Log inDev Update #343
0.6.7r is currently in beta. Barring any unexpected issues, it should be ready for release at the start of next week, on Subscribe Star, for the $10 tier and up, a week after that for the $5 tiers. a week later on Steam and Itch.
I'll write a proper changelog for the release, but for now... We need to talk about something as important as difficult.
With v0.6.7r come some important changes to the script. Eve is now Jack's cousin, and that will be the only option available to the player. This isn't the story I wanted to tell, but unfortunately, I don't think I have a choice anymore.
With censorship rising, places that were once safe, like Steam and Subscribe Star, do not feel so safe anymore, especially for games like Summer Scent, which partly works on a particular taboo. I don't know what the future holds, but right now, I think my priority should be to protect the game. The development has already been endangered when I got deplatformed from Patreon, and I don't want this to happen again.
I hope this new version of the script will be enough to keep the game safe from censorship.
I know this isn't satisfying for most of you, but I honestly think that survival is at this price. Is it definitive? I do not know. Maybe if the future brightens, maybe if the powerful finally decides that freedom of speech is worth fighting for and that payment processors, or anyone else, shouldn't impose their views on the world. Maybe when the game is complete. Maybe I'll just change my mind in a few months and revert all the edits in a feat of rage. I just don't know.
For now, however, I believe this is our best option.
I would gladly welcome your feedback on this. Positive or negative, I need to hear it.
Thank you for your support. The Naughty Captain.
Verry sad news.
I know. Believe me, it hurts me more than anyone.
You gotta do what you gotta do. This sucks. I won't rant, but I WANT TO! I care about the story enough to prefer to not die on this hill. I recognize that you have to look at this project in a different way from what players do. Keep telling your story. (But it must suck to feel the hands of others clamped over your mouth this way)
Thank you. Itdoesn't feel good, that is for sure, even though I know that this is certainly the best option for the game.
To me, i-themes has never been what draws me to a game. For me, Eve being a cousin could totally work. Or any other major obstacle that the two of them has to overcome.
More important, and problematic, are two things: if being forced to change you story will affect your creative flow, and if the change in story will make you lose supporters.
I don't think the latter is a big issue, most of your fans (at least the vocal ones) seems to focus on the story as I do. So as long as you can find happiness in what you do, I am going to be happy too.
I agree with everything you said. BUT ...what that particular theme brings to the story *for me* is like taking Romeo & Juliet to the extreme. Saying, "We shouldn't be together. Everyone, everywhere knows that. And yet ...we have this connection and level of intimacy that can't be denied." I can't think of another pairing more universally despised by the world. But, like you said, the main thing is the conflict/obstacle resolution that brings out their powerful connection for the reader/player to experience. I'm glad that your comment reminded me of what I like about this story.
In the end, it's just a few hundred words among 350k+. But these words kind of matter. They do not change the story in a radical manner, and I would dare to say that a dimension of the taboo is conserved, in some way, but they definitely change the stakes. I just hope that most will be able to overlook these changes and keep the original story in their hearts and minds.