Game Update #23 (Patreon)

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a safe and fun start to 2023, and if not, I hope things start to go up for you from here!

I have my usual status update for you today, but I'm sad to say I didn't get a ton done the past few weeks. There were the holidays, of course, but I also had the misfortune of getting sick. I was able to get some art done—including the December Bonus Gallery, which I'm pretty proud of—but it's been a bit of a struggle to be productive.

With that said, I'm feeling somewhat better as of this writing, and some progress was still made despite all the distractions. Here's a look at where I am now—and since we're starting off a new year, where I hope to go throughout 2023.

Script

Writing isn't easy on a good day, and it's definitely not easy while sick. But I did get some scripting done, including jumping ahead to some later scenes I was inspired to write early. 

To show what I have on my plate, I have the full flowchart for the club sequence to share today—get ready to do some scrolling!

It's quite a bit lengthier than the early flowchart I shared back in Game Update #21!

Flowcharts are one of those things that can look more complicated than they really are—or deceptively simple in parts compared to what the actual work will be. But this web of boxes is necessary to make sure I hit every scene, including variants, and make sure they link together correctly. It also lets me keep track of what else is going on in parallel storylines so events can be referenced if needed—say, hearing a fight that happens in one storyline midway through playing a different storyline.

The club sequence is organized very similarly to the frat party sequence:

Afternoon Continuations: Shorter scenes acting as bridges between the afternoon hangouts with Alex, Asher, and Isaiah and the club sequence. In the frat party update, this was where the shower scenes were inserted—and there may be a couple here as well 😏

Entrances: The various ways in which you can enter the club, and then the menu of options letting you say hello to various characters. This section ends with an anchor point that follows up on Alex's brand deal that he discussed during his afternoon hangout.

Hangouts #1: This is when we get into the hangouts proper, meaning when you can first have an extended period of getting to know an individual character—or decide to look around on your own. This portion ends with Skinema doing their big performance.

Hangouts #2: A continuation of the earlier hangouts, with an option to swap to another if you'd rather see what else is on offer. This area's branches are a little trickier, since some hangouts have multiple ways to exit them, including an early ending to the evening. These all end in climactic choice points.

Hangouts #3: The last part of the evening and the culmination of the storylines. Some may progress in other directions while some end here.

What isn't shown are the flowcharts for the hookups—and there are several hookup options. I'm going to keep that section hidden. There are some surprises there I want you to discover yourself...

Scripting-wise, it's not easy to pinpoint where exactly I am overall since I've been jumping around instead of writing linearly. A good amount has been written, but with the delays I experienced, there's still a good amount to go. Writing—even if you're experienced like I am—takes a whole lot of mental effort to get something good on the page. Trying to force words when you're exhausted can lead to not great work.

One interesting challenge I'm facing is with Griffin, someone with an extended storyline in this sequence but who has only had a very tiny scene in the game so far. In fact, his first scene is so small that I'm certain some of you have never even encountered him.

Griffin has always been planned as a main character. He offers a different angle on how a relationship between two gay men can form, and his story also has some unique dramatic potential that will complicate things for Connor—including adding complications to other relationships. For instance, with Matt.

Even planning for this storyline way ahead of time, actually writing his dialogue and his interactions with Connor has proven to be tricky. I found myself veering in a direction that was similar to Marco—too much so. It's not surprising, since all the guys in the game have various personality traits that overlap. In fact, many are designed to be mirrors of each other that offer different takes on similar archetypes. For instance, Riley and Evan fill a similar space, as do Marco and Leo. 

(You may notice that in those pairings one is a romance option while the other is not. This was a purposeful choice to compare and contrast characters at different points in their growth as people.)

But even if characters are being mirrored, their voice has to be uniquely them. With some editing to my initial stabs at Griffin's scenes, I've started carving out a personality niche for him that's more in line with what I originally envisioned. It may take some more revisions to further refine it. We'll see how it all comes together—and I'll be curious to hear your thoughts once you've played through it!

Art

I've tallied up the CGs for the club sequence, and it's currently at 44 in total. This is quite a bit more than the 14 CGs for the frat party sequence—and this doesn't include the number of hookup CGs that are also going to be in the final release.

This is a lot of images to create, but in the planning of this section of the game, it felt necessary to have these full renders to really capture the chaos of experiencing a club for the first time. 

I'm happy with what I've created and rendered so far but I still have a bunch to go. I mentioned in an earlier update that I've been training myself to spend less time on each CG without sacrificing quality, and that practice is definitely coming in handy.

Something I've back-burnered a little bit is visually designing a few remaining characters, primarily people with very small parts. I'll wrap that up soon, but for now my focus is on the full scenes.

I'll be sharing a look at some of the new art in a Sneak Peek for Juniors, Seniors, & Graduates in the coming days.

Music & Sound

For now, I'm back-burnering this as well. I've found a few sources that I might be able to use, but I'm not super happy with the selection of music & SFX. It takes a long, long time to listen to all the tracks available to find something I like, and it feels like my time is better spent elsewhere.

I do very much want to get this sorted out by the final club update release, but it's something I may need to skip until I can afford to have some original stuff composed. Disappointing, but that's the challenge of creating something that's sexually explicit—understandably, composers can be reticent to give blanket approval for use of their work without knowing what exactly it'll be used for.

Looking at the Months Ahead

In the short-term, I'm still laser-focused on hitting the dev build goal to share an early build with Seniors & Graduates. Something I'm thinking about doing is splitting this into multiple dev builds rather than wait for the entire club sequence to be finished first. 

My initial thought is to just focus in on one or two characters' storylines and present that first. If you're a Senior or Graduate who has a strong preference on whose story you want to see first—Alex, Asher, Griffin, or Isaiah—leave a comment or message me, and I may choose to put full attention on that story (or stories) to start with.

Based on how much work is left, I'm thinking the earliest I can have a full early access release is mid-February. Basically three months from the early access frat party release. I was hoping to lessen that timeframe, but life loves to throw in roadblocks! I'll of course keep you all updated as I go.

Looking at the Year Ahead

So what's the plan for all of 2023? I have a roadmap that I'll share today, though I'm hesitant to give specific timeframes. I will say I've designed each subsequent major update to be a little smaller in scope than the club or frat party to have less time between content drops. I'll also be adding in the Grind'm hookups between big updates to tide us over.

Here's the general shape of the year, minimized to avoid spoilering too much. 

I previously shared this image way back in Game Update #17, but I'm going to give some more specifics today so you can anticipate what's the come.

v0.2 - The Club Update

v0.2.1 - The Morning After: This will contain all the fallout from your choices at the end of your second day at 21CA. Plus some interesting and sexy developments if you are going in a more hookup-oriented direction.

v0.2.2 - Getting to Know You, Part 1: Dates, hookups, and a group hangout primarily focused on some of the guys in Dorm Wilde.

v0.2.3 - Getting to Know You, Part 2: Dates, hookups, and a group hangout primarily focused on some of the other 21CA guys.

v0.2.4 - Playing the Field, Part 1: A date and hookup with one character, plus additional hookup options for those focused on a hookup playthrough.

v0.2.5 - Getting to Know You, Part 3: Dates, hookups, and a group hangout primarily focused on the guys in Dorm Wilde who weren't featured in Part 1.

v0.2.6 - Getting to Know You, Part 4: Dates, hookups, and a group hangout primarily focused on the 21CA guys who weren't featured in Part 2.

v0.2.7 - Playing the Field, Part 2: Focused on several hookup sequences, one of which will be set up in The Morning After update.

v0.2.8 - Back to School / Surprise Visit, Part 1: Connor is back in the classroom, similar to the sequence at the start of Day 2. This ends with an unexpected arrival that shakes things up for Connor.

v0.2.9 - Surprise Visit, Part 2: A continuation of the events at the end of Part 1.

This roadmap has an update scheduled every month to a month and a half, more or less. Some updates are smaller story ones, others are CG-focused, and some have both and will take longer. I'm ambitious as always, and I'd love to finish these updates even quicker. But I'll just focus on what's planned for now before talking about what else I might try to fit in.

2023 Dev Wishlist

I'm gonna end with what I'd love to have happen this year but don't know if I'll be able to afford. The wishlist is really just one item—I'd like to make this more than just a one-person team. Although I want to do all of the writing and art myself, I would be very happy to offload:

Coding

Copy Editing

Testing

Music & Sound Design

And even having said that I want to do all the art, if someone were to demonstrate they can match my style, I wouldn't mind the help. Even if it's just setting up scenes for me to refine.

I know there may be some people willing to volunteer for these tasks, but as someone who's been in the creative field for quite some time now, I feel very strongly that creators should be paid for their work. It'll really depend on how Patreon continues to progress to see if I can fund these roles. 

But even if we stay steady where we're at here on Patreon, I'll keep working hard as a solo dev to bring you fresh content. It's only thanks to all of you that I've been able to progress so much on my own!

If you reached this point, thank you for reading this very lengthy update. I appreciate all of you so much—you've kept me afloat while I create my little game, and that faith in my work is what keeps me going every day 🙂 Best wishes to all of you in the new year!

- Danny