Hey friends, hope you’re all having a nice week so far. My day job continues to be a little rough, which has knock-on effects on my dev work. I also have a stye on my eyelid, which makes staring at a screen for hours.. Not fun. Still, I feel bad about getting this Dev Update out so late, so I’m showing off more renders than usual.

Chapter 16 is approaching 700 images, and I still have a couple sizable scenes left to finish out the chapter. Despite a little re-writing and re-rendering for a couple scenes, progress has been pretty steady. I also had to do some pick-up renders for the demo build I’m doing for $15+ members, and I still need to do some coding. But, it’s getting there. I couldn’t be more sorry for the delay in getting that out to people, but hopefully a bigger, longer, smuttier demo will be worth it.

I really went into this chapter with the intention of it being another smaller, less ambitious one. The plot outline I’d done was pretty sparse. Then I started adding scenes, as I’m wont to do. Then I decided those scenes needed several characters and/or crowds appearing in them, which are always a little difficult, as well as scenes with variant characters, settings, etc. based on choices made. Then I also decided to experiment with some different mechanics, which has complicated some things.

It’s all good stuff, and some of those added scenes have meant having favorites like Gabby, Madison, Viola, and Mason appear, when they weren’t really slated to originally. But, the trade-off is development time taking a bit longer, as I’ve needed to do some on-the-fly rewrites and re-rendering to make everything fit together. The post-mortem for this chapter should be interesting.

Still, little headaches aside, I’m having fun. Even if it’s a bit laborious, it’s all a labor of love, and I’m eternally grateful that you folks are all here taking the ride with me. Hopefully I’ll be back here next week, with a little more quantifiable progress to share. 

Until then, take care of yourselves – and thank you for your support!

Hey, friends! Hope you’re all doing well this week! I’m going to keep this a little short, since I’ve gotta be up for work early tomorrow, and it’s getting late here in my neck of the woods.

October’s rapidly slipping away, and I’m still not where I’d like to be, progress-wise. But, Ch16 is currently sitting over 650 images, and I’m trying to get as much butt-in-chair time as I can. I’m still wrestling over whether or not to add a Viola/Molly scene, as it’ll necessarily draw out development time for this chapter, and I’ve already added and tweaked some scenes from their original forms.. But, I’ve also got a spot for it that I kinda like. So, that’s still to be decided.

I got some good feedback last week, vis a vis my idea for dating mini-games. Big thanks to everyone who put in their two cents!

I’ll leave you with that, as I’m kinda nodding off. But, as always: take care of yourselves, and thank you for your support!

Hey, hey friends! Hope all’s well with you and yours, this week! Let’s get into it!

Progress on Ch16 continues, but I don’t have a lot to say about it. I’m still rendering, but pretty soon I’ll need to stop and start working on code for the (overdue) demo for Close Friends. I’m also looking at shuffling a little bit of the story around, to create a gap for some Viola and Molly maid content. But that’s not set in stone, yet.

Since I don’t have anything very interesting to talk about vis a vis Ch16, I wanted to toss out an idea I’ve been kicking around for a while: dates! One thing about Friends Indeed/Friends in Need is that it tends to be very narrative-driven. I’ve always written it a bit like a comic book or a TV show, where there’s an A-plot and a B-plot; or many B-plots. And romance, relationship-building, etc. tend to be kind of incidental to the plots going on.

Like, you might go on a stakeout with Risa, looking for information on Lucien.. But the narrative thrust is really about Lucien and Risa’s relationship to that plot, rather than your relationship with Risa. But, I’ve been getting some feedback concerning how people would like to really feel the developing romantic relationships with certain characters – particularly ones that you’re able to date. And the story is ultimately kind of a relationship simulator.

So, I’ve been mulling over this idea that would allow the player to go on dates, with said dates basically functioning as mini-games. I’m imagining something where you could arrange a date, pick a location, pick an activity, and have a variety of dialogue options, with your choices ultimately affecting how a love interest feels about you.

Maybe you’d tell Nicki you wanted to take her somewhere fancy, causing her to show up in a nice dress.. only to take her to Chesty Cheetahs for dinner, causing her to get annoyed with you. But, based on your relationship with her, maybe you could save the evening! Or maybe you’re planning a park date, and Ashe is into it while Gabby very much isn’t.

I’m also imagining these as being kiiiinda image-light, and being carried by the dialogue. If anyone ever played the old Lesson of Passion games, picture something a bit like that. I think I’d need to experiment with the idea to see how I like it, but I’ve been mulling it for a few weeks now, and it seems like it’d address one of the most common complaints I receive: there’s not enough one-on-one time with the love interests. Let me know what you think!

Finally, I’m a little behind on my Monster Girltober stuff, but I’ll be uploading the new one today.

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

Hey, folks! Hope you’re all doing well this week.

Ch16 is going pretty well! Currently sitting around 550+ images. I built out the Barron Books and Lawful Waffle scenes with a little extra content, which also meant nudging some stuff in the script around. But, so far I’m digging it. It’s especially fun to finally have some characters bouncing off each other, and inhabiting scenes together. There’ll be more and more of that happening as the story continues.

Outside of Ch16, I also started a new project this week, for Wanton Weekends: Monster Girltober! Some folks here know that I used to primarily be a traditional/2D artist, who primarily did stuff like D&D commissions and short comics. When I originally set out to make an AVN, I’d actually planned for it to be 2D/illustrated, only to realize that I just wasn’t a quick enough artist to pull it off. But, I still like to draw when I have time. So, pardon me while I indulge myself, and regular programming will resume next month. Plus, I’ll be dropping a big “Halloween party” image set with all your favorite Friends, on Halloween.

Otherwise, it’s business as usual! Hope you’re all having a great October, and getting into the spooky spirit. I’ve been trying to conjure the spirit of the season by binging Halloween episodes of Bob’s Burgers and American Dad, as well as a few classics like It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and Garfield’s Halloween Adventure. Which makes me wonder: How about you, folks? Is there anything you like to watch, read, or listen to at this time of year?

Drop a comment below, and let me know! And as always, take care of yourselves, and thank you for your support!

Hey, folks! Hope you’re all doing well this week.

First just a heads-up for $15+ supporters. I was planning to get a demo out last week, but I wound up doing some additional tweaks to a scene in Ch16, and just fell down a bit of a rabbit hole. I’ll get it out as soon as I’m happy with it. For anyone who was subbed last month at the $15 level, as usual I’ll be happy to send you a copy of the demo upon request. I’ll reiterate that once said demo’s actually available.

I’m (thankfully) on vacation from my day job at the moment, so I’m hoping to have a very productive week, but we’ll just have to see where things are in a couple weeks.

Besides Ch16 stuff, I’ve been continuing to experiment with doing animations in Daz Studio, which has been kinda fun. I’m not entirely sold on doing animations in Daz, just because the program can be a bit limited in that regard. But, if nothing else I feel like I’m gaining a grasp on the whole process. Once Ch16 is finished, I’m going to do a bit of a deep dive on the animation stuff for a couple weeks.

All in all? Not much to report! I’m just keeping my head down and doing the work. I’ve kinda fallen behind on Wanton Weekends material again, but I thiiiiink I have a weird little idea for this month, that I’d like to do. We’ll see if I can make the time for it.

As always, take care of yourselves – and thank you for your support!

Hey, folks! Hope you’re all doing well this week. My life remains something of a chronic shitstorm, but hopefully next year will bring some relief. For now, I’m just looking to struggle-bus my way through a few crummy months. I’ll try not to let my personal issues affect things here too much, but if the schedule is a bit more erratic than normal (as with this Wednesday Dev Update) that’s why.

I keep having people ask me about the pending Steam build, and my plan remains to get through the next two chapters (16 & 17) and then start working on it. That build will encompass all of Season One, and basically be the final product, minus any DLC I may want to add, later. Quality-of-life improvements will include a gallery system, a character profile section that updates at the end of each chapter to indicate a character’s general disposition/major story events, and proper animations. So, it’s coming. But right now I want to build a little momentum in S2, notably for Pepper, Viola, and Brittani’s storylines.

As for Ch16, development continues. Currently cruising to 400+ images, and doing some pick-up renders for the Barron Books scene. I’m trying to get a new demo build out for $15+ supporters, which will feature some stuff with Alex, the Lawful Waffle, Molly, and the beginning of the Barron Books scene. It should be out tonight.

And I’ve got a vacation from my day job in October, which I plan to use as a bit of a working vacation. I’ll try to make some heavy progress on Ch16. Wish me luck!

That’s it for today, but as always: take care of yourselves, and thank you for your support!