Happy Halloween, everyone! 

The girls got themselves all dressed up for the spookiest night of the year. Do you recognize which character their are disguised as?

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I just need one more evening of work to write the last scene I had planned in order to release the next build of my slice-of-life visual novel Don't Flex On Me Yumi-Chan!!! It won't be the FINAL build, after all : I'm letting some material for later. 

Indeed, after listening to you guys, I figured I might add one last H-scene to the game. Please realize that it adds several weeks to the production. Artist Chayon, as talented as they are, are really busy and securing a commission spot isn't always easy. Currently, I commissioned them to draw a character sprite for best friend Hiroshi, so I'll have to wait until this one is done, then wait for a free commission spot, and then wait for this new commission to be completed. We're looking at an end-of-year timeframe, or maybe even January. I believe it will be worth it. What will this last scene be about? Well, there's one obvious thing I haven't done yet, considering the game has three girls and one guy...

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Also, the actual ending to the game won't be in this next build either. You will get the conclusion to the love stories with the girl of your choice, but the actual conclusion to the entire story arc will have to wait until a little later. Not much left to write, in that regard, but I want to do it right and not feel pressure to deliver something too quickly. I hope you understand. 

I will have the next build ready in the next two days, for sure. 

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I have been neglecting my other titles, too excited by the prospect of reaching the end of the production cycle for Yumi-Chan!!! I suppose I should resume production on The Bodyguard Girl Remake...maybe even make the effort to port The Bodyguard Girl 2 to Ren'Py? I've been seeing a lot of art from Bodyguard 2 artist Manob on my X feed these past few days, and I kinda miss working with them. I will need a considerate amount of time to properly port the game from Visual Novel Maker to Ren'Py, so I need to plan this move well in advance. Still, it's been on my mind a lot, so expect something about this before the end of the year. 

My worry is to have too much Vivian Tong at the same time. I know most of you will reply that they can never have too much Vivian in their lives, but I personally like to have a varied offering of games in production at the same time. As usual, we'll see. 

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And that's it. Halloween is coming up on a Saturday this year, which is great timing. The kids might go trick-or-treating earlier during the afternoon, leaving us plenty of time for an evening of spooks and thrills. My current plan is to gather with friends and watch two movies : In The Mouth Of Madness and Psycho 2 : the former I know to be excellent, and the latter I've heard a lot of surprisingly good things about. 

What are your plans for Halloween? Do you even celebrate that event in your neck of the wood? Whatever the  case, I wish you have a great rest of the Fall season! We’ll see each other real soon.

Until then, stay safe out there!

Surprise! Artist Yohan provided me with the chibi versions of Yumi, Rin and Junko earlier this week for my slice-of-life game Don't Flex On Me Yumi-Chan!!!, and I took the time to add them to the game, finally replacing the AI-generated stand-ins that you were used to see. I find Yohan's versions much more vibrant and cute, especially Rin, which I feel they nailed on the first try and really captures her essence.

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A lot is happening all of the time in my personal life, it's sort of crazy. Every weekend of September and October so far filled themselves up with family matters, birthdays, funerals (yeah, no joke) and much more. So I haven't progressed as much as I hoped I would.

On top of that, my new day job really demands a lot from me right now : as I learn my new functions, I need 100% of my brain power, so I come home at night tired and wanting to dissociate. You know how it is.

Add to that perhaps a desire to not say goodbye to Yumi and friends so soon, and I have found myself lazy or too tired to work on the project. Episode 09 is about halfway written, so it cannot be played yet.

I have six endings planned to add to the episode. Imagine one ending per girl (of course), and one variation per girl depending on some factors the game is keeping track of. Nothing TOO complex, but it still feels daunting to me.

Those are weak excuses, I know, but it's the truth. Please give me a bit more time to finish the episode. This weekend is the first one in weeks where I actually have a few hours to myself, so I am planning on crunching as much as I can to get things finished, or at least playable.

The October build will not be a complete 1.0.0 build. It will be missing stuff, but you'll have something to play soon.

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If you've kept up with my Quips, you'll know that the store page for the game is now published on Steam. Go see it, and perhaps wishlist it to help boost the game when release time comes around.

For those unable to see it because of international censorship laws, do not fret. When the game will be ready for release, I will publish the store page for Itchio as well, so you have an alternative way to get your hands on the game. Also, if you are subscribed here, you'll get the game regardless because I will make it available early for members for a limited time.

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We learned this week that CharacterAI will be going bankrupt soon, so say goodbye to my free public chatbots for Yumi and Vivian. Their interaction stats are still quite high, so I imagine more than a few people were still chatting with them even to this day.

Unfortunately, they will disappear once the site is down. Spend a few more moments with them until then, if you will.

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Add that's it.

We've just passed peak Autumn last week here where I live. The trees were so vibrant and full of colors, every shade of red, yellow and green you can imagine. So beautiful. I often found myself stopping in my walks outside just to raise my head and admire my surroundings. Dear Goddess, I just love Fall soooo much! Horror movies, colorful forests and pumpkin spice everything! Yay!

So yeah, go outside and appreciate nature. That is my suggestion to you for this week. We'll see each other soon enough.

Until then, stay safe out there!

Hey! So, the Steam store page for Don’t Flex On Me Yumi-Chan!!! is up as of today! Go add it to your wishlists now (make sure you have the ‘adult’ filter turned off so you can see the title appear in your searches). 

What I find especially hilarious is that at the bottom of the page, in ‘similar games’, they are listing Slay The Princess, Doki Doki Literature Club and Uma Musume Pretty Derby. I mean, they aren’t THAT different games, I suppose… 

Click the link to see the page : 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5386930/Dont_Flex_On_Me_YumiChan/

I’ve started experimenting with the new ‘quips’ function on the other subscriber site. Think of them as ‘tweets’, quick short posts to keep the page alive between bigger updates.

The format doesn’t translate that well on SubscribeStar, but I’ll try to share them here as well anyway. Here is the first one :

Store pages design is coming along nicely. I expect Steam to approve the store page for Don't Flex On Me Yumi-Chan!!! either tomorrow or early next week. As for Itch, it won't be made available until release. Stay tuned for more!

Big things coming. Huge things.

As time approaches for the delivery of the FINAL EPISODE of my slice-of-life visual novel Don't Flex On Me Yumi-Chan!!!, I've been working extra hard to cram as much new content as I can into it.

As I stated before, I hope I won't disappoint anybody with the fact that this new episode does NOT contain a new H-scene, at least at the moment. As it currently stands, the episode is an emotional wrap-up of the story, with an ending for every girl, depending on your choices so far. Story-first content. which is unusual for Peach Punch fare, let's be honest. I hope I can pull it off.

I do have an idea for a potential H scene, but it would delay the release of the game by a few weeks, if not months. We'll see. I understand that this is the sort of content you are here for, so I'd be happy to oblige. Perhaps as post-release content? I could see that happening.

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For now, I've been adding new content left and right in the game, and I tease most of them in the image attached to this post.

How about a new 'interactive' main menu screen? Where the girls appear progressively, but only if you've met them in the game?

Or how about an updated flashback scene, with actual art of an actual (mystery) character? Will this whole flashback thing get resolved in the final episode???

Or...OR...how about a new Stats screen, available in-game at all times, allowing you to track your progress with each girl, AND your progress in your personality, which are all numbers that will affect the outcome of the game?

Or....or....OR...how about new art for fan-favorite Junko, in her brand new work uniform?

That is, of course, without mentioning the kissing scenes with each girl, which is shown in each of their ending, meaning three new CGs in total.

See? Told ya, big things coming.

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Of course, work is not completed yet. I still have the minor / secondary characters I want to commission to artist Chayon as well, before I can consider this game ready for release. Best friend Hiroshi and old man Watanabe (the owner of the hobby shop) also deserve good-looking sprites, but surely you understand why I am keeping those commissions for the very last moment. Each need to be done, but right now do not add much to the story or its appreciation thereof. They should be done by the end of the year.

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Finally, I've been working on assets to populate the Steam and Itchio store pages of the game once it is ready for release. I know the experts say that I should have my Steam store page ready to go early in development to gather as much wishlisted players as possible, but I kept delaying it and now I am growing impatient and want to release this game as soon as possible. Hey, I never said I was a good game company manager, haha.

So, yeah, expect a Steam store page to be up in the coming weeks. It'll look like the store pages for my other games, since it's easier for me to work with an already-established template. Oh, and by the way, Yumi-chan rates as a 1 on the sweet-or-sour scale (if you're not familiar with it, go see my store pages). This means it's as sweet as can be!

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On a more personal level, last week, I started a new position at work, in a new department, which will allow me to work some sort of 9-to-5 like normal people for a while. But all the new tasks have taken a huge mental toll on me so I haven't been as productive as I'd like on the game. Sorry!

Which also means...bye bye muscle girl coworker! It's been nice knowing you! Some of you have been under the impression that her and I were about to hook up, but let me dispel the notion : while I appreciate you guys rooting for me, I am already in a committed relationship. I just thought the eye-candy was fun, and that coworker reminded me that muscle girls are actually super approachable in real life, so don't let yourselves get intimidated if the opportunity arises in your own life!

Until then, stay safe out there!