Hey everyone,
Another year. Hard to believe!
This time last year, I'd paused Patreon payments because the remake was in such rough shape I couldn't justify charging anyone. I was deep in development hell, wondering if rebuilding everything from scratch was the right call.
The remake hasn't technically reached that party yet - which honestly bugs me - but when I look at all the progress this year and where the story is at with the characters, the branching, the technical foundation... I'm glad I made that decision.
Some numbers:
• 7 releases (mix of technical updates and major content)• +500 CGs / +100 Animations created• Entire script rebuilt with branching routes and deeper characters • Support doubled since last December• Act 2 in the works - part of the largest update yet
Reflections
Remakes are hard. Holy sh**. Way harder than I expected. There were moments where I questioned everything - the scope, the CGs workflow, the art style, whether anyone would care about the new changes.
It's easy to enter this loop of never being satisfied. With a remake, you feel like it needs to be 10x better just to justify the development redirection. It's exhausting.
But the positive feedback, the discussions, the fan art, the theories about where things are going, the support... that helped a lot.
At this pace, I can only imagine where we'll be next Christmas. We're about to enter completely unknown territory. That's exciting.
Thank You
The doubling of support this year meant I could justify dedicating significantly more energy to this project. It's still solo dev work, still not full-time, but I'm putting a lot of hours into the project.
There's a lot of work that goes unseen - plot brainstorming, character backstories, script iterations, workflow experiments. The type of work that doesn't always work out but feels important to me.
So thank you. For the patience with delays, the thoughtful feedback, the wild theories, and to finally getting these characters closer to that goddamn party.Happy holidays,Tori
P.S. - One more dev diary coming before I head off for the holidays.