[~Pembroke Academy Newsletter #7 (Public)~]

Brief reminder: There's two versions of our newsletters! (Support) is the latest news for active supporters. (Public) is intended for fans of the game who aren't actively supporting our Subscribestar page. <3
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---{Section 1 - February's Upcoming Content}---

Welcome to our 7th newsletter! In our previous one, we shared some teasers for the upcoming content expected for the public release!

We won't be sharing much for teasers in today's newsletter, since we don't want to spoil everything coming in February's game update/release. ^^"

While the current public version of the game is labeled as "v0.22 (demo 2)" we're making the support exclusive release called "v0.23" and so with that, we're trying to get rid of the "demo" mentions in the title, because we feel its giving people the wrong impression that our updates recently are nothing more than tiny demos.. ^^"

So, with February's update. The public version will simply be called "v0.22" and the support version will be "v0.23" and we'll be back on track once again for how we title our updates. Sorry if there's been any confusion along the way. <3

v0.22 will feature the addition of the missing gymnastic club scenario in episode 5, which has two split paths and unique flashbacks for two characters involved. Written content wise, the content is around 17,000-18,000 word count. There's no new CG scene art in this update, but v0.23 gets the ball rolling once again with that.

---{Section 2 - New Development Approach}---

Shifting gears for a moment, we asked our fan base as a collective earlier in the month, how we should approach releasing content moving forward. This boiled down to two approaches. (Keep in mind the mentions below refer to the latest content for supporters, but the same applies to our public releases.)

(Approach #1) - Continue with episode 5 content > episode 1 QoL > episode 2 QoL > etc. A more hyper focused method.

(Approach #2) - Alternate content. February being a continuation of episode 5's content > March being entirely focused on episode 1 QoL (female protag) content > April shifting our focus back to finish episode 5's content up > May shifts back to episode 1 QoL to finish that content, leading into a alternating shift between one month is earlier episodes QoL + female protag content, while the other month would be some route content + female protag.

Many of you expressed how approach #2 is more ideal to the majority of our fan base, and so we're willing to give it a try! We'll ask everyone in a follow-up voting poll sometime in March after the release of v0.24, if this approach feels ideal, or if the majority feels that we should shift back to approach #1 instead.

We understand there's a lot of demand for the female protagonist's implementation and so we're going to fully focus our development efforts throughout February into March to see how much content we can get ready for v0.24 (March's content) <3

I'd like to apologize once again for how delayed its been to get the female protagonist (Blythe) into the game. It wasn't intentional to push it back this far, and we're hoping by course correcting with the new approach, that what we have to showcase in March will be well worth it!

---{Section 3 - Monthly Goal + Live2D}---

Moving along, I'd also like to announce that during January, we hit our $1,500usd funding goal!~

Thank you everyone for continuing to support our development team through 2026! We honestly hope to see our monthly funding increase into February and beyond little by little!

We have big plans with increased funding, right now we've been pouring the majority of what we receive into CG scene art creation and a little bit into Live2D. The later is only to get Miki's sprite character art complete first, test it all out in Ren'py in a makeshift sandbox scene of sorts.

From there, we'd like to provide this very same sandbox scene in the hands of the fans. That way you can all directly interact with Miki's Live2D elements, cycle through her outfits, test out her expressions, and most of all... test out her diaper, fart, and stink visual effect animations for yourself!

Our hope with providing a interactive experience in-game for how Miki turns out with Live2D, is that it'll possibly help attract more monthly support. Live2D is pretty costly, and our game features 60+ characters in the cast, granted some have more outfits or layers to work with than others. So, that affects the prices involved, but we hope by showcasing how Miki looks in-game, that will encourage more monthly support towards seeing the entire game transformed with Live2D.

Beyond sprite character art being animated with Live2D, we're discussing about having the title screen illustration art animated with Live2D as well! That will take some throughout 2026, but if fans are hyped about Live2D in general... The more funding we receive along the way, the more we can tackle in these aspects! ^^

It would be really neat to see CG scene art animated using Live2D in the future possibly, but that's more of a hopeful wish for now. ^^" One step at a time to first see how much hype there is with Miki's sprite, before we get too carried away.

---{Section 4 - CG Art Announcement}---

Regarding CG scene art, I do have a big announcement.

Ajose who stepped down early in 2025 for various reasons, many of which I only fully came to realize recently after they reached out to me after being away for nearly a year. It's a lot of personal stuff I won't cover on their behalf of privacy, but I completely understand now why they stepped down at the time. >.<

Ajose has returned to the team to help CG scene art once more!~

After chatting with him recently, we came to some agreements on how to proceed and so they've been working on brand new CG scene art and showing early previews for that in the past week or so.

The way Ajose & Marxe worked together in the past, is that Ajose handled the drawing phases, while Marxe did the backgrounds + rendering/coloring phases to complete the CG art.

Moving forward, Ajose will be doing drawing phases still like he did before. But, Marxe will be doing both drawing phases and everything else too!

This means we'll be able to get more CG art done on a monthly basis. Ajose is working on a future CG scene right now, while Marxe is working on a updated CG scene for episode 4. Once Ajose has the future CG scene's drawing phase done, Marxe will dive into finishing that up after they complete the episode 4 one they're currently working on.

In short, both artists are handling drawing phases on two entirely different CG scenes at the same time. Marxe is still the one who finishes CG art for backgrounds + rendering/color phases, but this process speeds things along quicker than it has in the past. ^^

Expect more CG art previews into February and beyond as a result! <3

---{Section 5 - Dev Team Mentions}---

Writing - Editing - Programming

I probably should've added this to its own section above.. ^^" Our editor has decided to step down from the project, more for personal reasons as their day job has taken up more time lately and with less free time outside of work and other priorities, they've simply decided to take a bow.

It's rough to see them step down, but I do understand why they're doing it.

I'll most likely begin looking for another editor in February, so if you've got a history with grammar correctness and editing in general, reach out and let us know! For the most part, it shouldn't involve a ton of grammar correcting or massive editing, as my writing and own editing has improved over the past few years. ^^"

But, I like the idea of having another pair of eyes to catch silly mistakes or make adjustments that fly over my head no matter how many passes I do myself. Just in general, its nice to have someone else involved in that sense.

With that out of the way, recently writing, editing, and programming efforts have fully shifted work on episode 1's content entirely as we enter February. The main thing this past week or so has been focused around is making sure I have a solid outline of what's being done to each scene that makes up episode 1.

Scene 1 for example doesn't require a ton of work needed, but scene 2 when the protag and buddies meet their teacher and are introduced to the rules, etc. That scene has John being replaced with Tara as a teacher, so there's new dialogue in general, along with the phone interface being introduced at this fitting point, and some other stuff.

So, it's a mix at times for how much work is involved on a written scene for the QoL additions/fixes.

We're going into all of that with everything laid out just right, and so far, so good! ^^ Episode 1 is made up of roughly 8 written scenes that make up around 22,000 word count. We expect the total size of this episode to increase upwards to around 30,000-35,000 word count by the time we're finished with it.

Much of that is fitting additions, as there's two new scenes added between existing scenes, fixes and updates to existing scenes in the writing as episode 1 is showing its quality lately in comparison to recent content. ^^" Overall, a lot of stuff being done to where even if you're not interested in the female protagonist as a playthrough, we'll have a healthy mix of stuff from new written content, updated CG visuals + new variant/outcomes, and much more for everyone to enjoy! <3

Programming wise, they're wrapping up episode 5 - scene 8's needs and we'll begin testing by next week, polishing it up and having it ready for release in February!

CG Art - Sprite Art - Live2D

I've already covered a bit about the CG art above in section 4 with Ajose's return, but recently with Ajose being back. They've been working on a future CG scene planned to be seen later in route content that'll involve Karissa, one of the few teachers at Pembroke Academy that we met during episode 3.

Concept previews for that to come in February! :P

While they've been working on that, Marxe has been working on updating a CG scene that's meant for episode 4, but I don't think we've ever added that into the game? It'll involve Rachel, but we'll also see concept and finished previews for that during February too!

Much of our CG scene art efforts moving forward will be a balance between brand new CG art for the route content, with a few existing CG scenes being updated sprinkled in. Much of that will mostly be related to the addition of the female protagonist, given we've been trying to stay far ahead on CG art having both versions for the protagonists.

I believe there's two scenes mainly that need updated for episode 3 & 4, but expect to see a lot of brand new CG art moving forward!

Lisa, our sprite artist has been working on something interesting that we're almost ready to reveal! It'll be in the first half of February to showcase the previews for the character, and we hope it'll be exciting!

Lately, it's been awkward for sprite art, because a lot of what we've been working on is heavily spoiler related for the story itself. :S When I say that, I mean it'd easily bring with it a ton of questions without any context and even then, it'll take time to reveal stuff within the game.

That said, we're trying to strike a balance to have a bit more to showcase for remaining sprite art that isn't heavily story related spoilers, so February and beyond should really show off a good bit of fun stuff coming! ^^

I've already covered a ton in section 3 about the Live2D stuff, but the artist involved with that has Miki's idle animation done, her diaper animations/transitions, magical girl outfit, and currently working on the school and gym uniforms for Miki.

There's some of Miki's bra and underwear layers still, her casual outfits, pajamas and I believe that'll wrap up her outfit layers to be animated still. Then, expressions and we expect Miki's Live2D to be done during February.

It might not be until late February into March before we begin testing her out in Ren'py and getting the sandbox scene together, but we'll keep everyone updated along the way!

(Also fart visual effects are animated, with stink line visual effects to be animated soon too. Its just that those aren't linked directly to Miki only, as those will be called upon behind any character in-game to showcase those visuals.)

---{Section 6 - Release Roadmap}---

Lastly, we have our expected roadmap for upcoming game update - releases! We decided with the approach to alternate content on a monthly basis, mentioned in section 2 above. v0.22 for the public will be in February, and for the public.. March will be a continuation of episode 5's content, but after that, the alternating content would affect the public releases too.

Below is how that'd look.

[Game Update/Release Date]
v0.22 - February 14th.

(v0.22 adds the gymnastics scenario choices and flashbacks to continue episode 5.)

[Game Update/Release Date]
v0.23 - March ??.

(v0.23 adds scene 8 - Reunion at the Track Field, continuing episode 5's content.)

[Game Update/Release Date!]
v0.24 - April ??.

(v0.24 adds episode 1 QoL additions + fixes, the main thing being female protag being playable. But new gameplay choices and some new CG art, systems introduced, etc.)

After April, May would return to episode 5 content, then June is continuing episode 1 content, alternating until it's route content and earlier QoL content being done every other month. Below is our outline for what's ahead for content!

(v0.23 will consist of the continuation of episode 5, providing scene 8 - Reunion at the Track Field. 18,000 word count in total + 6 default CG scene variants - 30 additional variants based on two different accident outcomes involved.)

(v0.24 will consist of episode 1 QoL additions/fixes, providing at least scenes 1-4. Half of the entire episode, which should come out to around 18,000 word count in total + 4 default CG scene variants for each protagonist's gender, 8 in total. Possibly an optional CG scene involving a character being introduced early in the episode as well, but that isn't confirmed at this time. New gameplay systems added, new player choices that impact events, and more!)
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---{Closing Statements}---

I'd like to personally thank everyone once more for not only helping us knock out our $1,500 funding goal during this month, but also for being so very patient with us during 2025 leading up to this point.

We've been managing to provide steady content on a monthly basis since November 2025 again, and while there is some tiny stuff we'd like to improve on with the process each month in development. We more or less have figured out what our limits are, for what we can get done and provide for expected content.

I'd say we ended 2025 with decent updates, but there was a lack of enticing CG art involved. That's something we're also looking to improve with February's release forward, so we can at least have a new CG scene included with new content every month when possible. <3

We'd like to continue engaging with all of you amazing fans through our voting polls and other posts, so we hope we'll see more feedback and suggestions, comments in general, etc. ^^ We always make the time to reply to everyone, and if you're a shy person. We respect that too! You're always welcome to reach out to us through private messages and we'll uphold your privacy.

Thanks everyone, until our next newsletter, stay awesome!~
-Messy Studios