Dearest reader, hello!

It's been about two weeks since we published Build 14, the big update that added the much-anticipated sex scene. We've had time to rest up a bit and get back to work, and I want to give an update covering our next steps. We have a lot of good stuff in store and I think everyone's itching to know.

Now, first of all...

Build 14 is coming out on Itch on August 7th!

As promised, I want to reduce the gap between Patreon and public releases. I think all the content being kept supporter-only for so long fragments the community. Now that we've reached such a strong point with the narrative, I feel that it's time to try and bridge things back.

I don't know if a 1-month gap will be our rule of thumb going forward but I'm hopeful this will be a much better balance than our previous arrangement.

Now, after that...

Visual Update Phase 2

With Build 14 out of the way, we're officially changing gears to our next update, Visual Update Phase 2. This one will add host of new sprites, some of which we've already shown...

But today I feel it's time we give you guys the first glimpse of... the boy, the man, the minotaur in his halfway healed state.

Still a work-in-progress, mind you! The blue spectral eye hasn't been done yet, but dilukha will get to it soon. I'm really looking forward to that effect in particular and to the range of subtle emotions dil was able to create with that alone on the previous Asterion sprite. He's also including some details that'll highlight the "halfway-healed" state that he's in — his cheek, for example, has a bit of a bald spot where his fur has not finished regrowing.

Another point worth bringing here... I don't want to get too deep into rewrites for this release, because they're actually very exhausting and I want to focus on new content, but some are necessary to account for changes stemming from the new art. For instance...

Luke's very intense introduction will get some polish, both to make it flow with ToraGoru's new CGs and as a general improvement to a part of the game where I felt the prose really deserved some love.

I hope to get more Progress Reports out as we go, but overall progress is going smoothly, and I'm very satisfied with the results. As always we have internal deadlines and estimated release dates, and while everything's going according to schedule it's still too early to announce a release date. The work going into this update is very fundamental to the game — we'll be spending many hours looking at these sprites, menus and backgrounds — and getting it right is our first priority. It's exactly the same as it was for VU Phase 1; we want to hit a home run on the first try.

On top of that, game development is not a race, it's a marathon. We need to pace ourselves and avoid crunching, lest our team burns out.

But, you know, the upside of having a team like this is that while they work on getting out the VU Phase 2 update, I can focus on the writing! Let's see how that's going, shall we?

The Next Story Updates!

On the writing department, we are still on the hangover period from the massive effort that was Build 14, so we are taking it "easy". Instead of going straight to Chapter 21 we are going to take some time to work on parts of the game that will make development less complex going forward. To explain what I mean, we need to talk a bit about Chapter 21 and what it will entail.

Chapter 20 was massively important to Asterion's character, and Chapter 21 will be just as important but for the game's mechanics. The Chapter itself shouldn't be too long to write but there'll be multiple new mechanics, interlocking parts, and significant branching points accounting for previous choices. To name a few:

The Pedro/Nikos/Leader split: Most players will only be able to recruit one of those characters, with only Leaders being able to have both. This is a complex scene that will require very careful writing to maintain the right tone.

Accounting for Kota's and Luke's plotlines: Players who finished their hangouts will have a special event at the start of Chapter 21 introducing unique and important R&D projects that will unlock the second half of Luke's and Kota's stories. These scenes have to be written carefully to account for the fact they can happen at any other time going forward (because players can finish Luke's and Kota's hgangouts after Chapter 21 starts.

"Random daily encounters": Players will at times get short scenes during management days where their recruited characters will have little interactions independently from the MC's involvement.

"The Prosecutor": A new plot-relevant character that will play an important role in all of Act 3.

"Obtain the Ichor": A new mechanic added to sending Exploration teams to the valley...

And more!

It's already going to be complex enough as-is, so we want to take some time to tie up a few lingering sources of complexity before we dive in. Mainly, we want to tackle the unfinished staff hangouts. Some of those have significant technical implications that by themselves justify prioritising them, but they also have a narrative dimension too.

I, as a writer, want to go into Chapter 21 with the main cast having gone through their initial character development, so that I'll be able to identify when text variations are necessary to account for their route completion status, and what those variations should entail. If I leave that for later, at some point I'll have to stop everything and comb through the game for scenes that require rewrites, and then surgically graft those in. That'd take us months of extra work, and I'd rather approach this aspect of development with the level of strategic thinking it requires.

With all of that established, I can finally talk about what we have planned for the next non-VU updates.

Wolf!

Wolf's route has been a long time in the making and I'm really looking forward to getting it out! His writing, which was done by Awoo, is in a very advanced state. I have to give it a round of editing myself, there's one or two gaps I promised to write, but that's about it. That's pretty much everything that's left to be done for it — and let's just take a minute to appreciate that.

We've just published a massive update with about 70,000 words... And we already have another update lined up. We'll still need some time to get it out, mind you, because we'll need some assets for it, but it's written. And that's not even touching on the Sex Drive update we're cooking!

Since it's in the most advanced state, Wolf's update will be the first to come after VU Phase 2 comes out. I'm estimating a Q4 2026 release.

Luke's Overhauled Hangouts

Luke's hangouts were some of the first we wrote for the game, when we were still prototyping the mechanic and lacked a good grasp of how to use it for best effect. When I published them I was very aware they were placeholders.

I set aside some time in December last year to rewrite them, and over the course of a month or so I got through most of it. Right now 4 out of 5 hangouts are written — two have been edited, one will be edited soon, and one still has a few gaps I need to fill. The final hangout is in the outlining stage.

Despite how quickly I was able to write it all, Luke's overhauled hangouts ended up longer than anticipated. We were able to include some key character moments which we had originally planned on delivering later in the story, which will make these hangouts hit harder while also reducing some complexity that we'd have to deal with later in the game's development.

This will mark a very noteworthy point in our production: for this update I brought in a historian, to help us with accurately portraying Luke's World War 2 background, as well as whale, writer of Strokkur and Anamnesis, to help me with the editing.

Themba

Ah, my favorite big guy...

I started writing Themba's hangouts early last year, but progress on that task was interrupted as the VU and finalizing Chapter 20 became our greatest priorities. I wish I had been able to finish it back then, but I'll get to it very soon after I'm done with Luke's.

Themba will have 6 hangouts — two of which are written, one is halfway-written, and the remaining three are outlined. They'll touch on his relation with Asterion, the hotel's past and what happened with the ex-employees after they were kicked out. This will give us a window into the broader world of Minotaur Hotel, and I'm really forward to exploring the fates and families of the three mythicals whose passports could be found in the safe, back in Chapter 1.

Devil's Gambit and Sex Drive

Before I head off...

The next Devil's Gambit build is coming out on July 20th!

This is the big, climactic update, and I'm really proud of how it's coming out. I cannot suggest it enough, both for its quality and because, well, I contributed quite a bit to it. I'm proud of my work! And I really hope you guys will give it a chance.

As for Sex Drive... The next update is coming out soon as well, though I'd rather not pin down a release date just yet. Originally I wanted a July 18th release, but some extra assets were required and, of course, it'd clash with DG's release, so I'm giving it a few more days to cook.

More news soon! Thank you for your time and attention.

— Mino.