Dev Update! 4/15/24

Hey, hey friends! Hope you're all doing well this week! My part of the midwest apparently decided to skip Spring and go right into Summer. So, today I had to spend three hours hacking away at overgrown foliage, trying to get my yard in order. May have gotten a tiny bit of a sunburn.. Ah well!
Quick status update: Renders stand around 875 at the moment. All of Alex's content for the update is done, after I finished it up today. Risa's content is getting there. I'm currently a bit mired in her ero scenes, but I'm getting through them. The goal is to get all of Risa's scenes finished, and get into Mason's scenes, before month's end.
At present, I'm thinking I'll be putting out another $15 play-tester update in the next couple of weeks, and the actual, finished Chapter 9 update in May. I'm doing all I can to expedite the release, without compromising on quality and substance. I know it's a constant refrain with me, but my initial plans for the release grew a bit, and I wound up in the weeds. Longtime supporters know how I am. :'D I can only apologize, and try to make sure the wait is worth it.
In some general life-as-a-dev news, I had to pay my taxes for 2023 recently, and they came out to a whopping $6,500+ -- ouch! While nobody likes having less money than they did before the taxman came calling, I really just have to thank all of you folks. Because the only reason I have such a big tax bill, is because you've all supported me over the past two years. So, from the bottom of my heart: thank you! I couldn't do it without your support.
(But, in the future just mail me an envelope with cash.. Kidding IRS agent, kidding!)
Besides my obligations to the US government, and general nose-to-the-grindstone news, I don't have much to report! Chapter 9 is getting ever-closer to completion with each scene I finish, and it's feeling more and more real. This'll be a substantial update, touching a lot of characters. So, bear with me as I muddle through it.
Finally, for something a little different.. I think most people know I like comic books. Guy/MC's nerdy proclivities are very much based on my own, and the game is full of little nods to comics and characters I love. Soooo, I thought it'd be fun to give a little recommendation here at the end of the Dev Update, to share something I'm interested in, which you folks may also enjoy. I'm not being paid for this, mind you. I just like this stuff and want to share it. 
So, this week I'm recommending.. Empowered! Empowered is the story of Empowered/Emp, a girl who discovered a regenerating super-suit which gives her amazing powers -- but, it's profoundly thin and fragile. As a result, she often winds up in a state of undress, and forced to outsmart whatever villain she's had the misfortune of running up against.
Fun Fact: Empowered first began as a series of bondage fetish drawings which artist/writer Adam Warren was commissioned to do, showing a stereotypical lady superhero in peril. But, over time he began to envision a story which could be built around this hapless heroine, and Empowered was born!
The first volume or two is pretty much fun cheesecake-y action, but over time the series tackles issues like race, sexism, dysphoria, and PTSD. But, it never forgets what it is, and always finds its way back to the story of a good-hearted heroine who inevitably ends up half-naked.
If you'd like to check it out, you can purchase it at all finer stores, or digitally, via Dark Horse Comics.
Now, my brain's pretty well cooked after the day I've had, so I'm going to go flop into bed. But, as always take care of yourselves -- and thank you for your support!