I've decided to give MiNT (my programmer) a break due to some circumstances (Please check discord or PM if you can't see this) (Patreon)

To make it official and set expectations, and also for transparency I'm outlining some details in this post of my whole reasoning for this. 

As I mentioned before I've been "waiting on programming" and thats still the case. So why the wait? 

The reason is back in late November my programmer MiNT had a problem with one of his clients. That client ultimately decided to fuck him over and initiate PayPal refunds totaling $8,000. He tried to fight it with some help but all the refunds went through anyway, every single one of them. Even when we provided proof that work was delivered, and chat logs showing clear intent the guy just wants fuck him. This asshole also slandered him to other people including clients while doing all this, possibly to make him self look like less of a piece of shit thanks to the ambiguity of the internet. I live with the MiNT currently so I know the break down.

Through out all this MiNT quit several of the projects he was working on except one other and The Couch. Overall, he's no longer doing freelance work and decided to seek out a normal programming job. He was clearly depressed over this time and a lot of people talked to him to give him some emotional support. But eventually it seems like this weighed on him more and more over time. Some progress had been made on the projects left but eventually any progress stopped entirely, and he's kind of in a rut.

I decided to be patient, and put a lot of effort to give him content to work with hoping that would inspire him a bit. But now I accept he just needs this weight off his shoulders so he can find a normal programming job, and get things back together. It's been a couple months now and the impact of everything on his life is starting to show. 

So I decided today it's best I reduce his worries a bit, I know he feels bad about the lack of progress but can't bring himself to do the work. And thats a feeling I completely understand. As of now I've told him any energy he might manage to work on The Couch should instead go to finding a job. And honestly at the moment even that is not much in his current state.

I'm sorry that things need to be this way, and that it took me so long to work out that it was needed. I completely understand if you'd like to reduce or cancel your pledge until progress on The Couch can be made again. I did say I was actively working to get a build out ASAP, but I could not fulfil that goal, and won't be able to for an unknown amount of time.

So what does this mean for The Couch?

If you haven't read anything else until this point PLEASE read this part. 

I only decided on this today after talking with some people. 

MiNT still vows to get the work done, but who knows the timeframe. MiNT has been working on the dialogue system which is the core of the game, and it cannot function as a whole without it. Right now it's in what I would call it's third iteration using a much improved parsing system for the games spreadsheet. In the games current state I cannot have this function work ideally to even make the core gameplay, there's too much that needs to be done for it to work properly.

The dialogue system is kind of like a lite AI type system, so it's generally a difficult kind of thing to fit all the needs, it's definitely not something I could program myself. 

So, considering the worst case scenario I could temporarily deviate my gameplay plans to the current gameplay + ending. Meaning there would basically be no dialogue though the main game, only the ending, maybe the intro. I would have to edit the VN dialogue system to work with animation transitions somehow so animations could be used which would take some time to figure out. Endings wouldn't be based on dialogue and would maybe need some rewriting...

While I hate to say it the best option might be to put the game on hold until progress can be made, and focus on "Our Apartment" instead. That may be the best option in terms of content, cause I have no idea If I can pull off that worst case scenario... but I know for some people that may not be what people support me for. As stated before the content there would be focused on creating animations like the first release, and adding more outfits.

It might also be more viable to get the help of another programmer, The Couch is too deep to do such a thing, but Our Apartment has very very little code, it's mostly asset usage. So while I wait for MiNT to get his stuff sorted out, another programmer could add some small stuff to "Our Apartment" like some simple interactive controls, camera controls and other little stuff. Maybe port over The Couch controls... 

This gives a better sense of progress to me and much more content, while I hate to move into one project before another is done I'd rather feel like something is moving forward. Rather than bang my head against a wall to make something work in a less than ideal way than I really want. 

One way or another, lacking in builds, I once again have a lot to make up for.  

While I will make the decision I think is best, there's a poll below to see your mentality on this matter. And I'll make an announcement on plans later.

Though, do feel free to ask any questions on our discord or in the comments, and I'll reply as quickly as I can as I'm generally pretty open about what I'm doing.

Thanks for your support! Sorry about all this.

~sacb0y

Also as an aside to all this I have no idea why my patreon was suspended, my page hasn't changed since the last review... I asked and have heard nothing yet, I'll start being annoying bugging them tomorrow.