Episode 3 progress update 24/09/2023

First of all, welcome to all the new subscribers! Hope the game has delivered for you! For all the existing subscribers, thank you for your continued support and patience.

Jon here, creator of StrongGirls Visual Novel! Episode 3 is well on it's way with LOADS of content. The screenshot above says it all. Episode 3 will be massive. 

First off, what's the deal with the relationships screen on the right side?

In Episode 3 you will have more choice over how to spend your time and this includes meeting up with optional girls. Does this mean it's a harem game? You still have your main girl, but there will be opportunities to either be loyal or cheat.

If you've played any of the Persona games, the relationships will work similar to the social links. 

Now, the status page you're looking at was made entirely by Goblinounours. He has done a lot of polishing as well so I will let him explain in his own words:

Hey guys! Goblinounours here, for those who don't hang out on Discord (join us!), I help out with writing and coding from time to time! I'm just going to chime in, while our bud Jon is working hard on Episode 3 (or hardly working, immaright?), to buzz you in on some changes I've been doing which will be deployed with Episode 3:

• Going forward, the game will no longer have the "Skip to Episode 2" option at the start of the game after setting up your name.

Do not riot just yet however, as it will be replaced with an autosave feature which will save scenes in chronological order, with names. Autosaves will happen at key time, generally around the important bits (you know the ones I'm talking about, you dirty bastards). 

The thinking behind this is that we could have kept on adding onto the question "Do you want to skip to another episode? Select one!" ad vitam æternam, but asking the player about everything they did like an 'à la carte' menu would quickly become untenable in the long-term. 

The new system has this advantage over the old "Skip" feature to remember all the choices you did in Episode 1 (the Yen, the gift, etc). The cons, however, are that your old saves of Episode 1 and 2 will be overwritten. But I would think that replaying the first two episodes once again will be worth it, as you'll see below! TL;DR : It's not perfect, but it should be good enough.

• Spelling mistakes have been fixed, and as much feedback as possible has been implemented to Episode 1 and 2. I hope I haven't missed any
• The game features a new menu to display your stats, inventory and more!
• New particle effects have been introduced in a few occasions where it made sense!
• You'll hear a couple of new sounds effects added to the game in a couple of places. We don't want to overload the game with them, though. It's a balancing act.
• A new scene with the PE teacher, Mr. Goro, has been added early in Episode 1, in the gymnasium. It features a couple of new images of your favorite girls.
• There's now a new 'bad ending' if you manage the feat of creeping out Manami AND Saya in the bedroom scene.
• Some of you may remember the addition of the dream sequences at the end of the Bedroom scenes with Saya and Manami, which were only black screens with colored text. There might be more to them, now.
• A new classroom scene with Mrs. Jiro has been added in Episode 1! Go raise your knowledge! Who knows when that might serve you.
• The game will now be a little more lenient regarding the bad ending at the end of Episode 1. Sex acts will be the defining factors of which ending you get. We don't want to punish the player for checking out what's going on with the other girls at the gym, library and lab.

However, and unless things change, going forward, the plan is to make it so that the girlfriend you get at the end of Episode 1 remains your 'official' girlfriend for the rest of the story. This is to avoid brain aneurysm while coding all the possibilities, especially if we keep adding new girls to the mix every episode. That is not to say that nothing sexy will happen with the new girls, of course! We want you to discover what the new girls are about! But if you were expecting Miyu to become your new girlfriend, well... it may not be in the cards.

• And that's just what's in the works at the present!

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Okay, Jon here again.

Now for the progress on Episode 3:

Introducing Kaori

Closing off poll results, this little girl will be named Kaori. The name won with 57% majority, and a total of 44 votes.

Kaori is a gamer. She wants to become a popular streamer but struggles to find her audience. In your social-link with her you will gradually get to know her and perhaps help her get more popular on streams.

You will first meet Kaori by choosing to play an MMO during the evening.

Introducing Naomi

Naomi is the nurse of the school. We had a poll for her design where this design won with 56% majority with a total of 45 votes.

Naomi has a double life. She is not just a nurse. But you will need to get to know her to find out what she's all about :)

Introducing Barista

A new social link is a girl working at a cafe close to your house. You will meet her if you apply for a part-time job during daytime.

The design and name for her are not decided yet. (Will post new polls soon!)

Her story involves some stuff that haunts her from her past.

Other poll results:

I asked all patrons what type of girl you want, and a whopping 63% of you said you want a female bodybuilder. I decided to pivot slightly, and instead introduce a wrestler to make her more interesting :) Coming in second place, 19% of you said you want to see a maid... The maid will also be included!

Next up, 75% of you said you want to see the Bunny girl return! I aim to please.

Finally 60% of you said you want Mrs. Jiro, the homeroom teacher to get some FMG + sex stuff. We'll make it work :)

overall progress on ep3, and when to expect a release date:

There is still a lot of work to be done. Most of the art is yet to be made, and many stories are still in the works. 

To make the choices worthwhile I need to write out all these separate side stories and characters so that you get more choices than just 'A or B' - there is no way to release a small update. Episode 3 needs to be fully done. I want you to have choices 'A,B,C,D,E,F,G' and make subsequent playthrough's meaningful because you can't do them all!

Therefore we're looking at the later part of October for release. Thank you for your understanding and patience! There will be a progress post every sunday so stay tuned!

Finally, I want to ask for feedback on the inventory screen. Do you like the way it looks? Any stylistic changes you'd like to see?

As always, the quickest way to share your thoughts is in the discord! Thank you for reading and I will see you soon! - Jon Author of StrongGirls