Greetings everyone!

It's been a little while since a dev blog made the rounds, and there's an update looming on the horizon, so let's get into it!

So I wanted to go ahead and lead with this since it will be pretty impactful when it happens. After years of going back and forth with the current host for the official website, I've finally decided to throw in the towel. Issues with downtime, Wordpress, backend complications have been worsening over time, and with the renewal on the host coming up I've made the decision to go ahead and not continue with the site.

The alternative server, which has been rock solid for a long time now, is going to become the new primary server, and with it a new address.

You can now play The Company at thecompanygame.games!

DevBlogs will remain here and on our SubscribeStar, as well as the Discord server. We'll be cleaning up links to the old site over the next week or so.

For those who play on the current primary server, if you want to bring your save file over to the new server by exporting it to disk (enable Desktop Mode in mobile) and loading it into the game when playing on the new site. If you don't intend to bring your save over, or if you're playing the local downloaded version, you have nothing to worry about!

We expect this changeover to be finalized by the end of the month.

The end of May should see with it the release of Update 5.9.1, a followup to last month's update that will complete Penny's available content.

This will include all serum route content, new conversations and events, and MCSX content for Penny. Additionally, we'll be using this update as a way to set up John's "Dom John" route epilogue, bringing The Company's first real ending into the game!

We're looking at releasing our first dev build for Update 5.9.1 this week, if not very early next week.

That's it for this dev blog! We'll have more to share about our next update AND our next project in the upcoming development blog, so definitely look forward to that. As always, thank you all so much for your continued feedback and support.

Greetings everyone!

As I'm sure most of you have noticed, The Company is currently involved in ironing out some issues with Patreon. Now that the situation is becoming a little more clear, it's time to sit down and talk about it!

What Happened?

Simply put, Patreon finally decided to put our project on it's Trust & Safety radar, leading to the determination that the project violates its policies. Moves to adhere to their policies have involved purging old posts, modifying the opening sections of the game slightly, and severing ties the Patreon page has to services such as Discord and the official website.

What's Currently Happening?

We've made the requested changes and are now waiting for the appeal to go through. I don't know how long the process takes, but so far the agent I'm working with has been reasonably communicative. Ideally this will be resolved sooner than later and we can all go back to normal, but there's no real way of knowing at this point.

How Will This Affect The Community?

Things like Discord server roles that came from Patreon might be a little wonky in the transition, and Patreon will no longer be a source of news or downloads for the time being. As you can see, we are currently migrating over to SubscribeStar completely, and implore the community to follow us there! The official website will still continue to operate normally, though the Patreon integration may prove burdensome for the time being.

How Will This Affect The Company?

A couple of things are happening. Firstly, depending on negotiations with Patreon, you will likely see a slightly modified version of The Company on offer for online gameplay, in fact you may have already seen them. These changes are surface level with no meaningful impact to the game itself, though I would expect a SubscribeStar exclusive version of the game without modified content.

Secondly, the previous roadmap is definitely going to be impacted by this, as resources are being diverted to handle it, as well as damage control. Expect a Penny update out by the end of this month, as planned, but the next development cycle will likely be in flux. So long as we can get back on our feet quickly, there are no plans to end development for The Company, with H1 2025 still be a target completion date.

How Will This Affect The Developer?

I've never come out and asked the community for help before, as none of you owe me a thing while I owe the world to you. That said, if I'm being completely honest, I'm scared. This project pays for the room over my family's head and the food in our fridge, and to have Patreon rip the rug out from under me, possibly for good, is abjectly terrifying.

What I will ask my current supporters, is that if you are currently supporting The Company on Patreon, to please consider moving that support over to our SubscribeStar page. The pricing tiers are all identical to what they are on Patreon, and offer all the same bonuses and benefits. There's, unfortunately, going to be major impact no matter what, and making that one switch over will help to drastically reduce it.

Moving Forward

That's basically the long and short of it. For now, development will continue as normal, though some content priorities may get rearranged a little. The Discord and the official website will still operate as they always have, and we'll all continue to move forward and see this game through to completion!

As always, thank you all for your continued feedback and support. Let's all make this a great new era for The Company!