December 5th 2023: Progress Report and Year In Review
Heeello everyone, Rem here with this month's and this year's last major Progress Report!!!!
Can you believe it's already Decemeber? BECAUSE I CAN'T
It feels like two weeks ago I moved to this apartment at the start of summer and now it's all cold and the year is almost over and oh gosh oh god.
Anyway, let's talk about what has happened since the last Progress Report! Sachinama has been working like a madman (once again (once again)) and has since finished two of the CGs (Evade and Map) for not only P Cup variations but also completed redoing the art for new body and facial variations, and then to top it off renewed all the facial variations for the default combat CG. The Map CG being the most extensive renewal then and now and forever because it was the first CG made for Karryn, and also the one that is being seen most of the time since it's literally the only CG outside of combat. Now Karryn is much more expressive and reactive to what's on the map with new pose and facial variations, thank you Sachinama!!!
As for things outside of CG, if you haven't been following us AT ALL on any other media, then our partnership with Lovense has continued with their latest male masturbator toy, Solace and unique code has been appended to the existing Lovense Implementation to make the Solace's thrusting mechanism more immersive ingame!!
And now finally the end this year's last Progress Report... some of you, probably only a very rare few of you since I myself don't even fully remember when I first said it, but I think it was either last year (most likely last year) or the start of the year, that I mentioned we will be publishing another eroge slated for this year. Unfortunately it seems like we won't make it in time for 2023, BUT
Our good friends at Cursed Atelier has been working hard with us for over a year and it is finally almost ready with just but some final tests from my end!! Hopefully this time Steam will not out right ban the game, but come heaven or hell, we will announce the game as soon as Steam makes a decision! That announcement post will probably be the real last post of 2023!
Which... makes this post a bit too short as a farewell to 2023 as the last Karryn's Prison related post isn't it? I was originally going to end the post with the last paragraph, but let's keep going on!!!! It's only 1AM here anyway, who cares about sleep!!!!!
Let's do a year in review, especially since I haven't been posting here weekly like I used to before for years and years, even back when we were on Patreon, and back before Karryn's Prison was even in development.
What was this year? Personally... this year was... interesting...? Question mark? New?? New? How to put my 2023... Hmmm... Interesting and new... because my vocabulary suddenly can't do any better right now, maybe because it is 1AM, or maybe because I haven't played anything in over a week while coding up all the latest update, which btw is now out on all platforms so come check out Sachinama's beautiful artwork for Karryn in combat and on the map!!!
The year if I recall correctly, started out with me worrying about how to proceed with the Gym DLC, and getting stuck in the mental mud and not being able to advance and the Stray Pubes DLC being made and released in meantime. Then I decided I will just take a break for at least a month iirc, and within the first week of the break, Sachinama notified me that though he had previously said I would be unable to visit him in Japan because family circumstances, an opportunity had opened up for only a few weeks. Even before that, during the first week of the break I had touched some grass! Even saw some Pussy (Willow)!! Saw my first NYC Broadway show despite living here my whole life!!
And then when I heard there's a chance to intrude myself into Sachinama's living space and once again be in the physical presence with Sachinama, the first time since Covid, and the first time since Karryn's Prison was finished, well... how can I not. In less than a week, I had to prepare and get ready to fly to Japan once again, very Déjà vu of the first time I went to Japan to meet Sachinama, which was also the first time and only time I had met Sachinama and also the first time I flew on a plane as an adult and to out of the USA. Unlike the first time, which was essentially a business trip, this time was more for getting out of the mental funk I was in, and to finally see Sachinama in person again after several years.
Laughs were had. Cheers, awe, anticipation, disappointment, fun, argument, terror, fear, apologies, naked schnegians plural, growing up, the meaning of life and universe, leaving a picture of Karryn in a temple, posing in front of a Tenga store. Making a noisy scene in the middle of a crowded adult store about how if we had made physical copies of Karryn's Prison then I could've gotten a picture of the box inside an adult store. The absolute terrible state of american airlines experience for overseas travel compared to european/asian airlines, jet lag.
Then returning back home after a magical week whisked away to Japan and feeling strange for a few minutes stepping back into the home I grew up in. I decided we will just release the Gym DLC as is, so we did.
A bit of time passes, and we decided to do a few update for Karryn's Prison in the form of the H Cup Variation, which to this day I think both Sachinama and I can agree that Sachinama worked on it way way too hard because Sachinama finished it in a month.
I decided to go for the next step of my life, and for a change of scenery, and move out to an apartment in the city and begin solo apartment life.
And finally we're now currently on the P Cup Variation, which ended up not only having the work for making P Cups, but work for rebuilding the various foundations for Karryn to be even be able to support P Cups and as side quest also end up currently redoing all the facial variations for the oldest CGs.
I think this year can be interpreted as adding more minor pieces to Karryn in a way that doesn't affect the core of the game, because to me, Karryn's Prison has been finished. From beginning to end, I had a vision for KP, and I never strayed from that vision with one exception of redoing the Passive system because during the iterative process of game development, I realized it needed to be redone. But otherwise, KP had always been the game I set out to create from the day it was born.
A mix. An eroge. An eroge of elements of grand strategy games that I loved, of elements of buildcrafting and theorycrafting that I loved, of roguelikes that I loved, of the back then and arguably still rudimentary concept of negative passive states imposed upon a female strong heroine, of the concept of battle fuck games, of a protagonist that would never be the main heroine in a standard multiple heroine eroge, and then mix and boil it all together.
I think, another interpretation of this year, might also be my own shortcomings and limitations. Someone else better, probably could've resolved the issue of the Gym DLC better. Maybe even started fully working a new game by now. Or decide to make DLCs or updates that fundamentally changes how Karryn's Prison work. You know, the popular fan demands and requests like adding pregnancy and what not. But I'm me, and what happened has happened, and I still continue to refuse to touch the core of the game that we worked so hard for years to build and realize, regardless of it seems flawed to some, and not reaching its potential to others. I also refuse to take the easy path, which would be to just make a sequel with the exact systems, whether it is a sequel for KP or Meltys Quest. Which heavily self imposes harsh limitations on my ideas.
2023, to me, was exploration in several ways. Growing up a bit. Failing a bit. Just looking around, thinking. I'm looking around right now, at 2AM, and I can't believe I'm typing inside a room, a room that never existed in my world, a room that was not the room I typed from for decades. How did it come to this. Were my decisions and calls the right one. Should I take the path of least resistance, the easy way? Did we not earn a comfy living for our work? Why go this far?
I don't know. I wish I can say that 2023 was the only year of exploration and 2024 will then be nose to floor, back to the grind full time, all hands on deck. But I don't think I have finished looking for what I'm looking for.
I want to know. What is the other side of my limitation. Karryn's Prison was created, fully with all my accumulated experience thus far. Mashing together elements of all the games I played that I enjoyed, and avoiding my perceived shortcomings and negative aspects of all the games I have played, and cooking all the elements that made sense, together in a way that made sense, and then somehow by a miracle a baby was born and other people accepted the baby.
If I were to make a new game, with my self imposed limitations of not making the same game again, reusing the same ideas again, then where would I draw the game from? I already used my accumulated life experience. Can the remainder of what I have left be enough to make another game, much less a good game? And don't even get started on the weight that is the expectation of 'the next game after Karryn's Prison'.
What is the answer? Is there an answer? Can there even be an answer other than no, impossible, at least not the current way you are. So to overcome this hard limitation, I need to reach the other side. To replace a lifetime experience of playing games, I need another lifetime of experience playing games. New, different experiences. More games. Different games. Everything and anything that is out there beyond where I started, where I came from.
This will the first, the last, and the only time I will ever mention this. It's kind of like that meme you know, in Twitch chat and in game review comments and such. Chat is moving so fast that no one knows I'm gay, or no one will read this comment to know I'm gay, and such. This post, has been so long and windy, that I think the casual person fell asleep and checked out by now, so for only this brief moment of weakness while reflecting inwards to outwards on 2023 at 2AM that I will ever talk about this topic.
I, have withheld a secret from you all. No, it's not about the unannounced projects and such behind the scenes. And no, it's not that Sachinama and I are actually gay and married and held hands, (though we did hold hands in Japan this year, no homo) and even if we were there's nothing wrong with being gay or bi, homo love.
I read a tweet way earlier this year that shook me to my core. The jist of it, essentially is that the person who tweeted was shall we say, an online performative sex worker with no actual shown real sex or genitalia, commenting on how they were performing a service to fulfill the sexual needs and desires of people while they themselves were alone without a relationship.
If I could've cried from just reading a tweet, that tweet probably would be number one on my personal list.
You see, your boy Rem here, actually has never actually been in a real relationship before. Tried it out way younger, decided that I didn't care for it for various reasons, and just erased that element from myself and didn't miss it. But this year, when I read that tweet while worrying about the Gym DLC and the realization of the implications of having a mental block at this stage, it hit me in a way that most definitely wouldn't have affected or shook me if I read such a tweet earlier in my life, especially while I was developing Karryn's Prison.
I don't know if this is really the answer. It might not be. A part of me thinks, well that was a lie since Sachinama commented on it first, which is why bother now at this point since Karryn's Prison was only possible because I unintentionally min-maxed my life in a way that made it possible to create something like Karryn's Prison. Why try to walk a normal person's path in life, when it would so much more harder for me to walk the same path and if a person walking the normal path could create Karryn's Prison, then it would've been created a long time ago, and more Karryn's Prisons would've been created by now.
I don't think it's about the destination, but the journey. Probably, who fucking knows. Basically, your boy Rem is going to try to find a relationship. Fuck if I know how. Because if you never tried it before, then dating apps are essentially the biggest kusoge on earth, worse than any kusoge you ever played before, including gacha games. Hah, I actually for one of my new game ideas, involved dating apps and how bad they were but I decided against it since I don't want a game to feel bitter or even worse, make the player feel bad in some way.
Anyway, this is the only time I will ever talk about this aspect of my life. Consider it an unwanted Christmas present, a coal in your stocking if you will. Listen, you got the P Cup DLC to look forward to next year, as well as the new eroge translated by our friends at Cursed Atelier!! And the Karryn figurine crafted by MouseUnits!!!! And of course, all the FREE updates to the base game while the P Cup is being worked on!!!!!
If you haven't updated or played Karryn's Prison in a while, have these images of the latest renewed CG by the master himself Sachinama working hard this past month. Happy Holidays everyone!!! Happy 2024!! Happy Life!!!! Take care of yourself you hear me, and from 3AM in New York, this is Rem signing out for 2023 (until the announcement post hopefully later this month about new eroge we're publishing but shhh, don't count that) hoping you all have a good year, and from both Sachinama and I, thanking you for your support in 2023, and to please look forward to what we got for you all in 2024!!
Thank you! And good night!!
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