[~News & Dev Update~]

If you've missed our previous post earlier this month, one of the main things we've been focusing on is hiring a new CG artist.

The short version is that Ajose, our previous long-standing CG artist that used to handle the drawing phases stepped down. Technically.. <.< They haven't replied to any messages of mine since around March of this year and I tried holding out hope as long as we could, but after talking to his buddy Marxe, who handles the bg details, color/rendering phases for CG art.

It's clear to me that we needed to move on and do our best to find a new artist who could mimic the existing style nearly 1:1.

So, much of this month has been really busy with tackling this. In the start of the month, we had 25+ artists reach out with their pages, example work, details, etc. Once processed, we narrowed it down to roughly 5 artists that seemed the most promising.

In the past week, we had 2 artists from that narrowed selection cut out of the list. One was sort of a last minute second thoughts thing, where it didn't sound like it'd workout long-term and I respect them for that. It's much better to know prior to working together if it doesn't seem like it'll work out, vs a few months or a year down the road.

The other artist provided a test commission and unfortunately, it just doesn't seem like a solid fit for our project.

That leaves us with 3 promising artists. One already provided their test commission and it's looking great so far! The other 2 artists, one should be providing their test commission this week. The other one, I haven't heard from since the 12th and I'm giving them the chance to confirm if they're working on a test commission or not. <.<

I'm expecting to have a decision made by early November for our new CG artist being hired and the plan heading into next month is to provide them with 2 new CG scenes to be worked on.

Marxe currently has ram problems with his computer and so we're looking to get that fixed for him asap, so he can continue on the CG scene he's nearly finished with and then he'll begin working alongside the new artist we hire.

Besides the hiring process, we have been working ahead on upcoming content and I have to apologize for it taking a bit longer than expected. There's quite a bit of stuff going on behind the scenes with the written scripts to boost the quality across the board.

The big thing is balancing more fan service mixed with comedy throughout episodes, but in general we're adjusting the pacing of the game as a whole. That way, if there's a more serious dramatic scene involved, the follow-up scene should steer away from feeling too dramatic and give a break from that, while also feeling like it belongs naturally.

One thing I've been really trying to hammer just right is episode 5's free roaming scenario, which gives the player 5-6 options that feels more in control for the player to break up the linear experience. Not only should these feel that way, but ultimately, they should be fun experiences.

We're trying to improve more on the comedy and fan service mainly, and some of that has required some thinking outside the box to mix the two without feeling too out of place.

In short, we're looking to deliver better experiences with the game's content and while much of this will be seen with the rest of episode 5's content coming soon. We'll see the majority of it in the follow-up release that'll cover earlier episodes.

{When to expect content?}  

Take the following with a grain of salt, as little bumps in the road might affect these dates slightly. But we shouldn't expect massive delays.

-November 8-9th = v0.22 Episode 5 Demo Access!
-November 8-9th = New Public Release Build!

(The demo will be provided to any active and inactive supporters who've spent $5 or more. You'll receive a direct message from us with a special link to download the demo from. The content included in this demo will mainly focus on the free roaming scenarios, giving players about a little over an hour of content, with 5-6 unique scenarios focused on introductions to some background oc and non-oc students, with the highlight being flashback moments involving Miki, Erika, Nova, Rachel, Juliet and Heather.)

(The public will receive the current version of the game that's been support exclusive for a long time. This will give the public fans access to Juliet/Rachel's scene, Heather's scene and Zoey/Lola's scene before it ends. Roughly a little over a hour of content.)

-November 15-16th = v0.22 Episode 5 Full Access!

($5 active and inactive supporters will receive access to the full version of v0.22, which includes the free roaming scenario content present in the demo outlined above. Along with, 3 additional scenes, which should be around 2 hours of content roughly.)

Our plan after these releases is to get things back to normal, and so the below is a tiny bit more up in the air. But we're looking to keep things steady and continue along.

-December 6-7th = v0.22 Episode 5 Full Access! 
-December 6-7th = v0.23 QoL Episodes 1 Access!

(The public will receive access to v0.22 in full, which will contain everything outlined above for content.)

($5+ active supporters will gain access to v0.23, which will provide you with the entirety of Episode 1's content, which will now give players access to the female protagonist being playable, new art added, new written scenes included, better focus on the main story, and much more with quality of life improvements being made. Expect around 2-3 hours of content.)

From this point forward, we'd ideally be looking at monthly releases for both public and supporters. The way we handle that normally is with that last mention above, where on the same day that supporters gain access to the latest content, the public gain access to the previous version of the game. 

That way, supporters have their hands on the latest content for around a month, along with other perks for their month of support. 

The dates below are subject to change due to the holiday season.

-December 20-30th = v0.23 QoL Episode 1 Access!
-December 20-30th = v0.24 QoL Episode 2 Access!

(The public will gain access to v0.23, which will feature exactly what's listed above for that.)

($5+ active supporters will gain access to v0.24, which will give the entirety of Episode 2's content, now with access to the female protagonist being playable, new art added, new written scenes included, better focus on the main story, and much more! Expect around 2 hours of content.)

The releases for December should put us back on track with how we normally handle content. We have plans along the way to toss out mini bonuses for being an active supporter of our Subscribestar/Fanbox long before the public has access to these. Mainly, we want to give back over time where it's fitting, given we've hit some rough waters with development leading up to this point. 

Once in a while, we'll try to offer fun bonuses to our public fans that seems fair too. But we'll really be trying to keep things balanced, so that supporting our project feels good in terms of what you're receiving on a monthly basis. 

With all of this said, we'll toss out a few posts this week focusing on art previews and for early next week, we'll toss out our first "Pembroke Academy Newsletter" which will cover general news, along with development updates, previews on how things are coming along and there might be a bit more in-depth previews for supporters, but we'll provide enough teases with the previews publicly as well.

From everyone at Messy Studios~