Development Update and Character reveal!

Hi everyone. Thank you for reading today's public update!

It's been a little while since I last checked in, so I just wanted to do so. I don't want to jinx it, but we may be nearing the end of this latest particularly crazy chapter of my life as my partner is recovering well, doing more things for herself and other stuff is also slowly settling down. I hope to return to a more normal posting schedule soon.

Development-wise, I'm wrapping up the writing and map-making stage and have started to integrate the new stuff with the game. Quite a lot of code efficiency updates have been made as well and this time around I'll be looking to assemble the biggest playtest team I can from anyone who's willing to do a full playthrough including the early quests, so supporters, if this sounds like something you're interested in, please keep an eye open for that solicitation post when the time comes!

I've also moved on to making the first few scenes, meaning that previews aren't far off once we get rolling again properly. Character assets for new characters Madeline and Chloe are made and there are going to be several new areas of Sapphory City opening up in this release, including the Great Arena exterior, Sapphorian Underling Bureau and the adjoining alley behind the school.

There'll be lots of fun new home events, which is largely the focus of this update, and we'll see things escalate once again with both Stacey and Karen, both very popular antagonistic characters. We'll also see the debut of a new game mode, Seductress Mode, which removes all requirements to level up character relationships before progressing romance quests, and is intended for use by those who want absolutely zero grind. Along with the existing Narrative and Quest Hints modes, the game continues to get friendlier for those who just want a quick... err... casual experience.

Meet Madeline

I whacked a spoiler tag on this post as I want to also unveil new girl Madeline, the titular character of the new quest. Sporting her official collar, she stands ready to serve you. Or so it seems anyway. I couldn't resist adding another cute redhead to the roster. This image also serves as officially the first preview of 0.9 since technically it's an in-game shot too. The living room 3D map was redone for this scene, as it's quite dated now and was made for 0.2 and last looked at almost two years ago when I made A Christmas Karen. Not that you can see much of it in this shot, but trust me, it's there.

This scene was made fairly quickly, as the new image compression technique I trialled in 0.8 has had such amazing results that it allows me to cut a lot of corners. As there have been no reports of it causing problems, it will now be rolled out across the whole game, meaning significant reductions in file size over the next several updates.

That's all for now, keep slutting!

Trinian