November Development Update

It's been so long since the last time I did a general update outside of the dev blog that I'm not totally sure what to call this thing. After staring at a blank screen for a while, this is what I came up with. Super creative, I know.

The first thing I want to do is give a bit of an update on myself. I tend to assume you're here for my games and not for me, so I try to keep personal news to a minimum outside of the circumstances that directly affect development (like the recent time I've spent out of town). If you haven't been keeping up with the dev blog, that happened again recently, with today being my first full day back home.
I want to say things are going to go back to normal for what I hope is the rest of the year (or at least until I get v0.19 out), but after how much I was away from home in October, scrambling to get v0.18 done, and now being gone for what feels like the entire first half of November (even though it was really only the last week or so), I find myself quite thoroughly exhausted. Both due to my personal social obligations and... let's say "other newsworthy events that I have no intention of discussing publicly." I absolutely want to get back to work, but I also feel like I need to take a few days to sleep it off.

The next thing I want to do is take a minute to appreciate those of you here. I've actually been meaning to do a bit of a "supporter appreciation post" for a while now, but I haven't been able to think of something to do besides just saying "thanks." If there's something you'd like to see, leave a comment. No promises, but if I can give you a little bonus between now and v0.19, I'm happy to do it. 
Even if you just stop by every so often to see all the "join to unlock" buttons, or joined as a free member so you can get the public updates. I won't pretend I'm not biased towards those of you that give me money - I absolutely am - but all of you really do keep me going. 
Finding motivation has grown increasingly difficult as I struggle to grow big enough to be able to actually support myself. I know the general sentiment is that updates are worth waiting for and you want me to take the time to do it right (which I appreciate in ways I can't fully express), but I hold myself to those standards for my own sake, too. If I let myself relax too much, I tend to stress myself out over not doing enough, even if it's at the end of a 90-hour week. I think I'll stop myself from waxing poetic about what your support means to me, but it absolutely means a lot.

Now to step away from all that sap and actually talk about development. 
I didn't put nearly as much fanfare into talking about it as I did with ending Act 1, but v0.18 marks the end of Act 2. The next update, v0.19, is going to function as an interlude before v0.20 kicks off Act 3.
That's right. We're in the endgame now.
v0.19 is going to be on the smaller side as far as Freeze updates go, since there's only four Maids that weren't around for a previous Freeze, but it'll also be the interlude that bridges Act 2 and Act 3.
It's hard to say exactly how long that'll take me to develop, but at least as a general time frame, I want to get it out before the end of the year. Where exactly the release date lands will depend on a whole pile of factors, especially since there's a growing list of minor changes and fixes that I've been neglecting.
The same goes for updates v0.20 and beyond. Act 3 is going to happen in two main chunks, and my gut instinct is to try and keep those chunks as coherent as possible. Given the first chunk will be doing a number of things I've never done before, v0.20 is likely to be the whole first half of Act 3 in a single update. The second half I think I can split into two updates, but those could still end up being fairly large updates that might take well over a month to develop before considering outside factors, like spending more weeks busy with family.
I want to be as open and honest about that as possible, because while the poll said you're all happy to wait as long as it takes for me to finish an update, two or three months still feels like a little too long of a wait. Especially considering the first few updates came out two or three weeks apart.
Regardless, I'm excited to be approaching the end of the story and reaching a point where I can call my first full game complete. It's been a hell of a journey, and I'm glad I get to share it with you.