Hi folks,
I hope everyone is good and life is treating you well.
Here's another update to keep everyone in the loop...
Season 2:
This is pretty much where I am spending 95% of my time (and 100% of Cell's WTHI time). Of the artwork we have completed so far (approx 1200 images finalized, with many more in progress), I've done approx 30% and Cell has done the lion's share of 70%.
I'm trying to prioritise most my time on the script and boy does it need it...as I've ended up re-writing pretty much every scene I've worked on. I honestly thought the art in the original episodes was the major problem, but the writing / dialog is also miles away from the quality we're used to in the later episodes. Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it's going and I'm happy with the changes I've made... especially now that I know exactly how everything panned out in later episodes, I can do a better job of character / relationship development & progression and bridging the journey from the earlier episodes to the end-game.
I am also tuning up the chronology of the whole season (compared to the original episodes) to improve the flow of the game... e.g. to better place action versus non-action scenes and to make everything smoother. And I've also trimmed some fat. (Don't worry, I haven't removed any of the good stuff, just deleted some un-needed dialog and some filler/fluff from the original).
Season 2 is still not as far along as I would have liked, but it's not a million miles off my estimates and based on scouting ahead to the latter episodes that will be in Season 2, things will definitely speed up as a lot less re-writing will be required (and the art re-do for latter scenes will require a lot less work too). We are still on track for a Summer 2026 release. When exactly in the summer depends on exactly how much new content I end up adding, plus where exactly I put a break in proceedings (see the poll below), but it will be this summer!
Not to get too far ahead of myself... But I can 100% confirm that the development time for Season 3 will be very, very short when compared to Season 2. So once Season 2 is completed, expect our output to significantly increase (in terms of finishing the re-do AND completing epilogues AND getting started on a new game), so please bear with me, during the Season 2 development and after that... It will be all gravy!
So far in Season 2, characters who feature more (at this stage of the game) than they did in the original will be Angel & Wanda & Mabel (new scenes), plus some new / expanded content for pretty much every other lady who'll appear.
My initial plan was for Season 2 to be of similar length to Season 1, which (based on a conservative estimate of his much new and extended content I'll be adding.) would have brought us up to somewhere around the middle of episode 18. (Episode 18 is episode with the carnival).
Depending on where we end up... I might pull in some later scenes into Season 2 (and push some into Season 3), so that Season 2 feels like a COMPLETE episode with a proper ending. IF I just end it mid-episode (or even at the current end of episode 18), it wouldn't have a proper bookmark ending. There are a couple of more natural break-points before this, so I need to figure out the best place to break it. So... I am looking for some feedback / input from you folks, so please check the poll at the end (after the teasers).
WTHI Original game walkthrough:
I have almost completed the episode 22 (written) walkthrough so that will be released sometime next week and then I'll jump straight onto episode 23 and I'll have that released before the end of the month. And then I'll finish up with episode 25 walkthrough next month. I'm still prioritising the art/writing for Season 2, so only jumping on the walkthroughs some evenings after I finish up, so that's why I'm not knocking them out quickly. I know these aren't a huge priority for a lot of people, but I do want to finish them and as I'm jumping on them outside of my normal working hours, they won't impact Season 2 development time.
Elizabeth / Heaven epilogue:
This continues to progress and the artwork provided by Centurion is looking really good. We didn't make a huge amount of progress over the past couple of weeks as Cent had some real-life stuff going on, but I'm not majorly concerned as it is still moving in the right direction. At some stage, I will jump in and blitz the art/writing, but at the moment, Cent will work away at it in his own time. But for our first epilogue... I think it's gonna be a good one. As we get close to the end, I'll do a poll for what folks want to see in the next epilogue, but I'm guessing it's going to be the forbidden fruit of Monica/ Jenna / Katie!
Locked tier posts:
Just to clarify a question I was asked last week from a $10 patron who couldn't access a $1 patron post. The reason I lock out tiers like this is so that it is pretty clear which posts are for your tier and any content in a lower tier post will not have any content that you haven't already seen.. It just removes duplication. So if you are a $10 patron, there will be nothing in a locked $1 post that wasn't in your $10 post. Hope that makes sense? Let me know in the comments if this isn't clear or if you;d rather just see ALL posts at your and lower tiers even if there is duplication.
Teasers:
A couple of teasers from the epilogue:
Teasers from Season 2 (we pretty much completed the beach volleyball scene this week):
You won't guess what's going on in the image above, but let's use it as a "captions competition." Add an appropriate caption in the comments below for some giggles! :)
The image above is NOT what you think! :) :)
And just because I get complaints when Monica or Jenna don't get at least one teaser...
OK... onto my poll... As mentioned above, my current plan is for Season 2 to be of similar length to Season 1... which even though it's only a season, it had more content than a LOT of stand-alone games (Over 5000 renders, over 15 hours of gameplay in a single run-through and a LOT of script and dozens of sex animations)....
Note the estimated gameplay hours is based on recorded playthrus, but will differ depending on choices and reading speed (and other speeds :) ).
However, my question to you folks is... Would you like the next season(s) to be of similar length? Or slightly shorter. The reason I ask is... the current natural breakpoint for Season 2 would bring me in shorter than Season 1. So, would that be acceptable? Or should I keep on trucking until I hit the same length as Season 1?
Note: This isn't a ploy to put out reduced content for the same price on Steam. If Season 2 is shorter, it will be cheaper (For example... if it's 80% the size of Season 1, it will be 80% of the price of season 1). So the value will always be the same... The question is... would you like slightly shorter episodes slightly quicker? Or same length as Season 1 with a longer development time (so longer wait, but more content).
And just to confirm, when I say shorter, I mean 75% to 95%... (so 11 to 14 hours of gameplay). It will never be smaller than that. Or should I just use Season 1 as the benchmark and go full-length?
Also I wanted to remind folks that ALL Steam content will also be available on Patreon, so there will never be Steam-only content, so you would never need to double purchase.
To get access on Patreon, your total patronage (not your monthly tier) just needs to exceed the Steam price. For example. Steam Season 1 price is 12.99. If you are currently a $1 patron, but your total lifetime patronage is > $13, you will get access to Season 1 via Patreon.
So shorter Seasons will also mean they will be available to patrons quicker too. Anyhow, I'm on the fence as to what is the best option, so I'm happy to put it to the polls and let you folks be heard...
What length should Season 2 (and subsequent seasons) be?
Remember:
Shorter seasons = cheaper on Steam = quicker release time = available to patrons sooner
Longer seasons = More content per season = longer development time
When I say shorter, it will NOT be less than 75% of Season 1. But happy to go with 100% if that's what folks want.
Let me know what you think is the optimal size (and it will be priced accordingly on steam).
Thanks,
CG