Hi again,
It’s been a busy and productive stretch. When Steam abruptly un-retired the game before I was ready, I threw myself into development to refocus and keep moving forward. The support from everyone during that time has been genuinely appreciated—thank you.Since then, I’ve been working on four big things…1 - Writing, Reading and Tweaking to Chapter 2As expected, Chapter 2 is in a much better overall state. A lot of groundwork was clearly done during the rewrite, which is great to see. That said, Chapter 2 is significantly longer than Chapter 1, so it’s naturally going to take more time to work through.Progress is being made, but it’s been temporarily paused while I focus on…2 - New Lewd sceneAfter playing through the “Walk Sophia home from the nightclub” section of Chapter 2, I realized it was the perfect place to introduce the first interest point check. This is where the game evaluates whether the player has Sophia in the “sweet spot” for her interest level.If the player succeeds, Sophia invites them inside instead of the two parting ways. Narratively, this moment is driven by Sophia reflecting on Ashley’s conversation at the nightclub—where she talks about always waiting for the perfect moment that never comes. That reflection pushes Sophia to act impulsively, leading to her inviting you in for sex.Alongside this, I’ve added a visible indicator when an interest point check occurs, so players are clearly aware when they’ve either met—or missed—one of these opportunities.I’ll be sharing screenshots and videos from the new lewd Sophia scene on Patreon for paid subscribers in the coming days, so keep an eye out for that 👀This also marks the my first real opportunity to introduce new animations. While animations themselves aren’t new to me, every project presents its own challenges. I’ve spent the past few days refining and optimizing my workflow so I can add richer, more detailed animations without turning them into a massive time sink. Investing that time now should save me a lot of time down the line.For me, animations are a key element of adult visual novels—nothing kills immersion faster than a janky or awkward animation.These new animations will include:
Clothing physics
Breast, thigh, and buttock “meat” physics (natural bouncing and movement)
Hair physics (realistic secondary motion)
As you can imagine, layering simulated cloth physics on top of body physics while also accounting for hair movement is a complex process. That said, I’m confident the extra effort will pay off in noticeably higher-quality results.3 - CodexAs the game currently stands, it already contains some fairly complex lore. There’s a rare element we’re constantly uncovering new information about, a magic stopwatch that can pause time and interact with that element, mind-control powers, and more. On top of that, each character has their own background, history, and secrets layered into the world.With all of this in play, it can be difficult to keep track of what’s going on—especially when months pass between updates.With that in mind, I’ve decided to introduce a Codex: a dedicated place where you can reference information about objects, locations, characters, and other important details.Many games include a similar feature, but I couldn’t find a template or base system that really fit my vision. So, naturally, I decided to build one from scratch.About 250 lines of code later, I now have a solid foundation in place. There’s still a lot to do—testing, bug fixing, potential feature expansion, and most importantly, actually adding the lore itself (which is the most time-consuming part). After that, I’ll be implementing the gradual unlocking of codex entries as you play.The end result will look something like this: you have a conversation with Sarah, and she mentions that she got the stopwatch from her grandfather. A small pop-up appears in the top-left corner saying “New Codex Entry Added.” You can then open the Codex, see an unread entry under Stopwatch, and view that new piece of information alongside everything else you’ve already discovered about it.4 - Other bits and piecesI’ve also replaced a few of the more janky animations from the Lisa time-stop dream sequence. I didn’t spend an excessive amount of time on this pass, but the new animations are a clear improvement over the old ones.In addition, I’ve added visible indicators whenever interest points are gained or lost, as well as when the Depravity / Virtue / Justice / Vengeance scales are adjusted. This should make it much clearer how your choices are affecting the underlying systems.Finally, I’ve implemented consequences for leaning too heavily into Depravity or Virtue. As one side begins to dominate, your character’s personality and instincts shift accordingly. Their growing compulsions start to guide their actions, meaning some decisions are overridden by who they’re becoming rather than what the player might consciously choose.As you can see, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes, along with a few “two steps forward, one step back” moments as new systems get layered onto existing content.I’m still a ways off from knowing exactly when this update will be ready, but one thing I’m confident about is that it’ll be worth the wait.