jay
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Character Preview #4 - Altina the Sheepish Devout
🕑 Added 2022-07-02 04:33:19 +0000 UTCGood evening everyone,
It's been a long few weeks but the latest update is upon us. Expect it to arrive in a few days after some playtesting, etc. We're jumping straight to 0.3.0 with a new character: Altina, the Sheepish Devout, as we enter a new arc of Scarlet Law.
Altina is a low-ranking clergy member of Scarlet Cathedral. She's very shy and sheepish, so you're going to have to try and earn her trust. You may recognize her as one of the first characters you meet on your adventure. Altina is a member of the Powder Girls, a gang of girls who oppose the Scarlet Law. The origin of the name isn't from The Powerpuff Girls (as more than a handful of you have tried to correct me on), but from a faction in Fallout New Vegas called the Powder Gangers (maybe two of you actually DM'ed me and figured this one out).
Besides being timid and bashful, Altina is a very caring individual who spends most of her free time with children. Outside of the church, she runs and lives in an orphanage. She has a big heart, definitely waifu material... but has some secrets of her own...
I thought it would be a neat idea to give her a nun's habit, but had some reservations due to a habit bearing significant real-life religious symbolism. If her new look offends you, I apologize. I wanted her to have a "religious" look because she is very devoted to the "Goddess of Scarlet."
I got a ton of work done early in June. However, toward the end of the month, I entered a deep slump. This happens a lot, but this slump was especially difficult for me. There's a part of me that wants to take a break from SL but this is currently my only source of income and I have bills and rent to pay. I'm kind of losing some faith in the project, as we haven't grown in some months. This month, in particular, the Patreon/SubscribeStar actually fell by about $200, which is a pretty disheartening blow for the future of the game and for my own motivation.
I can't afford to give up, but at the same time, I do feel like I'm losing my mind. I think if I were more settled financially, I'd be happier. I don't know. Even though I hated my old job and can't see myself going back, I was at least able to afford to go outside, socialize, and dine at decent restaurants. But now, it just feels like I can't afford anything with my current income nor can I go out to meet and have fun with friends. There are a lot of days when I just eat two McDoubles for the day in an effort to save money.
I'm basically living paycheck to paycheck, which is a terrible state to be in. I don't think I'll be able to even afford to renew my car insurance for next month. You never really think about these types of things when you're happy and excited as I was when I was first working on SL. But the more I think about life outside of SL, the more depressing things become. I really want to get out of this vicious cycle, but I also want to be happy and work on the game.
Maybe someday, the content will take a hit. Maybe I'll work on another game to take my mind off of SL. I don't know. I just feel terrible and now fully understand why a lot of developers give up on their projects or work on something else. Of course, thank you all. A lot of you are extremely, extremely, generous and supportive of the project. And sorry to go off-topic, but I figure it's important that you are aware of how I feel at the moment.
That being said, I'm happy with the amount of content I've created in this update. We reached my 3 scenes goal for the month, which is something that hasn't happened in maybe 2-3 months. I got some feedback from you guys also, and a lot of you seemed to like Celestia. Hopefully, you feel the same about our devout, Altina.
Comments
jay
Hey, thanks for the fair criticism. I actually make a post every two weeks. I thought about doing it weekly but I don't want to spam people with smaller/less thoughtful posts. Regarding the May 15th to June 17th thing, it's actually a flaw on Patreon's website. I actually made a post on June 1st (which was the update, 2 weeks after May 15th) and pinned it. And when I did, it seemed to bump that post to the top, so you missed it as you (and I) were scrolling down. Maybe I'll consider doing more weekly updates, though, as I've said, I try to keep them as detailed as possible. Just sometimes, it does feel like there's nothing to talk about or I waste an entire week with little work done. EDIT: I also really, really wanted to do bi-weekly updates but it's become a little too much for me to handle. I think the quality of the game takes a huge hit if I don't spend more time thinking of a good storyline as ideas often change (usually for the better).
SuperSparky
I'm no genie, but I can recommend that if you want your subscribers to remain subscribers, you'd best not wait an entire month (May 15 to June 17) to speak to them. Regardless of how busy you are or are not, how awesome the game is, regardless of how long you work in your other job, spending 15 minutes once or twice a week on written status updates can make them see you haven't abandoned the project. A business requires marketing and investors like to be regularly updated on their investment. The developer Doc5252 on SubscribeStar sometimes gives out updates bi-hourly (which you don't need to do). Finally, when starting a business, it requires a lot of time and sacrifice. It's just how much are you willing to work to double your Patreon donations? Sometimes "work" can just be marketing.
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