As you may have been aware, my rent got massively jacked up this year, to the point where I have to find new ways to increase my income. I was considering either writing erotica side stories or working on bonus kinetic novels, but what turned out happening is that I managed to find a sweet freelancing gig that'll solve my problems.

So, good news is that I'm saved, bad news is that for a while I'm working 60 hour workweeks. This does not give me much time to work on Thaumarotica.

Progress won't stop, but it's going to slow down a lot. I still have 80+ renders to finish for Episode 1 before I put out another update... and it's going to take a while. Months, maybe, I don't know, depends on how this plays out.

Given that, I'm putting the subscribestar on hiatus... I don't feel right taking any money when I have so little time to actually work.

I will announce it on the discord and post to https://double-prolix.itch.io/ when the episode is done, and when the subscribestar is open again. Thank you all for your support.

Things are moving on the render front, I've got 120 images to render for the last two scenes in episode 1. Some of them are simple, some are complex, so I'm not sure exactly how long it'll take.

On top of that - my landlord is really crankin' the rent up this year, to the point where I either need to increase my monthly income by a few hundred dollars or find a new place to live. I really don't like the idea of finding a new apartment on short notice, so I'm going to launch a new project to try and bring in some extra money.

Now, before I was making adult games, I was writing erotica. I can either go back to that, or I can use the 70+ stories I'd written as raw material for some kinetic novels.

The problem of course is that both of these options take time away from working on Thaumarotica. Option 2 takes a lot more time, because I could otherwise theoretically write shorts while I wait for things to render. But then again, I'm not sure how well shorts set in the super-hero world of Power Corrupts and the erotic occult world of Thaumarotica would sell to people who aren't already into the game!

Ideally the solution would just be "more people sign up for this patreon" without adding extra work, but there's nothing I can do to just make that happen in the next few months before I need to either sign, or not sign, my lease.

So, patrons and potential patrons, let me know what you think I should do:

Another week, another batch of renders. Only 3 scenes to go before Episode 1 is complete, so I'm going to try and push on through and finish those for the next update. I'm aiming for an early to mid February rollout.

There is *some* adult content in Episode 1 - dreams, memories, and a little voyeuristic content (depending on what choices you've made) but the "erotic" part doesn't really kick off full-steam until Episode 2. I've been upfront about this, and I thank you all for your patience... the slow build is actually part of the plot, part of the protagonist's transformation and entrance to the world of occult eroticism.

It's also going to get very weird. Should be fun.

I'm also going to start working up pin-up style promos  - including wallpapers for those at the appropriate tiers. Maybe starting with "character sheet" style stuff including what we know about the NPCs that have been introduced, stuff that's slightly spicier than what we've seen in the game so far -  a preview of things to come.