Happy Cinco de Mayo! I'm back with the latest status of the game's next story update.

Today's cover boy is Leo in a CG that'll come towards the end of the update. It's possible that this is the first time you and Leo meet, so this serves as the third intro CG for him. As usual, he's free-balling, though I made it a little less prominent this time. It won't stay so subtle as the story continues, however...

I have a lot to discuss about Leo and the rest of the work I've been doing, so let's dive in!

Writing

I decided to focus this update on Matt because I already had a fair bit written for his section. In the last status report, I noted I planned to work primarily on writing the rest of his scenes before moving on to art.

I ended up reversing that after realizing the flow of conversation is a little more complex than I had planned. The last time that Connor discussed the events of the game with another character, it was with Marco in the Morning After Update, and I ended up with nearly 50 unique, lengthy scenes in an effort to address all of the choice branches.

That obviously took a long time to write, and I don't really want to repeat that here. But I also don't want to breeze past all the events prior to this hangout with Matt since he is Connor's best friend, so it would be weird if Connor didn't bring things up.

I wrote a lot of the easier convos, but so as to not get caught in the weeds, I pivoted to creating CGs and sprites while doing a little more in-depth planning for the convos that are more involved. At this point, I have a pretty good idea of how to break it all down and present it, so now it's just a matter of scripting all that remains.

Another thing I've been doing is a romance pass on all that's been written so far. It's very easy to hyper-focus on sex, sex, and more sex, but that's not how everyone is playing Connor.

In most cases, I already wrote more romantic versions of different scenes. I really only needed to make sure variant dialogue triggered in the correct order, placing romantic stuff higher in the priority order than dialogue that is purely sexual or platonic. In some cases, all I needed to do was change the expression of Connor's sprite, which on its own can completely change how a line reads.

Any place where I neglected romance has either had new dialogue written or is scheduled to. So for those of you who played the dev build and may have got the sense Connor was too sex-focused, don't worry—I got you!

Planning

Going back to Leo, he's included in the most recent dev build by way of texts and selfies. It's all building to hooking up with him at Matt's place, either for the first time or picking up where you left off.

I'd been considering for a while if I want to include that sequence in this next story update or wait. The actual writing of it isn't complex, so it really came down to CG count.

All hookups going forward can to lead to scenes with penetrative sex alongside dedicated "side" scenes so you aren't shortchanged if you don't want to top or bottom. When deciding if anal is an option available to you, I am taking into account the Hookup Level system I talk about in the Official Relationship Guide.

I already had a flowchart of how each Hookup Level would affect this sequence, but I needed a chart specifically mapping out CGs and how they would interconnect. Here's how that looks as of now; this screenshot is purposefully too small to read since I don't want to spoil too much just yet:

Each box is related to separate CGs, and the colored flags underneath indicate what can be seen based on Hookup Level. Blue is Hookup Level 1, which has the fewest CGs, followed by Hookup Level 2, flagged as green.

Hookup Level 3 is yellow, and 4 is orange. If you're at Hookup Level 4, that means you already hooked up with Leo once. Level 3 is reached if you indicated you want to hook up with Leo when hanging out with him and Matt previously, whether that was by just nudging his knee or fully pulling down his shorts, but didn't get together that night.

You can see that Level 3 has its label on almost all the same CGs as Level 4, but at Level 3, you can't actually get the full penetrative scenes unless you already have a little experience bottoming and/or topping. This is actually very easy to do—just pick up one of Will's sex toy kits—but I wanted to bring in a little bit of realism while also honoring those who've dedicated a lot of time to Leo by removing that requirement for them; players at Hookup Level 4 have no hoops to jump through to access all the CGS.

Anyway, with all that planned out, I ended up with 28 unique CG setups (meaning they have the same framing and lighting with slightly different poses) which will become nearly 60 CGs.

I may cut that down a bit, but even if I do, that's still a whole lot to do on top of all the other CGs in this part of the game. So to avoid delaying the update a ton, I'm going to separate it out and have it come in the next story update, Getting to Know Evan.

First, it'll have its own dedicated dev build here on Patreon, potentially finished during the time between the early access release of the Getting to Know Matt Update and the public release (though please don't consider that a guarantee!).

There will, however, be more Leo CGs in the next story update aside from the intro CG above and the selfies that can be seen in the current dev build. The remaining CGs are directly related to Matt and are the ones at the very top of the chart that are flagged only for Hookup Level 4.

These CGs actually have very specific unlock requirements because you need to be at max Hookup Level with both Matt and Leo prior to this new hangout and hooked up with Leo in the living room instead of in Leo's bedroom.

I already have most of the CGs for this part done, and they're good. If you're going down the path to get sexual with both guys, I think you're gonna love them.

Speaking of that path, there's one CG revision I did that's related to it, which is the selfie you can receive at the end of Will's class showing Leo licking a mystery guy's dick. Here's how that was adjusted:

This revision was partly because I didn't think the first version held up to the new selfies I created for Leo, but mostly it was because I needed the mystery dick to point to the left of the image instead of the right. You'll find out why when you play!

Art

Like I said above, art became the focus for the past several weeks. One of the first things I needed to do was figure out what Matt and Leo should be wearing.

You already saw Leo's outfit above, but here's his sprite version, where his trademark VPL is a little more prominent thanks to Marvelous Designer simulation:

There will also be a shirtless version and versions where that VPL becomes more than just a little prominent...

I used Marvelous Designer for Matt's new outfit as well:

I used his signature color for his shirt; using each guy's color in a piece of their clothing makes it easier to know which named character is speaking.

As for why I used Marvelous Designer to create his outfit rather than use conforming clothes like he's previously worn, it's because it's so much easier to get realistic images of the guys undressing with that level of simulation.

If it isn't clear at this point, if you want to get Matt totally naked in this next update, you'll be able to, so that ability to undress him is pretty important! (If you're a Junior, Senior, or Graduate, check out the most recent Sneak Peek post if you want to get an early look at how that section will go...)

All of Matt's sprites are completed now—between revisions and new ones, he needed 239 in total. I'm glad to have that entirely checked off!

CGs and backgrounds have been coming along at a steady pace. The last background for the gym basically became both because I couldn't help myself:

The gym CG I shared at the top of Status Report #94 only had one returning background character, though he's cropped out. This one has three more—the valet from Trevor's Grind'm scenario is sitting on the bench in the back; the curly-haired guy in the foreground is Oliver, a go-go dancer from the club; and the guy at the sink is Billy, a photographer who was also first seen in the club.

(Both Billy and Oliver have appeared in galleries here on Patreon. Click their names to view the posts they're featured in!)

The gym is the only new location in this update since the rest primarily takes place in your dorm room and at Matt's apartment. But I did some adjustments to Matt's apartment to better tie design elements together and add some visual interest.

You can see some of the new additions to the apartment set in Leo's CG above—I added a balcony and cityscape. Originally, there was nothing beyond those sliding doors but an empty void:

The rest of the main area is mostly the same, but I did make a few noticeable alterations. I used a better shader for the floor, and I changed both the molding and doors to dark wood rather than painted white. The latter was mostly done because they didn't match the doors inside Matt and Leo's bedrooms. I also wanted to lessen how white the walls were both because it's boring as a backdrop and because it's hard to light.

The most prominent change, though, was to make a feature wall using art deco wallpaper. When I first made this set, I only had a handful of environments and props to work with, and I slapped them together to fill out the space. Part of that included placing art deco furniture in the living room that didn't really match the rest of the environment.

So this wallpaper calls that out as its own special nook. I also used more of those art deco pieces on the balcony so that it isn't just localized to one wall. What can I say? Leo's uncle has eclectic tastes!

There are also high windows in the place that can create some cool areas of light and shadow based on the time of day, which is something I took advantage of in the new CGs set there, so I wanted to highlight that as well.

Here's a before and after of the afternoon background:

Now, I probably wouldn't have done this if I wasn't already planning to remake all of the CGs from the first Leo hookup. Those CGs use the old model for Leo and need a refresh. But since that is the case, I made the call to change things up before making all the new CGs that take place in the same location.

And those CGs have been turning out great. I wrote the scene in which they appear a long time ago, so finally getting to add the visuals that go along with the text is exciting. I already shared a bunch of those CGs in Sneak Peek #44, so I'm going to restrain myself from previewing any more for the time being. I don't want to spoil all the CGs before you play through yourself!

I could keep rambling , but instead, how about we wrap things up with the updated To-Do List?

TO-DO LIST

For anyone new, I don't guess at release dates since I'm notoriously bad at guesstimating. Rather, I share my to-do list in these posts so you can follow along with development in another way.

This list is focused entirely on new content and doesn't cover the full extent of all tasks being done, like changes to code and other revisions. This is, however, the bulk of what needs done before the Getting to Know Matt Update is ready to be released.

Anything that has changed or been added since I first shared this to-do list in Status Report #94 is bolded with an asterisk next to it.

WRITING

"Variants" are different versions of scenes to account for choices; there are many choice-reactive dialogue changes in these scenes that are not included in the count.

Overnight transition (5/5 variants, completed)

Gym transition (3/3 variants, completed)

* Matt hangout, opening conversations (26/40 variants)

Matt sexual situation #1 (2/2 variants, completed)

Matt sexual situation #2 (2/2 variants, completed)

Matt hangout ending (1/2 variants)

ART

Note: These numbers will likely fluctuate with each new status report.

Sprites

Connor, new (21/21, completed)

Matt, revised (107/107, completed)

* Matt, new (132/132, completed)

* Leo, new (7/14)

CGs

* Leo selfie, revised (1/1, completed)

* Transition (2/2, completed)

* Gym (5/5, completed)

* Matt hangout (51/87)

Backgrounds (done)

* City (3/3, completed)

* Dorm room (2/2, completed)

* Gym (7/7, completed)

* Matt's apartment (9/9, completed)

Character Models (done)

* Matt (tweaked, done)

* Leo (tweaked, done)

Henri (new, done)

* Will (tweaked, done)

* Prominent extras, revised (7/7, done)

* Prominent extras, new (10/10, done)

* Background extras (9/9, done)

Character Design (done)

Connor, week 1b outfit (done)

* Matt, week 1b outfit (done)

Matt, gym outfit (done)

Matt, towel (done)

* Leo, week 1b outfit (done)

Sets (done)

* Gym, new (4/4, completed)

* Matt's apartment, revised (1/1, completed)

CODING

Overnight transition (5/5 variants, completed)

* Gym transition (3/3 variants, completed)

* Matt hangout, opening conversations (23/40 variants)

Matt sexual situation #1 (0/2 variants)

Matt sexual situation #2 (0/2 variants)

Matt hangout ending (0/2 variants)

GAME PLANNING

* Connor personality states (done)

* New Leo hookup (done)

* Matt Hookup Level increases (done)

Matt conversation templates (partially done)

Backfill tracking to add scenes later for other characters (partially done)

I think that's everything! Although the remaining writing is a little challenging, the update overall is coming together nicely and at a nice clip. I'll be back with more soon!