Unity Roadmap v0.15-v0.21 Hazelnut Latte

Hello everyone! Here is the overdue updated roadmap for Hazelnut Latte!

The Unity Switch

Back in March, we announced that Hazelnut Latte would be switching engines from Ren'Py to Unity. The move came about by being held back by Ren'Py restraints as our game grew from a simple Visual Novel to something more.

Since March, I have hired three new team members who have been helping to get our Unity build up and running. Noba built an incredible dialogue system in Unity, while Lotus has been refining our new Sprite system. Noba's own game, Baked with Love, was a prototype of sorts for our own Unity build. Koth has been working on a secret project, while Pamika has been redrawing backgrounds. Kokman has redrawn lewd scenes and has been working on new character sprites and new lewd scenes.

A lot of work has already been done to get Unity up and running. Lotus has built a working, playable version of Episode 1, albeit without all the assets ready.

Why Are We Redoing Stuff?

As you may have noticed from my most recent progress report and from the roadmap above, we are reworking every episode of Hazelnut Latte. Admittedly, some more than others. Episode 1 is likely to undergo the biggest makeover, as it triples in size and scope.

There are a lot of reasons why we are changing things. The first and biggest reason is sort of simple: I didn't like Episode 1 that much.

I originally wrote it to be a short, simple lewd game, but when it did well and people wanted more, I continued the story. The thing is, if you look at the writing compared between episodes 1 through 3 and episodes 4 through 6, it feels like a completely different game. Episode 1 through 3 is very horny bonk bonk, whereas 4 through 6 are trying to tell a dramatic story while also being horny.

By redoing a lot of the first 3 episodes, we are making them fit more in line with the game it will become. A problem I have with many games in active development or that are pushing new updates is that the New Player Experience is often overlooked. You start a game that is 3+ years old, and you see the new stuff that looks amazing, but you're stuck playing the old stuff that wasn't as good, but had to be done so the devs could learn how to make it good.

We are fixing that problem now before it's too late. A new game engine is a fresh start. Saves can't transfer, so if everyone is going to have to replay the game anyway, we might as well make that stuff better so you're not clicking through the same old story.

Release Schedule

We are planning on releasing an episode with every update. We originally planned to bundle episodes so you'd get more content each update, but the downside was that we'd be holding off on releasing stuff for a lot longer.

Having an episode for each update will give the artists time to draw new backgrounds, draw new lewd scenes, and draw new CGs. It will give the programmers time to make and test each episode. Knowing them, they'll likely be done before the episode is ready and work ahead on future episodes. (I know they want to make that coffee game so bad) It will also give me time to write a better story.

However, the primary reason is that the updates will be faster if we release them immediately, rather than holding on to a few episodes before release.

We are not going to simply rerelease the old episodes as they are in a new engine. They are being reworked to be longer and better than their original counterparts. Gameplay from Episode 1 in Ren'Py will be drastically different from gameplay in Unity.

v0.15 when? Update when? Surprise v0.15 Progress Report!

We still need to get v0.14 released, which is looking very good, by the way! However, v0.15 is still a ways away, which is one of the reasons v0.14 is happening- to give us some time. Not to mention giving Episode 6 an ending before we do this Berserk Golden Age flashback. We had to remake a lot of things in Unity to turn it into a visual novel engine. Noba creating a whole dialogue system was nuts. Creating the dialogue, the history log, and the skip button. All things that are standard in Ren'Py, Noba made in Unity.

The new Episode 1 is a proper first episode now. The old Episode 1 was 7k words. The reworked Episode 1 is 22k words. It does a lot to set up Isaac (the player character) and his arc from a Newhaven businessman who hates life to starting a harem of gender nonconforming cuties. I always felt it was rushed, so I want to really explore him and his life before he decides to gamble on love.

Is the Character Art Changing?

No, the art style is not changing for the characters. The drawings of Hazel and Jeze in the roadmap have been in the game since v0.13 and were done by the incredibly underrated Torch! Seriously, she is such an amazing artist whom the algorithm hates. I originally made posts about Hazel and Jeze being drawn by Torch back in February. So the character art isn't changing; this is just sweet promo art.

Wrap Up

I wanted to give people an idea of the future, as the old roadmap was incredibly outdated. I'm sure there are more questions about Unity, and I'll answer what I can. However, please note that a lot of this information is hush hush, as I want you to play it and enjoy it.

Thank you all so much for your support! You are what allowed me to hire up and make the best game we can make! Stay Rad!