Hazelnut Latte v0.15 Progress Report 10/28/25

Heya folks! It's been a while since we've done a Progress Report, and a lot has happened, so let's get into it!

Post v0.14 & Goodbye Ren'Py

Well, we did it. v0.14 is done and finished, as is our time with Ren'Py. I'll miss the engine in some ways, but in others, I am very happy to be completely moved over to Unity.

We took a long time testing v0.14 in-house, so there weren't many bugs when we released this build to backers. Only 2 patches had to be done, which we haven't had that low in ages. From here on out, I doubt we will need to update v0.14, but just in case, I'll keep everything installed and ready in case someone discovers something game-breaking in the next few months.

But the Ren'Py era of HL is truly done, and now we look to the future...

You're leaving Ren'Py?

I've talked about this before, but I make a lot of update posts, so for those who don't know...

v0.14 was the final build using the Ren'Py game engine. Ren'Py is an easy-to-use engine specialising in visual novels. If you've played any of Episode 6, you know that HL is no longer a simple visual novel. To improve workflow and speed up updates, we are switching to Unity. Here, we can create more interesting sections of the game, and when we want to add a new system, it won't be us trying to force Ren'Py to do something it wasn't designed to do. Not to say it isn't possible in Ren'Py, but why spend so much time shoving a square peg through a round hole when you can just get a square hole?

Stuff like the free-roam map, the player's phone, the day/night cycle, and cafe management will be easier to implement and maintain in Unity. Not to mention other stuff we want to do!

Reminder: Saves won't transfer since it's a new engine and the game is restarting.

What is v0.15?

We are essentially restarting the game in Unity. This isn't a simple "move everything over" situation. There is a lot of the game's narrative that I find lacking, and I have taken player feedback into account. v0.15 will be Episode 1 of Hazelnut Latte, but we are adding a good 15k words, new characters, new locations, new lewd scenes, etc.

Oftentimes, when I write, I don't know where I am going or who the characters are. (We writers call this 'Discovery Writing') This is something I discover as I write and then go back and redo the early stages where I was discovering who everyone was and what the themes/plot are. It's weird here, since this game has been available throughout this entire process. Now that I've written around 150k words of this narrative, I have a very good grasp of everything. Doing this rewrite helps set things up better, since now I know what I want to set up.

A lot will stay roughly the same, while other stuff will be reworked, and a few things cut that I didn't think were good. And on top of that, a lot of new content! There is now a huge chunk of story in Newhaven before the player goes to Jade City and meets Hazel.

I'm sure some people will prefer the old version, as is always the case. I do believe that this is an improvement on the narrative, the characters, and the game. But we gotta make it!

Progress Report... progress

Coding

A lot has been done in the month or so since the last Unity progress update, and we are making good progress! We have a playable version of v0.15 working that has the first third of the episode mostly done. A lot of what we are doing is going in sequence, so we can build the episode as assets get completed.

We've been making good progress on our Secret System, which I'd love to just say what it is. But I plan to show off in a video when it's ready, so I can blow everyone's socks off. A lot of work has been going into that, which is what Koth and Lotus are mostly working on. They have been doing amazing work, and it looks incredible. But is a secret :(

Noba has been doing a lot of awesome work developing and improving the Unity visual novel system! Lately, he has been researching how to create a good bug report log so players can send us a file through the game, and we can see what went wrong in their game and fix it.

This week, he is going to work on the video player, so you can see the hot animated lewds scenes we're cooking up.

Writing

The original script for Episode 1 was 7,678 words, but our new script is 21,997 words. A sizeable upgrade with a LOT of new content. Episode 1 is pretty much done, so I've been working on Episode 2! The original script for Episode 2 was 19,630 words, and I am currently 15,162 words into the new one. There was a whole new opening that I still need to write one side story for. Last time I left it, I had written the scene where Jeze talks to the player when Hazel has gone to the bathroom. So, about halfway through Episode 2.

Art

About half of the new lewd scenes for Episode 1 are drawn! All of these are with new characters whom you will meet. One character's lewd scenes are all drawn, but the other two are a work in progress. If anyone follows Kokman's sfw account, you'd know he hurt his hand kinda bad, so he's taking it easy. Plus, he moved! Which is a combo I don't wish on anyone.

Two animations are done, with one featuring Hazel and the other a new character.

We've also made some progress on our Special Moments for Episode 1. Erassdz, our lewd animator, has stepped up to do some illustrations for the game! They can draw very well themselves, and after animating and having to redraw parts of Kokman's art to do animations, they've gotten really good at emulating his style. They have drawn two of the special moments for Episode 1 and will continue to help speed up the art process.

Last but certainly not least, Pamika has been doing an insane job on the new backgrounds. We've redesigned Cafe Estros, and it looks outstanding! Outside Estros, inside, and the counter have been done. She is currently working on the bathroom, and then we'll do the kitchen.

Wrap Up

Now that v0.14 is done, we have all pivoted to focus on v0.15 and Unity. We're hoping to continue making good progress and be able to show off some of the crazy stuff we are working on sometime in November.

We have no planned release date yet; we just have an internal date by which we'd like to have an Alpha ready. Giving a date this early just leads to weird expectations and unnecessary stress on the dev team.

But know that we are working hard and can't wait to get this build into your hands!

Thank you all so much for your continued support! It allows us all to eat and pay rent —seriously, thank you. Be good to each other and Stay Rad!