#monthly dev log

[allieebobo]

December Dev Log

Happy New Year everyone!

December was busy with lots of feasting and family time, but I did manage to get a lot of writing done :) 

As always, as this year winds to a close, I want to thank all of you guys for being with me on this journey, and supporting me through everything. Your messages and love for the game always, always make every hour I spend working on Merry Crisis or CT:OS worth it. <3 Interacting with you guys is a huge part of what made 2024 so incredible for me. 

I don't know if every creator is so lucky as to feel this way,  but I honestly get out of bed every morning excited to read the new messages you guys have sent at night (though definitely time difference is a huge factor in this haha) and get started with writing!

This is the second instalment of the monthly dev logs that I'll be writing to keep you guys updated on what's been happening! (This was last month's.)

Read the Dev Log here!

[manonamora-if]

December Check-In

I promise I didn't almost forget :P Even if I definitely forgot to do the weekly devlog last Sunday... To be fair, it had been a week...

Recap of last month’s progress

IF Events in the Next Month

Plan for the next month

Still long post ahead. If you want a mini version, head over to itch.io!

November Progress

Still play more IF and maybe review. ✅

Finish the edits of Harcourt Ch5 ✅❌

Fix one of the semi-completed games: ❌either the Egg parser or TRNT (and make it a proper parser)

Finish that darn SugarCube Guide: ❌there aren’t much left in the guide to cover, but there are a few things to fix.

Again, I knocked the first one out of the park. I reviewed all inkJam, EctoComp, and Bare-Bones Jam entries (which helped me get on the main page of the IFDB). It was nice to play shorter games again - it makes reviewing pretty quick... Now that the IFComp is also over, I kind of want to go back and check out the entries I didn't manage to play.

As for the rest... It's been a bit of a hell of a month, and it's not looking like it's ending any time soon. Still, when I had some free time I managed to:

Finish my portion of the edits of Harcourt (and MelS was almost done with it... before he ran into computer problems - dw the file is safe!)

Assess the damage with The Roads Not Taken and come up with a plan to fix all of it. I also started on this one, but there is truly a lot of damage.

Make a bite game in binksi, Tower of Sleep, for the Two-Button Jam

Make a One-Button prototype, Don't press the Button, to test some JavaScript/jQuery (half-failure)

Make a zine for the first time: An Ode to Pissaladière

Make a new code template: the Character Creator

Submitted a bunch of seeds to the SeedComp!

Does it look like I got distracted by a shiny new thing instead of finishing my projects? Yes. Do I care? Nope. It brought me some joy and amusement in some weird months... Banging your head against the desk because code is not working is... not, obviously.

What’s happening in December?

A bunch of jams are happening on itch, because end of year means maybe some free time, and also, you might as well do something for the sake of saying you've made something.

The ShuffleComp (@neointeractives) has started, though the entries won't be available before January. You can listen to the kickass full playlist in the meantime!

The Sprouting Round of the SeedComp! (@seedcomp-if) has just started. There are 99 new seeds available for use to make a game! Deadline is March 1st.

The Deck-Month has just started, to make a game with Decker.

The PunyJam #4 ends in about 2 weeks (if you have the time to learn Inform w/ the Puny extension...)

and of course: la Partim 500 numéro 8, for those who want to do the Neo Twiny again... but French!

I'm probably gonna pop-off a Partim. I did it last year and it was fun :P

The PLANtm for December

December is a busy month for me, which includes a lot of time offline, full days travelling, and lots of planning. So I will take any free time I have and do fun stuff if I can!

But if I have space for IF, I'd like to:

Play more games! Well... I already am, just not really IF. My Steam Library is crying for attention. I would like to knock down maybe a dozen more IFComp entries if I can. There were a lot of good games, a lot of loooong games.

Code Ch5 of Harcourt. That will be MelS dependent - well, MelS's computer dependent...

Finish fixing The Roads Not Taken. I have a plan, I have the notes... I just need to sit down and re-code (and re-test).

Finish the Guide for real! I know SugarCube 2.37 is coming soon, which will affect the state of some pages (and maybe require more pages). BUT I've been working on fixing old pages (typos - re-explanation - clearer examples). So, this is likely to be done sooner rather than later...

~

Taking the list of TO-DO from August…

To-Do not require much of new stuff:

translate Escape Goncharov! into French. ✅

fix the bugs in EDOC + overall the French version to match

fix the bugs of TRNT + find a way to add the missing pieces (ongoing - translation unlikely)

fix the formatting of DOL-OS + translate into English ✅

update LPM with the missing content + translate into English ✅

No change this month :/

The rest of the To-Do pile was:

Finish The Rye in the Dark City (and maybe translate?)

Finish P-Rix - Space Trucker (and try to translate)

Finish Exquisite Cadaver (translation unlikely, current gameplay too complex to port for French)

Add a chapter to CRWL + fix/reopen the blog

Re-working TTTT to its originally planned state (lol, not likety)

Re-working SPS Iron Hammer (samesies)

Coding TTATEH (MelS dependent - shooting for end of year)

Emptying my inboxes (they are not all answered tho)

Honestly, this pile probably won’t get done this year…. Maybe TTATEH has a shot...

[recently-retired-game]

April Dev Log: 2024

《 I found out that I can do monthly little dev logs. Which is great! Since I can't do consistent ones, sksk. Also, meet one of our beloved side characters, Julez Daily! He comes baring the monthly update sksks.

Let's hope we can keep things consistent ♡

Monthly Update:

Background Characters designed ×3

Learned How to make Timed Choices

Made an Idle chibi + animated it

-----

That's all folks!

~ Mod Pinky 💖

[sanguinesky-if]

Happy New Year!

No matter how you spent the last one, I wish the new year brings improvement and happiness in every aspect of your life!

While I won't be posting a full dev log this month, I think it's fair to share some updates on my current activities and the development of the story.

Important note: Patreon billing is paused for January and will resume on February 1.

Winter Special Collection

Release date [Patreon]: January 4 Release date [Public]: January 10

A quick note: The short story collection was originally scheduled for release on December 31. However, due to a heavy workload and being unwell, which led to me being sick over the past week, my schedule was delayed, and I wasn't able to prepare all the files for release.

I'm still recovering, but I'm feeling much better than I did last week and plan to catch up with my schedule!

I've also chosen January 10 for the public release because it's my birthday, and I'm intending to break tradition and give a gift on this day instead.

[But actually, I'll be busy celebrating over the weekend, so posting it on a weekday makes more sense.]

The monthly dev log will not be posted in January, as I will be working on the draft for Chapter 3 Pt. 2.

However, it will return to its usual schedule [the 1st of each month] in February.

Thank you for your support and for being here! Wishing you all the best in the year ahead ♥

[foxglovegames]

DEV LOG: 2024 Recap

Helloooo everyone!

This year genuinely flew past us. As a studio, we had our ups-and-many-downs, but we're feeling more positive going into 2025. Let's start with what we got done this year before moving onto our plans for the future! :)

⭐Released Trouble Comes Twice: Bonus Stories!

Feels like we released this ages ago, but it hasn't even been a year yet! Back in April, we released the first (and only) public DLC for Trouble Comes Twice. For us, Bonus Stories was a satisfying goodbye to these characters after spending years with them; we hope that players who decided to give the DLC a chance feel the same.

It'll always be a bit bittersweet moving on from a project you've worked on for so long and dedicated so much towards. There's always going to be what-ifs, but we're mostly just proud of what we did achieve and kind of relieved we made it to the finish line haha. If you're interested in reading more about our experience working on Trouble Comes Twice and what we learned, do check out this post mortem we wrote! We hope it offers some insight for players who might be curious and other vn devs who'd like another dev's take.

⭐A tumultuous start for our next visual novel Burn the Midnight Oil

Since the end of 2023, we've worked on and off on our next visual novel Burn the Midnight Oil. The plan was to launch a Kickstarter campaign and demo before the end of 2024 - since it's now Dec and that never happened, you can imagine things did not go as planned ahah... Unfortunately, we experienced several setbacks, one of the biggest being that our lead artist had to leave the project some months ago due to health issues.

It took us a minute to find the right person to step in and take over the character art, but we recently welcomed a new lead artist whom we're incredibly excited to be working with!

So, where does the project stand right now?

Our new character artist is chipping away at the sprites and CGs for the game, which are the main assets we're still missing to finish the demo.

Script is written, edited and coded in

BGs are completed and the UI is close to completed

We're planning to tackle the soundtrack in the coming months, but our composer BellKallengar has already finished an amazing main menu theme! We can't wait for you to hear it.

For our own sanity and the expectations of our players, we're not making any promises or guesses on when you can expect the demo, Kickstarter, or official announcement until we know for certain. The only thing we can confidently confirm is that it's coming in 2025 (unless we're struck by the worst bad luck ever).

We're going to resume regular monthly updates when the game has been announced, but until then, we're sticking o quarterly updates instead so the next one would be in March. (Unless we manage to announce the game before that! A dev can dream.)

⭐PLANS FOR 2025

There's only one concrete plan - officially announcing Burn the Midnight Oil, releasing the Kickstarter demo, and launching our crowdfunding campaign! Melli and I already finished the demo script earlier this year, so we've been working on outlining (and writing) the routes for the full game. We hope to make as much progress as possible on that before the Kickstarter launches. Hopefully, that should save us a lot of time in the long run.

We hope everyone's having a fantastic holiday season! See you all in the new year! 🥂

[stygiansun-totaleclipse]

Patreon is live~! ✨✨

A short story, two finished RO designs, and sketch WIPs are posted!

I've decided to set up a Patreon where I'll post access to early updates, dev logs, sneak peeks, exclusive and early-access illustrations/character designs, and short monthly POV stories (with more benefits to come!).

Access them here or search FenofCattails on Patreon.

I am currently working on secondary character designs for each of the ROs featuring them in their formal wear! Here's a peek at Samira's and Aurynn's designs. They are currently available to the Retainer tier and above. I have the rest of the ROs' sketch WIPs posted to all paid tiers.

I also have a short POV story (1,434 words) that is available to the Demiblood tier, featuring Kieran, Lilith/Lucien, and Aurynn!

I have plans for further benefits once I figure out the pacing of everything--I have some fun stuff planned, like interactive mini-games featuring MC and other characters (like flashbacks with Luca and MC's siblings, POV interactions with MC, etc), short comics, themed illustrations/doodles, character designs for MC's siblings, and more! ✨

Thanks so much for all the support and love people have shown the demo so far, and thanks so much for your consideration in supporting me! ❤️🙏

∧,,,∧ ( ̳• · • ̳) / づ♡ Have a wonderful day!! ❤️🐛

[reel-fear]

HELLO INDIE HORROR FANS/BENDY FANS/HORROR GAME FANS/EVERYONE!! It is my birthday and therefore I would like to humbly ask that you check out the indie horror game I'm making heavily inspired by Bendy/is basically a bendy fan game that's just unhinged. It's full of queers, trauma, cartoons and themes abt the 1930s. Also The Horrors.

Here's the game jolt page! [Click the image]

Here's the tumblr blog we run for it!

I make monthly dev logs for the progress on it but am also trying to post more on its blog in general. Please feel free to send some asks our way abt the project/story/characters/etc.

Check it out! I'm making it with the help of my partner, so its our little baby <3<3 The story and its characters hold a lot of personal value to me and any and all feedback/questions I get to respond to make me so delighted! I love talking about this project!! Please talk to me about it!! I've held it close to my heart ever since middle school.

Anyways that's all, Cobalt out!

[rectifier-vn]

hi, hi

just wondering if the itch page for rectifier is supposed to be not working? x

Yes it’s intentionally down until the game’s relaunch in late June. I have monthly dev logs where I discuss all my games. Rectifier is still a major priority for me. (The game page is just hideous and the build of the game is not one I am proud of.)

You can read the exact details in my latest devlog here. Also, you can still download the game (if you have a windows PC) from the link found in the devlog

[nemukurastudio]

Update!!

Hello everyone!

We have news for you. Finally there has been more progress with the game even though it’s been almost a year since our last game update.

I want to assure you that Chapter 4 is almost ready for beta.

What I’d like to share right now is what’s been going on during the silence!

💜💛💜💛💜💛💜💛

1. NEW CODER Firstly and biggest news, Yours Truly has another coder! Kame’s still a coder, we just have a 2nd one now! Warm welcome to @queenlilithprime and big thanks for their help. Pls support them and their works too (no minors tho pls)

Lily occasionally posts devlogs in their blog for the projects they work on so you might see the game’s code devlog there!

2. DAY TO CHAPTER As you may notice, the name of each “Day” is no longer going to be referred to as Day since it doesn’t follow a day by day sequence. So moving forward, it will be “Chapter”. Plus it fits the theme ✨

3. NO MORE MONTHLY DEVLOGS We stopped doing Devlogs. The reason is simply because of how slow we’ve been working on the game due to our business and general lack of motivation. It’s an added stress when logging out what’s been going on even though it would be good to do so. This was more of a personal thing so I apologize if the lack of devlogs makes it seem like we’ve halted the game. We assure you we’re not abandoning the project.

4. CLOSED DISCORD SERVER Though not a lot would have noticed, Nemukura Studio no longer has its Twitter and we closed the discord server from the public. Our reasons is simply because we bit off more than we could chew and it was an easier idea to just manage a tumblr account instead of other sites.

💜💛💜💛💜💛💜💛

That’s about all the updates there are about the game and also what the devs have been up to.

We hope you stay patient for the beta release of Chapter 4 coming soon!

[hollowmend]

I'm not normally very open on social media, but I've been trying to be less self-conscious lately. So in the spirit of that, I thought I'd talk a bit about how things went for me in 2024.

Early on this year, I had a huge mental health crash. Things I had been managing to do just fine suddenly became difficult, and things that I struggled with felt nearly impossible. Long story short, I was completely burned out.

Turns out I was dealing with undiagnosed autism and ADHD (and possibly OCD, but we're still working on that one), and everything had just become too much for me to handle. I'm slowly recovering now, learning to unmask and be kinder to myself.

Going into the new year, I decided to stop trying to force myself to engage with social media in ways that don't feel natural to me. All this to say- I think I'm gonna stop posting monthly dev logs. I work in hyper-focused, sporadic bursts, and there isn't always something sm-friendly to show for it.

So now, I'll just post whatever/whenever I feel like.

Anyway, apologies for the personal tangent! I should be back to posting more VN dev stuff next year 😊 Hope everyone has a happy New Year, and tries to treat themselves with kindness and care.

[allieebobo]

Hiya everyone! ❤️

I'm starting a new thing where I do a monthly dev log to keep everyone a little peek behind the curtain on what's been cookin'. 

I love the community that has been built around these Interactive Fiction games so, so much, and although I'm not as good on social media as I should be, one thing I'd like to  prioritize is giving y'all a glimpse of the development work!

Read it here!

[burning-academia-if]

Happy write a lot of words month and welcome to another dev log. I once more got sick, bringing my 2024 sick counter to a stunning 8!!! Thankfully besides this, October was the first semi-calm month I've had in a while, so I had more time to chip away at Chapter 3! Here's what October looked like:

Released the One Year Anniversary Side Story

Started coding in the opening scenes of Chapter 3

Inched ever closer to a total word count of 150k

I think a few months ago I made a semi joking mention that Chapter 3 brought BA to a total word count of 100k, but this Chapter just keeps getting longer so it'll likely bring it to 150k which feels like a pretty solid word count now lol

With that said, I know I mentioned hoping to start looking for beta testers in November (and I'll certainly try to finish writing and coding chapter 3 in time!) but I'm going to make it more realistic and say the beginning of December. This is because a) chapter longer than expected, b) coding takes me eons, and c) got more hours at work. I'm confident I'll get the writing portion done in November, it's just the coding I'm not as certain about!

I'm slightly nervous about Chapter 3 tbh, just because it's more of a 'break' sort of chapter. A lot of exploring the university/town and finally just settling in to MC's new life. Granted, Things still happen (rip to the MCs with the drinking vice or MCs who wear glasses this chapter lmaO), but it does lighten up a bit! If you play your cards right, it'll almost have a slice of life vibe for most of it.

Anyway, excited to be so close to finally finishing this chapter lol Here's the monthly preview ft Zoe and kind!MC:

[manonamora-if]

November Check-In

As mentioned in my previous weekly update, monthly check-ins will be posted on the 1st of every month, recap'ing what's been done and what's the plan for next month.

Recap of last month's progress

IF Events in the Next Month

Plan for the next month

Still long post ahead. If you want a mini version, head over to itch.io!

October progress

The plan for last October was to:

Play and review more IF games ✅

Finish the La Petite Mort remaster: ✅

Either continue a WIP or fix another semi-completed game ❌

maybe try to add another block to the SugarCube Guide? ❌

The first was easily completed, since I reviewed about 40 games (out of the 75 entries) from this edition of the IFComp. This was more than last year in terms of quantity and time spent (more long entries this year), so while I did not play/review all entries, I'm happy with having done all that so far. Maybe I'll revisit the rest at a later point.

The second was a bit difficult. Working on the re-writes started pretty easy, but I ended up being completely short for words half-way through (even if I could visualise the scenes). Switching to translating the completed passaged helped pick up the pace, but I did this a bit too late, looking back. This meant I rushed through the last week, just before the EctoComp deadline, to complete a working state. This also means that while the game is complete, there are kinks that still need to be ironed out. This include the missing full passages (half-written or drafted, but not translated), missing translation (especially for the last passage), and taking care of the last UI friction. Another update is coming.

Having spent so much time on the first two, and IRL just swinging its bat at me, the last two points were not touched at all. Still, it's not bad, and other things came about:

The Bare-Bones Jam managed to get two dozen entries, which is pretty decent considering it happened at the same time as the EctoComp and the voting of the IFComp.

Lots of interesting discussion happened in the @neointeractives Discord server, especially covering the IFComp (moderation can't sleep).

I somehow managed to wing an entry for the inkJam, with In the Blink of an Eye. Don't know how I managed, I certainly wasn't in the right state of mind. Also turns out it was a 4-bird-1-stone, since I translated it in French.

Had an actual AMA on the blog, that was properly scheduled!

So still quite a bit considering life... (it's really been a lot, haven't processed most of it yet)

-_-

What's happening in November?

Nanowrimo for the writers, which can be a good incentive to progress the writing of a game.

The IFComp, EctoComp, and inkJam are always looking for players/voters. If you want to play a few short-ish games, take advantage of that!

The @seedcomp-if is always looking for inspiration (text, images, code, etc...) in this current first round. If you have half-baked ideas or anything, really, come submit something!

Over @neointeractives, we just wrapped up the Bare-Bones Jam and we have a new jam in the work... the ShuffleComp! Stay tuned ;)

-_-

The PLANtm for November

Still play more IF and maybe review. With the Bare-Bones Jam and the EctoComp over, that's a good 50 games to try out. (I've started with the inkJam already)

Finish the edits of Harcourt Ch5 (and get MelS to send me his Ch6 writing)

Fix one of the semi-completed games: either the Egg parser or TRNT (and make it a proper parser)

Finish that darn SugarCube Guide: there aren't much left in the guide to cover, but there are a few things to fix.

I would also like to compile the short drabbles from @crimsonroseandwhitelily into something more substantial. Either as a side page or within the game itself.

Taking the list of TO-DO from August…

To-Do not require much of new stuff:

translate Escape Goncharov! into French. ✅

fix the bugs in EDOC + overall the French version to match

fix the bugs of TRNT + find a way to add the missing pieces (mayyyybe translate into French?)

fix the formatting of DOL-OS + translate into English ✅

update LPM with the missing content + translate into English ✅

It's really been going down, which I am super happy about! I've made quite a bit of progress on that part since I made that To-DO (considering waves at life)

The rest of the To-Do pile was:

Finish The Rye in the Dark City (and maybe translate?)

Finish P-Rix - Space Trucker (and try to translate)

Finish Exquisite Cadaver (translation unlikely, current gameplay too complex to port for French)

Add a chapter to CRWL + fix/reopen the blog

Re-working TTTT to its originally planned state (lol, not likety)

Re-working SPS Iron Hammer (samesies)

Coding TTATEH (MelS dependent - shooting for end of year)

Emptying my inboxes (they are not all answered tho)

Honestly, this pile probably won't get done this year....

[hagweeds]

Hello!

I recently stumbled across Santae on Tumblr, gave it a try, decided i wasn't really vibing with it, and quit (never joined the discord or really poked at the forums) all before finding out about the... Unfortunate stuff going on.

I had no clue, and now im feeling twice shy about interacting or supporting other similar sites. I very firmly don't want to support anything AI related, so i was wondering if you maybe had a list somewhere of sites( in development or otherwise) that you can recommend?* I wouldn't even know where to begin looking.

(*Already Hoarding dragons on Flight Rising, so any OTHER sites)

omg sure yeah!! there are a lot of smaller petsims around and the two upcoming im excited about:

UPCOMING

- Pawborough (FR style breeding sim with cats)

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tbpt/paw-borough-the-feline-virtual-browser-rpg/description

https://www.pawborough.net/demo

PB is currently in closed beta testing and if lucky you might still find people giving away keys? But I think most are claimed now. Open beta will be open to everyone, but there will be no further wipes at that point so it could still be a while. Updates are posted daily in discord and it's open for everyone to join.

Breeding is slightly different than FR though so I would recommend playing around with the breeding demo. It's not wheel based like FR and I'd describe it more like when you mix paint colors?

Would encourage you to look at the more recent KS updates because they did revamp a lot of the art that's in the original campaign (hydde from fr is on the art team!)

- Mythaura (another breeding sim but with various mythical creatures)

https://mythaura.com/

https://ko-fi.com/mythauradev

Not currently in beta but the devs do put out monthly updates on progress, and you can donate to their Ko-Fi for beta keys. Currently I have 33 keys (and get more every month) so you and anyone else are welcome to ask for a key when it opens up.

This one was around in dev for a while but died off as the original creator moved on to IRL things. Current owners worked on the site with the OG owner and with permission reference the original concepts. Since it's been with the current team updates have been consistently every month.

Some cool previews for their DnD/adventuring mode are in the more recent updates! Also there are shiny familiars 👀

EXISTING

- Pixel Cats End (based on FR dom adopts from Ice)

Small community and new content is slow but steady as it is one dev. No gender restriction on breeding, cats belong to North/South/Trade. N/S can breed with each other and Trade can breed with all. Very gender inclusive and all cats pronouns can be freely changed at any time. Breeding is based on genotypes and it's fairly complex (cats have hidden traits and some are recessive etc)

If you like chasing rare breeding outcomes it's pretty fun! There are rarer patterns and things like Albino cats. There is also a DnD grid based adventuring mode that I find pretty fun to grind, final boss gives out drops that include a G1 cat generator.

4dopt

I'm just going to steal the post @jinogasux-fr made lol https://jinogasux-fr.tumblr.com/post/771749879998447616/doing-another-reblog-of-this-because-4dopt-had-to

Basically it's very customizable heavy adopts and all pets /items/etc are drawn by and submitted by players.

Wolvden/Lioden (wolf and lion breeding sims)

Both sites are owned by the same team but Wolvden is the newer game and works a little differently than Lioden.

Big warning that in both sites your pets will eventually die and freezing them is a premium item. The upside to this is your account does not "rollover" until you tell it to. So if you don't log in for a week, your pets won't have aged until you rollover again. Breeding is also a lot more restrictive in terms of who you can breed and when (like on Lioden you have one male pride leader who can breed, but if you want to breed one of your females to a different male you'd have to use another player as the stud unless you retire and select a new leader)

Both sites tend to have very dramatic communities but the gameplay is solid and functioning. Staff can also be questionable but if you keep to yourself it's not on the level of CJ DMing players yaknow

Subeta

If you liked the questing on Santae, just play Subeta bc thats where CJ took it from and they do it much better.

Subeta is older but still... relatively active? I think they're still revamping the site but everything still functions. I played obsessively 10 years ago.

Largely focuses on human avatars with pets. At the time it was kind of the adult Neopets site (iirc it was 16+ only originally)

There are some other petsites that I just don't recommend: Marapets (owner is a freak all I really remember), Neopets (as an old school neo player i just can't recommend neo anymore lol), Dappervolk, Lorwolf

In terms of where I find or go looking for these, it's unfortunately not one place. A lot of these I discovered either through my FR-based friends or through Tumblr. https://www.virtualpetlist.com used to be pretty good back in the 2010s but looking now they do seem to be featuring AI art sites.

I do frequently see that people tend to make topics in the General Discussion area for new sites, so it's worth keeping an eye there too: https://www1.flightrising.com/forums/gend

Sometimes I'll also browse Kickstarter or other crowdfunding sites as that's how I found PB originally.

[sanguinesky-if]

[Dev Log] February 2025

Hello, I hope your winter days are going well!

This is the first dev log of 2025, which means the end of my January break and the resumption of:

▹ Patreon billing and monthly activity. ▹ Monthly dev logs.

Although I took things easier in January, I still worked on the story and have quite a bit to share about my progress.

What was done last month?

▹ Worked on the draft for Chapter 3 Pt. 2.

Since shifting the story format from a visual novel to IF, my draft has required some changes and updates. There are some scenes I'd like to include from the old version, but I hesitate due to the potential increase in workload [I discussed them on Patreon]. Even without those additions, Chapter 3 Pt. 2 is shaping up to be massive, and I already can tell it shouldn't be expected until late spring [assuming I decide against including those moments and scenes]. As usual, the most recent updates on my progress will be shared weekly on Patreon and monthly in the dev logs here on my blog.

▹ Refined stats and their distribution.

I began refining the stats distribution in December, but I also made some changes throughout January. Overall, the full list of changes includes: ▹ Refinement and redistribution of personal and hidden stats. ▹ Renaming the "Approval" stat to "Alignment" [this change will apply in the next update]. I'd like to thank this anon for the idea; I should have done it sooner. A few more words about the stats: Something about the personal stats feels… lacking. I can't quite pinpoint what it is, but I have a feeling I need to progress the story further to understand what's missing, so for now, I've decided to focus on Chapter 3 Pt. 2.

▹ Finished the shortcut to Chapter 3 Pt. 2.

I decided to take care of the shortcut feature in advance, and it took me some time to compile all the choices due to the variations readers can encounter in different scenes. While I may return to it later if I decide that some choices from Chapter 3 Pt. 1 should be included, I'm glad I finished adding all the essential parts.

▹ Improved some scenes and fixed numerous grammatical errors, as well as a few coding issues.

Here's a list of major changes: ▹ L's phone call scene [Chapter 2]: Added a reserved flirt option and made the non-romantic option available to everyone [these changes will apply in the next update].

▹ K's morning scene [Chapter 3]: The last assertive flirt option in K's scene no longer includes "I forgive you", so the reader is not forced to immediately let go of all the tension when choosing a flirt option. Small note: I have some reservations regarding the choices provided in K's scene after their apology, so I will likely post a poll on Patreon to gather feedback on this matter.

▹ Solo morning scene [Chapter 3]: Due to an oversight, the solo scene didn't include a variation where the reader decides not to talk to the MC's twin sister and immediately goes to sleep. This variation of the scene has now been added.

What will I be working on in February?

▹ Chapter 3 Pt. 2: translating the draft and outlining the files for coding.

In addition to that, the bonus content on Patreon that will be released this month will include:

▹ Morgan's NSFW Alphabet. ▹ K's NSFW Side Story POV [Interactive].

Author's note.

I'd like to extend my gratitude to everyone who took the time to send helpful error reports, asks, and kind messages! Your support and interest help me improve my story, which truly means a lot to me.

Thank you for reading to the end! Wishing you a wonderful week and days after that! ♥

[foxglovegames]

DEV LOG: APRIL 2024

April was a big month for us here at Foxglove Games. We finally released the Bonus Stories DLC!

We wanted to give Trouble Comes Twice a proper goodbye with this DLC so we couldn't be more grateful for the positive reception and all the cute asks people have sent us! It took us longer than expected, which is why it means a lot to to us (and indie devs like ourselves) to know that there was people looking forward to what we're working on. Hopefully, we can count on your support for our future projects as well! But even if our next game isn't your cup of tea, it's been amazing to have shared our debut game with you so thank you. <3

What's next for Foxglove Games?

If you've been keeping up with our monthly dev logs, you probably know we've been working on our next visual novel since the end of last year-ish.

For anyone new to this project: It's a supernatural mystery romance visual novel starring dual protagonists like in our previous game. It's set in the eighties, in a world where supernatural beings live among humans in secret, and you play as either: Circe, a 'femme fatale' vampire or Dante, a half-demon cop. There's six love interests and they're not shared this time, meaning there's three romance routes per protagonist... and that's as much information as we've revealed so far!

Right now, our priority is working on the demo and prepping things to properly announce the game. We're super, super excited to share more one day but for now it's mostly just going to be little sneak peeks here and there for those who read our monthly dev logs! ;)

Demo Progress

It's been another productive month for our art team. We nearly have all the mandatory assets needed for the demo now. When the basic assets are done, we'll review our demo script and check where we might be able to add more art (e.g. cgs, additional backgrounds).

Speaking of the script, we started drafting the common routes for both protagonists in April and we're already at 26k+ words! At our current pace, the first drafts should be done before the end of the month and we will start looking for an editor to join us.

We're not looking to hire anyone just yet, but please keep an eye out for a recruitment post in the near future if you have editing experience and think you might enjoy working on a project like this!

GOALS FOR MAY

Finish first drafts for the demo script✍️

Recruit an editor for Burn the Midnight Oil's demo script

Work on some other rewards we promised KS backers for TCT