Dev Update 43: Release Date for Side Game (Finally), and other stuff


Hey all, sorry for the silence. I had to take a mental break from this game (and from reading comments), so I guess you could say it was kind of like a silent hiatus from writing updates. It seemed like something would happen after every update (to me or someone on my team) that affected releasing the side game, and I honestly was having a hard time with people saying I was just making excuses (I have thin skin ok). I tried to explain as best as I could each time about the 'personal issues' not only I was having, but also the people on my team, without revealing too much of our personal information/lives. It just seemed like a lot of people were taking it as if I was stalling for no reason or using my real life as an excuse. I'm not saying y'all can't assume what you want, but please understand that other struggles are actively in our lives that are not associated with COVID, and they take priority over everything else. I'm not asking for everyone to understand or forgive the delays, y'all can make your own opinions and assumptions and that's totally fine. If you have lost your patience with us and no longer want to support us, I understand as well and thank you for your support thus far. For those who continue to support us, we really do appreciate you.

Anyway, onto the update!

1) Release Date (Side Game)

August 1st. Probably in the afternoon.

Why is it in August? Honestly, if shit hits the fan again for whatever reason, I want to have enough time to at least try to fix any issue. At this point, it's all coded, I'm just going to be running a few more tests to make sure everything is to my liking. At release, there may be a few typos or occasions where sprites may be over each other--if you do find something like that, please let me know so I can have my coder fix those issues. I try to test every choice, but sometimes I miss one or two since there are like 6 prompts per route with 2-4 choices each. That's a lot of iterations so sometimes I lose track even with taking notes of what I've already covered. 

What to expect: 

-cost of $10

-roughly 50k words total 

-12 endings (3 per route, CG being in the good end)

-4 CGs with variations (total count is 34 without the censor)

-Partially Voiced, mainly for sex scenes (may eventually be fully voiced) *enabling the censor will mute the lines

-New soundtrack

-Stories relate to their relationship post-main game. Each route shows an insecurity of Rei's or the love interest, it's your job to navigate through each of the prompts to get to the good end.

Preview Prompt:

Scene [Aiden surprises Rei with a hot springs vacation! Rei's been wanting take one for a long time, but hadn't had the chance because of school and work. However, Aiden's been working nonstop to be able to relax with Rei for a whole weekend--no work, no fighting, no criminals--just the two of them. How do you think Rei likes the resort?]

Aiden: "So, what do you think?"


Click for a bigger version.

What would you choose?

Might be hard to read from the preview, so here are the options in text form:

1) "It's fine, I guess."

2) "Not as romantic as I thought."

3) "I love it."

4) "Perfect to lock ourselves away."

Now remember, you're playing as Rei, so some of his responses will be tailored to his personality. Some of the naughtier ones may garner you more points than just the straightforward answer. Point values can be anywhere from -2 to +2. Make sure you keep a total of your points to know how well you're doing.

2) Main Game

Our BG artist just recently finished all of the backgrounds we've requested so far. There may end up being one or two more, but the total right now is at 41 (71 with all the variations). So, as you can probably imagine...it's gonna be a massive game. Like--I don't think everyone realizes its scale yet. Aside from that, we're still working on fixing up the script as well as all of the CGs. Right now, the CG count with variations is at 77 and we've got A LOT more to go. 

Other than that, I've been looking back at my art of the sprites and I'm not really satisfied with them anymore. I feel like I've grown a lot as an artist since I drew them, so I'm kind of considering redrawing them again in my current style. They'd obviously retain their same clothing and hairstyles, they'd just have a more up to date look. The way I drew them in the past, they also aren't drawn how an actual sprite should be, since the positions of the arms only change when they change outfits, so I was going to draw them as actual sprites with adjustable arm poses so that they'd have a little more expression to their characters. On top of that, each character also has 20+ facial expressions (Rei's being like......40 at this point), so those would also be redone. Sometimes I look back and hate the way they look so I was going to redraw the expressions a bit anyway. But, feel free to let me know your thoughts, I might keep them as is, but I don't see why I can't give them an upgrade if needed!

3) Patreon

I'm going to be starting our Patreon back up in August. The tiers are going to be reworked again as cheaper tiers--most likely just $3, $5, and $10 as the main tiers, and $25 being if you want to really support us (and see a NSFW art of the characters). I was getting a little stressed out when I was doing Patreon on top of school and work, but I think I can handle it this upcoming semester since the workload should be a little lighter. The tiers are going to have non-spoiler rewards, with the $25 tier having a NSFW art of the characters of the month. A poll will be held the month prior and will have multiple options to either have the regular couples (Rei x Love interest) or have random couples (ex., Minami x Twins, Aiden x Jun, etc.). There will also be another poll for the theme of the NSFW scene. So, you may end up with something like Aiden x Twin, theme of master x servant(s).

4) KS Rewards

I'm going to start putting together all the rewards that can be sent currently. I'll be sending them out in August/September. Physical rewards such as the poster will be sent out in August. If you have changed your address, please send me an email so I can update it in our records and make sure it is sent to the right place. For digital rewards, the ones that can currently be sent are the personalized thank yous, which will be redone accordingly. If you would like to change the character that says 'thank you' to you, please email me. These lines are custom and will include the name you used for the backer report, so it's not just 'thank you' lol. Hopefully that makes sense. The wallpapers were already sent a long time ago. Everything else will be given when the main game is released since most of it is the OST, CGs, etc. 

5) Future of updates

I'm going to be posting an update every time there's a big update rather than just like "here's a teaser". The updates will be more text focused about what's happening during the process--like a new music track, sprite rework (potentially), etc. So the updates will be longer, since they'll include more information, they just won't be too often. I'd say probably once every month to once every other month until we can get into the meat of fully completely the script and getting to coding it. This will most likely take a while, coding such a big game will take a lot of time and will require many hours of testing. 

I will be posting another update a day or so before we release the side game, another update a few days after it is released, and another update when it is posted on steam. I've said before, it will first be posted on itch, and then on steam a few weeks later. 

I'll be posting the winners of the giveaway from a while ago in the update before we release the side game!

---

If you have any questions, please email me at parivalgames@gmail.com

Get 1st Degree: Murder-Mystery BL/Yaoi VN [UPDATED DEMO]

Comments

Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.

(+2)

About staling and personal issues, of course as a commercial unit you should pay attention to the complaining masses, but do not make it your priority, your personal life and well being should always come first.

About redrawing..

I personally liked some of the previous art more than the current style and character drawings, would it be possible to have a vote? I mean some of the "customers" may have started to follow and support this game with the previous style and by changing it you may/or may not change their opinion too. 

Thank you for the update and your hard work! 
I think if you feel the need to revamp the sprites and such, you should! You should make a game that you are satisfied with the quality of. Just don't burn yourself out! It's important that you care for your mental health, along with everything else. The video game industry already has a history of burning content creators out. 

Thank you for the major update. 

I really want to ask why are you updating the side game, like the after game, before the real game? And even if this side game doesn't has nothing to do with the real game, will be the same characters in a state of happy ending.  This could mean massive Spoiller before reading the actually game, with looks like will take a looot more time to be out. 

The side game is meant to earn money for assets in the main game. Since we didn't expect that we would rework it to be so big, we didn't account for all of the extra assets in the kickstarter. So, instead of trying to have another kickstarter or something like that, we decided to make a side game to earn the funds to finish the main game (I paid for the assets for the side game, which is ultimately cheaper than paying for the rest of the assets for the main game). 

There won't be any spoilers in the side game! It's just meant to be their relationship after the main game, but it doesn't have any major reference to the main game's plot.

(+2)

I'd like to start out by saying I enjoy the premise of the main and side game and will continue to scream into the void and celebrate any and all updates on my main blog on Tumblr.

Now, I've read a couple comments and since I'm a late comer to this site in general, and finding this game, which got its first demo in '18? dksljald I'm not sure, but that's unimportant. Basically, I like that y'all are transparent with the fact that real life got in the way and y'all took a break. Better to know now than have people wondering if they paid for rewards on KS or for some type of reward, etc. and they didn't get it and the game developer vanished. 

That's a trend I noticed for a couple other indie game devs on here. 

Some people are...being difficult about the lack of "professionalism" regarding this up front behavior, which I don't get but whatever, again. Y'all aren't big name gaming companies like Sony or PlayStation, so I don't understand the double backtalk and such. As a writer, even a little fanfic writer, I know what it's like to get burnt out on something you love, or you're writing for the community that you love but hate the content and want better. It's not a fun experience.

The whole point of this spiel, I guess, is to love what you do. Enjoy it. If people leave, they leave. More than likely they'll come scrambling back when you post the game, so don't worry too hard. 

(+1)

Thank you for your response! 

It's a learning process everyday and I strive to improve where ever I can. Updates are one of those areas. I'm still learning what people expect in them and what people like and am totally willing to revamp them if necessary. I do like being transparent and upfront with people though, so I may try to keep that kind of stuff in. I usually enjoy writing updates because it's my way to connect with the 1D community, so having personal touches in it make me really happy. I know some people don't enjoy it, but hopefully there is some type of compromise or ways I can phrase things better to make most people happy. 

Regarding the hiatus, it was just a one time thing. I'm not one to up and disappear like that on the regular--my mental health was just at risk so it needed to happen. Even if we have struggles in the future, I have morals and those morals won't allow me to just quit when people have invested money into something I and my team have created. So, even if we do have more setbacks, I hope our supporters will still trust in us to get this game out! 

Again, thank your for your encouragement and I hope you'll enjoy the games when they're released! 

Thank you for always being transparent, I don't expect indie developers or any game developers to run their team or themselves into the ground. Your team's health comes first, and I'll always support this game! I hope you all are safe and doing a lot of self-care on your down time. (つ≧▽≦)つ⊂(・ヮ・⊂)

 --->I love the art and game concept you've created and I can't say how much I appreciate seeing the hard work that was put in for the demo.  I believe in you all, and the last thing I'd want is for anyone to collapse or burnout because external entities are forcing you to work endlessly. (ʘ言ʘ╬)

Please take care, and thank you for letting us know! (DEFINITELY HAVE MY SUPPORT FOR THIS GAME!) 

(≚ᄌ≚)ℒℴѵℯ❤

I try to be as transparent as possible; I feel it's only fair to our supporters, even if I don't always go about it in the right way. 

Thank you so much for the encouragement, I hope the game will meet your expectations when it's out! Take care of yourself as well!

(+2)

Really excited for this game and always read these updates. I love the art style, love the dark tone. So stoked. 

I, for one, don't expect indie developers, let alone larger ones, to work themselves to death.  Expecting people to burn themselves out is a known issue in many fields including game development and its a real problem. I think it's good to bring attention to the fact that behind many of the things we enjoy, every service we take part in,  are real people. 

I don't want to buy a game that destroyed the health or well being of its creators and I don't think that kind of model or expectation should continue to be normalized.  There is a difference between working hard and driving oneself into dangerous mental and physical health issues. I hope you all continue to take care of yourselves and make the best game you want to make. Ill def be supporting. 

Thank you for your encouragement! I'm so glad that you're excited for the game! I hope you'll enjoy the side game in the meantime when it's out in a few weeks! 

I agree that there seems to be an unrealistic expectation set on game companies, especially small ones. I do understand that there is a standard to meet; this being our first game is a BIG learning experience. We'll make sure to do better the next time around. 

Over the past few years, this game has actually been really difficult mentally. A lot of the responsibilities fall on my shoulders, so it does get a little hard sometimes. I do really appreciate all of the positive comments though, and all of the constructive criticism that people give us because hopefully we can make use of it in the future.

I do hope that people will be patient with us, but will ultimately enjoy the final product. I know it'll be a big relief to finish this darn thing! 

Can't wait for your game! Def take the extra care and time you guys need for you and this group to finish everything the way you want it to be. I honestly don't care how long you take. I understood you were a new group (and no offense) but I tend to not buy anything or put money into new groups until their game is either out or it seemed well developed enough for me to buy it😅.


*ALSO: DON'T INVEST, UNTIL THE COMPANGY IS FURTHER ALONG IN DEVELOPMENT.  If someone says they are a student and YOU STILL INVEST, from there on that's your own grave dug*

Don't they have a life too? Yes. Could things have gone smoother? Sure. Could they be a little bit more professional? Ya, but this is also a learning experience for them to take into consideration for the next them around. Also, personally: I quite like it when a developer explains what is going on a little in their lives, rather than keeping it SHORT AND FORWARD.

 People also need to understand that the world doesn't revolve around JUST them and what they want. Sometimes despite knowing that, they still act the way they do ya know. So don't take it to heart. People can have multiple priorities, and I do understand that means coming down to creating and having GOOD TIME MANAGEMENT, but unfortunately even with the best time management in the world you can't always account for the worse sh** that can happen to a person alone.

Personally these past few yrs have been rough. But the last 2 being the worst.  Just a few months ago I lost a family member, plus another family member I loved deeply a few yrs prior that I'm still not over.  My brother also got into 2 life threatening accidents on the freeway from a drunk driver that hit him in 2019 both in the FALL AND SPRING and barely survived either of them and struggled to function in life and support himself because of these two accidents. This year I have an uncle who got COVID and has been quarantined so long now that we don't know if he's getting any better and my aunt is now having to take care of herself and the kids the past couple months. My mom is single and so unfortunately I myself being the oldest am left to helping her take care of my siblings even more so now, despite needing to work to support myself. I lost work hrs due to COVID which also means less funds. So if Parival has also lost work hrs, and therefore funds that also means the game getting pushed back because they need to prioritize living over a project. And I myself personally, developed in the past 2yrs THREE Chronic Illnesses, and a fourth one that may very well be cancer (tbd on that note). So if anyone in ur group has gone through even a 1/4th of that or more, in the same time period...I'm surprised you guys are still pushing through with this game. It's hard to manage life when it keeps shoving you into the garbage disposal...just saying, people should have a little more understanding and compassion for each other in life. ❤

 Unfortunately, from past and recent experience the majority of the world just won't take a second to stop and understand you on a decent human  being level, and give you a little compassion, love and caring instead. But at least I will and can. You prob won't see this long a** rant/ comment...but if you do:

GREAT JOB YOU GUYS!!!😆😃 I'm sure the game is bigger than people (including urself) expected and I CHEER YOU ON🤗👏🙌. GOOD LUCK! YOU ARE ALL AMAZING! I LOVE YOU GUYS AND THE EFFORT YOU HAVE ALREADY PUT INTO THIS GAME. THANK YOU FOR YOUR HARD WORK AND HAVING TO DEAL WITH PEOPLE LIKE US, INCLUDING MYSELF.  THANK YOU ALL FOR PUSHING THROUGH EVEN WHEN LIFE GAVE YOU ROCKS INSTEAD OF LEMONS. I'm sorry to any one on your team for any losses these past 2yrs, and physical/mental health well being issues, school exams getting in the way, or needing to work and struggle just to survive. I appreciate ALL OF YOU. Take care of yourselves, that's what's most important. Whether you guys need to be more professional or not in your work, taking care of yourself is first and foremost the priority here.

First of all, my heart goes out to you. I'm so sorry for all of the things you've been through in the past couple of years. I've got my fingers crossed that that fourth diagnosis isn't cancer. I hope your uncle will improve soon as well. I just found out today that one of my brothers has COVID, so we can only hope they'll get better. You seem like such a strong person for helping to take care of your siblings atop of your illnesses, and I'm sure they really appreciate you.

Secondly, thank you for your encouragement and criticism! I do think we got into the indie business a bit pre-maturely. I personally should have done more research about game development. I didn't initially think it would take so long and have so many complications. If I could go back, I would've spent way more time organizing things before our kickstarter. I would have loved to have delayed it another year, but fresh out of the gates it was exciting to just put something out-there, which was my first mistake. I know I've messed up a lot over our development, but I do appreciate your understanding. This is definitely a learning experience for us and I can't wait to get 1D out there so we can output other games in a more timely manner. My main goal is just to make sure that the product is of a quality that meets my standards. I can't even stand the thought of putting something online that has little effort in it. I'm a perfectionist by nature, so even just a small mistake offputs me when I test the game. Even through all of the struggles, the game will be finished, it just took longer than we thought. But, hopefully all of the extra assets, the characters, and the story will make up for it!

Thank you again for your encouragement! I really do appreciate it and hope the game will not disappoint when it's out! 

Yes thank you so much, I hope the 4th diagnosis ends up just being benign. And for sure I completely understand because I'm a perfectionist myself😅🙃 it can really go both ways when I work on a project for myself. It can either hold me back because I want nothing but the best and therefore keep erasing content that in hindsight was probably already at it's best(according to my friends, brothers or my uncle, lol), I also tend to write, draw art, etc. I want to get to the point where I actually just start publishing a webtoon or make a VN myself because I love art too much to leave it behind (--I chose the path of an English Major in order to teach/write books). Or it can infact push me forward to better my work when it wasn't at it's best. For example this: In one of my art classes a year ago I had to draw a realistic face portrait from a magazine. It was a first time for me and getting my portfolio done in time really drove me with anxiety because I wanted everything for all of our assignments to be just right.  But it actually allowed me to step out of my comfort zone too,  and do something I never would have done in such a short window of space. Lol, idk if my prof to this day believes me, but I did this face portrait over night instead of spending two weeks on it like we were supposed to! So I completely get it! I def look forward to the game's release and can't wait to buy it! 

Oh man a webtoon would be awesome! They seem so fun to make. I'm sure you'd be able to come up with a good story too since you're an english major.  

That's amazing! Do you take your art classes as an elective or is it like a minor in art? I've always wanted to take some, but at this point I just want to be done with school; so no free elective space for me unfortunately. 

lol, at first it was just for electives when I was working on my AA in English. I took them because I would draw a lot of Manga style art all the time in high-school, along with writing short stories and poetry. Unfortunately, once I reached college I picked a more "stable career" because my family kept pushing me to do something else and I myself also finding out that animation (which I had originally chosen as my path) had more math classes to take then I would have liked (I haaaate math, like sooooo much, despite being ok at it, so after Stats 160 I was done😒). I then switched my major to English because I realized I loved literature about just as much as art. But art is like a part of me, and I really want to make the time to do it in combination with my English major. I've been thinking of doing so anyways the past 2yrs🤷‍♀️. But if you don't start somewhere and just keep thinking about it, you'll never start at all right? So, I'm just gonna jump into the deep end sometime soon and see how it goes.

But ya, in the end, I subconsciously perhaps🤔...just ended up taking all of my electives in art history&drawing art courses😅. Enough that when I transferred to CSULB last Spring, they were like..."do you just wanna minor in it? You have only 2 classes left for it to be a minor😅🤣", so yeah now it's a minor. Lmao. 

I feel ya on the math classes! I've had to take so many for engineering, I should've really gone for a minor. I only needed 2 more classes for it as well lol. 

That's awesome though! Now you're gonna be super prepared for a webtoon if you decide to make one!

(+2)

In regards to reading other comments and your previous update posts, I feel that I need to speak out as a customer who has been awaiting a product. I am a bit concerned that Parival does not seem to take their business seriously or comprehend that 1st DEGREE is a product. I understand that English visual novels are fairly new in game development and as upcoming publishers/companies. I see new game studios popping up on twitter announcing their newest product. However, even as an indie game studio you are still a business and you are producing a product to sell to customers

I'm noticing a lack of professionalism when it comes to updates, especially this update in particular. Telling your customers that you're sensitive to reading comments regarding your product is unprofessional. Parival's attitude and how you guys have handled your business lack professionalism. You aren't treating your game studio as if it's a business. If you were aware of the fact that you have a busy personal life, college commitments, and a different job; then why start a gaming company? That's not organizing your priorities, you and your team are woefully unprepared to handle a business. If there's been a recurring issue with other team members not balancing their responsibilities and are unable to commit to this job then why keep them? Why not terminate their contract and hire someone more reliable? I have no idea if you have contracted freelancers to work with you or if your team consists of personal friends. I can guarantee, that if you worked on any other game developers such as Naughty Dog, Bethesda, etc. etc. you won't be able to keep your job/position if you have to pause a project every so often. 

I want you to know that as a customer, your excuses for pausing 1st DEGREE's game development and continuously delaying the game's release date; tells me that Parival as a whole are unprepared and weren't ready to handle managing a game studio. Again, other gaming companies try their hardest never to announce a game's delay. They work on their product with little announcements on progress and schedule a release date that's set 2-5 years ahead to give them the time-frame to work and polish their product for release. If they do need to announce a delay, it is to wrap production up and polish out any bugs or to tweak game-play. Even so, their announcements are short and sweet, and above all: professional

Here's an example of SQUARE ENIX's delay announcement on FFVIIR:

We are making this tough decision in order to give ourselves a few extra weeks to apply final polish to the game and to deliver you with best possible experience. I, on behalf of the whole team, want to apologize to everyone, as I know this means waiting for the game just a little bit longer. Thank you for your patience and continued support.

In regards to previous comments from customers who were suspicious of Parival's continuous delays, they have a reason to be upset and suspicious. As I stated earlier, game companies try to prevent any issues with their game development as it can ruin their business and evoke a negative reaction from fans who supports that game company. 

Parival should have handled their delays more proficiently and kept it to one delay with an announcement that the product needs x amount of time to wrap production up. I understand that Parival is new and that 1st DEGREE is your first product. I am reaching out to you and Parival in hopes that you can understand why there are upset customers and understand that the way Parival is presenting themselves online to their customers, have made me view this game studio in this way. 

You are a business that is taking funds from customers to produce this product. You are planning to sell this product. If this was just a hobby and the game would have been FREE then no one will care as much if the game gets delayed or is never released, because there's no funding involved. 

I enjoyed playing the demo and the updated demo tremendously, but as I've mentioned before, so far this game studio has been severely unprepared and irresponsible. However, I believe that this is a learning curve and that perhaps in the future if Parival wishes to produce a new product, then you will understand the ropes and learn from past mistakes.

I am looking forward to 1st DEGREE and see how the story unfolds, and I wish Parival the best of luck.

(+1)

Thank you for reaching out with your concerns! I appreciate the constructive criticism. I do agree that we were unprepared to create visual novels, you are right that there is a steep learning curve that was a bit unexpected. Parival actually did start with a bunch of us being friends, and yes, we do contract freelancers since we do not have legal 'partners'. Many of these freelancers are doing this as a hobby as well, and have a personal life, work, school, etc. outside of working with us. I don't really expect Parival to become a huge company by any means, so I think it's okay to give the freelancers we hire some leeway. For the initial release of the side game, it was my fault for setting it so far back. I did not expect that it would take as long as it did to get out, so I do apologize for that. Some reasons why I don't always hire someone new for certain things is because a person I work with could have experienced a death in the family, could have struggled with their living situation, etc. My team is important to me so I want them to be in a good head-space when they work on the game and I don't want to fire someone just because a grievance occurred in their life. As far as the funds for the side game go, those funds came out of my pocket since it was something that I wanted to make initially. All of the funds from the kickstarter are still going into 1D's main game.

For updates, I don't think there is an issue with adding a personal tone in the writing. I'm not opposed to excluding it if need be, but I like to let everyone know what's going on and how I feel about things. I understand if some people might not like that, but they are welcome to skip the bits that they don't want to read. I'm still learning what people want out of the updates and am open to suggestions.

Looking back, I do wish that we started with a smaller project. You're right that we'll be using 1D as something to learn from. When we make any games in the future, I'll be sure that the majority of the work will be finished or close to finishing before we even think about having a kickstarter or something of the sort. That way I'll be able to judge when a feasible release date would be. It was difficult to judge initially for 1D because we hadn't made a game before and weren't 100% sure what assets we needed. On top of that, 1D has also massively increased in size, which we weren't prepared for from the kickstarter. I wish that we had taken even just another year to develop it before we had the kickstarter. 

I hope I was able to answer some of your concerns, and I do hope that you'll be able to trust Parival with future games. I really do agree with you that we were unprepared, and unprofessional with delays, but I hope I was able to explain my reasoning. I'm learning as a game developer and I'm sure in the future I'll end up being more strict with how I run things. I know I've made many mistakes with developing 1D, and I acknowledge that. Feel free to reach out again if need be, we really appreciate constructive criticism. 

Playercid is right.

(+1)

I think you mustn't say sorry - about delays or about wanting to enjoy your life. At first, patient and meticulous work are making game only better. And second.. every person was created to be happy in their life, so why you need to feel bad about that?) About negative and/or impatient reviews.. well, you cannot pleased everyone, even if you want to. Those comments will be.. but I think no need to pay attention for those. I know what creation means and it's really exhausting sometimes, you need to relax too. You are really talented person and I wish you big health, many sunny days and I will be waiting release mainstory and side part (first time I want something so badly xDDD))))

Thank you for reaching out! We do need to take responsibility for all of the delays though. Even if our life can be out of control at some points, we need to be able to get the game out to you guys. Hopefully we'll be better in the future! Thank you for your understanding and I hope the games will live up to your expectations!

Your game are perfect) For me, at least) So.. I'm happy and hope you will be too)

glad you’re back, take your time - even if i’m really impatient for both side and main game - RL is sometimes a *tch and we all don’t pick what’s happening in it. thank you for all the hard work you & your team put into those games! <3 ah btw.. you DO intend to sell those games on steam, right? i don’t do paypal usually, especially not when they ask for an account (depends)… i can’t bear the idea not to get those games TT

Thank you for your support! I hope you'll enjoy the game when it's out! 

Maybe life won't be such an ahole for the rest of 2020, but I'm a pessimist by nature so my expectations are pretty low 

Yes, the games will be available on steam (obviously for the same price as on itch). The process is just a lot longer than itch. I think there's a step where we literally have to put up a 'coming soon' page for 2 weeks before we can even do anything. Also I think you can just connect a card to itch if you don't want to use paypal?? I'm not 100% positive though since I haven't bought anything from here.

oh i will ^^

yeah, same here, not an optimist in general. also in 2019 i thought it was the worst year of my life, then came 2020… and it was already worse than the previous year at the beginning of march. then i got a break - the pandemic kinda distracted me from the crap of the previous 5 months, can you imagine :/. an ahole the size of a large galaxy, and expanding, if you ask me >_< … besides, right now in these times, to be optimistic and merry you’d have to s**k a clown every day for breakfast or sth

yay steam, cool! i also like my games together, even if i have to wait 2-3 more weeks. but i think i would even have used paypal and for the 1st time bought sth/it here otherwise, i just can’t miss on them ^^

I am waiting for main game. Thanks for your efforts <3  I'm already getting impatient XD :**

(+2)

Well hopefully you'll enjoy the game when it's out and thanks for your support! 

(+5)

I’ve been following your updates for a while and never had the feeling you were stalling for time - people don’t seem to realize that real life often takes precedence over building such a huge and amazing game from scratch. On top of that, with everything that has been going on.... life sure is unpredictable! 

And yet you still manage to keep moving forward and providing updates; that speaks volumes of your dedication for your craft. 

What I mean to say is, thank you for the update, I hope you, your team and everyone’s family is healthy and safe, please put yourselves first and take care not to overwork yourselves! Most of us, I think, will understand and it makes me personally look even more forward to a finished product, where I know the developers gave their everything without sacrificing their love for the game in the process. 

(+1)

Thank you so much for your understanding! 

That's what I've been trying to relay, but maybe I just haven't been using the right words to get it across... It's hard to word things properly without actually saying outright what's going on--but that'd just be revealing everyone's personal issues, which wouldn't be fair to them. I'm fine if criticism falls onto me if it means I'm protecting someone else's private information. I guess it's just the nature of the internet :/

To you as well! Stay safe and let's hope for the next months to be a bit nicer and easier on our souls.

Happy to hear from you and hope that everyone is taking care of themselves. Looking forward to the game <3

We're certainly trying to! Let's hope the last few months of 2020 will be kind to us.

(+2)

Thank you for the update! Hope you and the team are staying safe! If you guys ever need more time due to personal affairs please take it! Stressing yourself over something that may not be as important as something that happened in person is not worth it.

(+1)

Thank you for your response! Yes that's exactly why I went silent for a few months. It was just getting hard to deal with failing everyone's expectations for something that was out of my control. Really needed a mental break. I was honestly even stressing out about posting this update. I know it's impossible to make everyone happy because we've had so many delays though. But, I hope the game will be worth it in the end. Thank you so much for your support!

(+4)

The game look amazing I'm so excited...Thank you for all your work I know it's hard to deal with the negative comments and responds, just try to focus in the good ones

(+1)

Thank you for your response! I try to think about all of the good comments, but negative words always seem to have a greater impact mentally, unfortunately. u_u

yeah they hurt me too but I guess it's part of the life....it's awful but well at least you have a lot of people that really love your work....cheer up and keep up the good work..a big hug for you!

(+1)

Thank you! Really means a lot qq