v0.18 Dev Progress Update (Patreon)

Hello all you amazing supporters!

I am long overdue for a dev progress update, so let me try to break it down for you. This will probably be a big wall of text, so bear with me...

I am an easily distracted procrastinator...

I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, so let's start with the bad news. I'm behind schedule, and I do not know if I'll be able to finish v0.18 by the end of the month. The main reason for this is I am incredibly easily distracted on top of having a difficult time finding that spark of motivation to keep plugging away at the update. Early in the month I started planning things out for the day's content, but ended up losing inspiration for a bit. I really hate to give excuses, and it's not fair to you supporters when I previously said I would try to put out at least some form of update each month. My inability to stay focused and poor time management caused me to lose far more time that I should have, and for that I feel terrible.

But I have found a solution...

The good news is I am trying something new with how I budget my time. Specifically, I set a timer for one hour, and focus on a single task for that hour. My goal is to try and maintain a sense of momentum, ensuring I put in at least a few hours (or more) every day to work on some aspect of the game. So far it's working really well, as I've managed to get a bunch of different things done for the update in the last week. I've made a bunch of variant sprites I needed to account for certain game states (in the original style), particularly Mia needing multiple gym outfit variants for her different tan/tanline versions. I've also gotten more of the next day's structure set up and almost have the full event flow working logically to naturally lead into the growth scenes.

Updates going forward...

I don't know if trying to force a release each month is the correct course of action, or if it would be better to release content as it's done. My biggest challenge is maintaining momentum and inspiration, and I've found that only having an end deadline lets me procrastinate and get distracted. I don't want to risk burning myself out by trying to cram out an update for a deadline (similar to what happened with v0.17 around Christmas). I think I'll have greater success if I just release things as they're ready, and endeavor to make incremental progress each day by budgeting my time better. I also need to be better about making more updates here for all of you, since it is important to me that you know how things are progressing.

Let's talk about v0.18...

I want to talk a bit about the complexity in this update, to give you an idea of the thought process behind things. While the dialogue and scenes aren't nearly as numerous or complicated as v0.17, there are still a number of things to consider for the flow of events in this update.

One of these is keeping track of which characters need to go shopping for a new outfit once they hit a specific size. I was able to get around Jessica's size 1 shopping needs by tying that into her lunch scene prior to her first growth (as part of this set of experiments). I also had the girls all end up going shopping one way or another on day 16 (the day of the second experiment), to allow an outfit change for any girl who grows to size 2 as a result of the first experiment (on day 15). However, this creates a need to go shopping for any girl growing to size 2 on day 16/17, and I need to make sure sprites use the correct outfits and dialogue between the girls make sense for who needs new clothes when setting up for a future shopping scene. As an example, I had to make a variant sprite for Sophia at size 2 in her lab coat with her pre-shopping tank top. Needless to say, all the girls will going on a shopping trip after the final of the three experiments, so please look forward to that scene.

Another added bit of complexity is the number of possible sequences for the experiments. I have previously mentioned that the first two experiments had 28 possible sequences, but once I include the third test that number jumps up to 48 possible sequences. It's a lot, but I now know how to handle this in the dialogue due to the work that went into v0.17, and I'm being smarter about how many scenes and how many characters are interacting, so this isn't as much of an issue. But, it's still a pretty important thing to consider when trying to write the interactions between the girls. It's important for the girls to properly react to the changes they witness in each other, which means remembering when characters last saw each other and who is changing. For example, if both Jessica and Mia each participate in one experiment each, the order determines what days they see the changes. If Jessica participates in the first test, and Mia in the second, then Mia will see Jessica's changes when Mia and the player return to campus from lunch (when they run into Elena and Jessica on day 16), and Jessica will see Mia's changes when they meet on day 17. However, if Mia participates in the first test, and Jessica in the second, then neither of them will see each other until they meet on day 17, at which point they both get to react to how they both grew. This level of internal awareness for the characters might be considered unnecessary, but I am committed to making sure that all of our girls react correctly to how events play out.

Luckily, the scenes for day 17 aren't nearly as variable as in previous days, so that helps reduce the complexity a lot. I also get to reuse the growth scenes in the lab (and just have to make some small dialogue modifications). If I really wanted to save time, I would also reuse all the lunch scenes with the girls, but to do that I need to set up the lunch and afternoon in a specific way to naturally lead into those scenes (I've almost got it figured out). That said, I cannot re-use the shopping lunch scene with Jessica, due to a future shopping trip already being planned. The lunch with Mia and Sophia prior to the meeting with Dr. Fletcher also has some issues with being reused, so that will need more significant changes. Basically, when the only option for the final experiment is Jessica or Sophia (due to them still being their original size), I need to come up with something new. All the other lunch scenes with characters at size 1 can much more naturally follow the events of the morning. However... I don't want to completely reuse everything, and I do have an idea for a new lunch scene that should be a fun scene with the girls...

Whew... okay. If you managed to read that whole thing, I appreciate you. If not, here's a TLDR...

TLDR :(

The next update will probably be delayed because I am bad at time management. I am trying to find a healthier development pattern for me to keep momentum and inspiration. Future updates may not keep to a schedule, but content will release as it is ready with more steady incremental progress. The next update is not as complicated as the previous, but still has a number of quirks to account for.

As always, thank you so much for your continued support and patience. I feel absolutely awful that the update will probably end up delayed, but I do have plans for some Patreon exclusive content just for you while you wait. If you have any questions for me, do not hesitate to ask over on Discord or to send me a message.

You supporters are all truly wonderful.

- K. Bro