Hey there, friends! Hope you're all doing well this week. Hopefully everyone had a happy holiday. It's been a bit of a rough one for your pal Neon! I started feeling under the weather on Christmas -- a feeling that was likely exacerbated by staying up to get the Christmas teaser build finished. Then I had to work the following day, and felt like my energy was depleted. Then I developed a cough and runny nose, shooting pains throughout my body, and I kept falling asleep anytime I sat down. I was looking a bit like a sickly Victorian child. Finally, today, I'm mostly back to normal. My sinuses are still all gunked up, and my sense of taste/smell is shot, but my energy is back.

This is all to say that I lost three days of game dev time, at a really inopportune time. So, the next build of the game is going to be a little delayed while I pull myself back together. As always, if you were/are subbed at the $15 tier for December and then reduced/removed your pledge for January, just hit me up when the build is ready, and I'll send you a link. I don't want anyone feeling ripped off. (I'll reiterate this offer when the build is ready.)

Despite my sickness, I did manage to get a little work done. The ending sequence has grown to stupid proportions, as endings with Nicki, Mason, Ashe, Indigo, and Jun have grown to roughly 400 renders -- that doesn't even include the Gabby material, which I also expanded to add a friends-to-lovers route I hadn't fully planned on, initially. I really don't know why I make things so hard on myself. Maybe I'm just stupid? Hard to say.

Still, despite this chapter being an exercise in self-flagellation.. I think it's really coming together. I'm working on a build right now with everything I have done, trying to see if there's anything I'm missing before I start plugging in images for this last segment. There's some really cute material with a few of the love interests, which I hadn't fully intended to add. There's some fun drama. Good stuff all around, I think.

But, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't ready to be done with this thing. I suspect it'll be over 2000 renders by the time it's done, and I will never, ever do this to myself (or you folks) again. 2026 is going to be the year of more frequent, reasonably-sized updates.

Once the update is out, I've got two things I immediately want to start working on. I've mentioned one before, but it's a mini-update that's slated to be 300ish renders, featuring Guy going off on a bit of a sidequest. The other is a short story featuring Mason, from before the traumatic brain injury that left him with a stutter. I've only got the bones of the story right now, but I think it'll be fun to see a different side of Mason.. And probably a bit bittersweet.

Despite my flagging health and my frustrations with this update, I was gratified to see reactions to the Christmas teaser. Most people seem to have successfully navigated the save transfer function, but I'm going to post slightly more detailed instructions when I unlock the update for the public this Friday. And people seem intrigued by Cassie, and the early direction of the story. So, that's fun.

tldr; The update's coming. Still working to pull together the alpha, but I'm on the struggle bus right now. Bear with me a bit longer, and hopefully it'll be worth the wait.

Until then, I apologize for the delay. But as always, take care of yourselves -- and thank you for your support.

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Hey, friends! This is a teaser for the upcoming Chapter 14, featuring roughly 430+ images, as well as the save migration feature from Friends in Need: Season 1. I've given it some testing and it all seems to be working. Season 1 v0.95b will prompt you to export a save file at the end, and this teaser will ask you to choose from one of five slots upon startup. If you have any problems with it, please feel free to drop a comment, and I'll do what I can to troubleshoot it. 

Happy holidays, and Merry Christmas!

Hey, friends! Hope you're all doing well this week! The holidays can be hard sometimes. It's a time for reflection, when we all take stock of our year and wonder what we could have done differently. For some people, including myself, this time of togetherness can be a reminder of the people who are no longer in your life, for one reason or another.

No matter the type of holiday season you're having, I hope you're taking care of yourself, and finding things to celebrate. All that said, let's get to it!

The upcoming chapter is now, officially, the biggest chapter I've done so far -- at least in terms of image count. I should do a word count, but I suspect it wins there, too.. And I'm still working on it. I know I'm a broken record at this point, but I'm closing in on the end, it's just.. Taking me longer than I'd like it to. I had to go back and fill in some details for the other endings which I'd initially neglected. I made more work for myself, for dumb reasons that I couldn't possibly begin to explain. But in spite of all that, I'm really happy with how this update's looking.

The plan has been to get the update out for Christmas Day. I personally love Christmas, and I love the idea of being able to share something with everyone. But, some of my supporters lovingly reminded me that, maybe, I'm being an idiot and shouldn't kill myself trying to get everything done by Christmas. Especially when a lot of people are going to be preoccupied with.. Christmas. I have to (and hate to..) admit, they make a good point.

So, I'm going to tweak my plans a little. For Christmas Day I'll be putting out a teaser for the upcoming chapter, which will be available for all supporters, containing roughly 1/4 of the final update. Then the alpha will follow before month's end for $15+ supporters, before rolling out to the other tiers and public. I feel like this will satisfy my desire to release something for the holidays, while giving me enough time so that I'm not frantically scrambling to get everything together. Plus, it'll be kind of a soft-launch to test the save migration feature from Season 1.

Like I said, this time of year is good for reflection and taking stock of your successes and failures. I think I've had some successes this year, but this last dev cycle has been, for me, a failure. I stretched myself too thin juggling the Season 1 remake and the Season 2 debut chapter. As a result I failed to realize my plans for merchandise and tutorial videos, didn't get to edit and serialize my spicy fantasy novel, and plans I had for mini-games, short fiction, and comics fell to the side. It sucks!

And yet, I'm still happy with the year. The Chapter 1 remake was well-received, as was the additional/edited material for the following eleven chapters. The Blue Valentine mini-game didn't get a ton of love, but the people who liked it really seemed to like it. Plus, I enjoyed it -- I think it had one of my better endings. The prose pieces I wrote for Isabella and Madison went over well. I roughed out a novel that a few people read and really loved, and I look forward to sharing eventually. Plus, the S2 premiere's test build has gotten good reactions and feedback, which is always gratifying.

And I grew the community of folks who enjoy my work. I've got an amazing Discord community that I look forward to chatting with every day. I've got new readers/players showing up all the time to tell me how much they enjoy my work. And I've got people who tell me how much my work has lifted their spirits when they were feeling a bit crummy. All that means the world to me, and it wouldn't be possible were it not for all of you.

So, until next time -- take care of yourselves, thank you for your support and.. Happy Holidays!