Hello everyone! This is a bit awkward timing, as our next development report will be out by next Friday and so I don't want to do a big news post and then repeat myself a ton next week. ^^" This will be a pretty short update on things!

First and foremost, about the next game build/version release!

It'll be coming in December, actually two releases in the month. The first will be the rest of episode 5's content as we're finishing that up and ran into some issues with that, which I'll explain in a moment below. The second will be our first QoL release, which should contain Ep 1 & 2's new additions, covering some new gameplay features, new scenes, new cg art & variants, along with the female protagonist being playable, amongst other things being updated!

We had things moving along smoothly for November with the release that would've covered the rest of episode 5. Up until about 2 weeks ago, as payments were being sorted out for the team, I nearly had everyone paid for the month besides our cg artists and programmer. I went to go pay them not even a day later as we were still sorting out some details prior to payment, and that's when I noticed something wrong.

My bank was hit by fraud, more so.. One of my personal accounts was hacked into and it was an account I haven't used in 2-3+ years, but surprisingly.. My card or Paypal must've been linked to said account and so, someone went on a spending spree.. Not only with remaining funds from November that was attached to my bank account, but also my personal savings, leaving me with $0 in both checking and savings.

Rest assured, I typically don't keep payment options saved or attached to many accounts, besides ones that I actively use and those are always protected with two-step authorization, besides a number of other security measures taken often to avoid such issues. I've never had this sort of issue before in all of my history, knock on wood.. But this old personal account as detailed above was long forgotten about, hence why it happened.

Even then, I was alerted with email alerts from the website attached to said account. But by the time I had seen those within less than a hour, the damage was done.

The good news... Once this all took place, I instantly contacted my bank, card issuer and the website that personal account is attached to. I've been able to get the money returned to my bank account that was used during the fraud, but that did take sometime to process. I have a new bank card that's only attached to active account/websites I use often and in regards to the personal account that was hacked in the first place. I went ahead and once everything was fully sorted out, I deleted that personal account as I wasn't using it in the first place to be extra safe.

I've done a lot of other security measures besides those to ensure that nothing happens to any of my other personal accounts and mainly, that nothing happens to any project related accounts, etc.

In summary, everything is secure and safe, protected like a watchdog. Everything is back to normal.

Now, how's this related to the delay of the game content being released?

As mentioned, it happened prior to me paying our cg artists and programmer. As of right now, they're taken care of as if everything is normal. But during the process of the past 2 weeks, development was halted as the programmer was waiting on their pay and in general, I needed to ensure everything else was secured from any possible fraud attempts to avoid those completely moving forward.

The good news, is that we're actively moving along on development again with the upcoming content. It's just that we had about a 2 week period of progress completely halted until everything was sorted out, everyone was paid, etc.

Hence the delay for why the rest of episode 5's build/version release is moving into December.

[~In Closing~]

Overall, I want to ensure everyone that everything is secure and once again, no accounts attached to the project were affected. The only attachment is that the project funds come into my personal bank account, which has also been adjusted when I called the bank to setup another account that's purely business. That one is now attached to the project to also help avoid this from happening ever again. 

In order to make up for this delay, those who have supported in October, November or December will receive access to two test builds free of charge. ($5+ supporters and just supporting once during this period gives access.)

One test build for episode 5, one for the QoL content!

We know this isn't entirely fair for our higher tier supporters, so we want to provide them with a bonus for their support during those months as well. This bonus might not be ready until January, but regardless, you'll receive something that's well worth it!

I'd like to offer more to all our fans in general, regardless if supporting or not, but with how busy the holiday season is ahead of us and promises to deliver what we're doing now. I'll be working overtime to ensure everything highlighted above is delivered upon. I'd like to possibly do something special for all fans as a whole, but it'll have to be some time into the start of 2025.

Regardless, that's just he bonus stuff. The main thing is, supporters will receive two build/versions released in December as mentioned. For public fans, you'll also receive two build/versions released alongside the support build/versions that should feel pretty fair and equal! 

I apologize for the inconvenience, but I hope what we end up delivering upon will make up for it to end this year with a bang! Then 2025 has much ahead for what we have planned to kick off the new year! <3  

Slightly delayed report this month.. ^^" We're going to attempt to provide the smaller news post updates during each month on a weekly basis moving forward. The main difference is that these dev reports are a overview of what our team has been working on and upcoming estimated plans, etc. While the news posts are bite-sized and focused more so on how the next build/version is proceeding along from said dev reports.

That said, let's jump into things!

[~Next Release~]

In case you've missed previous mentions, below is our estimated timeline schedule for the rest of this year. We're going to try our hardest to provide all of these roughly as listed, but December can sometimes be a bit busy with the holiday season.

~Test build for v0.22 slightly delayed, expected around November 11-13th.

~v0.21 (Public) & v0.22 (Support) build/versions release set for November 18-22nd.

~Test build for v0.23 set for sometime between November 25-29th. (Female protag/additions)

~v0.22 (Public) & v0.23 (Support) build/versions release set for around December 9-13th.
 
~Either test build for v0.24 or bonus update sometime in late December. (More likely early January due to holidays.)

The dates on these are estimated, but there's been a few things in the past week that pushed things back by a week roughly. We'd like to apologize upfront for that and we're offering some bonus goodies for supporters and fans in general during November besides the expected content to hopefully make up for that. <3

[~New Content Development~]

While we're wrapping up Episode 5's content for v0.22, work is already underway on v0.23! This will be our last main build/version for 2024 before we continue into 2025.

v0.23's main thing is that we're going back through Episode 1 & 2 for quality of life improvements and additions. One of these main additions players have been looking forward to ever since we announced it early in 2024, being the female protagonist Blythe!

When playing as Blythe, players will notice some scenes range from minor changes to very unique content. This goes for either male or female protagonist, as there's moments in the game that originally were planned around a male protagonist. A good example being Nurse Bell, who optionally provides you with a handjob/blowjob in the form of a cg scene.

Clearly we can't just do that for Blythe, so it'll require her own unique cg scene appearing in its place. That's just the visual unique differences through cg art! The writing of dialogue and scenes in general will provide differences that naturally fit with the idea of whichever gender you choose at the start of the game.

One example for that, is at the start when the protagonist and buddies first arrive at Pembroke Academy. We already know how it goes down with Brandon (Male protag), but since Blythe is a girl coming to a girl's only private school with their two male friends, it begs the question.. "What's the big deal then for Blythe? She can just get into the school regularly on her own."

From her perspective, it shouldn't seem like a big hurdle outside of the acceptance to join the school in general. But we'll see some pretty decent differences in the beginning of the game, where we'll learn how Blythe feels about her two male friends and get a better sense of what she's like as a whole! One key difference is that Blythe has always felt a bit awkward when it comes to relationships or lack of..

She has had guys attempt to ask her out before, but it was never a priority to date anyone. Even upon arriving to Pembroke Academy more so, but what she begins to realize within the walls of being surrounded by other girls, is that she's struggling with odd feelings towards her classmates and it begins to dawn on her that she might be into girls all along.

We'll see how she awkwardly copes with this realization and some struggles with accepting love regardless of social norms. I'd like to really dig into that in a way that feels as if Blythe is relatable in coming to terms with her true feelings, the natural fears and unknown, the good and very real love despite what might go through someone's mind upon first discovering themselves like this and accepting who they are.

{Gameplay Addition: Free Roam Scenarios}

Now I've talked in our last dev report about this addition, so I won't repeat myself much. The summary is that during set points of the on-rails story, these fitting moments appear, that allow the player to choose one of multiple choices to do some off the beaten path exploration. This will not only add a more unique personal touch to each player going through the game, but it'll provide unlocked rewards in the form of cg art variants, changing some outcomes in writing and more.

A key example for this free roam scenarios is with Episode 5's moment and how it fits into the on-rails story narrative. The protagonist shortly after visiting the nurse's office and waiting on their buddies to text them back, comes across the board filled with club fliers. It's assumed that the protagonist has a little bit of time to kill and is presented with a few choices to check out a couple other clubs that wouldn't have been seen otherwise on-screen.

In the moment, whichever choice might not present a instant understanding of what it'll unlock or impact in writing for future moments for the story, but the main idea is that these choices should add to the game experience through additional world building and feel worth engaging with in a number of ways.

{Gameplay Addition: Phone Interface}

Another thing we brought up last month is the phone interface being added. The summary for that system is that during the on-rails story, a phone icon will be present on the UI to access your phone contacts and messages from other students. This same icon will receive little ping alerts throughout the game proceeding, allowing players to check and notice new text messages received from others.

Much of this will be flavor text, more so to act as world building and give more life to the game's setting. It sort of acts as this reminder that even if you don't see Miki around during Episode 3, she's still off in the background doing her own activities through the day.

One key feature with this that'll be a bit more exciting is that the player will be presented with responses they can send back to them, which have minor impacts. One thing we're already working on with the phone interface is making use of it to provide unlocked bonus cg art or exclusive cg art that appears through your phone!

I don't really want to spoil who it is, but if conditions are met at one point in the game. A character ends up sending some enticing selfies to the protagonist with a offer to come join them in their dorm room, leaving it up to the player to take them up on the offer and lean into a optional path of naughty fun.. Or they can choose to deny the offer, which is then followed up later with a apology from said character, who begs you to delete those photos and move on as if it never happened.

{Other Additions & Changes}

Besides those two additions, earlier episodes are receiving a number of changes that includes new scenes that fit between existing ones. New cg art added, sound effects and more music improvements, overall.. A ton of stuff that we've been working on to bring the earlier content up to speed with how Episode 5 feels as a whole.

Episode 5 presents a pretty spot on visual idea of what Messy Academy should visually look like when the game as a whole is complete. Plus these additions not in the game yet of course.

[~Team updates~]

With that stuff out of the way, let's dive into our team related news! What our team has been working on and more!

{Writing, Editing & Programming}

Mainly for writing work, it's been focused on v0.23 here and sorting out a lot of the Episode 1 & 2 QoL additions and improvements highlighted above. I'm more than thrilled about delivering that update to the game, because a lot of people are pumped up for Blythe and that alone is enough, but all the other additions and improvements have me extremely excited to share them with everyone!

Programming wise, we should have episode 5 wrapped up shortly and before that, a test build provided for v0.22. I expect in another week or two, we'll begin programming on v0.23's content, at least Episode 1's changes by then, followed by Episode 2's.

{SFX & Ambient Music}

Sound effects are still on halt, we're sorting out how to approach handling those with funding and also just in general. The rough idea is that with the QoL stuff happening to earlier content, we'll have the sound designer go through that content afterwards, create and apply sfx's where needed with my help in marking spots that I generally feel might require sound effects.

While we wait on that, they've been working on some background music for the game to improve on that. Mainly what these are, is music that fits the background art locations of the academy. We already have one of these background tracks done for the club room location/scenes and wrapping up work on one that's meant to be paired up with the hallway locations.

We'll actually have a preview of these in another day or two put up to listen to! These should be easier when hearing them on loop for longer periods of time than other music heard in-game currently. The way I see it, the current music tracks are more emotional ques and character themes, standout themes that play into a shift of tone during scenes taking place. While these background music tracks are meant to be the majority of what's heard from one location to another typically.

With some exceptions, like if the protagonist is briefly traveling through the hallway and it consists of 4-5 lines of text, it doesn't really need that background music to kick in, only to fade out quickly when arriving to the next main scene.

We'll also be making use of moments of silence still at fitting times even during scenes, but as a whole. I think the musical direction of things should be shaping up pretty well!

This month we'll continue with this, tackling a 3rd background music track that's focused on the classroom location of the school. We're trying to get at least one track for the most seen locations out of the way first.

{Chibi CG Art}

Bandyrash has been working on a little around 30+ chibi sticker/emoji's that are being used in-game through the phone interface as just that, emoji's that students make use of. Besides that, they're also planned for use within the Discord server too! We might see them used as part of promotional or social related posts as well, but here's a little sneak peek at how these should look when finished.

There's 4 unique sticker/emoji's for each of the main cast characters so far and more will be rolled out in the future at set points when it's fitting.

She also did a bonus Halloween chibi art piece during October, which we've shared across our social media! We hope everyone enjoyed taking part in the voting polls to help figure out which characters and costumes would be featured! That was a big surprise from Bandy, as she offered to do that for free as thanks for all the recent help for income and bringing her onto the team as our chibi cg artist.

For this month, we'll probably see our first chibi cg scene in the works! This will be for Episode 1 and much of the chibi cg art featured in-game will be comedy focused moments or more general slice of life fitting moments.

{CG Art}

Marxe is nearing the finalized version of the official map layout for Pembroke Academy! I just received previews of the 3rd floor and rooftop layouts the other day. The areas remaining is mainly the outside surrounding school grounds, which has been drafted up for reference for him and we'll easily see the finalized maps this month!

These maps are being used in-game at set points of reference and even besides that, it'll give a official overview of how Pembroke Academy is laid out. We really wanted to make it feel as if the area could exist in reality, although there might be some minor oddities in certain room additions of course.

We'll see some previews of this during November and then Marxe will be focusing on cg art through the rest of the month!

Ajose had a lot going on in his country in past months with power outages and so a lot of what Marxe has been working on is to also provide his buddy some time to get caught up on cg art, to provide for Marxe. We'll be seeing some more cg art previews during this month as well!

There's already plans to do some really minor additions to some finished existing cg art for the game. One thing that's been requested by a few people is the addition of more farting related fanservice, which I totally understand isn't for everyone and no need to worry! Those are going to be just as optional as diaper accident moments, where we're leaving it up to the player preference in wishing to see that take place or not.

The only exception to this during Episodes 1-5 would be for Rachel, given her quirk when nervous. But even then, we want to try and keep those toned down by default in written detail and visuals when possible. But if players prefer that, they can lean more into it.

Besides some optional minor variants like that being added, there's some for additional wet/messy diapers in cg scenes that originally doesn't include them. The magical delusions cg scene for example in Ep 4 will present the player with 3 versions, the default showing Bridget and Miki in clean diapers. But there will soon be a outcome that assumes Miki was in a wet diaper during that, or possibly a messy one.

We're totally open to suggestions on some really minor variant additions to existing cg art! So, if there's little things besides these that you'd like to see included to the game, by all means let us know!

{Sprite Art}

Lisa has been continuing with sprite characters during October, mainly some support roles for the main cast and right now, these are early sketch phases just to give myself some visuals behind them.

I can't say too much as some of these are spoiler related possibly, but we should see more concept previews for these during November! I've talked with her about focuses for this month and a number of stuff has been presented to work on, but I can't really say much else besides that.

Mainly there's three focuses for sprite related work that remains, a variant of the title screen illustration that'll feature the cast in their casual clothes, these support role character sprites and a outfit shared amongst the main cast.

{GUI Art}

Ds-sans has been working on  the phone interface for us here recently and while there's still some more to get done with that, we have a little preview below for how this is coming along so far! It's not too much, but we hope to have more to show off later this month!

[~Conclusion~]

Yet another development report wrapped up! We hope to have at least 2+ posts per week going again, some of that being mini news updates on how things are proceeding between these dev reports. The rest should be art previews, voting polls and other stuff! ^^

If this is your first time joining along and you enjoy the project, please do consider supporting us on Subscribestar if you aren't already! We strive to provide exclusive posts every week, ranging from news, art previews, voting polls and many more benefits as a supporter at the low cost of our $5 tier, which features exclusive game updates before they reach the general public!

Keep yourself informed and updated on development by following Subscribestar notifications or bookmarking our >Guide Post< You can also continue to keep updated through our Itch.io page or Twitter as well!

Be alert! The only websites that are officially ran by myself (Princess Bridget) and Messy Studios working on development of Messy Academy are from the following list below. Any place otherwise is unofficial and they might be impersonating us for their own gain. Avoid payments/donating to other sources as it won't be helping fund further development into our game!

>Subscribestar<
>Pixiv Fanbox<
>Kickstarter<
>Twitter<
>Itch.io<
>Pixiv<

(You can also find our official posts/account on these sites, but due to their nature we won't include links directly.)
>F95zone< (Username: Messy Studios)
>omorashi< (Username: Bridget1999)
>tapatalk< (Username: Messy Studios)

Be alert! The one and only official Discord server for following the Messy Studios team development is this one. >>Discord<< If you've come across any other server impersonating us, be sure to report your findings with me directly and steer other's interested in our video game project away from possibly scam attempts.

~ From all of us at Messy Studios! ~

I was hoping to get this news update out yesterday, but here it is! There's not too much to report on, so it'll be pretty short and brief until the development report next week which will have more previews for the upcoming content and further information about our next build/version releases. <3

If you missed our previous news update, check it out below!
https://subscribestar.adult/posts/1535585

Development for v0.21 (Public) & v0.22 (Support) build/versions is still coming along and ideally I'm looking to provide our test build for the support version here by next week sometime. That should provide a bit to test out and have something a bit involved for gameplay as well!

November is shaping up to be a pretty good month for the project! Roughly our expectations should be as follows...

-Test build for v0.22 sometime between November 4-8th.
-v0.21 (Public) & v0.22 (Support) build/versions release November 12-14th.
-Test build for v0.23 sometime between November 18-22nd. (This will be the female protag demo stuff, offered to anyone who supported during October to make up for the slight delay.)

-v0.22 (Public) & v0.23 (Support) build/versions ready around December 2-6th.
-Test build for v0.24 or a bonus update offered late December.

That should be the expectations for how the rest of this year's development and delivery of content should be looking. Of course with our estimates, things are subject to change naturally.. But we suspect what's listed and being sorted out now should pan out pretty close to what's highlighted above. ^^

I'd like to thank everyone for being patient with us as we get things moving steadily once again. <3

We're extremely excited that we'll be able to deliver the QoL update by the end of this year, as that's been a big task on my bucket list since earlier this year to finally include the female protagonist (Blythe) into episodes 1 & 2! 

We'll continue into 2025 with getting all the previous content for Blythe sorted out, while ensuring brand new content moving the story forward into routes also comes along. I'll highlight some of our more in-depth development schedule next week in the development report.

That about sums up our main stuff for this news update! Like I said, it's a shorter sweet one before the development report next week. That'll include quite a bit for teaser screenshots of upcoming content and other exciting news!

With the lack of a development report during September and a recent game build/version release a little over 2 weeks ago, we've got some major catching up to do in this report! :P

First to start us off, if for any reason you missed the recent game build/version that was released. You can find those at the link below for both the public and support versions that was updated.
https://subscribestar.adult/posts/1094919

Let's get right into it!

[~Next Release~]

Our next game updates being released will be v0.21 for the public, which is our current supporter version of the game. That'll include at least 3 new scenes, which is about 10,000+ word count, 2 cg scenes that are animated and more!

v0.22 will be our next supporter version of the game, which is planned to feature the remaining episode 5 content: 4 new scenes, a little over 10,000+ word count, 3 cg scenes with animation and so on!

We don't have a confirmed date for these yet, but they should be estimated for late October. What we'd like to include within both versions is a little taste of what the QoL additions and fixes for episode 1 will be like. Which includes the female protagonist (Blythe) being playable, alongside many other new things we'll discuss below!

As always, we'll keep everyone informed with our news posts throughout the month to highlight how things are coming along and any announcements for a set release date.

[~New Content Development~]

Episode 5 will conclude with v0.22 and I won't mention spoilers, but this will feature content on par with what's already in v0.21 for expectations. We're thankful for any feedback and thoughts so far with the new features included, some of which is sound effects, animated cg scenes and new sprite and screen effects to make the experience a bit more lively.

So, expect more of that with v0.22's content! We hope to get the test builds out a little around mid October for $25 supporters to get a taste of this new content, but we'll also do some screenshot teasers generally.

Besides this, we're already sorting out our QoL additions and fixes for episodes 1 & 2. While the main focus is for episode 5's conclusion content, we do have some highlights for new additions and fixes already planned out for episode 1 that we'd like to discuss.

Earlier content in the game will be receiving the addition of the female protagonist being playable, but added with that is our current male protagonist being updated slightly. Both protagonists will be featured visually throughout the game in the form of a portrait window located on the left side of the text box. (See screenshot.)

This feature will allow the player to visually see how their chosen protagonist is reacting throughout the game's experience. We aren't sure yet if we want this to be seen during cg scenes yet, but at least for now our plan is to have it seen generally throughout the game.

(The hide textbox/ui button will also hide the protagonist portrait window.)

When the time comes, we'll want feedback greatly with this additional feature as we fear it might be a good thing for some players, but it might be confusing or not that ideal for others. This portrait would act differently than how other visual novel's function, this is purely only to display the protagonist, not other characters who are speaking.

Of course what is seen and mentioned here is subject to change. Let's talk other additions generally being introduced to the game!

{Gameplay Addition: Free Roam Scenarios}

Old fans might rejoice upon hearing about this one! Long ago, in the early versions of the game, we had moments between "chapters" called "free days" which allowed the player to freely choose how to spend their morning, noon and evening. You would choose a set location within the school and come across one of the main girls to hang out with in a number of mini scenarios.

Free roam scenarios is taking similarities of that old system and re-working it into the general gameplay experience! Let me paint a picture of how these will come into play.

During episode 1 while Erika is guiding the protagonist around, there will be a new moment when Erika points out the school grounds map. (See screenshot.)

This is a early preview of the main building's first floor, but once finished it'll have ground textures and showcase the surrounding outside school grounds. Everything is to exact scale and this will be seen in-game during this moment and will be something the player can access at times during the game.

Shortly after Erika points out the map to the protagonist, she'll mention that they have some time to kill, if you wish to check out a given location. Providing the player with a few choices they can choose from, but due to the limited time window... You'll only be able to check out one location before Erika suggests heading back to her dorm, as the game continues on-rails again.

One choice example during this will be wishing to check out the cafeteria, which assumes the protagonist is naturally hungry after arriving at the school. Erika will guide the protagonist to the location and the two will eat together and it'll showcase some background students we'll see throughout the game in other fitting moments.

Ideally, these choices will offer a impact on future scenes and possibly unlock character paths that would otherwise be blocked off generally.

Each episode, even route episodes will generally have one of these free roam scenarios appear for the player, offering at least 4+ unique situations for the player to choose from that'll feel rewarding and change up the general experience of the game.

We'll be getting a taste of this in v0.22 for episode 5, which will have the player in a scenario where they have a little bit of time to kill, allowing you to check out at least one additional club before meeting up with your buddies and continuing on-rails again.

{Gameplay Addition: Phone Interface}

Another gameplay addition being added is the phone interface! This is a lighter gameplay element in how it affects the outcome of the game, but it'll still feel fun to interact with it and offer some unique differences to your experience.

The main thing is that during the game generally, there are moments when the protagonist checks their phone or it's assumed they're texting someone. Well, that's where this interface comes into play!

There's two ways this will appear in-game.

The first method is on-rails, apart of the story unfolding when the protagonist needs to text their friend or girlfriend. The second method is done through notification alerts, which will appear on-screen throughout the game.

Both of these function the same way, where a phone ui interface screen will appear before the player and the screen will display a text conversation taking place. The player will be given set response choices they can make to affect how the conversation proceeds along the way, which might not seem like it changes or does anything right away, but it'll lightly affect or be referenced upon where it fits.

The second method as mentioned, is there to help make the game feel a bit more lively within the setting as another bonus. Let's give a little example of this below with Miki.

During episode 3 we don't see Miki at all and it isn't until the end of episode 4 before we see her again, well... Naturally she's still running around doing stuff in her day to day even if we're not hanging out with her and so maybe sometime during episode 3, the player will receive a notification alert from Miki, checking it to hear from her and get a idea of what she's busy doing or maybe she's just curious what you've been up to, perhaps she's got a random topic to talk about, etc.

Overall, this additional gameplay system will add another element of live to the game's world setting that doesn't currently exist.

{QoL Additions & Fixes}

Those are the main additions that impact gameplay majorly, but let's lightly cover a few things coming for episode 1 that's planned out so far!

A new scene is being added labeled "Disclaimer Prologue" which takes place upon starting a brand new game for the first time. It'll feature Miki and Erika breaking the 3rd wall to play out a mini scene to highlight some disclaimers about the game, our game development and official sources, along with some brief tutorial mentions for gameplay systems and how to access these tutorial/guides later if needed for a refresher. There's a unique cg scene art for this to hold everyone's attention as well, so it should feel fitting and fun as if it's part of the game itself, despite it being a important disclaimer screen technically.

A new addition adjustment to the prologue introduction. When the protagonist and buddies first arrive, there will be a moment that includes the summary about the game's story here. What I mean by that is, the summary about how the protagonist and buddies ended up at the school in the first place, which is already highlighted outside of the game as a summary, but it feels fitting to include it at the beginning of the game officially to set the scene.

A new addition adjustment for the teacher John. He's being replaced as a teacher by Tara, a new female character and so the current scenes that feature John will be re-worked a bit in dialogue and visuals to support this new character instead. There will also be some light adjustments and fixes for the school's rules being mentioned, along with some other world building elements.

A new scene featuring a mystery character will appear to help support the main story's mystery and help kickstart the protagonist's drive to look further into what's going on at Pembroke Academy.

There's more of these additions and fixes being done to fully highlight everything, but I think today's mentions is far than enough for the time being! :P

[~Team updates~]

Let's get into some updates on what the team as a whole has been up to recently! We've had some progress halted in our art areas, but we'll highlight some updates on what's been going on with those involved.

{Writing, Editing & Programming}

Much of the above already highlights what we've been doing in this regard on the team, but mainly we're focusing on episode 5's conclusion content in the past 2 weeks and we're starting to get the programming phase going for the first scene and shortly, the second scene will be added to the engine.

Then we'll be doing some in-house testing on a general level to workout any major issues before we get the first test build ready.

We're hoping to continue our efforts during the weekdays and by the time our next news post comes out, we should have a decent idea of where we stand and what we can deliver without a doubt beyond the episode 5 content. Mainly the episode 5 content is shaping up well, it's the addition of QoL stuff for episode 1 & 2 that we're unsure of, for how much time is needed yet for those to be ready.

Once again, we're at least hoping to include a little demo of the QoL stuff for episode 1 if nothing else, but the main bulk will be the episode 5 content being concluded for October's update.

{SFX & Ambient Music}

We've been putting the sound effects on halt for the time being, not due to funding concerns... But rather my own personal audio direction skills being lackluster. >.<

What I've discussed with our audio designer is how we could approach sound effects, where they're going to take over mostly on the actual audio director role. I'll toss down spots in the script where I think a sound effect should appear generally and they'll be creating the sound effects for the screen play directly based off the script itself.

How we were doing this before was that I'd suggest we need a few diaper crinkling sound effects generally, they'd be created and then when time came to pair these up with moments in the script, it felt underwhelming. So, moving forward, they're going to be creating all sound effects based off of reading the script and playing into trying to match these more directly to fit scenes.

While sound effects are on halt for now, they've started work on additional music tracks needed for the game and we should be able to hear the first one with v0.22 as it's meant to fit with the club room location.

This will be a huge help, because recently with episode 5. I've been toying around with the sound direction as a whole, including the music that exists and trying to sort out how music comes across, when the game should naturally have quiet moments and we're not quite there yet in-game with v0.21. It'll take some time to get more music tracks finished and added to the game, but each update should begin to showcase progress on this. ^^

{Chibi CG Art}

Starting in September, we hired on Bandyrash, who has worked with us before in the past on a few cg scenes and holiday pieces. We decided to bring her onto the team as our chibi cg artist!

We'll fully get to see her skills on chibi cg scenes for the game in November, but for now, we'd started by having her work on some chibi sticker/emoji's that are being added to the Discord server and these will be featured with the new phone interface addition!

So far, there's 22 of these in the works, with an additional 14 being ordered for this month! With that, we'll be good on chibi sticker/emoji's for the time being. We've already begun sharing a few early sketch previews of how the first 22 of these are coming along, but we'll showcase the finished versions during October!

{CG Art}

Recently Marxe has been working on the official map layout for the game's setting as we've seen a early preview for that earlier in this report. This is because Marxe is fully caught up on cg scene art until Ajose can provide them with something to work on.

In case that's confusing, Ajose does the drawing phase for cg scenes, while Marxe does the background and coloring phases. So, without Ajose's workload, there isn't much that Marxe can do without them for now.

I've heard from Ajose about 3 weeks ago to confirm that his power, along with many others in Venezuela was indeed knocked out and you can draw the conclusions for yourself with what's been going on over there in the recent 2-3 months. After that update, he went silent again until earlier this past week and once again, power and internet was affected.

Since then, he's been back and it seems like everything is stable for now. So, he's going to begin working through some stuff once again and pass anything along to Marxe in the event anything else pops up, but I've got my fingers crossed that they'll be fine.

Marxe had some recent tragic news last month with his gf's father passing and the couple are now in the process of saving up to mainly make the move into northern Argentina to be with her mom to help out. He suspects the move will take place sometime before December and will keep me updated, but overall we're in a solid spot for cg art despite the halts on art.

{Sprite Art}

Since early September, Lisa has been working on creating the remaining sprite characters even in early sketch form for now to help visualize how these characters will look alongside the others.

I've actually received a preview for one of these remaining characters and once I have the next character's early sketch, I'll put together a small concept preview of the two together. ^^

I don't want to mention who these characters are in this report to avoid spoiling anything, but they are support role characters to be seen within certain routes for the main cast. More details about them will be added in the concept previews!

{GUI Art}

We hope that the recent gui additions seen in v0.21 has been really exciting! We're currently working on the phone interface ui elements to make sure we have that ready soon enough, but there isn't too much else to report here.

Much of what remains is for the "Extras" button on the title screen, but as I receive previews of the gui elements, I'll share those with everyone. ^^

[~Conclusion~]

That's it for this development report! I wanted to make sure it highlighted quite a bit to make up for the lack of a report last month and even more so to discuss some exciting features being added to the game soon!

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