Log in[~Pembroke Academy Newsletter #9 (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 - Recent Events & Release Plans}---
This was a bit delayed due to recent Subscribestar TOS updates and other happenings going on IRL lately. So, firstly I apologize for not only the lack of a newsletter since last month, but also the lack of posts in general on here.
If you are just now learning about it, earlier this month.. Subscribestar had a few things going on and the short of it is.. Heading into March, they first started doing manual reviews of posts being made on their platform, which brought concerns that were rightfully justified as we'll get to in a second.
Anyone on the platform making a new post would see a message above their post, saying something along the lines of "Your post is under review, this may take between 15 minutes to 3-4 hours before being approved." and supposed this review process has quietly faded away in the past week based on other claims from creators on the platform.
Not long after that started, Subscribestar was doing updates to their site and this caused issues with supposedly wiping billing info from user's accounts, and a overall lack of general updates and news from them to let creators know what exactly was going on, so we could better inform supporters.
Then, shortly after that mess.. They announced a little over a week ago, that there's new TOS updates and new definitions for what content is allowed on their platform. While our game project doesn't seem to be in the middle of the spotlight, as we don't focus on many of the things they updated..
Our concern is with the definitions added for aged up characters, or childish clothing, and similar mentions could possibly be applied to abdl related content? And we've been through the Patreon purge of late 2023, when many other abdl creators on that platform suddenly woke up one day with zero warning or heads up. They simply said one day "Eyup, we were fine with this stuff up until we decided to change it."
Sooo, I think I speak for many.. That we're trying to walk a fine line on how we approach new posts on Subscribestar for the time being, hence our lack of posts this month to be safe and see how things are proceeding within creator circles.
We're going to slowly roll out posts and get caught up for this month, but we're going to play it safe when it comes to art related preview posts. We'll begin putting together a method for supporters who have their Discord linked to their Subscribestar account, to access special channels in our Discord server to see these art related posts or screenshots, etc.
But, it's still too early for us to take more risk than that right now until we confirm what direction Subscribestar is leaning into.
There's some hopes that in the past week shortly after they had mentioned these new TOS and lightly backpedaled, they added a wallet feature. So, you can now purchase points through a number of options to load your wallet up on Subscribestar, then use that for subscriptions.
Which might be a way to circle around card companies demands, as it's very clear they're the prime reason for Patreon, Itch, Subscribestar, you name it.. They're the ones causing platforms to fall in line with not allowing X, Y or Z content.
I know some people might say X, Y and Z content isn't their thing or good riddance. I don't entirely agree with certain content either, but the problem in the grander scope with that logic is that, right now it's just X, Y and Z. A year from now, card companies can decide on the flip of a hat, "Actually, we don't want A, B and C content either. Follow our demands or we withdraw our services from your platform."
Aaand just like that, in time.. Less and less expressive freedom in creative fields dies and people will wonder "How'd it get to this point?"
Granted, is there much that we the people can do against this? I mean.. Not really, in the past there was a UK petition for this very thing and I think it ended up becoming the 2nd highest petition brought to their parliament, and they pretty much just made a tiny address of it and threw it out. (Which is common from the sounds of it for anything over there being petitioned and brought to their system for review.)
Crypto is always brought up as well, but talking with other creators in the dev circles. There's a case where someone makes $10,000 a month from their game, and they said even with a 30% discount offered when using crypto for your subscription.. Crypto payments account for 3% of their overall income.
If everyone woke up tomorrow and didn't have any option besides crypto payments, would they adapt and lean into the steps involved? Sure, maybe! But it doesn't seem very promising, and from past experience in the field myself over the past 6 years of game development. I can easily see that many people who do choose to support creators, the more steps involved in the process to pay a creator.. The less likely those people are willing to go out of their way and do it.
Sorry for starting this with a wall of text already.. ^^" Overall, there's a lot going on just with Subscribestar recently in the past 2-3 weeks and it's still on-going, so we highly suggest if you aren't part of our Discord server or following us on Twitter. Now might be the time, just in case we find ourselves in a Patreon situation waking up to our page being gone, etc.
Moving along, recently I've also been dealing with my new place that was purchased early this year, and no it isn't anything super fancy or a regular house, etc. It's technically a mobile home with a lanai that adds some extra room to work with, just perfect sizing for one or two people to live in. (Considering my best friend to come move here and be my roommate to help split costs.)
The place has a monthly lot fee to upkeep, otherwise the only bill outside of that is for internet and that's around $50-60usd per month. The place itself was $5,000usd and even that was covered by my Dad, as he's been trying to find me a place not far from them, etc.
(Just explaining it a little, not to give off the impression I have a ton of income coming in or making massive purchases, etc. ^^" I still take about maybe 10-15% of the project's monthly funds as my own income for writing and other work involved.)
The new place needed some updates and fixes made, which started last month, but we quickly ran into a flea infestation issue.. A pest control guy came out last month to spray inside and out, followed by vacuuming daily on my part as instructed and finally the fleas are nearly 100% gone!
I haven't even stayed over there once overnight yet since owning the place, but in the coming days into this weekend. I'll begin moving my stuff over, and getting settled over there.
It's been a very busy March, and with all of this mentioned.. I really hate to admit this openly, because we were doing so well since November for back to back, monthly game releases.. >.< The next game releases that were planned for this month, will be pushed into April.
This will be v0.24 for supporters and v0.23 for the public.
This extra time until April won't be wasted though! While it is true, I've been juggling a lot here recently this month.. We're still getting a lot done on episode 1's QoL additions and female protagonist being playable, it's just that we clearly need a few more weeks into April to properly give ourselves the needed time to ensure this content isn't rushed.
At this time we don't have a exact date set for these releases in April, but we're estimating somewhere around April 18-19th as our rough goal with where we're sitting right now.
We'll also be trying to make up for this delay, offering all supporters from this month with early access to v0.24 beta content. <3
---{Section 2 - Dev Team Mentions}---
Writing - Editing - Programming
We've been chugging along, but as mentioned above. I have to fully admit that other events here lately into this month has been affecting work on my behalf, and I'm trying to make the most of my free time in-between everything else to keep the flow between me and the programmer looking ideal.
We also have no editor right now, and we've been working on finding a replacement with at least two people interested. I plan on getting around to looking over what they've sent me this weekend and hopefully have a new editor on board!
Progress on episode 1 has been really nice despite the setbacks! We haven't had a ton of feedback on recent content lately, but we get the impression that a lot of recent content in the later half of episode 5 feels too text heavy? Dialogue is a given, but descriptive prose on the other hand has gotten out of hand?
We're trying to strike a better balance so that dialogue is the main driving factor naturally, but dialogue shouldn't be broken up with more than 3 text boxes of prose, outside of some exceptions with CG moments or if it really fits, like setting up a scene and even then, we're trying to handle those better.
If you have personal thoughts on the writing in recent game releases, please let us know! <3
CG Art - Sprite Art - Live2D
Thankfully for our art team, things have been proceeding without fail! Ajose has finished work on the recent Juni CG and so Marxe is now in the coloring phase for that! We'll see concept previews for this soon, probably off platform? But we're trying to play things safe as things unfold.
While Marxe is finishing work on Juni's first CG scene for her branching path. Ajose is now starting work on Mika's first CG scene for her branching path!
I think fans will be pretty amazed with how these turn out, because these are leaning more into sexual acts taking place and despite how rushed they might seem without context. We're keeping track of notes for these future moments in-game, and already have the context laid out for why these characters are doing what they do.
Mika more so, as she's happily married and loyal to her husband, so I really had to consider every angle for the CG scene she's involved in and make sense of why someone like that would be involved with the protagonist, how she justifies it and hopefully it'll land the mark! :P
Moving along into sprite art, Lisa has given me the final .psd file for Charlotte's redesign. We already shared a near complete preview for all of her outfits and everything, but we'll probably do one more that includes her student report (bios summary) and expression sheet, etc!
Lisa has begun work on official uniforms for the characters Primrose, Tara, Karissa, and Nurse Bell! These uniforms are similar to how students have their uniforms during classes and activities during the weekdays. We only have early previews for how Primrose's uniform looks so far, but as we get more previews here by the end of this month, we'll be sure to share all of those with you guys too! ^^
Live2D stuff is at a stand still, mainly we're working on paying off the work done for Miki recently and this will be a on-going process into Summer. We're still allowed to test her out in Ren'py and have access to some of her files so far, but it'll take some time before we have her fully in-game and functioning to showcase exactly what to expect from Live2D in the game.
(Assuming we can realistically fund Live2D for the entire game.)
---{Section 3 - Release Roadmap}---
Below is our expected dates for the next two releases, v0.24 in April, and v0.25 in May.
[Game Update/Release Date]
v0.24 - April 18-19th (Estimated date - Proper date announced at start of April.)
[Game Update/Release Date]
v0.25 - May ?? (No estimated date yet.)
(v0.24 will consist of episode 1 QoL additions/fixes, providing many scenes. Around 18,000 word count in total or better + new CG art added, some old CG art being updated with new art and variants. Female protagonist playable, new gameplay systems added, new player choices that impact events, and more!)
(v0.25 should consist of either the last two scenes for episode 5's content to finish that up, or continuing with episode 2's QoL content. We'll be asking fans and supporters directly upon the release of v0.24, if there's a majority that wants us to continue with QoL stuff at that time, or if taking a break to finish episode 5 feels better to people. We're trying to engage with everyone on this and do the best approach! <3 )
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---{Closing Statements}---
Despite the setbacks this month and happenings going on, we're still doing our best to keep things promising every month forward through 2026! We're not too happy with the delay for v0.24's content, but I know we'd just be adding a ton more work later down the road if we don't give ourselves the proper time now to make sure episode 1 is handled correctly the first time on these QoL additions.
We'll keep everyone updated on the Subscribestar situation too as the days, or weeks proceed forward. Consider joining our Discord or following our Twitter pages below as backup areas to stay updated in case we suddenly lose access to Subscribestar. <3
Discord Server Invite
https://discord.gg/UgkUnd5cEV
Twitter Page
https://x.com/MessyStudios1
Thanks everyone, until our next newsletter, stay awesome!~
-Messy Studios
