(Hey! This progress report is exclusive to paying members on Patreon because free posts cannot contain NSFW content, but it's available for everyone on Itch!)

Hello, dear readers!

As you may recall from our previous Progress Report, we initiated the playtesting for Build 14. While our Good Master patrons played and delivered their thoughts, we allowed ourselves a brief period to rest, refresh and, most importantly, process the input we received.

Responses have been unanimously positive, and that was a relief. Though we were confident on the quality of the writing and art, I'll admit that at times I had the fear that the complexity of the structure we designed might have exceeded our capabilities.

On top of that, we managed to catch some bugs, which is always a big positive, and identify some specific aspects of the text requiring more care.

Last week work began on the 4th and final section of Build 14. We are now, officially, at the last stretch.

Section 4

If you go back to our previous progress reports a pattern will become clear: the earlier sections of the build were the most polished and required only cursory editing (Section 1 was pretty much done, for example) while the later ones demanded increasing amounts of editing and writing.

This is not abnormal in our production — whatever is written the earliest goes through a greater number of editing passes, and becomes ready to publish sooner. But this was heightened due to the sheer length and complexity of Build 14.

If one extrapolates from this pattern, you'd expect Section 4 to be, if you will forgive the comparison, our equivalent of a final boss: the most demanding stretch of text with the heaviest of expectations, all while having the least amount of work done. And while it is true that more writing was necessary to finish it...

...the rest of that assumption would be wrong.

Writing Section 4 has been a smooth process, one so pure and fluid I feel entitled to describe as untarnished. Instead of a final uphill battle with our resources depleted, it has revealed itself a dance, a reward, and, at least to me, an almost unrestrained display of creative freedom.

For this section we have allowed ourselves to work with a smaller, tighter word count goal, and have instead focused on making every paragraph, every sentence, sing. It's poetry, it's themes laid bare, naked and raw, it's searching for the perfect sentence and refusing to append it with any unnecessary detail.

If I may be so bold, I'd even go as far as saying this may be one of the highest points in my career as a writer. I have never been in a position as creatively fertile as this, with so much potential, so many years of set up, being realized all at once.

Months ago I spoke of my pride over what we accomplished with Build 12. Its presentation was the result of ambitious and hard work, and its ending, mysterious as it may be, is something I've known to be essential to the story in a way that will be made extremely clear as we go. But the pride I feel for what we are doing now, for Section 4 in specific and Build 14 as a whole, overshadows even that.

Build 14 As A Whole

As of today, Build 14 is sitting at 60,000 words long. I estimate the final word count will sit somewhere between 65,000 and 70,000.

Having had a few days to work on Section 4, I feel ready to pin down a deadline both for its completion and for the delivery of all writing going into Build 14: June 27th. This includes Section 4 plus a few options, branches and variations we could not cram in during the playtest. This is a reasonable deadline that should let us deliver the best we as writers can achieve without wasting any time. This is not the release date, though, this is an internal deadline.

Assuming we meet this deadline (and I quite believe we will), we'd be able to release Build 14 to our patrons soon after, on early July. In practice, what this means is that we will announce the release date in the next Build 14 progress report, which should come out sometime over the next two weeks... Sometime after the next VISUAL UPDATE PROGRESS REPORT. dilukha has much to share about Phase 2 of the VU, and I can't wait to see everyone's reaction.

Itch.io Releases

Now, when it comes to a public release, as I mentioned recently I think it's time we pick up the pace on that front. The build we published recently was, in a sense, supposed to be a wake up call that things are going to move quickly very soon. In fact...

The next public version of Minotaur Hotel will be a double feature, bundling Builds 11 and 12 in one single 30,000 word update — and it's expected to come out in early July, at the same time Build 14 will go out to patrons.

But wait, there's more!

Before I sign off I want to take a minute to remind you of the other projects I'm involved with, because they will be quite significant during the month of July as well.

Devil's Gambit will be releasing its next version (the climactic, second to last update!) in mid July.

I've been editing it over the last few days, between bouts of working on Minotaur Hotel. I cannot say much about it — we are dealing with a climactic moment of the story — but, suffice it to say, I've lost count of how often I teared up while editing and had to take a break to recenter myself.

Maybe I am particularly affected by these emotions due to my emotional investment with the story and its characters, but I am immensely proud of how this update has progressed the story. DG has been an immensely fulfilling project, and seeing all the threads coming together is the kind of stuff writers live for.

As for Sex Drive...

Sex Drive will release its next update in late July.

Eddio's been hard at work with the illustrations and I'm very satisfied with how it's turning out. This update will include one erotic story, HOMEWRECKER, and one intermission, which individually might be unassuming additions to the game but continue the trend of a more literary bent as established by the 3rd story, EUROTRIP.

This update will be available for all patrons on the Dear Guest, VIP Guest and Good Master tiers, but with a twist — everyone who ever subscribed to the VIP Guess or Good Master tiers will receive all updates for Sex Drive until the game's completion even if they unsubscribe. We'll also be selling the game here on Patreon as a standalone purchase at 9.99USD. You buy it once and get all updates until the game's completion!

Look, you know, yeah. This is our schedule for July.

Early July: Everyone on Itch gets Build 11 and 12 in one go, while on Patreon we'll publish The Big Minotaur Hotel Sex Update (60,000+ words God have mercy).

Mid July: The big, climactic Devil's Gambit update, so big and packed with content we need two extra weeks for all the assets.

Late July: As if all of that wasn't enough, Sex Drive Build 4 comes out to seal the deal.

Look, this just happened.

And that's it for now! Have a good weekend, everyone!