In Her Own Hands, v. 0.8.0α (Announcement) (Patreon)

Patrons $5 and up: Click here to download the game

It took longer than I anticipated, but this is a major accomplishment for me! This is the first update since I made the decision to continue with this game by myself. Those of you who have stuck around with me know that this has been a difficult road, but I am proud to say we have finally arrived.

A lot of the work that went into this update will be virtually invisible to most players right now but will make future development much easier. First, each location now has a "core" from which all events at that location launch. In addition, all of the variables have been reorganized so that I can track them all easier. I also cleaned up a lot of the unnecessary variables and converted some story variables to temporary variables. All of this is probably tech gobbledygook to a lot of you, but just understand that this has been a MASSIVE undertaking for a game that has this much content. Almost this entire month was spent on testing all of the events on all of the paths from the beginning, so hopefully this is also error-free!

If you do locate any errors or any content that doesn't seem to unlock correctly, please send me a private message here on Patreon or email me at surprisedelightme@gmail.com. Thank you so much!

There are a couple of major changes that affect gameplay. First, the biggest change is that Shaun and Bobby will now move around the apartment at random during certain times. They will still go to bed and go to work at the usual times, but they move freely during "down-time." This required the addition of a couple of scenes, but nothing major. More importantly, when Scarlett is visiting Bobby, she will move around with him for some of the time. This also added a few short scenes with the two of them in different rooms, but this content will be expanded significantly in a future update.

Second, I added the ability to toggle between foreplay and sex during the "CumPoints" sex scenes. Doing this offers a bit more freedom and control over these scenes. Pursuant to last month's poll results, I also removed condoms from the game as a whole.

Third, I made some refinements to the wardrobe to lessen the game burden of the feature without sacrificing some of the "hot" qualities. I incorporated wardrobe shortcuts on a pop-out sidebar in the Bedroom (previously released in a special "tech" update of v.0.7.0 last year). In addition to this, I pre-saved an outfit into Clothing Set 1 so it isn't necessary to do that at the beginning of the game. I also removed the work uniforms from the Diner and the Spencer's hotel bar. It just seemed like an unnecessary complication that was gatekeeping content.

Aside from these, I also adjusted several event triggers (notably in the Abby and Cassidy paths), edited a lot of text and images, and made some general aesthetic improvements.

This is a save-breaking update! In other words, saves from previous versions of the game will not work in this or any future versions. Hopefully, though, the coding changes in this update will make it so that this never happens again, and saves will be transferrable from one version to the next. (This was one of the main benefits of reorganizing the variables in the way that I did.)

As usual, the final public release for this version, incorporating any bug fixes or any other necessary changes, will come out in one week, 29 June 2024. The updated walkthrough will also be released before that time for Patrons $9 and up.

Unfortunately, this update will not be able to be played on the old website. The site was being maintained by my former partner and I no longer have access to change it. It looks like version 0.7.0 will continue to be playable online for the foreseeable future, but new updates will have to be downloaded until a better option is available.

Looking forward, the next update will contain a bit more new content. The June Path Poll selected Shaun as the subject for the new content. The alpha for the next update will be released sometime in the first week of July, while the ITOH polls are running. It won't be as much new content as I initially desired, but I should be back on track with the next ITOH update by the end of July and will be able to work on this game again in August. My most important goal will be to appropriately manage my plans for each month so that I can stay on schedule now that I am actively developing both games.

As always, thanks again for your continued support!

S&D

Changelog v. 0.8.0α

• Story passage reorganization (code changes);

• Variable reorganization/redefinition (code changes);

• Bobby/Scarlett and Shaun movement within the apartment;

• CumPoints menu toggle (foreplay/sex);

• New images: Bobby and Scarlett together in Living Room, Kitchen, Balcony;

• New images: Bobby and Shaun alone and together on Balcony;

• Added Wardrobe shortcuts to auto popout in Bedroom;

• Removed uniform requirement for Bartender and Waitress jobs (will change automatically at work);

• Removed wardrobe Professional/Comfy/Naughty "points" and adjusted passages that used them;

• Added default Outfit Set 1 from beginning of game;

• Adjusted event trigger for one Abby dare;

• Lowered Bisexuality requirement for Cassidy path;

• Adjusted size, dimensions, and name for 100s of images and video files;

• Centered most images/videos/headings, made other minor aesthetic changes;

• Various minor text edits;

• Various minor bug fixes;

• Removed most affiliate links/product images ("Support").