Dev Log: 0.3.5 Became an Overhaul, and 0.4 Is Even Bigger

A note on this post: this dev log first ran on Patreon to mark the studio's return. It is reposted here to mark the opening of Lust Works Studio's SubscribeStar page. Dev logs from this studio normally carry a softer teaser image; for this page's launch, the accompanying image is deliberately uncensored, and it shows Mira rather than the Lyria image described below.

Alright yall, time for another dev log!

It's been a month since the last post. I've basically been living in this build the whole time, so here's everything at once: two updates land the same day, two weeks from now. 0.3.5 is the overhaul, and it's free for everybody. 0.4 is the new story and content, and supporters get it first. Free members get a rebuilt game. Supporters get that plus the new story before anyone else plays it.

Last post I said paid access to 0.3.5 was aimed at late October / early November. That didn't happen, because the update wouldn't stop growing. It hasn't been a normal update for a while now. Here's what it turned into:

The CGs:

• The game had under 200 CGs. 0.3.5 has nearly 1,000.
• It's not just more of them. They look better. The old shots got replaced with reshoots and rebuilds at a much higher standard: sharper, lit better, posed better. You can tell the difference in about two seconds.
• Story CGs: the main quests and the affection quests don't use sprites anymore. Every one of those scenes is now a full story CG, including the NSFW scenes with the main girls. When a scene matters, you get a real picture of it, not characters pasted over a background.
• Sandbox CGs: the everyday scenes around town got rebuilt the same way, so the whole game looks like one game now.
• Every shot went through a review-and-repair pass for clipping, eyes looking the wrong way, poses that didn't sit right, and almost all of those fixes are done.

Also in the overhaul:

• Dialogue: the entire sandbox dialogue is being rewritten on the new dialogue engine, and every NPC is getting their own way of talking.
• The new interface from the last post: 3-step new-game setup, the town HUD, the travel map that shows where the girls are, and the pause hub.
• Restored content: eight side acts that were cut are back in, and the Feet button is back with them.
• A new cheat code for supporters.
• Your older saves carry over. I test that every build, progress and unlocks included.

How 0.3.5 releases:

supporters get it a few days before everybody else, then it goes public on drop day. One honest thing that comes with the head start: it might be a little buggy. I'm saving my full start-to-finish playtesting pass for 0.4, so if you play 0.3.5 early and something's broken, tell me and it'll get fixed fast. I'd rather the new story be the polished one.

0.4: the new story and content.

It rolls out to supporters first: Chosen Hero and up get it two weeks before it goes public, Acolyte one week before. Same early access as always.

It starts with Vivienne's duel. The whole Introduction has been building to that fight, and the duel is what kicks off the end of the prologue.

After the duel, the game opens up: longer quest chains instead of one-and-done quests. Scenes with more than one girl in them. The girls meeting each other and getting into scenes together, arguing and teaming up, not just scenes with you. Up to now you've met everybody one at a time. That changes here.

It's the biggest chunk of new story I've made for this game. And when 0.4 is out, the next update starts Episode 1.

Going forward:

once these two are out, I'm going monthly. An actual update every month. While we finish, there's a post here every Friday, and the next poll lands this Friday.

Between Takes is back too, starting today. #04 with Freya is up for paid supporters. She says it's a warm-up video. It is not a warm-up video.

The girl up top is Lyria, for anyone who hasn't met her yet. She ends up mattering a lot in where the story goes.

Thanks for sticking around through the quiet month, seriously. All of it went into the game. New supporters joined during all that quiet too. I noticed. Appreciate y'all.

— DAV / Lust Works Studio