Hey, folks! Hope you're all having a great week so far.

Progress continues, and Gabby's love and friendship paths are mostly rendered now. Hallelujah. I still need to do the outro for each scene, but the setup and ero bits are done, which were the most substantial part. Still, another 50ish renders I think, and I'll be done there. For a little too-hot-for-public-posts teaser, you can take a look at Gabby's ero scene here.

After that, the task remains to finish coding everything, and touch up some dialogue. I've got this fun habit of writing a crappy line of narration or dialogue, and then putting a note next to it like: "## << this sucks fix it later you dumb-dumb" And as my weariness with the update grew, so too did the number of lines like that. :D Still, none of that should be too demanding.

The coding stuff will be slightly more annoying, but hopefully not too bad. I'm adding some features that have been previously requested, including stuff like a revamped save naming feature (and the ability to turn it off), the ability to navigate save/load by ten pages at a time, the ability to name your Season 1 export files, etc. These have all been tested in a test game file, but they still need to be implemented in the actual game. But I don't foresee any problems there.

So, with that in mind I'm working to have the alpha for Ch14 done by this upcoming Monday, the 18th. If I'm speedy, I'll have it out the day before.  So, that's that! I'm approaching the finish line, and I just need to avoid rolling my ankle -- metaphorically speaking. 

Finally, in tangential news.. I had a supporter reach out a few weeks ago, inquiring about making a 3D mousepad using some existing art of Risa. I told him to hang tight, and I'd make him some custom stuff that might work better. So, I did a couple of renders, and then also ran them through ChatGPT to create stylized 2D versions. Which you can see below!

As much as I enjoy the Daz style, I just felt like 2D art would serve this kind of thing better. And while I wouldn't want to use AI art in an official product, I felt like it'd be nice for a prototype. So, I hooked him up and told him to let me know what the final result looked like. And check out what he sent me, today!

How cool is that?!

Alright, I'll leave you with that today. But as always, take care of yourselves -- and thank you for your support!

Hey, folks! Hope you’re all doing well, today! Sorry to get this up a day late, but as usual I was in rendering mode and didn’t want to take a break to write this post. Apologies!

Things are still moving with the new chapter. I finished Gabby’s friend route, which includes an optional spicy scene.. Next up is finishing the love route scene, which I started a few weeks ago before getting side-tracked with the release of Season 1, the Season 2 teaser, getting the flu, etc. Once that’s done, and I’ve completed the coding I still need to do, knock out any ‘pick-up’ images I still need, and put out the new alpha. Until then, enjoy the many flavors of Mason available in this update – plus Gabby! The image count continues to climb, and my mental state continues to deteriorate.

(Jokes! Well, kinda..)

In general dev news, I had one supporter reach out and inform me that the save migration feature isn’t working for their Steam Deck. I’ll admit, this isn’t a platform I’d thought about when rolling out the function, so I’ll need to look into it. I suspect the fault lies with the fact that I don’t build a Linux-specific build, though I didn’t think it would really matter.. But it could also be the fact that I initially mislabeled the value needed to export the saves, and didn’t get it corrected right away. So some people built their save exports with a buggy version, and didn’t realize it until they tried to export them and couldn’t find them. Like I said, I’ll need to do some investigating.

Finally, I decided to distract myself a bit from the (at this point) exhausting work of rendering, and play around with an idea suggested by a longtime supporter – a Mason management sim! No, I didn’t actually make it. I just mocked up some art, ran it through some color-reduction and pixelizer web apps, and slapped the image on the Playdate console. I’ve previously joked around about how much I’d like to do a throwback eroge for a niche platform like the Playdate. While I certainly don’t have the time to do it now, it remains a distant dream. Maybe when things slow down, and I finish edits for my novel, I’ll carve out a little time for it.

That’s it for me, today! Hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year. Until next time, take care of yourselves – and thank you for your support!

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.

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!

Hey, folks! Hope you're all doing well this week! Sorry to be a day late -- this does tend to happen as release day draws nearer..

Speaking of release days, the full Season One is now available to all paid supporters, and will be available to the public on 12/19. There's a little new content, but the most important reason to play it is that you'll need to complete the game with this version, in order to export your saved files to Season Two. Otherwise you'll just get kind of a generic, default variable experience. I may eventually build in a system for Season Two where you can just set your relationship to various characters via a little recap mechanic.. But, it won't be in the upcoming version. You've been warned!

Aside from dealing with the (fewer than expected) bug reports, I've really just been rendering, and editing the script for the upcoming chapter. I'm trying to get the alpha build out by Christmas Day, and as per usual, I expect to be working right up until the deadline. Until then, let the attached images be a little tease as to what you can expect.

Since I don't have much to say about the upcoming chapter, I thought I'd share something a little different this week.

Though it's never actually mentioned in-game, Nicki hails from the state of Alabama -- whose state bird is the Northern Flicker. Since I enjoy making custom clothes for the characters, I got to thinking about what kind of goofy t-shirt I could make for her, and I landed on what you see above. For some reason I just imagine Nicki trying to explain this weird, region-specific meme to Guy, about a fat bird whose name looks rather dirty if it's written in all-caps with the letters mashed together.

That led me to draw the design you see above -- and I thought you might enjoy seeing a timelapse of the actual drawing process as well as a hi-res version of Nicki wearing it here.

Alright, that's it for me today! As always, take care of yourselves -- and thank you for your support!

Hey hey, friends! Hope you're all doing well this week! Just to get my sales pitch out of the way: the Season 1 beta is currently ready, available to all $15+ members, and I'll be opening it up to $5+ members this weekend. There's not a ton of new content, outside of the new love interest-focused endings, and Risa's additional material. But, if you are moved to upgrade your tier to get it early, you can also check out the Season 2 teaser, which has about 95% of the upcoming update.

Cool? Cool. Onto news and other stuff!

As of tomorrow I'm officially on vacation from my day job, which means I'll be spending some long days in my chair, getting the first chapter of Season 2 ready. I'm still not entirely sure what I'm going to call it.. 

Anyhow, with my vacation starting tomorrow I decided to take today as kind of a chill day, reviewing bug reports and the like. An interesting one was raised, regarding the fact that Mason's little dialogue portrait is not as androgynous as it probably should be, when we first meet him. Further, when we talk to him, his name is already listed, rather than being 'Unknown.'

Now this isn't really a bug.. It's just The Ghost of Neon's Laziness and Inexperience, come back to haunt me. In the early chapters, I never really bothered with using an 'Unknown' moniker for a character, prior to the player learning their name, and I never changed the character portrait to reflect what the character was actually wearing. I think the first time I did that was wayyy late, in Chapter 11/12. Now, with Season 2 starting, I'm being much more attentive to it.

But back when I first started? Nah. Stupid, lazy Neon.

Soooo, I decided to use some of my nice, chill day to.. work. I began by making some scene-appropriate portraits for Mason, which you can see above. Then, since I already had those files open, I decided to redo a few of the images from the actual sequence where Mason's in the yellow hoodie. I've helpfully labeled them NEW/OLD. 

I think it's pretty interesting to see the difference that time and experience can make. None of the changes really required tools that I didn't have access to at the time -- they just required a little more knowledge about how to stage my assets, play with the camera, and do post-work. Oh, and patience -- something I was in short supply of, during my early dev days.

These Mason edits won't make it into this month's Season 1 release. But within the next couple of months I'll be putting out a new version with this sequence replaced, Mason's portraits updated, and goodies like the short stories and 'legacy' Chapter 1 added as bonus features. But now, after months of juggling Season 1 and 2, I'll finally be focused entirely on the upcoming chapter. My goal's to have it out before Christmas. 

I'll leave you with that, but as always: take care of yourselves and thank you for your support!