Beginning of Episode 5 - Dialogue with Lara

What's up, guys!
Today I bring you a simple but symbolic update: the initial Episode 5 scene is done.

The featured scene is the dialogue between Hector (Main Character) and Lara, making a small retrospective of what happened in episode 4 and introducing what will happen in episode 5.

The scene is 100% complete, both dialogues and renders.
Despite being a simple scene, you can see some new emotions of the characters in the video, while the dialogue happens.

Watch the video to have a taste of the beginning of episode 5.

That's all for today, folks.
Cheers! 🍻

[IMPORTANT] A lot has happened and I feel I owe you an explanation.

What's up, guys!
It's been a while since my last post, so I apologize for my absence during this time.
I feel I owe you an explanation as to why I am absent.

A lot has happened, coming from all possible directions, so I will address each topic one by one.

Health problems

A lot has happened in my personal life that required my full attention, the most important being my health.
I'm dealing with my formal job, this project, and everyday tasks like housework alone.
Due to the high level of stress I was experiencing, it ended up causing me high blood pressure and, at one point, some heart problems.

I had to pay special attention to my health, including being hospitalized for a while until the doctors released me from the hospital and allowed me to return home after concluding I was safe to be alone again.
It was a difficult time, but thank God I'm fine now.

This explains why I was absent for most of the time, but as soon as I got better, more problems started to occur, and I believe you are already aware of these.

Steam bans a wave of adult games

It all started because of an adult game called "No Mercy," which featured dark themes that I'd rather not name out of respect for the platform's rules.

Since Steam is a mainstream platform with a significant audience, this caught the attention of a group of feminist activists, who launched a campaign against the game and managed to get it taken down.

Still not satisfied, the group continued its campaign, now focusing on other adult games that they said contained allegedly abusive themes.

The activists' way to shut down the games was to pressure payment providers, especially Visa and MasterCard, who, in turn, began to pressure Steam.
It's difficult for the platform to reject a request from these companies, given their importance and the fact that most payments are processed through these credit card companies.

It goes without saying how important Steam is to my project, given the platform's size and importance.
Steam is essential for this game to receive the necessary support and continue its development.

Fortunately, my game was designed from the beginning to comply with all payment provider rules, as it was originally planned to be on Patreon.
Luckily, Steam kept my game online, even after the wave of adult game bans.

Valve Antitrust Litigation

This is another issue, completely unrelated to the previous one, involving Steam.

A development team (not in the adult game genre, by the way), dissatisfied with certain rules imposed by Steam, decided to file a lawsuit against Valve to try to legally overturn these rules. At the time, though, it was not very successful.

To gain more traction, this development team requested, in the court, that the judge make the case a class action lawsuit, which involved all (or at least the vast majority) of Steam's partner developers in the lawsuit as plaintiffs, as we were now considered "The Class".
Because of this, I was involved in a lawsuit against Valve against my own will.

I studied the context further to understand what the lawsuit was about and why my name was being involved when I never expressed any desire to participate in such an action, nor did I express any interest in taking legal action against Valve, but it seems I was "passively" included in the lawsuit.

When we developers agreed to partner with Valve to publish our games on Steam, their terms were very explicit, and anyone can accept (or decline, don't publishing there) those terms at their own discretion.
I do not agree, in any way, with the plaintiff's request.
I'd like to take this opportunity to publicly state this here!

I had to contact the lawyers involved in the case to request my exclusion as a plaintiff from the lawsuit, as I have no intention whatsoever of participating in such an action.
I believe that, from this point on, I am no longer part of the lawsuit.

Itch bans a wave of adult games and hides all adult games from their search engine

The context here is basically the same as that involving Steam.
It all started because of the adult game "No Mercy".
Feminist activists then pressured payment providers, who in turn pressured Itch to remove other adult games they deemed abusive.

The problem here was even more serious than with Steam, because although Itch banned a wave of games, it still hid absolutely all adult games from its search engine, harming the entire adult gaming scene.

Many developers rely on Itch for their games as part of their income, and some, although they don't have paid versions published there, use the platform as a means of promotion, publishing free versions to attract new players.

In the case of this project, I have a free version published there for promotional purposes, but since the game has been published on Itch since its launch, the platform is an extremely important part of the promotion, necessary to keep the game alive. Once again, since my game doesn't contain dark or heavy themes, respecting the limits of payment providers, luckily, the game was preserved and avoided being banned in the wave of bans.

Recently, Itch resumed indexing games with free versions in its search engine, since they don't accept payments, they wouldn't create problems with payment providers.

Since I only have a free version published there, we can say that this problem has been overcome.

Conclusion

After my recovery, despite my "absence", I spent considerable time resolving all these issues surrounding the project.

If any of these problems had persisted, it might not have been possible to continue the project, but fortunately, I was able to find a solution.
This was perhaps the hardest phase of the project, with all these unexpected setbacks that threatened to kill the project.

These were difficult times, as you know how passionate I am about this project, and seeing it die would have been really bad. Thank God, the outcome was positive, and I'll be able to continue developing it.

That said, today officially marks the return to development.
I hope to bring you some nice news soon.
Best regards.