stonefoxstudios

Cross-Promotion: "The Restaurant" by Xell

I think this is our third cross-promotion since starting Chasing Sunsets. It's not something we do often, not because we don't enjoy other titles, we're just too busy to play most of them.

Kentyrr tipped me off to this one a few months back when he mentioned he and the dev were trading a few art tips.

We often remember where we started and in a saturated market, boosting aspiring devs with follow-through and plan to execute on their vision is something we need to do more often.

To our eye, Xell is the real deal, and we wish him much success.

PATREON | DISCORD | ITCH.IO

Immerse yourself in a world of desire and connection with Valeria and Zoey. Valeria, a passionate beauty yearning for deeper connections, and Zoey, a spirited young woman eager for new experiences, await your guidance. Both are ready to share their journeys with you. Dive into an adventure where your choices shape their destinies! How may we take your order?

 Valeria isn’t aiming to be 'the neighborhood MILF,' but the idea of passers-by sneaking a peek beneath her skirt makes her feel sexy. With her husband Evan's unexpected decision to buy The Restaurant and his recent distant behavior, Valeria finds herself mentally stressed and sexually frustrated. Her mind begins to wander to places she'd usually avoid, and she can’t help but wonder if those furtive glances might lead to something more.

Zoey is a freshman at the local university. She’s got her mother’s figure, but her darker hair and unique vibe make her stand out. Rumors swirl among her peers about her real father because she’s so different from Evan. With a hint of RBF, she keeps most people at a distance – just how she prefers it. Beneath her rebellious streak and teenage sarcasm, Zoey is genuinely sweet and a bit awkward with those who can see past her tough exterior and discover her true self.

Key Features:

• Guide Valeria and Zoey: Help them navigate their daily lives and beyond.

• Choice-Driven Mechanics: Corruption, romance, and restaurant reputation systems are included. Your choices matter—some scenes will be inaccessible depending on past decisions or your stats.

• Stunning Visuals:

• Total Renders: 2,787 (1,650+ newly added), mostly renewed or completely rebuilt.

• Total Animations: 24 steamy animations in total with almost half of them (11) brand new, improved and expanded.

• Bonus Content: Unlock special images in the in-game render gallery.

• Explore the World: Discover interesting locations and immerse yourself in the story.

• Relive the Moments: Replay your favorite scenes anytime.

• User-Friendly Experience: Enjoy a smooth, grind-free sandbox.

• Music Replay: Listen to your favorite tracks in the music gallery.

• New Characters Added: Lin, Scarlett, Liam, Ashley, Betty, Jenny, Ryder, Claire, Ladarius, and Mariana.

• Profiles & Emotes:27 in-depth profiles have been added along with 6 beautiful Emotes.

• New off-map locations have been added. Hitch a ride on the bus with the new Travel System! Visit the Junkyard or perhaps take a stroll and explore the surrounding forests.

• New Locations Added: Junkyard/Forest (still expanding), Shopping center and Bank.

• All scripts completely rewritten & reworded with an emphasis on a smooth, easy and most importantly an enjoyable story.

• Total Voice Clips: 1,603.

• Can't get enough of your favorite girl in-game? The New Gallery Renders & Secrets have been added to quench your cravings.

• Completely New & Improved Build:

• A new intro and an extra quest have been added.

• Existing quests have been expanded with more choices and content.

  Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android.

  Download Links:

  
  PC--> GOFILE - GOOGLE DRIVE - PIXELDRAIN - MEGA - MEDIAFIRE

  Mac--> GOFILE - GOOGLE DRIVE - PIXELDRAIN - MEGA - MEDIAFIRE

  Android--> GOFILE - GOOGLE DRIVE - PIXELDRAIN - MEGA - MEDIAFIRE

  
  PATREON | DISCORD| ITCH.IO 

Chasing Sunsets: March Dev Update!

Another month, and a ton of development later, the finish line continues to sharpen into focus.

I'll reiterate a point from the last update, without belaboring it: It's clear that closing the story out was a spicier meatball than we anticipated. At the same time, we're not going to allow "good" to become the enemy of "perfect" here, and we recognize that there's a point where scope creep becomes a liability rather than an asset.

With that said, the scene list is locked down with no "new" content slated for addition. If we come across an opportunity that's just too good to pass up, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it, but it would have to be a pretty high bar to get in the development pipeline this late in the development cycle.

We've already surpassed our render count for our largest chapter to date, and we still have two development sprints ahead of us with scenes that are not rendered yet.

At this point, we're essentially fleshing out the "future state" endings that give the player a glimpse of the near-term future and longer-term payoff for their paths.

While none of these scenes are particularly lengthy or dialogue-heavy, they ARE exceptionally varied, with massive changes in venue, characters present, and circumstances.

In short, one ending isn't simply different dialogue applied to the same artwork, and each is unique in every way.

We've tried to capture the essence of what was at the root of the MC's gravitation to each girl (or lack thereof) in each scenario, and send our characters into the proverbial sunset (see what I did there?) with a nod to that.

Kentyrr has been prolific, kicking out 42 renders just today on a scene that was delivered to him just two days ago.

With that said, we've pushed well into the third act now, and are pushing ourselves hard to meet our goal date.

We'll continue to update you here as we achieve milestones.

Chasing Sunsets Development Update - Mea Culpa and Status

It's been waaaaaaay too long since we've made an update, and there's absolutely no excuse for that.

I'll start by saying that development of Chapter 10 is going full steam ahead, and we're trudging doggedly toward the finish line.

One element of wrapping up our first game we've struggled a bit with is saying good bye to characters we've become attached to over the game's development.

As such, we've seen a bit of "scope creep" in our closing chapter, with a steadfast determination to give each ending its due.

The result is that we are currently at an update size that meets or exceeds our normal chapter release, but we still have a ways to go.

With each ending getting its share of humor, lewd content, and loose end resolution, it's fair to say we underestimated the scope of delivering closure.

What's complete:

• 1400 renders done so far, out of an estimate 2100

• Short-term fallout from relationships

• The lawsuit resolution

• Romantic path resolution

• 4/8 lewd scenes (The longest ones)

• Music selection

• Ren'py Update Regression Testing

What's left to do:

• 4 shorter lewd scenes

• Long-term fallout from relationships

• Beta and focus testing the ending structure

As of today, I would estimate development of the final chapter at approximately 70-75% complete.

The good news is that with the holidays behind us, our development pace has accelerated, so I'm reasonably confident our final chapter will deliver in May. This should give us time to wrap up the remaining scenes, complete sound and music integration, test the choice matrix, and beta test.

Once again, I apologize for the dearth of updates. I promise they will become more frequent as we close in on game completion.

Chasing Sunsets Chapter 10 Progress Update

As we ease into the holiday season, Stone Fox has been hard at work on the final content update for Chasing Sunsets.

As of today, the last artwork not specific to any ending is rendering, and all remaining artwork and scripting will be to flesh out the path terminus for the player's choices.

As previously stated, these will include glimpses of the present, near-future, and a longer-term future for the protagonist and whomever he chose to end the story with.

Stoya is headed out for a tropical vacation tomorrow and will be out of pocket for about ten days, but Kent has plenty of scenes to brainstorm and build artwork for while he's out.

Current image count for Chapter 10 sits at about 700, with probably double that pending.

It's been a really fun experience working on the end of a game, and we're looking forward to bringing this one across the finish line in the near future.

When I return, depending on where Kent is in the art backlog, I will focus on getting the Ch0-9 bugfix out the door before finalizing the script for each of the endings.

Just a confirmation for those who have been asking, Kent and I will have a wrap livestream shortly after Chapter 10 ships. Start thinking about any questions you'd like to ask us, and drop them in the #questions-for-dev-stream channel on our Discord server!

Stone Fox Endorses Sexbot in 2024! (Now on Steam!)

We don't do a lot of promotion for other games. Not because we don't appreciate the quality and effort of other developers, but mostly because we hate marketing even our own stuff.

That said, Kentyrr and I played this one a few months back and had a lot of fun with it. Llamamann Games has put a ton of effort into it, and it shows in both the amount of available content and the quality of its execution.

Above all, this is a fun game with lots of humor, great writing, an interesting plot, and solid production values across the board. Page down for the Steam link and enjoy at 20% launch discount, or visit his Patreon page here.

Whatever brings you to half-mast on the voyage of life, we wouldn't recommend it if we didn't think you'd find something in here for you:

Sexbot by Llamamann Games

Play as a nerdy university student trying to get a date for the Homecoming dance. Just when it looks like you are doomed to a life of perpetual virginity, sexual salvation arrives in the form of the humanoid robot; Alexa.

With only one week to calibrate Alexa before the dance, your choices will determine what kind of date you're going to get. But the more time you spend with her, it becomes increasingly obvious she is not a basic Sexbot model, but something more and something sinister is lurking in the shadows.

When things don't go as planned at the dance, she brings you back in time, to give you another chance.

Available now on Steam now, with an early bird 20% launch discount!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2178930/Sexbot/

or

https://www.patreon.com/llamamanngames

The time travel mechanic in Sexbot allows you to make new choices, explore new paths, and experience new events (without having to save scum your way through). The best of Groundhog Day, but with a user friendly interface, that has been lubed up specifically to eliminate "the grind".

The cast of Sexbot expands as you play, and you can pursue all of ridiculously attractive characters. However, your actions are not without consequence.

Big events cause ripples through the timelines, permanently altering character's relationships to you, and each other, unlocking trophies and even more possibilities.

Chasing Sunsets Ch10 - Development In Full Swing

While we've been quiet since Ch9 launch, we haven't been idle!

Development of Chapter 10, titled "Chasing Sunsets" has been going pretty much since the day we pushed the bugfix, and one of our two side projects is closing in on delivery:

Specifically, I'm talking about the updated release of the Prologue through Chapter 9 with many bugs, inconsistencies, broken forks, and other improvements aimed at making the gameplay experience consistent from beginning to end.

This will be release v1.02...The QoL update and front-to-back bugfix.

While the art updates for the Prologue-Chapter 1 won't be included in this version, this should shore up each of the corner cases that have been identified which yield unexpected results or aren't accounted for in later gameplay. While there may still be choice combinations that haven't been flagged as bugs yet, we're pretty confident we have a handle on most of the places the script goes a bit wonky...Or a lot wonky.

As for the final chapter, art is cruising along nicely, and each ending will receive its due. It begins with Jaye and Alex bidding farewell to their childhood home a few days before the bar scene with Walter at the end of Chapter 9, as they plan for the next stage of their lives, together or otherwise.

The next section will wrap up what happens in court (influenced by previous choices) and then proceeds into a look at the MC's immediate future, followed by a look a bit further down the road.

Further, endings will be "grouped" by type. For example, the Solo Jaye and Solo Mallory path are grouped together as the "Pure LI" endings. The idea is that MC will have an opportunity to reminisce on "what might have been" had he made other choices within his ending group. This isn't going to be a full-fledged experience of alternate endings, but more of an abstract glimpse of what the alternative might have looked like.

So, what can you expect in Ch10?

The points bar is gone, baby, gone. You'll still have choices, but they will simply have impact within your chosen ending, so more cause and effect.

This chapter will have significantly more lewd content in it than preceding chapters, even if they're (generally) shorter. After all, everyone wants to see what's behind their chosen door, right?

On top of that, there are a lot of loose ends to tie up, so we have our work cut out for us.

As of today, we have three scenes complete with nearly 200 images rendered.

One thing that's really helping move us along is that for the time being, Kent is developing full time, and if anything I'm sweating a bit to stay ahead of him.

Chapter 10 will release as v1.1 and the final update with the remastered early game art will release shortly after as v1.11, after which we will turn our attention to Firebreak.

As our story draws to its full conclusion, Kentyrr and I would like to take a moment to thank those of you who have been with us from the beginning from the bottoms of our hearts, and for those who have joined us more recently, we are honored and gratified we met your expectations well enough to earn your patronage!

In other news, we were recently reviewed on the SML Podcast. Hear what Mika thought of Chasing Sunsets right here!

Best,

Stoya and Kentyrr

Chasing Sunsets - What's Next?

Now that patch 1.01 is out (and still fails to account for one world state due to a Ch7 bug) and Kent and I are enjoying our traditional week off from development, I thought I'd take a moment and post about the future of our first title. (v1.01 is available at the pinned download links.)

Here is the planned release cycle and what to expect with each:

v1.02 - Sept 2024: This will include bug fixes for all chapters, including the one mentioned above from Chapter 7. If this update adds new content, it will only be to patch bugged paths, such as Mallory still thinking she's on the casual sex path after MC has rejected her every advance in Ch6.

v1.10 - Dec 2024-Mar 2025: This will be our Epilogue Chapter. It will begin a few days before the scene in Walter's bar at the end of Ch9, and take the player through the outcome of the lawsuit. (Yes, there will be a trial) and then take the MC through the immediate outcomes of his ending, followed by a glimpse of his future. We are evaluating a mechanic that would allow the MC to have an incomplete look at what his ending might have looked like had he made different choices as well.

This version (the final chapter update) will be titled "Chasing Sunsets" and will also endeavor to tie up any loose ends, such as what happened to Vince if you left him alive, how that ring ended up on Jaye's finger at the end of Ch9, and most importantly, what happened to Hank the Wolf.

The final content update will certainly offer the player an opportunity to see some faces that have been absent such as Rikki, Bianca, and others. Each will have individual content, depending on choices made up to this point.

The points system will go away in the final chapter, and while there will be choices, they can affect pathing within that ending.

v1.11 - TBD 2025: This will be our final version, after which we will only patch the game if bugs are discovered, and it will be considered a completely finished product. This will focus on bringing legacy animations and art up to our current standard, refining dialogue, and possibly adding additional choices or providing a smoother experience navigating the relationship realities.

 v1.11 is not expected to maintain save compatibility with previous versions, because new variables will be introduced and some legacy variables removed.

That's it in a nutshell. After taking a few days off, Kent and I will be burning the midnight oil to get this entire project into a state we can call "a job adequately done." We'll let you know periodically how things are going, and of course, watch the Previews channel for a sneak peek of what lies ahead!

Chasing Sunsets v1.01 - Righting a wrong

I just wanted to make a small announcement about the upcoming v1.01 patch for Chapter 9.

Some of the feedback we've received has indicated that named saves were causing compatibility issues on Steam Deck and that the animated main menu was stressing some lower-end hardware.

As such, I've created new options in the preferences menu that can disable both features with a click.

Now onto the big reason for this patch:

For those of you who felt burned by the outcome of the casual path for the two main LI's, we know we dropped the ball.

While we feel the girls' dissatisfaction with the casual arrangement was adequately telegraphed, we also never provided an offramp for the player to right the ship. That both violates the spirit of our "no gotcha" statement at the beginning of the game, and it's objectively obvious that the result was unduly punitive.

I (Stoya) take ownership for that as the writer, and legitimately felt gut-punched the moment I realized that no escape hatch had been provided. I can only offer my word that it wasn't intentional or malicious, and began planning a fix for this the moment I realized the enormity of the miss.

As such, we are adding a scene to Chapter 9 near the beginning after the Lexi concert. This scene will provide two choices where the player can exercise agency before the girls start making decisions on his behalf.

To be clear, it will NOT add endings that were never planned for, nor does it violate the integrity of the story as planned. I also want to point out that this scene does not exist in a bubble just to change a variable. The fact that this scene occurred will be reflected in other conversations throughout the chapter.

If the player was on a committed path, the scene will offer no stat changes and they have no need to replay. There will just be be some banter and a little more visible bonding between primary characters.

TL;DR This only impacts saves that were on the casual path with Mallory and Jaye.

This is not (repeat) this is not the end!

I also want to emphasize that each ending will be fully fleshed out in the last content update, and (hopefully) any loose ends will be tied up with it. A surprisingly large number of fans have assumed that we'd ended romantic paths in Walter's bar, and so I wanted to state emphatically that this is not the case. We've had each ending visualized for a few years now, and can't wait to share them with you.

I will make an announcement when the new archives are uploaded. Unfortunately, I cannot patch only the script as the binary includes approximately 70 new images and so the art archive must be downloaded as well. As of this moment, the updated script is complete approximately half the art is rendered and expected to complete overnight.

Thank you for your bearing with us.

Best,

Stone Fox Studios

Chasing Sunsets - Chapter 9 (v1.0) Released

Well, here we are near the end of a journey that began three years ago.

Tonight, we release Chasing Sunsets Chapter 9, which brings the main story arc to a conclusion.

There remain several updates before we move on, however.

The next update will be an effort to stomp out any bugs or other inconsistencies in earlier chapters, eliminate duplication of any assets, and settle on a compression method that Kent agrees is a fair balance between visual fidelity and file size.

Chapter 9 will lock in the player's ending, which will be explored in greater detail in the final content update hopefully by the end of this year.

There are still some story lines left to wrap up in the next update, as well as some exposition on how things will evolve for characters as the ripple effects of their decisions expand both through family, friendships, and even the world.

As of today, Chasing Sunsets contains just shy of 16000 renders, 200K words of story and dialogue, nearly 150 pieces of music, and nearly 300 different sound effects.

Our game contains nearly 100 different characters with speaking roles, and has 204 achievements.

Chapter 9 explores a world that has grown smaller for our protagonists after returning from the island. Against the continued threats from the usual suspects, Mallory wants to return to the fun she and the main character had the first time they met: Outdoors with no labels on their relationship.

Needless to say, Mallory is well aware of Jaye's bungalow adventure with the main character, so she knows the bar has been set pretty high. Will she be up to the challenge?

Meanwhile, Jaye is wrestling with the specter of her medical school dreams evaporating, and all of this while the pressure is still on from their government and corporate enemies to nip the threat posed by Mallory's existence in the bud.

We will see some new faces as well as revisit a few from earlier chapters as events converge on a trajectory that, unsurprisingly, ends where it began.

There are changes beyond the content addition. You'll notice a new main menu with updates to dated animation, and improvements throughout the UI.

Additionally, Kent added his first animations to replace the slideshow lewd psuedo-animations scenes in the Prologue and Ch1.

Where do we go from here? Chasing Sunsets moved on from Early Access on purchase platforms today. While we will add one more content update, and modernize the oldest parts, our focus will begin moving toward our next project, Firebreak.

We hope you enjoy Chapter 9 as much as we enjoyed making it. We hope you laugh a little, maybe get a little bit of the feels, and, of course, enjoy our ladies doing what they do best.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us on this project. We couldn't do it without you, and we hope what we do next only raises the bar.

You'll find the Mega and Gofile links posted on the pinned message above.

Chasing Sunsets Ch9 - Release Imminent

We're in our fourth day of beta, and most of the outstanding issues have either been identified and corrected, or will be in the next 24 hours.

In fact, I've been so busy tying up loose ends, tweaking, and correcting items identified in beta, I almost forgot to post my promised Thursday update tonight before it was Friday (for me.)

Outstanding items at this point remain the completion of the closing credits crawl, some sound work, and a few more bugs to run down.

As of now, we're shooting for a release on Saturday or Sunday (this weekend.)

I'll post both the Mega and GoFile links here with the release announcement.

Thank you all for waiting patiently while Kent and I do our thing!

Chasing Sunsets Ch9 - Beta Imminent

As promised, I will update every week until we have a release ready.

Since last week, we have completed all static art, and have all art successfully folded into the script. We identified a continuity error that required a small scene augment, and we've re-rendered the entire crossover scene because of an error with another developer's asset settings (causing her to look non-canon.)

Here's what's left to do:

• Re-dialoguing one scene that didn't quite hit the note we were looking for (about 100 lines)

• One animation remains pending

• End-of-Chapter Summary update

• Music finalization

• Achievement and image unlock finalization and testing

• Beta and feedback-based fixes/refinements

The bulk of this can be completed tomorrow and Friday night. We expect to be in beta this weekend, with a great chance of release the following week.

We'll post it here immediately if anything happens to change that.

Once again, thank you for your patience, and we'll be happy to ship this instalment as soon as it's ready.

Chasing Sunsets Ch9 - Close but no banana!

Judgy Mallory is Judgy. Why, you ask?

Soooo...Here we are on August 1, or one day after the targeted release from our last update.

I wanted to post a quick note to share where we're at.

As you can probably guess, a few issues have conspired to cost us time.

The first is that we felt one scene delivered less impact than preceding scene, where we should have seen some escalation. As such, we expanded it.

The second is that we've been fighting some issues in our shared DAZ library with morph persistence. In short, Kent typically poses scenes, and I render them. The problem was that when I rendered them, we began seeing inaccuracies in posing that didn't make sense, requiring extensive rework.

The third is that when we viewed all of the artwork in context, we found a few scenes where cameras had mysteriously shifted and the art needed to be re-rendered.

As of now, we believe those problems have been solved.

So, where does that leave us?

• Art: 98% (Some rework and one animation pending)

• Script: 100%

• Sound/Music: 65%

• Unlockables: 33%

While that looks scary, it's really just a week or so of catch-up if all goes well. We'll keep plugging away and let you know if we hit any more complications. Please know Kent and I are burning the midnight oil to put a ribbon on this thing and get it shipped!

We'll post an update one week from today for the sake of transparency.

I'm sorry we missed our target, but happy I set it for July 31, since it really motivated us to churn out a ton of work trying to achieve it.

If you have any questions, I'll return to this post at least once a day until the next update to answer them the best I can.

As always, thanks for bearing with us, and we look forward to reporting good news soon.

This is also the post where I remind folks that if they don't want their Patron/Discord name to be included in the closing credits, to send me a DM here or in Discord to be excluded.

Chasing Sunsets Ch9 - What to Expect

As we close in on Chapter 9's release, I figured it's well past time for another update. As of today, our render count sits at 1200, with one remaining scene requiring animation, and about three remaining scenes requiring art.

Chapter 9 will feature two crossovers from other popular titles, both of which leave a mark on the story.

This chapter is taking a bit more time to finish, but it's also a somewhat longer chapter, as you will know your playthrough's ending when the credits roll. This will be the last time you see the chapter summary screen that's become a hallmark of this title.

The last update will be something between a normal chapter and an epilogue showing how your ending plays out once the immediate crisis is past. At least one choice made in the first five minutes of the game comes full circle as the sun sets on the present for the final time.

We would like to get the last update out before the end of the year, at which point we'll remaster the prologue and first chapter to bring the art/animations and sound up to the standard our current content deploys with.

All of the nitty gritty aside, we are shooting for a July release. This will be a bit of a squeeze for us, but that'll mostly fall on the coding side of things to make sure everything is as bulletproof as it can be before being released to the public.

When we started this, it was a different world. People were locked down with COVID, there was less war in the world, and the AVN community was full of promise.

As we begin putting a bow on our first game, Kentyrr and I want to thank everyone who's supported us with ideas, knowledge, patronage, and companionship in our DIscord from the bottoms of our hearts.

We especially want to thank Ugulugulu, Pandadrummer, Xerus, Naughty Captain, Rex, Xor, and Puggy for the encouragement, critique, and gentle prodding along the way.

Chasing Sunsets Ch9 - The End is in Sight!

 And I'm not just talking about for the lucky bastard behind Mallory!

We apologize for the quiet out of Kentyrr and I, as we've waded through some challenging artwork and bug fixes.

That said, we're fully in the integration phase of chapter development where artwork, music, sound, and features come together to create a beta build.

While we don't have an anticipated release date yet, we are quickly closing in on our target, and as you know, our intent is to get the final chapter out in 2024.

We're looking forward to putting the finishing touches on this denouement with our main girls, and setting the stage for the story's ending.

Chapter 9 has really put Kent through the wringer as I've asked more of him than ever before. Sometimes the small details. I won't spend too much time on this topic, but I'll just leave this meme here:

Kentyrr has a long-planned trip coming up in two weeks which will cause a small delay in pending artwork, but nothing likely to effect our timeline as I have plenty of coding, bug fixing, and path testing to do while he's out of pocket.

With the termination of our alternate hosting service WeTransfer, we will have our alternate hosting service up and running this weekend. We've opted to go with GoFile, which should be helpful to those with 5GB daily Mega limits.

Other than that, things have been pretty smooth sailing. My dev box is humming away every night with new art, and we've begun finalizing animations.

As soon as I have a beta build in hand, I'll announce it here, and as always release should follow within a week or so of that. I will be more comfortable setting a target date for the update in my next post.

This has been a hugely rewarding learning experience for both Kentyrr and I. As excited as we are to finish up Chasing Sunsets and begin Firebreak, you never forget your first time.

Right Jaye?

Chasing Sunsets Dev Update: Power surges suck!

Spring is here, and Stone Fox Studios wishes all of you a happy Easter!

In what I wish was an April Fools joke, we had a massive development system failure mid-March. To make a long story short, a power supply failed in such a way as to smoke the motherboard as well. Given the unique storage setup, only two AM4 motherboards on the market provided the right combination of M.2 slots and GPU slots, both of which are out of production.

Emergency replacement parts were ordered the same day, but have taken some time to arrive and finalize installation. The bits came together with the full restoration of the dev rig backup image this evening.

While Kentyrr still had plenty of art to work on, a 10-day production hit for Stoya still hurts, though the impact to the project timline was minimal, it does ratchet up the pressure as we close in on the Chapter 9 end zone.

As of this writing, there are about six scenes left before we're ready to put out a beta, but half of those are comparatively small. At this point, I'm hoping to have something out to testers in a month or so, provided there are no additional motherboard-frying shenanigans.

In addition to the new content, Chapter 9 will also include changes to the preceding eight chapters that are mostly corrective, and represent a variety of bug fixes, spelling and grammatical errors, and even a few broken forks.

As we get closer to release, as always, expect the preview images and updates to occur more regularly.

As always, you can expect a wide variety of unique settings for the coming instalment. After the last episode focused on moving the story forward, we're past due for spending some time in the heads of protagonists as they examine what they really want, and what they're willing to do to get it.

We'll tease more of what's to come in the weeks leading up to beta.

Best,

Kent and Stoya

Chasing Sunsets Ch9 Dev Update - On Target

February's been a challenging month, both from the development perspective and with real life doing its best to sap development hours from Kentyrr and I.   Without going into detail, a combination of vehicle woes, health issues, and the utter hell I put Kentyrr through in my art demands have tested our limits.

In one case, an entire scene had to be redone when we both saw flaws in an asset that could not be mitigated.

While this may sound like bad news, we've managed to stay on track in spite of all that, and none of the setbacks were so major that they forced us completely back to the drawing board.

What sets Chapter 9 apart a bit is that so much of it is outdoors, and that's created some new composition challenges for us while it tends to shorten actual render times.

When she left Tonalu, Mallory alluded to missing the spontaneity that marked her first day with MC in Aspen, and hoped to recapture that with him upon returning to the States, and it's fair to say that this girl is a planner!

Jaye is faced with being dropped from The Havard School of Medicine, and is also at something of a crossroads.  After the mind blowing (and genital-chafing) night at the oceanside bungalow, you can bet she's looking to see if lightning can strike twice.

While the story has drifted between inheritance games, cyclones, laboratory breakthroughs, and lawsuits, Chapter 9 reigns in the distractions and focuses on a guy trying to make sense of his new life and how it moves forward with the two women who routinely crash through it. 

Recovered from his injuries, and with a new insight into where he belongs, he is primed to become more assertive in getting what he wants.  

And he's not the only one.

From a progress perspective, we've only added about 200 images since our update at the end of January, but they have been particularly challenging ones.  We begin on lewd scenes next, and those actually tend to build the render count pretty quickly because characters tend to stay in a fairly confined space.

Please be patient as Kent and I weave this second-to-last chapter into a sum that is hopefully greater than its parts.

More to come soon!

Chasing Sunsets Ch9 Development Update #2

Chapter 9 has borrowed a page out of Mallory's playbook and really taken flight!

I won't sugarcoat it, It has been a pretty stressful month for Kentyrr and I on the development front.  Two long-planned scenes that I've asked Kent to deliver turned out to not have any assets available to create them.

Normally, if we're doing something a little unusual, we'll check well in advance to ensure the store has adequate choices for the scene, but every once in a while we want to do something relatively pedestrian, only to find what we need just doesn't exist.

In either case, we had to really dig deep, but we were able to break through in the end.  And we did it in a way that doesn't feel like compromising at all.  

I can say unironically that we haven't been challenged with the art like this since Chapter 4.

Speaking of art, those of you following the preview channels already see the improvements we're making to old and dated animations and UI elements.  Since Kent and I work in parallel, this extra work hasn't impacted development timelines as he's still chopping away at his backlog of art.

From a straight up numbers perspective, we're almost 600 renders into the chapter, with about half the script complete.  Music selection is complete, and the last of our scenes requiring really custom environment work is behind us...Except maybe one at the end.

This has been a fun chapter to craft so far from a writing perspective, since so much is coming together near the end of our story.   As previously stated, Chapter 9 does bring the focus back onto Mallory and Jaye as each struggles to settle into their new lives following the events on the island.  

After taking stock, it quickly becomes clear that our genetically-suspicious team isn't out of the woods quite yet.

While prior chapters have been pretty predictable in size, this one is definitely in a "when it's ready" state.  We have a lot of ground to cover before our characters ride off into the *cough* sunset in Chapter 10, and we can't leave any branches on the floor.  That doesn't necessarily mean we're not tracking to our usual release cycle, but it does mean that if we get toward completion and discover we missed something, we'll have to decide whether it can be tied up in Chapter 10, of if this is our last chance.

So far, so good...And I can't begin to say how good it feels to have the biggest art challenges behind us!

Chasing Sunsets Chapter 9 Development Cycle 10 Update

Kentyrr and I have been hard at work on Chapter 9 since shortly after the Chapter 8 launch in November.

Obviously, the holidays are a busy time for us both, but that hasn't prevented us from hitting the ground running for the penultimate update to Chasing Sunsets!

Threads will continue to converge until the end of the chapter brings us to the threshhold of the story's long-awaited conclusion.

For those who would have liked more Mallory and Jaye in the last chapter, you'll be happy to know that they return with a vengeance in our next update!

Chapter 9, tentatively titled "Chain Reaction, returns the cast to the US with the inheritance resolved, but looming uncertainties ahead.

What was on that flash drive?   Will Jaye or Mallory draw lines in the sand for their affections?   Will others MC has met along the way make a play for his own?

Speaking as the storysmith, I can say with significant excitement that Chapter 9 will contain several scenes I've waited a very long time to see visualized.

As of this writing, we are nearly 300 renders and three scenes into Chapter 9 from a development perspective.  We have a lot to wrap up in the last two instalments, so it's hard to know for sure what the total render count will be for the update overall, but we won't put a fork in it until we've achieved all of the worldstates necessary to deliver the endings.

Chapter 9 will also see UI and feature refinements, as well as represent the beginning of our modernization and refinement effort on dated animations.

I've begun music selection earlier in the cycle than usual, and have inquiries for song licensing out to several artists which I hope will come through.

With the finish line in sight, our motivation to stick the landing has never been higher!

We'll keep you all updated as the development cycle progresses, and don't forget to check the #Previews channel in our Discord for exclusive sneak peeks at what we've got in the oven for you!

Chasing Sunsets Chapter 8 Released to all Tiers

A very happy Thanksgiving from the bros at Stone Fox Studios, hopefully setting off your holidays with a bang (or two.)

Chapter 8 has arrived, and the main download links have been updated to the Mega and WeTransfer content distribution networks.   The binary is over 6GB now, and we're aware that poses issues for free Mega users.   

We are currently messing with the quality/compression sweet spot to try to get the binary below 5GB again.

If you find bugs, please remember to use #bug-reports on the Stone Fox Studios Discord.   This channel is open to the public.

For those of you anxiously waiting for the Steam release, that will come today, but it typically takes a few hours longer to get the depots properly set up and validated in addition to the announcement post published.

There have been no Renpy framework update or feature migrations for this update, so hopefully save integrity remains solid.   

Download links are posted only to the stickied post to prevent confusion as the link addresses change on short notice for the first day or so after release to maximize bandwidth available to supporters over pirates.

Thanks to each and every one of you for your patience as we began closing off story arcs, exiting characters, and moving the story its, uh...Climax in Chapters 9 and 10!

Happy holidays from Kentyrr and Stoya.   We wish the best for all of you and your families as 2023 winds to a close!

Chasing Sunsets Chapter 8 Release Candidate Complete!

Stone Fox Studios is excited to announce that our release candidate is currently under review.  The sole remaining items barring any major issues discovered in QA are the creation of the Steam binary and updating the closing credits movie.   As always, if you're a patron, and you'd prefer not to have your name in the credits, DM Stoya in Discord or reply to this post with your wishes stipulated.

This will be the "expansion chapter" since we were unable to close out the Tonalu arc in Chapter 7 as originally planned.  Chapter 9 will pick up where the original Chapter 8 would have opened, in Boston.

Barring any surprises in QA, we anticipate launching within the next 24-72 hours, and we will create an updated post at that time with refreshed download links.

The final tally for Chapter 8:

• 1900 new individual static renders
• 6 new animations
• 1 Crossover
• 22 new original audio tracks
• 21 new achievements

Chapter 8 was bittersweet for us because we say farewell to a few characters (for now) and the next chapter effectively wraps up the pathing, with the final chapter being more of an epilogue that explores the consequences of the player's cumulative choices.

So, what's left to do?

A few more path deconfliction runs, rebuilding the closing credits trailer movie, and removing some of the beta tools we include so testers can change world state with the press of a button.  My next post will contain links to the updated 0.9 binary, and then Kent and I go dark for a week or so to recover from our dev cycle (after I've put any gamebreaking bugs to rest).

Kentyrr and I want to thank all of you who support us during the dev cycle...We never for a moment thought we'd ever get a following, and here we are on the cusp of completing our first game.

Again, download links will be up in the next day or two and we push to ALL platforms same day.

Chasing Sunsets Chapter 8 - Beta Imminent

This is just a quick update to say that the Chapter 8 beta is coming together nicely, and we're hoping to have it out to testers next week.

Kent and I will review the script from front to back this weekend before clearing the beta for our diligent beta crew.

From this milestone forward, it is usually between one and three weeks to release, and we're going to do our best to get it out in that timeframe.

This is the most hectic time of the dev cycle, as we're bringing all of the bits and pieces that have been worked on individually and stitched together into a cohesive whole, and testing those paths and unlocks against various paths, while trying to ensure we haven't made any errors with point totals.

My focus between now and launch will be debugging and dialogue refinement.   All animations are completed, and any art that's left is purely incidental or supplemental because we felt and image didn't feel right for a delivered line.

So, where do we sit as of this moment?

About 1900 original Kentyrr still images

• 8 new animations (another 1900 images)
• 7 new characters
• 2 Post-credits scenes
• 2 scenes with a popular blonde
• A crossover with a franchise you might not expect
• Corrections and fixes to previous chapters

As we work through the beta process and get closer to a go date, we'll make one more post to finalize are target release before the links are actually published.

We're grateful for your patience and your support as we close out Chapter 8 and begin planning the penultimate chapter of our first visual novel.

Chasing Sunsets Chapter 8 is in post-production!

Chapter 8 is hopefully *this* close!

While some supplemental art remains, we are in the process of pulling the big picture together and moving toward beta.

Over the next few weeks, we'll be evaluating the chapter pacing and run our path testing.   While this sometimes results in scene rewrites or additional unplanned content to flesh out areas we feel were weak, it's an important milestone on our road to release.

The Chapter will be called "Conflicts of Interest, and picks up shortly after the post-credits scene in Chapter 7.

There will be a lot to unpack before Team Throatpunch leaves Tonalu:

• What will George's decision be on the inheritance?
• Will there be fallout for MC following his deadly incident on foreign soil?
• What were the results of Jaye's DNA test?

In addition, we'll get some insight into some backstories that haven't been addressed directly in the game so far: 

• What happened between Gary and Bianca?
• Why did Lisa keep MC and Jaye's shower tryst to herself?
• Who is buying the MV Sunset?
• What was the impact of Jaye's sabbatical from pre-med?

All of this and more will be addressed in the lead up to the penultimate chapter of Chasing Sunsets.

Expect approximately 14 new achievements, at least one crossover, and more scene unlockables, as well as some lewd payoff that has been marinating in the background for a while.

As we close in on a release date, we'll keep you all posted here.   For now, it's nose to the grindstone until the episode has gone gold!

Chasing Sunsets Dev Update - And a Look Ahead

The dev cycle is starting to head into its final stretches now!

As of tonight, we have just shy of 1500 renders complete with between 3-500 to go.

There are two remaining scenes to create art for, including a lewd one, and animations are nearing the 50% complete mark.

This weekend will be the first look Kent and I have of the art and dialogue coming together into an integrated whole as the v0.9 binary transitions into a playable framework.

As stated before, this is trending to be a larger chapter than the last one, and we're working hard to pull all of the pieces together and avoid any continuity gaps.  

Our best estimate on a chapter release is between the end of September and mid-October, if all goes smoothly!

In addition to the Chapter 8 update, I'd also like to tease our next project, tentatively called "Firebreak."

Here's what I can share about it so far:

• We plan to keep the story in the same universe with some crossover characters from Chasing Sunsets
• We're looking at a different approach to episodic releases which will hopefully makes each update more self-contained
• It will feature a male MC
• While the game will be story-driven, there will be more potential LIs, including some who were not LIs in Chasing Sunsets

This is where we take some of the lessons we learned from Chasing Sunsets and apply them in a way that makes the long wait between updates more bearable.  

We also recognize that while slow burns have their place, (we will certainly include them in Firebreak), these are called Adult Visual Novels for a reason.  We thought a lot about a story vehicle to deliver more of that kind of content convincingly earlier in the game without cheapening or overcomplicating the relationships with ladies you may like, but find less interesting.

We're super excited to be approaching the end of one story, but even more excited to share that the tale of the friends we made along the way won't necessarily end with the last sunset!

Chasing Sunsets Dev Update #3 - Over the hump!

As the dog days of summer continue, Kent and I are plugging away at Chapter 8, which is shaping up to be even bigger than the last one.

As of today we're sitting at over a thousand images rendered, with four large and four smaller scenes left to go in development.

This is the point in the development cycle where we begin art and script integration and plan animations.   

While we've been somewhat quiet, it hasn't been for lack of effort.   We're at the point in development where we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, not only for the chapter, but for the entire project.  This has been a tremendous amount of work, but it has been rewarding beyond words watching the fanbase evolve and our little proof-of-concept take flight.

Our focus at this point is in sticking the landing!

Once we have the game finalized, our intent is to "remaster" the Prologue and Chapter 1, as well as remake the earliest animations to bring them up to the same level as the more recent ones.  After that, Kent and I will move on to Project Next, so stay tuned to hear what we have planned for our second project!

So, what can you expect from Chapter 8?

• The fallout from MC's encounter with Vince
• The outcome of the inheritance evaluation
• Deeper insight into Lisa and Bianca's lives
• The outcome of the Bandit gambit
• The thinking bench returns
• At least one easter egg with another popular AVN

The sale of the MV Sunset marks the end of our protagonists' time on Tonalu, after which they will fly home to face the outcomes of their decisions.

As always, expect updates to appear more frequently as we approach the end of the development cycle.  Thank you for your patience, and giving us the time to do what we do!

Chasing Sunsets Ch8 Dev Update #2

Happy Summer!

With the weather heats up, so does the development cycle here at Stone Fox.

Chapter 8 is progressing with no speedbumps so far, and a focus on showcasing some relationships that may have been simmering in the background for a while now.

That doesn't mean there won't be quality time for our two main girls as well!

Kent has over 500 renders complete covering the first four scenes of Chapter 8, and is taking next week off from his day job with the intent of testing what full-time development feels like.

Sound and music selection are nearly complete, and Kent has managed to resolve some issues with some models that were causing us genital asset headaches.

As for features, we are looking mostly interface tweaks this time around.   The named save function is a little finicky with character input, and I'm looking at cleaning up a few other items.

Chapter 8 says goodbye to Tonalu and sets up the final two chapters in Boston.

As always, updates will become more frequent the closer we get to chapter release.

Once again, Kentyrr and I are humbled by your support and grateful you've come along with us for the ride.

As the Chasing Sunsets story approaches its penultimate chapter, keep checking back for announcements about what Stone Fox has lined up next!

Chasing Sunsets - Chapter 8 is in development!

Dev Cycle 9 has begun!

It's hard to believe we're closing in on the finish line of our little project, yet here we are.

Tonight, Kent and I selected two new characters for the first scene and began picking up where Chapter 7 left off.

Beginning tomorrow, Kent will begin building art off the first Chapter 8 dialogue, and we're off to the races.

As previously stated, Chapter 8 will be the final one on the island of Tonalu before the story moves back to the States for its conclusion.   Entitled "Smoke and Mirrors," the Campbells will get their first real glimpse of how far down the rabbit hole the events surrounding their inheritance go.   

Don't expect they'll go wheels-up without opportunities to enjoy some of the alluring distractions along the way!

As development ramps up, continue to check the Previews channel for sneak peeks at what we're cooking up while you wait!

While art renders tomorrow, I will complete the final Chapter 7 build with grammar, spelling, and minor bug fixes, none of which require a replay.

Chasing Sunsets Ch7 Bugfix v0.8a - Updated

Following release, several bugs were discovered, two of them game-breaking.

For those who have already completed Chapter 7,

we encourage you to play through on this updated version from the end of Chapter 6 before our next release

to ensure all variables are set properly.

While none of these were critical to the central plot, they could result in some incorrect dialogue in future chapters.

The patch has been updated to include a few more fixes, but they're not important unless you are on the "never did anything naughty with Mallory path."   While this will probably be the final bugfix before Chapter 8, there will be one more point release that adds some choices to the scene replays.

Fixed:

• Fixed issue on SteamDeck that was causing Save Game screen to break. On-screen keyboard can now be summoned with Steam+X .
• Fixed coding issue that resulted in poor animation performance during the hotel scene
• Pathing issue Fixed: If MC rejected Mallory at end of Ch5, it does not end her path, but Ch7 failed to allow the player to continue a physical relationship with her.
• Two variables were duplicated from Ch6. They are not story-critical for the most part, but a replay is worthwhile to avoid weird dialogue in Ch8 onwards.
• Fixed erroneous reporting in the Chapter Summary about how the MC handled his chat with Jaye when he returned her phone.
• Reverted an error in Chapter 2 where a variable was malformed. (Recording if the player hugged Jaye after she arrived on the yacht)
• Made the trigger for the Erica phone chat in Ch7 more forgiving, and corrected dialogue to accurately reflect MC's behavior up to that point.
• Lowered the love requirement with Mallory to ask Sophie to replicate Bandit from 34 to 31. This value is achievable without pursuing her romantically.
• Corrected numerous spelling errors, typos, and flawed grammar.
• Fixed the missing summary on the Ch4 Jaye 'almost lost at sea ending' (Bad End 1) and now correctly returns the player to the main menu afterwards
• Fixed the missing achievement trigger "Sarah's Secret" in Ch2
• Adjusted Ch7 board room dialogue to not suggest Mallory had slept with MC prior to Ch7 if MC rejected her at the end of Ch5.
• Corrected the Ch7 Rikki text being incorrectly dependent upon the player having satisfied the requirements to replicate Bandit
• Added two Jaye trust points if rejecting the threesome with Mallory in Ch7 if you are on the Jaye Love Path
• Adjusted Tanaka dialogue in the Ch7 kitchen scene if the player took her training, but failed to earn enough respect points to interest her
• Updated Chapter 7 Summary Report to not suggest Lisa is pushing for an intimate relationship if either Jaye or Mallory is in a committed relationship with MC
• Adjusted animation transitions in Ch7 as some players were seeing a flicker of a checkerboard pattern as they dissolved in.

Outstanding issues:

• Some players have reported broken saves.

Since there is no new content, I've also offered a patch download.

WeTransfer:

Mac
PC

Mega:

Mac
PC


Additionally, you can download the much-smaller patch here if you have already downloaded 0.8.

Chasing Sunsets Chapter 7 Released!

Stone Fox Studios is pleased to announce the release of Chapter 7 for patrons!

Titled "Cause and Effect," the player will navigate the main character through the gradually-unraveling consequences of the decisions made through the preceding story, while opening up new branches to explore as his time on the lush Pacific paradise of Tonalu approaches its end.

Chapter 7 is easily our largest yet, weighing in at:

2033 original static renders
4 animations
10 new Songs
7000 lines of code/dialogue
23 achievements
2 cameos/crossovers with other titles

Of course, you'll find Stone Fox's unique blend of humor, drama, and intrigue has returned for the latest instalment, along with our trademark focus on quality and delivering sexy scenes with beautiful and compelling ladies who feel a little more fleshed out than the norm for the genre.

We hope you enjoy this update as much as we enjoyed creating it!

**NOTE**   We are aware of the bad gateway errors and have brought up additional mirrors below.

PC Version 

PC Mirror 2 

Mac Version 

Mac Mirror 2 

Chasing Sunsets Ch7 Complete!

Just a quick note to let everyone know that while we're a few days late, we are done with the update.

Today is wrapping up a few housekeeping items such as the closing credits movie and finishing the achievement icons for Steam.

Kent and I will do a line-by-line playthrough or two, and if we're satisfied everything is as it should be, you can look forward to a weekend release!

Next post (very soon) will be a chapter availability link.

Thanks for bearing with us while we hammered out the last stubborn bits!

Best,

Stone Fox Studios

Chasing Sunsets Ch7 Release Update

Well, here we are on April 30, and while I'd hoped we be posting download links tonight, we're just not quite there yet.

Kent has whittled down the outstanding artwork like nobody's business, and the last of the content is in (minus one scene in post-prod), but we just don't feel like we've hit the level of polish yet where we're comfortable with a full release yet.

What's left?

• -A few bits and pieces of art.   Some supplemental renders may be necessary when we've exited beta with whatever re-writes are necessary there.
• -Steam achievement icons and onboarding
• -Polish

The first two items really aren't holding us back, but the last one is really important to us.

We know none of the words above matter much to those who have been waiting patiently.   

The answer to the question "how much more time do you need?" is what you're looking for.

Having egg on our face once is bad enough, so we'll give a No Later Than date of May 13 with a likely release well ahead of that.

If anyone subbed for this month on a limited budget with the expectation of a download tonight, DM us on Patreon, and we'll make it right for you when the chapter goes gold.

If there are any other surprises, we'll update you all here immediately.