Progress report and some news about Malum Garden! (Patreon)

Sorry for the long wait!

This time, besides our usual progress report, we also have some important news about Malum Garden. We'd like to talk about changes to the pre-alpha early access benefit for subscribers, our future pricing plan, and the upcoming release of the current pre-alpha build for non-subscribers.

About the changes to subscriber pre-alpha access:

We're sorry about this, but we've decided not to update the pre-alpha version again until the official release.

Our original goal was simply to let subscribers follow our development progress through the pre-alpha builds. However, we realized that seeing events before the game is fully fleshed out isn't very enjoyable, and it also ends up spoiling a lot of the game—especially events that require building Affection first.

We want everyone to experience the game as intended, so we've decided that new versions won't be released until the core progression system, regular random events, and the game world have reached a certain level of completion. It'll probably be around the point where we feel it's ready to be publicly released on itch.io, and we'll see how things go.

Next, our future pricing strategy:

Once the game officially launches, supporters will get to play one version ahead of everyone else. The very first public release will also be available to supporters first. We feel this is the best way to give our supporters great perks while still letting everyone enjoy the game eventually.

Finally, pre-alpha release for non-subscribers:

We've decided to release our current pre-alpha build on September 1st, one month from now.

If you're not a subscriber, you probably don't have a very clear idea of what kind of game we're making yet. Just like when we first shared the build with subscribers, we'd like everyone to get a chance to see what we're working on, so we're releasing it as a preview.

The build will be the same as the current pre-alpha build and won't receive any updates until the official release. But we're confident that once you've played it, you'll be looking forward to the full version—especially after seeing the bathhouse scene with Karirin, our cute spider maid!

Enough of the announcements—here's the progress report!

Over the past two months, we've expanded the game map quite a bit. The entire city outside the mansion has now been added, and the background artwork for these locations is now complete (although most locations don't have events yet).

We've also added work activities inside the mansion, such as tending the garden and helping out in the kitchen. These activities let you build Affection with the maids and Sear, the mansion's chef, and you might even run into a few small H events while working.

We're also adding more general events around the mansion, such as peeking into the bathhouse, to add more activities throughout the mansion.

The mansion now also has a library, where you'll meet our newest character: Ophelia, the ghost librarian!

That's about it for this update.

And here's a picture of our new character, Ophelia~

抱歉久等了!

這次呢，除了進度報告以外還有一些關於《幻實之庭》重要的事情要說明，是關於alpha版搶先試玩福利的改動、未來的收費策略、以及向非訂閱者釋出alpha版試玩的預告

首先關於目前的訂閱者搶先試玩福利

雖然有點抱歉，但我們決定在正式推出前暫時不會更新alpha版。

我們的原意是讓訂閱者能夠藉由alpha版的更新了解我們的製作進度，但在遊戲本身並不完善的情況下提前看到各種事件，我們認為無法讓玩家感到樂趣，而且同時也是一種劇透，尤其是需要好感度的事件更是如此。

為了讓玩家能完整的體驗到遊戲，我們決定至少在遊戲的基礎養成事件、一般隨機事件與世界完善到一定程度之後才會推出新版本，可能會是到我們認為能上itch正式公開的程度，到時再看情況決定。

再來是未來的收費策略

未來正式推出後，我們預計會採取訂閱者提前一個版本遊玩的形式，未來正式公開的第一版也會先對訂閱者開放，我們認為這是讓大家都玩到的同時還能給支持者福利最好的做法了。

最後是向非訂閱者釋出alpha版試玩的預告

我們決定在一個月後的9/1釋出我們當前的pre-alpha版本，非訂閱者的大家現在應該對於我們正在製作的遊戲內容不太清楚吧，如同當初向訂閱者釋出一樣，為了讓大家都能知道我們究竟正在製作怎麼樣的遊戲，我們決定將它作為預告釋出。

釋出的內容與目前的pre-alpha版相同，且直到正式推出前不會更新，但我相信大家玩過以後肯定會期待正式版的，尤其是在看過在澡堂與蜘蛛女僕小織的H事件之後呢(笑)

瑣事講完了，以下就是進度報告了~

在這兩個月，我們對遊戲的地圖做了一些擴充，宅邸外整個城市的地點都新增好了，背景圖也製作完成(雖然大多都還沒有事件)。

我們也新增了一些宅邸內的養成與工作，像是打理庭院、廚房工作之類的，可以與宅邸內的女僕以及廚師希爾增加好感，還有在做這些工作時也可能發生一些小小的色情事件。

我們也正在加入偷窺澡堂等宅邸內的一般事件，來豐富整座宅邸。

宅邸內也增加了圖書館，裡面待著我們的新角色，幽靈圖書管理員，奧菲莉亞！

差不多就這樣啦，順便附上一張新角色，奧菲莉亞的圖片~