Monthly update #13 (Patreon)

Back in the swing of things, and I'm working on writing Aiden's route, directing the new writer to finish Gray's route, and drawing all the necessary art.

I want to address everyone's criticism of Gray's route.

I hear your feedback about the MC. A player's enjoyment of the route is directly tied to how much they like or tolerate the MC, and sadly, there's a whole lot of criticism about this MC.

Firstly it was that she was too standoffish and hostile towards Gray. I got someone to go back in the earlier chapters to edit them so that the MC appears nicer.

But now the comments are about not agreeing with her decision, and it's affecting their enjoyment of the route because the MC annoys them.

Since halfway through Dimitri's route, I have gotten direct feedback from Patreons and beta testers about the way a certain route went. Stories were changed and even characters got bigger roles depending on the feedback and reception it got. I was always able to somehow direct the story to that players wanted, as I was still developing it.

With Gray's route, that's different. Over a year ago I hired someone to write Gray's route for me, so I could focus on Aiden's route. By the time Gray's first chapter was available to play for players, chapters 1 through 16 were already written, and his story was completely outlined. A big part of his story was MC hiding her identity from him. By the time the first complaints came forward, the story was even further along, until the writer eventually left the project.

Had I known the reception the MC in Gray's route would have gotten, I'd have handled it earlier on and changed the direction of the story. However, since the main writer wasn't me, and it was written well in advance, there isn't really room to edit the story and make it more palpable for the players (not if I want to go in there and rewrite everything myself, which defeats the point of bringing on another writer). MC hiding her identity is a big part of the story, which is not something I can change at this point.

This experience has taught me that I should probably focus on writing the routes myself, and not hire another writer to help me out. And to only write characters I would enjoy writing (the reason Gray has a different writer is because I cannot write a dynamic like Gray and the MC).

At this point, I'm just happy I found a replacement writer to help finish Gray's story. I wouldn't want to reboot Gray's route either, since a lot of Patreon money was spent on the story in the first place.

So I just want to say I apologize for Gray's route. Right now, I'm focused on actually getting it finished. I may continue to hire the writer that's currently writing Gray's route to go back over some previous chapters and make MC's reasoning for hiding her identity from Gray stronger and more relatable. Of course, this doesn't matter much to the current players who already are upset about the MC. Or maybe just restart the route entirely, adding on another year of development.

From here on out, all stories will be developed and written by me, and I will only work on one route at a time.

Feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments and this survey: https://forms.gle/Yvd2e2qJquFZUJgB7