing with funding and also seeing how much more our cg artist has ahead of them still. As that would be the thing adding updates still even after everything else with the game is complete. Based on our current monthly funding.)
Hope everyone's new year has been going okay so far! ^^
Comments
Exactly! ^^ We'll still make sure that there's good choices that change things up along the way, but for stuff that's more complex. It'll be going back through and adding that stuff later on, it'll be interesting to see how everyone likes some of these choices and what they affect or change. ^^
Zabon
Yeah I would agree that it makes sense to write for a main line story first before branching out too much. I prefer branching stories with choices that matter in some way for sure, but I totally get the importance of fleshing out the main line before getting too deep into branches, because it's the main line that the most amount of people are going to experience.
Thanks! ^^ I'm glad to hear some feedback about the transitions, I can for sure make them not play out as long as they do currently. As I can see how it can get annoying going through again and having to wait a good 5-10secs at times or more, It's meant to be there to show the break between sections ideally. But of course it might not need to be that long as it's seen right now, so thank you very much for that. ^^ I'll write it down and look into testing these transitions at a quicker pace and check if people feel like it's still too slow or too quick. Trying to hit that sweet spot where it can play out as a decent transition without it over staying it's welcome. :P Glad you enjoy the increase in choices and revised scenes, along with the placeholders! ^^ The next few months will be very crazy with how much progress visually the game will jump in looks. Between the gui that's in the works right now and previews of that will be shared soon and final bg art added starting in Feb. It's all starting to come full circle since it first began with 3d models and some less appealing placeholder assets. I'll add one thing about choices, while the first week is pretty linear and the game isn't meant to do anything really crazy complex. We're looking at how to make sure each section has choices and what do they do? (affection up/down, learning new info, plays a different outcome, affects future sections, etc.) There's already talk about adding in the branching choices for sections too. (choice to hang out with Heather or Rachel for this section's focus.) as a example. :P Letting players have some more control over what they wish to do, but also being very cautious not to dig ourselves into a dead end with being too complex right now. (can always go back and add stuff later ^^ ) Thank you again for the feedback and thoughts on everything! <3 It means a lot. Hope you and other supporters will enjoy the update this month once it's ready, we're aiming for having up to days 7-8 done hopefully! ^^
Zabon
Just got around to playing the demo, everything looks good except the chapter, section, and some scene transitions that can't be skipped. Since they can't be skipped with control nor with clicking it can be really annoying on multiple playthroughs because they last for several seconds so if you're trying to skip past scenes or chapters you've already seen multiple times before, it slows everything down a lot. It's really bad on the first day because there are several of these unskippable transitions back to back. Other than that though I like the increased number of choices a lot and the length of the revised scenes. The new placeholder character models are great too, everything is definitely looking up, I'm impressed with how fast things have improved.
