Hiya!~ It's time for another Pembroke Academy Newsletter! We're going to start things off right away with the main news.

The next game's updates are still coming! We've got a lot of episode 1's content updated since the data loss issue we had, and we're now getting the UI systems sorted out for the phone interface. Next after that, we're focusing on the new gameplay for choices to improve those in more meaningful ways, better paced throughout from scene to scene.

We're honestly looking at this content being ready in June, given we're a few days away already. But, we're getting some testing done on the early portions of the episode and we'd like to provide both public and supporters with a taste of how episode 1 feels for the early scenes for both Brandon and Blythe.

So, we'll be providing the public fans with the rest of episode 5's content (same as what supporters currently have access to) and the first two scenes of episode 1 on the same day! We really want to get a broader idea with feedback on how Brandon vs Blythe feels, and we think this should be fair to supporters as well.

Supporters will be receiving the entirety of episode 1's content, for both Brandon and Blythe options. Giving a much more broader scope of how the two protagonist's come across, getting a solid impression of them!

[Additional content bonus - Supporters regardless of tier will get to try out godmode for episode 1. The protagonist receives a strange vision at key moments that briefly allows them to foresee the outcome of their actions, allowing them to witness what would happen in full and deciding that action, or winding back to player choices to witness the other visions. This allows players to witness all content regardless of locked content, ideal for those who prefer to experience all of the game's content in one playthrough. (Routes still have to be played through individually, but all branching paths in said route have the strange visions applied.)]

[Supporters who were active during March - April - May, upon the release of new content, reach out to us directly. We'll put another reminder of this out on the day of releases too. We're offering the next game's content for "free" along with the other mentions above, as our way to make up our delays, but we really hope the content will speak for itself.]

[Writing - Editing - Programming]

I've personally been more busy than I'd like to admit with my new place, making improvements, even chipping two hours into those tasks to get a little done each day. I plan on doing a blog post here sometime in June or July once it's looking really solid. When I'm not focused on those fixes, I've been getting episode 2's content updated for the protag's and other features we're introducing through episode 1.

I think once we share how episode 1 plays, it'll be really exciting! There's some light changes here and there when it comes to the protagonist's personality. Mainly to help bridge the two closer in how they come across generally, but we're trying to twist both protagonist's to have their clear differences through the game too.

Writing scripts are coming along for future content, trying to stay ahead. Editing wise, I feel really terrible because there's been 3 people who reached out to us, and we haven't had the chance to review anything yet.. >.<

I'd like to personally get through those reviews on possible editors, but for the upcoming game content for supporters (episode 1 in whole). That'll be edited to my best knowledge for now, but just keep that in mind as we're in a transition phase to get solid editing going again.

Our programmer's been working heavily on episode 1's content, last update on that was that we're about 75-80% done for the general content. I think the last two scenes are left to add, then it's going through to add the phone interface, gameplay choices, etc!

[CG Art - Sprite Art]

Our CG artists, Ajose and Marxe have been pumping through new art for the game! We recently shared previews focused on Juni and Mika's characters, planned for branching paths in Miki's route. 

Marxe has been working on finishing up Juni's 2nd CG, so we'll get previews of that early into June once he wraps those up. Ajose has been working on Mika's 2nd CG, but it's still very early into that one right now. 

I think once we wrap those ones up, we'll mix it up very lightly with making sure earlier episodes CG art isn't missing anything. I know off the top of my head, there's 2-3 CG scenes maybe that need updated for one reason or another, but we're trying to lightly mix those into the work flow with our priority on brand new CG art.

Lisa's been staying ahead on sprite stuff this month! Sadly the recent work isn't anything we can fully share previews of yet, but as the story unfolds. We'll share the full sprite works of these, it's been a long time coming, but it'll probably be best we handle it carefully so we don't overload how to even process it. :P

She's gotten 3 sprite related things done for May, and we'll be wrapping up work on those things related to story sometime in July. We'll probably get another more public thing we can share for previews out for June though! (Probably spring festival idol outfits for the main cast.)

Below is our estimated dates for the next two releases, v0.24 in June, and v0.25 in July.

[Game Update/Release Date]
V0.23 - June 15th (Public Version)
V0.24 Demo - June 15th (Public Version)
V0.24 - June 15th (Support Version)

 [Game Update/Release Date]
V0.24 - July 25th (Public Version)
V0.25 - July 25th (Support Version)

(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}---

I'd like to personally thank everyone with our recent voting poll a while back! The results were very interesting!

The majority of fans seem to prefer a middle-ground approach with how the written content is handled. We originally asked, because in recent times, looking at later parts of episode 5. We can see a preference for more descriptive prose, which I even struggled with, because it was slipping through too often between dialogue heavy moments.

Compare that to how episode 1 is written in pacing currently, and it's like night and day. A lot more dialogue heavy, with very little prose, etc. So, both approaches have their pros and cons, but I think we have a good idea on how to handle writing moving forward. I've been trying to study more VN's and breakdown the pacing of their scenes, how they function, and overall help improve the flow of the writing so that it doesn't get too wordy.

The points where it'd make sense, is during certain CG scenes that are stretched out. But, I've went through and tried to fix episode 1 up a little bit better for the script, so we should get a good overall impression of how the game will feel moving forward through the episode. <3

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