Hi folks,
Happy 2026!
Wishing you all a happy 2026 and I hope everyone had a great Christmas / holiday period. There are a few festive images below at the end of this post, which I forgot to share during the festive period (Soz :) )
Also, apologies in advance for the length of this dev update… Hopefully you'll get through it before 2027!
Episode 25 errors & feedback
After episode 25's release, I spent a bit of time trying to gather up any issues / errors and other than the ones mentioned in my first follow-up post, there doesn't seem to be any, so no further updates / patches seem to be required. Considering the amount of branching / options / variables, and considering how frantic things were in the last few weeks / days / hours before release, I am pleasantly surprised, so that was good news. :)
If you have any new errors / bugs to report, please let me know via the comments below, via a direct message or via my discord: https://discord.gg/9z8YRxGgUw
And even if there are no errors, please, please send me any feedback you have on episode 25 (what you liked, what you didn't like, anything) as I want to apply any learnings to future content.
What else I've been up to…
Over the holiday period, I have also been doing some preliminary work on Season 2 (and Cell has gotten started on the artwork) and also some work on an in-game walkthrough. Regarding next-up plans, Season 2 is a priority, but I am sure a lot of people (me included) also want to see some new material, so I will be getting feedback from you folks as to what you want to see and when.
What's next…
I have lots to talk about in that regard (Potential epilogues, a new game, walkthroughs and Season 2), and I will do a separate post about future plans/priorities at the end of this week and will give you some options and opportunities to vote. So that will be in my next dev update in a few days, as this update will already be quite long.
2025 retrospective…
For today's post, I want to do a retrospective on "Where the Heart is" and Episode 25 specifically (this will lead in to some epilogue mentions too.). There will obviously be major spoilers, so do not read unless you have finished episode 25.
Regarding episode 25 (and the whole game), I wanted to start by saying another BIG THANK YOU to every one of you patrons, whether you have been following the game since the early days or whether you have just recently found it… Thanks so much. The support has been incredible. Thank you!
The following will probably end up being a little "rambly" (And I will talk about the ending and the girls who didn't make an appearance), so please bear with me.
It's finished!
It's a pretty strange feeling to have finally finished the main game. It's been over 8 years in the making, which we can ALL agree was way too long, so there have been plenty of lessons learned along the way. The main lesson is… There were just too many women and too many choices / combos, so any future games will definitely be shorter and will have less women… I just cannot do another several-year monster, so I would like for any future games to have a smaller cast, less combos and a tighter narrative. That doesn't mean they should be short, meaningless romps… I would still like future games to have a good scope, multi-arc plots and plenty of women… I just don't think they should be AS big as WTHI. But as always (especially once new projects get up and running), I will always be looking for feedback, so please keep the comments coming.
The plot:
The whole will / inheritance saga and the various scenarios (Bella revenge, Bella forgiveness, severing ties for money OR not), the mis-communication with Elaine was all pretty much envisaged from the very beginning, so that didn't really change over time. I can’t remember if the Jo/Bella connection was something I had in mind at the very start, but it was definitely very early in the process. And my initial plans for Elaine was to make her a little more bitchy (i.e. the misunderstanding wasn't initially meant to be sooo big)… Initial plans had her as being a little closer to the cold bitch that MC remembered (and less because MC's father forced her into it), so her redemption arc was planned to be bigger, but her character would have been less sympathetic. But after a couple of scenes with her, she was more likable than I expected, so hence the slight change of tact.
The whole plotline with the inheritance, etc. was really just a MacGuffin to add a little drama, a little guesswork, a little suspicion and to give the MC a few more reasons to get off the couch and interact with more people. Overall, I think it was a decent idea, but based on the length of the game and how big it eventually became, I think it fell a little short of being meaty enough to carry the whole game, so that's another lesson learned. This (along with all my other inputs in this post) is just MY opinion, so please let me know your opinions in the comments section. I really, really want to hear your opinions.
And the "ending", i.e. the last couple of frames with the "unexpected visitor" was also something that I envisaged from the very beginning. That ending seems to be the most divisive part of episode 25 with some folks telling me they "got it" and loved it, some saying they hated the "cliffhanger" and some were just left confused, so let's talk about it… :)
The ending:
For me, the real ending of the game is the scene at the house / pool where MC interacts with whatever girls he is still seeing (and maybe married or knocked up) and hopefully gives a slight hint of what life looks like going forward, i.e. everything up to the doorbell ringing. The "unexpected pregnant visitor" part is literally 5 or 6 images out of thousands and a handful of lines (out of 100s of thousands), so I wasn't expecting it to have such a big impact. It was something I envisaged from the very beginning, so I wanted to keep it in there. So…my explanation…
Is it Mabel? Is it Theresa? One of the other girls who didn't make it into episode 25? Is it someone we haven't met before? Is it someone the MC has slept with before the game started? Is it just a random nobody chasing MC down for some unpaid rent money? The answer is… Yes and No.
What the fuck does that mean?
Basically, I meant it as an ambiguous "up-to-the-player" ending. I meant it like the contents of the briefcase in Pulp Fiction. I meant it like the fade-to-black at the end of The Sopranos. And (although I hadn't yet seen it), I meant it like the Eleven finale in Stranger Things. And I now realize some folks love this stuff, while others hate ambiguity and don't want anything left up their own imagination. So, because it's so divisive (some loved, some hated), I'm still not sure if it was the right way to end it, but for me… just having the happy-ever-after ending with the girls at the pool / in the house seemed a little flat. And adding this little add-on doesn't change anything else that came before it (in episodes 1-25) or the MC's happy blissful ending (if that's the ending you wanted).
Still not getting it? I'll try to let you know my thoughts on it...
The whole plotline of the will / inheritance / coming back into Monica's life, etc. was the vehicle that drove MC on and helped him get with all these (or some of these) beautiful women. He now has the woman/women, some money (in a lot of endings, it's a LOT of money), and his life seems pretty good. But… He is in his early twenties… Is that it for him? No more adventure? No more drama? I added this ending to add a littlefyrther "what if…" to his life.
If you wanted the game to end just before the doorbell where MC is chilling with the ladies… then the pregnant woman is just some random psycho pretending that his father knocked her up to claim some money… and it's all resolved very quickly.
Or maybe she is the MC's father's OTHER mistress who the father DID knock up on his deathbed, so there will be a little drama…
Or if you feel the MC is too young to sail off into the sunset with zero drama, then maybe it's Mabel Or Theresa, OR one of the other ladies we met previously or some other woman MC knocked up just before he came to live with Monica. The point is... It doesn't matter exactly who it is, as long as it falls into YOUR narrative. That's what I was going for… Not a big cliffhanger where you wonder who the fuck she is… But rather a seed to let you think that maybe the MC's adventures and opportunities to meet MORE sexy women isn't fully over. Maybe he has another 8 months of meeting more people, more women, having more scrapes and adding more women to this group it that's something that you wanted to happen after the game wraps up. i.e. I added this ending to give a hint of further adventures (if that's what the player wants) without explicitly showing / saying /hand-holding to spell out exactly what happens next for MC.
Once again, let me know your thoughts / inputs on this… I wasn't expecting this last little nugget to be considered something that needed to be wrapped up in an episode 26! (There is no episode 26), so please let me know if I missed the mark, if this explanation helped or if you're even more confused than ever! :)
If some of you really want it, I can do a patch version where the doorbell doesn't go off, the game fades to black and you get a "MC lived happily ever after" message just for you. Let me know… :)
The new ladies…
I've had a few questions about the three new ladies who we introduced in episode 25, but whom MC did not get to seduce, namely Elizabeth (Wanda's mother), Heaven (Angel's mother) and Mia (the SPA receptionist).
Some people enjoyed the interactions and liked the ladies; Some people just considered them background characters for the specific scene; Some people were furious that we didn't get to seduce them. So… why were they in there? And will we ever see them again?
Mia:
Mia will not appear in future WTHI epilogues and our WTHI MC will not get to seduce her. Her appearance was for a couple of reasons, namely to help build up some "tension" before the SPA group scene; To teach the MC that not every single woman who lays eyes on him immediately wants to fuck him; That MC could / should pause and be thankful for what he already has; And… She is a character that I have a plan for in a new game, so this was sort of a back-door introduction (no pun intended)… And I want her to be potential partner for the MC of a new game (and therefore didn't want her to be sloppy seconds from WTHI's MC). So if everything goes to plan, we will see her in a new game. And considering she rejected WTHI's MC, this will make pursuing her a little more rewarding for the future game MC.
Heaven & Elizabeth:
Our WTHI MC (and us) have NOT seen the last of Heaven and Elizabeth. The purpose of their intro in episode 25 is to meet them, set the scene, build up some tension and they will DEFINITELY appear in their own future epilogue scene. The timeline of the epilogue will be set AFTER the tennis weekend, but BEFORE the final episode 25 scenes. We have plans… that's all I'm saying for now…
The ladies who didn't make it into episode 25:
Had some questions about some of the other ladies from earlier episodes who didn't make it into episode 25. As in… why introduce them if they weren't going to get an ending? So here are some details on those ladies. I'm adding photos of each girl as a reminder. And don't worry... We will talk about these more in future posts...
Theresa (Dogboy's mom):
There just wasn't time to squeeze her into episode 25, but I do have plenty of ideas of how to finish off her story and I also believe she deserves an epilogue scene, so that is also in the plans and if/when it comes to fruition will depend heavily on what/when you folks would like, so I will be gathering feedback…
This scene will also happen (timeline wise) between the episode 25 SPA dates and the episode 25 weddings. And could also potentially include a time jump to tie in exactly with the end scenes of episode 25.
Mabel (The carnival girl / Also showed up at Lily's cooking date):
Didn't appear in episode 25 as she was never intended to be a legitimate love interest. She was only ever introduced as a once-and-done for the carnival date… And also to provide some temptation / drama for the Lily cooking date. I never expected her to become as popular as she has with some people. She could feature in a DLC / epilogue, but will really depend on Patreon demand. I don't want to flog a dead horse and do dozens of epilogues in the WTHI world, so patrons will need to decide which girls get further scenes / epilogues.
Evie:
I did have plans for her, but then I got very hesitant, so I had to dial them back, so apologies for the tease. My main concern and the reason I dialled back with this character is because she looks a little young. Her character is 18, but I had concerns, because of her look, especially with Steam and Patreon rules getting stricter, so there are some doubts about her at the moment. And even without Patreon / Steam rules, I do NOT want to do any content with anyone who isn't clearly over 18. So, I need to figure that one out, please leave it with me for future plans… but that's the reason she didn't make it into episode 25.
Porsche:
Another girl who was never meant to be a long-term love interest. I did have plans for one last scene with her (as a follow-on from the Comicon theatre show), but based on time demands, I thought I could get away with her just fading off into the sunset without a follow-up. I had another idea for her and her sister Evie, but due to the aforementioned Evie issues, I decided to cool those. But if really popular demand, we could do one last scene with Porshe (or if there's interest, she could make a cameo in a future game instead.) I do like her look, so would be happy to do some more content with her.
Cpt. heart:
I did write her date as a one-and-done. I thought she served her purpose and wasn't ever planning on bringing her back. So would need some strong demand to even consider bringing her back. I also have some concerns because of her celebrity "likeness". I could come up with lots of scenarios for her to feature again.
I was even considering changing her likeness a little for the Steam release, but that would get a lot of pushback. Will discuss further in the epilogue polls
Bubbles:
She was really only introduced to add some temptation for the Captain Heart scene, so I never planned on having her return. But if she did prove popular, it would be very easy to build a scene around her or add her as a cameo to a new game.
As mentioned previously, I will be getting some feedback via polls on what people want to see in 2026 (i.e. epilogues Or new game, etc.), but another epilogue that I was considering was some sort of Monica / Katie / Jenna scene, but based on update Patreon / Steam rules, this could be tricky, but there are some options to make it work, without breaking any rules.
This post (just like episode 25) has gone on longer than I had planned, so I'm going to cut it for now… and there will be plenty more to talk about in my next few posts… so watch this space.
Please tell me what else you want me to cover in future posts.
Thanks,
CG
HAVE A GREAT 2026!!!