Corporate Development Memo 6/2/2024

Hi everyone!

This post might will be long, and I'm pasting some stuff from other sources, so bear with me.

You probably noticed that I took down the dom poll last week, and it was because of two specific things that happened -- one which was kind of fine and I took care of it within two days, but the other was a specific message I received from a Patron. I'm not going to get into it at all, but the reality is that this finally pushed me to decide to make some changes to the narrative on the dom path that I was considering after the end of Episode 8, Part 1. That Patron is also gone now. I want to be totally transparent about this so that everyone can see my process/thoughts and what I am doing. I will post new polls this week.

1) First, the actual update. Despite a nasty week, I did manage to get to 1190 renders, and the number of animations that are ready are about 52.   I typically do reject about half of the amimations, but I think this percentage might be a bit higher as I am generally happier with some of them overall. There are also some sub animations for kind of the first time in terms of trying more for a specific scene.

I am going to be moving off this specific harem path like the pictures above (Celeste related and had a few prior scenes with Alessandra) and moving to wrap up one more scene on the secret sub path and then the good dom path. After all that, I will kind of be caught up to the main branch for ALL paths and I can kind of work from a new point in the story. So working on that as a shor-term goal, and I'm getting pretty close.

2) On Discord, I have a channel right now called Patreon Announcements, and it is here that I am putting together a lot of thoughts on tweaks to the narrative. In a lot of ways, I am optimistic these changes will end up much better because I am doing some tweaks from the perspective of doing everything up to now versus what I wrote before I even formally did a first release. So in short, here is kind of an overview of what I am thinking so far, and I want to be VERY transparent and clear because every Patron should know what may change (for good or bad) on what they like about the game. Here are some highlights, but I will continue to update this as I go, while trying to avoid huge spoilers too. (I will spoil here some plans I had before that are now changed) Please feel free to read the Discord "Patreon Announcements" channel for more in depth details about things I am thinking and pondering as I re-outline some dom path narrative stuff. (what is in there is not necessarily 100% final but likely a pretty good indicator where my head is at with things, etc.

2a. The sub path will generally NOT be impacted. I have never had any weird trouble from this path since the game started other than the typical occasional DMs that get to be a bit too much. (but this is much easier to swat away much as one does in real life getting hit on, etc.) Any tweaks I make on this side will be very cosmetic and minor.

2b. The path most impacted will be the dom path with the "demon" flag. I am generally going to abandon this flag and not use it for future content. The honest reason why is because 95 percent of the headache and stress of this game is due to this path. I mentioned this before at about the release of Episode 8, Part 1 and unfortunately it got worse. I have more detail on this in the Discord channel, but basically the main reason I do this game is for my own enjoyment more than any other reason combined. I don't think I can enjoy making the game anymore with a kind of Sword of Damocles hanging in my mind...wondering if I am going to have to deal with another crazy person. I will emphasize again, this is JUST A FUN GAME to enjoy. People that think I want to get certain details about certain things are DEAD WRONG. If you are a Patron that only signed up for this specific path ONLY, this might be something to consider in terms of support. I know most people are great that even love this specific path, but it is what it is...I have to enjoy making the game as a base minimum. I am being VERY transparent on the Discord channel and will take any and all questions/comments and concerns into consideration. While I work for my own enjoyment the most, I also really want people to enjoy the game too.

2c. Because of the above, I am tweaking some dom narrative paths. I will list some examples here, but more are on the Discord channel too. (I am trying to summarize here a little better) But as a general rule, expect Dom Kane to have more harem/sexual expansion paths. For example, I am now likely to include a new path of a Juliette/Dominique harem path (more evil route) that I was not planning before because of the demon path. I will list a few of the the tweaks I have started to outline:

2c1. Juliette's path will be tweaked to a new narrative. One twist to this will be a new harem path for her with Dominique on a power/evil/domination kind of narrative.

2c2. The original harem path I had for Alessandra/Celeste/Phoebe may be tweaked/expanded.

2c3. The secret sub path will add one more female character path possibility. (I am not sure I want to list here who as a general spoiler but will perhaps hide it in Discord (spoiler msg).

2c4. Angelica will be moved up in priority to a Tier 1 romance for a specific type of dom player. (neither hard good or hard evil but something more pragmatic but tough, etc.)

2c5. A new power path for Kane will include a way to incorporate all four female pod members as a unit/harem overall that can serve his interests. (I did not have this planned earlier, Kane was going to have to choose between them in some way.)

2c6. One Karlsson sister that was planned to be killed in Episode 10 will now have a chance to live/die based on certain choices.

2c7. The "KPass" that Kane might have, it was originally intended to allow a rank tweak or save to himself or Kane/Zach at the end of Episode 8, Part 3. This will still be allowed to happen, but another option will unlock as an extra sex scene as a reward for keeping it until the end. (this will apply to both dom/sub paths, if Kane does not use the pass but could...basically another option.)

2c8. Zach was planned in my narrative to be killed at the end of Episode 8, Part 3 but I will now include a path for him to survive, although he is still very much in danger.

I have other tweaks in mind, but I wanted to list some here. Again, check out the channel for more. I hope this helps to see where I am coming from and why I had to make some tweaks. I believe in the long run, the narrative will end up better than before and I will work hard to make sure it happens. :)

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3. I have ordered a new AMD7950x3d/RTX 4090 system. I deliberately tried to wait a bit until I could try and guess how the new RTX 5090 would come into play with future upgrades. I have gotten recent advice on this too, so it's looking good. So I have now purchased a computer with not only the 4090 in mind, but also with the thought that the computer can future proof for an RTX 5090, so I have overcompensated on some things assuming that I will replace the 4090 (I will use this later to upgrade my current 3090 computer and use it as a second computer) with a new 5090 when supply actually exists (I expect months will go by with bot buyers and shortages). Anais' computer was about 4k, mine is over 7k and much more designed with tech advice on being ready for the next generation of chips/GPUs (RTX 5090 especially). This computer should be here within 2 weeks, maybe June 7th weekend or so. (they are building it now and sending me pics/updates as they go) The render speed from other dev reports seem to be between 25-40% faster than an RTX 3090 depending on the scene. While it won't be a world changer, any extra time will help me as time is BY FAR my most cherished asset.

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I am running out of steam now, but I wanted to end on a personal positive for myself just to kind of close on a high, and why despite all of this, I am on Cloud Nine overall in life...and excited to work more on the game in the overall grand scheme of things! Maybe this will help in a small way with DM issues, haha!

4) Sometime recently, I had a nice experience on the mountain called Mauna Kea. It is one of the most spectacular skylines in the world for viewing stars, and some people know I have an extreme connection/interest in NASA/astronomy related things both from family and life experience too. Long story short, after that...I am now engaged. :) This happened a bit ago, but now it's gotten out to everyone within the last 10 days here so been dealing with that too. (in a good way, but still heh)

I have to mention my fiance a little, and want to let people know he will be helping me more formally with some Patreon/Discord admin if time permits. He was born in South Africa (the major reason I picked Cape Town btw as a major city), but left there very young and grew up in places like Australia and New Zealand before coming to the United States. He used to work as an investment banker in NYC, but gave that up to start a few businesses and move to a better climate hehe, among them investment related consulting and his true passion, being a chef and doing some food businesses. (think restaurant/food trucks/catering, etc.) He is also helping out Anais with her upcoming game, TQA (I can't spoil the title yet, but now that she has her computer, I think it will start to move along well) He's got some Swedish and Dutch blood like me, but also a few other things like me that make me hope we have beautiful children someday.

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You know, I don't want to gush or splatter words too much anymore, but I just wanted to assure everyone that in a lot of ways, I am even more passionate and up for working on the game than ever before. I feel like these tweaks for me will invigorate me and get me on a good track.

Please forgive how long this was...I'm writing this also after having a bit too much wine so maybe I need to go back later and delete something, hehe.

Ok, let me summarize:

1 ) More polls this week, but maybe less extreme demon path stuff in game and otherwise.

2) New computer coming

3) Check Discord and feel free to ask about any details, I will likely do a spoiler channel somehow too but not spoil exact things, but rather some possible tweaks, etc.

4) Near 1200 images, progress pretty good, but I will be trying to speed up even more as we head into the summer.

Thank you all :)