Man, what a much needed break this was.

A two week development break (save for the new UI coming in 0.11.0 and the plethora of grammatical errors that were brought to my attention, but that's hardly work to me). I feel great.

Who knew taking a break once in a while did wonders for inspiration.

Anyway, welcome to Chapter 2 of Detached! Lots of stuff is planned for this chapter! More Organisation stuff! More hanging out with girls as you help Daine avoid things the he really should take more seriously! More handholding and [REDACTED]! 

What a wild ride this next year is going to be.

Wait, "this next year?"

That's right!

April 8th is Detached's 1 Year Anniversary of the official public release!

It's hard to believe that I've been working on this stupid little project of mine for almost two years now. It's surreal to me that I've finally made something that I continue to actively share with y'alls.

I can't express just how much your continued support and interest means to me. Really kicks the imposter syndrome square in the nuts, and for that, I thank you.

So what's next?

Well, with Chapter 2 finally being here, a lot, really.

Chapter 1 was largely a whole lot, and yet nothing at all. That was by design. Introduce subplots, hint at them, but ultimately leave them be in the background. They're both important and not.

This is, after all, a game about Daine. Not secret Organisations and weird things for that guy. Nope. Not at all.

Chapter 2 will play out similarly and differently at the same time. What do I mean by this?

Chapter 2 is planned on having a heavier focus on Organisation stuff alongside Daine's usual antics.

This will mainly affect Main Events. There will be two very clear and different sorts. One type with Daine (and will be the regular group interactions, main story, and subplot progression), and another without (purely subplot progression). We've already had a couple without our dear, broken MC-Kun in the earlier parts of Chapter 1, and several at the end. Expect this trend to continue going into Chapter 2.

Girl and Bro Events will remain as they always have, still largely be focused on the interpersonal aspects between Daine and his peeps. This is a dating sim, after all.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to the next year.

And I appreciate all of you, and thanks for sticking around!

Sup folks!

As I had assumed, this update has been...  ambitious. A lot has been post-render editing. Got dang that takes up a lot of time.

The process for a number of the post-render edits involve me adding additional visuals in Krita, followed by taking 6-8 of the modified renders and using Movavi to create visuals like the one above. Not to mention the crap I'm doing to myself in CharaStudio.

I mean, I knew it would be a time sink, but, silly me figuring it wouldn't be that time consuming.

Fun fact: It was.

Or rather, it is.

Due to the scope of this one particular event I'm working on, I'm going to have to push back the release dates (both early access and  by a week at the most (though I'm aiming for an optimistic Monday release).

Other than that, the update is coming along nicely.

As for 0.10.0 news...

I've already started pounding out the script for 0.10.0, having one event already completely written, and a good dent into another.

Honestly, it's been a hot minute since I've been ahead in my writing. It's a good feel, as writing alongside creating visuals for the same update makes me feel like I'm behind despite that not being the case. Normally I'd like to have at least 2-4 events written so I can mostly focus on renders for that month. so I can get that jumpstart on the next month's update.

I also realise that it sounds ridiculous when I put it into words now that I've read them.

Oh well, my brain do the weird and that somehow works for me.

Anyway.

Considering the later start for February's update, and the two weeks I'm planning on taking off of development at the tail end of March for Spring Break, 0.10.0 is going to be developed through February to midway through March.

So yay! Another bigger update, and back to being a sad boi having fun adventures with his favourite girls (and bro)!

The expected release date for 0.10.0 will be March 18th.

Starting April, we'll be back on my monthly schedule (finally).

Anyway, that's all I got for now!

Thanks for reading!

​

Sup folks! WOW. Okay, so, this update was originally planned to be shorter than planned by design. That's largely due to gameplay reasons. Some big stuff is happening, and it took some serious planning, and is currently taking some painstaking playtesting, as well as way too much post render editing on renders. Not to mention, way too many instances of going back and redoing a set of renders to correct/add crucial details.

Aside from that, the update's coming along well. That said, there might be a delay in the early access build, and by extension the public release.

This isn't particularly set in stone yet, as it depends on how much I can pump out during this weekend, but please expect a slight delay on this month's update. There's just so much dang post render editing! Regardless of the late release or not, I've decided to take the aforementioned time off of development (mentioned in Devlog 2) around the tale end of March. I know it was a toss up between 2 weeks and a month, and I think a whole month would be a little bit too much. This way, I also have the two weeks to chill with my kid while they're on break, as well as work on some more QoL stuff (stfu, that's not work), and some Koi animation stuff (needed for a repeatable that should already be in the game but isn't because incompetent reasons), as well as catch up on other VNs and play some real games. A main objective during this break will be coming up with a game plan going into the next few months, as, 2 years from the point of conception, I finally know what I'm capable of doing in a month, and what I am not. I'll defs keep y'all informed as I progress this week!

  (enjoy my nostrils)​

I got another piercing this week. So far, in terms of body modification, I've got 6 tattoos and three piercings, none of which were particularly painful despite being told they would be. So I decided my septum would be next. Based on my own previous experiences, and conversations I've had with others, I figured this would be a wham, bam, and done kinda experience.

lol naw

I forgot I had a sensitive sniffer. That shit was both blindingly painful, AND it made me cry (not a boo hoo cry, but still a tears waterfalling off my face with little ability to stop it kinda cry). GOT DANG.

Fucker hurt like a motherfucker.

Once the initial pain subsided though, which was super brief, like seconds, I barely notice it. Now it just feels like my nose is forever running with the occasional owies when nose gunk dries and I move it.

Yay!

​

Now, welcome to the VAG bundle! Started the one and only Mithril Hourglass!

35 devs with over 40 games! As per the last couple of bundles, it's completely free with the option of throwing a bone or two our way!

The timeline is planned from February 6th until the 29th! (Fuck yeah for BONUS days!

More on that to come in later days though!

Thanks for reading!



Also, please consider joining community in the Detached Discord!

​

​Sup folks!

The 18+ Winter Games Bundle​ is coming to an exciting end in a couple of days, and I can't reiterate enough just how fucking amazed I am at how much of a success it was!

Part of the stretch goal was that a few devs were going to make a fun little side story/bonus episode separate from their main game. So far, we have additions from The Mithril Hourglass​ and Nyatd​, with another expected to be released by Pookie​!

Be sure to check them out in the links below!

Winter Games Bonus Renders

Winder Games Bonus Episode

​Thank you all so much for helping make this happen. The point of these bundles is mostly to help spread awareness to newer/smaller devs, and this can be seen with how many new followers I've gotten over the course of this bundle's run. Seeing the success of this is absolutely mind boggling.

I can't express just how much I appreciate you all.

​

Now on to other things.

As with the release of Detached 0.8.0 (which will be released publicly on Monday, January 8th), all of 0.9.0 and at least a part of 0.10.0 will mostly be a sequence of events with very little actual sandbox/gameplay elements. 

And it's a part of the narrative that I have been eagerly awaiting to write going into the next Chapter of Detached's development.

​0.9.0 in particular will be something that I'm looking forward to writing. It was also be much 'shorter' in terms of previous releases.

And by shorter, I mean it's only going to be 4 events long, but they're going to be big ones.

​I'm really looking forward with sharing all of this with you.

​

Recently, I gave myself some time to actually kick back  from development for a couple days to actually play a game.

Contrary to public opinion, I actually enjoyed Cyberpunk 2077 1.0 and all of it's buggy gloriousness. ​I was also playing on a PS4 that was pushing 7 years old at the time (and some more when I upgraded to PS4 Pro during the Great PS5 Famine), and sounded like an jet engine breaking the sound barrier every time the title screen so much as was on screen. I never had too much of an issue playing the game myself, though the game did crash more than was acceptable, and the textures took a long-ass time to load.

Other than that, I enjoyed my time with my sleazy looking V.

So I decided to give it a go after seeing that it was a free upgrade to PS5, my saves were transferrable, and buying Phantom Liberty.

Gottdang, it's like a whole new game.

While this is what Cyberpunk 2077 should have been upon release, I'm really glad that I decided to jump back on it. I pretty much spent two days glued to the PS5, something of which I hadn't done in over half a year since the public release of Detached.

Anyways, that's all I have for now. Thanks for reading!

Let me start off by saying... Holy fuck shit, the Winter Bundle that Pookie​ organised is kicking the Romance bundle's ass, and is currently on track to hit our $5K goal, and all of us devs have you newcomers (and any previous followers that partook in the bundle) to thank.

As such, many of the devs (myself included) have made some special renders for you, for helping us hit our previous goal of $3,000! Please enjoy over 200 bonus renders (that's almost 3GB of awesome, wholesome, and/or sexy!) ​​​as a thank you for all of your continued support!

Winter Bundle Stretch Goal Bonus Renders (Click Here!)

​I can't promise that I will have anything made for the $5K goal, but if you'd like something, let me know. It won't be made in time for the next goal (because we're getting there rapidly),  but I could definitely work it in by my next monthly update. At the very least, y'all get some more bonus renders from me because clearly I hate myself.

Now, for the boring Scruffles part of the devlog! Yay!

Coming up to the end of development for this update, writing has been a blast. I do a lot of my writing while on transit, or at work on my breaks. The content that's coming up is something that I've been eagerly awaiting. I have been fucking psyched to write this.

The renders? Not so much.

As some of you have noticed, I try to write depression and general mental illness as well as I can. A comment I read a lot of regarding some of the darker aspects of Detached, is that it "hits a little too close to home".

Well, that's because I, also, deal with depression on the daily (as has been surmised by some folks), and this time of year? Not so great on the noggin. Even while medicated.

Once I'm home, it's hard to slog through the other aspects of making Detached.

But I'm getting there. 

One, because I want to make my fucking game, depression be damned. And two, because I know people what to play it.

And for that, I'm thankful, and I don't want to disappoint those that are waiting for more of what I'm offering.

As such, to give myself a break, I'm going to be taking a small amount of time off of development once I hit Detached's one year public anniversary (which is coming up quickly, by the way. Holy dang). I won't be away for a long time, a couple weeks, maybe a month off. I'll decide as I get closer. Similar to what I did when I launched.

You know, catch up on some VNs I've fallen behind on, maybe play for actual games. Perhaps... draw?

Fun fact: I actually developed Detached for almost a full year before the public release! There's some major changes I would make to their models if I wasn't already deep into things (like their nose definitions, I liked the nose shadows, but lol eyy furry nose. or KKUTS).

Anyway, that's all I got for now. Thanks for reading!

Sup folks!

Aight, yay, first actual for real devlog.  October/November was a crazy couple of months of near solid development. Between an absolutely nutty Halloween crunch at my IRL work, and an extension of development across an additional month without a "marketing week break" at the end of October, as well as juggling everyday family and social lifestuff... Burnout is a bad choice of words, but I was definitely exhausted. 

Overall, I'm generally pretty happy with how the update came out. Also, just an interesting piece of information, Detached is now at 147k words! That's more than a debut Fantasy novel!

WOW. (insert Own Wilson meme here)

So I've just been taking it easy this week, playing a few games, and doing some light writing and scene making to ease back into things instead of jumping right in.  

Something to note: Things are happening story-wise, and the next 2-3 updates will have very little in terms sandbox elements, if anything, and will be heavily geared towards progressing story in a kinetic fashion.  

Since I am trash at coding, as is evident with my regular needs for making Day 1 patches, it is highly suggested to have an additional save before going into 0.8.0.  

Oh!  

I also helped organise, and am part of, a new (free) bundle on Itch.io: The 18+ Winter Games Bundle!   

As with the last bundle, it's 100% free, but donations are always welcome!  It's much larger than the last one, sitting at 35 games. A bunch of titles from the previous bundle, as well as a ton of new blood as well! So feel free to check it out, it's free after all.

Aight, I think that's all I got this time around.

See you all around!