New Year Update

Apologizes, this Devlog will be rather long

Opening

Happy New Years everyone, hope everyone's New Year has been good. There's a lot of things I want to discuss today from the survey and just general thoughts I've been wanting to get done. This will be split into a few sections: Character Developments, Game Changes, Questions/Concerns, and a section on Dwarven Destiny with sub-sections for each to go in-depth with everything I need to discuss in this devlog. I would appreciate people reading through and commenting, in the end, to give me ideas to further improve everything after I've discussed this.

Character Developments

So some things I wanna mention are the fact that each character is going through some changes, some minor to some extremely major changes and I will be going over that and some side character info as well. Along with this I want to say that more romanceable characters may be added in the future but I am not sure who will be added as of yet or what side characters may be turned into Romanceable ones, nothing is 100% set in stone, we will see how things go in the future.

Romanceable Characters

Maxwell: Max is the only one not going through any significant changes except he will be going through some facial changes with a bit of head reshaping to make him look a little better. 

Barron: Barron is getting more muscle added making him more muscle chub to give him a more distinct body type compared to Max and Chris. 

Christopher: Chris is losing a large amount of chubbiness as I am gonna lean more into a muscular body type for him to make him a little beefier, he will still have a bit of his dad gut but I'm gonna lean more into a built side.

Levi: Levi is gonna be a lot smaller built in the next version as he is gonna be more based on an actual soccer player so he will still be fit but he will be leaner to go with the more average soccer player appearance. 

Nathan: Along with the name change Nathan will be changing his species since Max already fills the canine role, he will be turning into a type of swine but I haven't decided what type yet, I'm thinking a type of boar but it isn't fully decided yet. He will also be more average build instead of the hefty build that he has currently.

Those are the quick changes I'm making to the current cast, nothing gonna spoil too much of what is changing but I wanna give everyone an idea of what I'm going for with the new versions. The design and wait time on these new versions will not delay anything further as once Levi and Nathan are out, with their new designs as they are the only ones who haven't been designed yet I will be going onto a regular schedule and adding in the new versions in later updates.

Side Characters

So I have a google doc that I am gonna be adding to over the following days with side characters I'm working on, these will include their name, species, and what path you'll likely meet them in. I will also add small descriptions of each character when I have time over the next couple of days to weeks. The doc is linked below for any of those who are curious.

Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nSkUiwDVolKlTgmA6YGeNv9DHokJ8ZMo6EET1R-7uTQ/...

Game Changes and Developments

Voice Acting

This has been one of my biggest debates for a while and I think I've decided to at least look for people to fill the roles if I do go along with it, with that I will be opening up auditions for the roles. If anyone is interested you can message me on Twitter, or join my discord which I will link below. This can be a paid or voluntary position, we will work out payment if you are selected for the role at the end of it all. Please note that this isn't a for sure position and will not be acted upon until later updates if it does happen, but I am opening it up now for the sake of convenience in the future. This position is 18+ only, please do not contact me for position details unless you are of age.

Discord: https://discord.gg/RcbQmS9

Twitter: @StarFurIndustry

Customization

So this was under consideration since the beginning of my project and has finally been decided via the survey, customization will happen but I will be waiting till I have the ability to put in a rather large customization system that will give people a lot of freedom. As for the scene the MC will appear in, I am debating keeping it ambiguous or just making a default character, for the time being, if I do the default I'll probably just base it around myself or the artist I'm working with, again not sure yet. If people have comments or suggestions I am willing to hear them out. Some people mentioned it could lead to development hell and I feel like it won't cause I won't be worrying about it significantly enough. There is no specific update to when it will release, I will just release it when I have it working so don't worry as I'm trying to avoid further development hell issues.

Update Schedule

So the schedule is gonna be at max a of 3 updates per month with 3 days per update maxing out at 9 days between characters per month but some months may be lower with only 1-2 updates depending on my schedule. There is also the chance for just one large major update if I manage to get 10+ days done and I will release any major updates during the 30th of each month. For each added update I'll be doing it back to the 20th and 10th if I have all 3 updates. Please note that while I will try to get as much done as possible I do still have to work and I will be going to college soon so this update schedule may become slower but I will work as hard as I can. I will give a small devlog at the start of each month once the art is done, as said before the changing art won't cause delays.

Major Update Release Date

This is still unknown as I am waiting for the final 2 sprites still but I believe that this will come soon as I am trying to push my artist to get it done and working with him to really make an amazing next update. All the changes and the survey stuff it has really helped me figure out what I need to work on in the game and what I need to build on as well. I apologize as the delays have been long but this year has been rough on both me and my artist, I hope things finally get better and this game really gets going!

Questions/Concerns

My Health and Wellbeing

I had a lot of people asking how I was doing in the survey and in general, I wanna thank you all for the concern and I will alleviate the worry by saying I am doing alright, the last couple of weeks have been a struggle but things are going much better. For those who don't know, I, unfortunately, caught covid and a few issues sprung up with me getting sick. Not sure why but I got really inflamed and it caused an older wrist injury to act up so I've been working through a brace to deal with the issue, and while not perfect it's getting better. Thank you for the concern but moving forward I hope things go much better.

Finished Game Pricing  

This had really made me think for a long period of time, what I wanted to do for pricing and stuff like that. I have taken a lot of things into consideration when deciding how I wanna go forward and want to share what I finally decided on to gain everyone's opinions on the matter. If you have issues with this I will take the time to listen and try to figure out the best option but please realize that this game is a passion project and has taken large periods of my time and money to craft so the final version will not be free. This is gonna be split up a little bit as I will be having two versions of the game and each version will be priced slightly different due to the changes I will explain.

SFW Version

This version of the game will have its first month free, which will essentially be the free trial content that everyone will get to experience to see if they want to buy the full version, the first month will be about 1/3 of the game's full story and will end on a significant event and cliffhanger of sorts. The first month will be on here for free and all the content updates I put out will be free until it reaches that point. After the first month, each following month will only be 5 dollars, making the entire game only 10 dollars max for the SFW version. Once you buy the game you will receive the updates as they go as I will most likely not release the full month right away. When the next month starts you will have the option to spend just 5 dollars for just the next month or 10 for the full version without any further purchases. I will be working on the system that will work for when these versions are released and this is subject to change based on suggestions and comments.

NSFW Version

This version of the game will be a Patreon exclusive and will be available for 5 dollars a month (My lowest until the Patreon tier) reaches 4+ months of subscriptions totally about 20 dollars. After this they can choose to keep a subscription for support or cancel as they will still receive the new versions as they come out, the NSFW will be 20 dollars for the full game. The price difference comes from two facts, the NSFW will be much more detailed, have graphic scenes, include lots more artwork, and will have a much more mature style. There will also be the option to buy the game outright, but I am still working out the details and I will release more info as it becomes available. Any Patreon tiers that are 20+ will also give the game available anytime after, as the 20 dollars will have been reached. 

Further Information

I took a great deal of time deciding how to proceed with pricing as I didn't wish to charge too much but also have been putting a lot of work into this project. I feel the prices I reached are fair but some may disagree, this is why I allowed the payment plan over Patreon as an alternative as opposed to having to pay outright or buying just one month of content as almost DLC. Anyone who does cancel their sub to Patreon after reaching 20 dollars will lose their Patreon privileges but will still get access to the updates as they come out, they just will not receive the extra stuff, unless it has already been delivered (YCH Scenes, Patreon list, Etc). While no one is going to be forced to support the game all the help will be greatly appreciated if people wish to buy, donate or subscribe to Patreon. Please let me know your opinions below as I will listen and try to make this as easy as possible for everyone, I neither want to charge too much nor too little for the game so everyone's opinions are helpful. 

Dwarven Destiny

I will now be sharing an update from Gryph our coder from the DD Team

Hey hey, folks! 'Tis me again! Bringing you an update juuuuust before 2021 finally ends. As you can see, I've got a few new sprites that I've already put into the game. We are so thankful to have ChellayTiger as our artist for this project because he puts 110% into his work, and the sprites look fantastic! 

Updates this month:

 * Oghram's day finally completed.

 * Started on Lurik's (Not complete yet) 

* Found Placeholder BGs and threw them through filters and such and added to the game (at least enough for most of the basic locations, so people have something to look at, rather than black screens everywhere, here and there. 

Haha. I'm afraid there may be a slight delay in posting the update. The downside is we didn't get our achieved goal accomplished - which was to have Day 7 written and coded into the game. This day is special because it will allow you to finally select a Dwarf to 'spend time with, and increase their affection for you. So, there is no actual downloaded update yet - but we are still hard at work getting to that point. If nothing else, I may just upload the demo with Oghram's complete day and keep coding Lurik's day into the game tomorrow to attempt to finish it by tomorrow evening or Sunday evening, at the very latest. For now, be patient with us.

Final Thoughts

Over the period of time, I've worked to get this game working, and finally off the ground a lot has happened and I've grown a lot as a person. I wanna thank everyone who's stuck around from the start to the people who've recently been following. It means a lot that over 300 of you show interest in the game and it amazes me to think that a lot of people like what I have to share. I hope the fanbase keeps growing and I hope when I can finally put out more content everyone enjoys it greatly. Thank you and Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2022 really lets this game grow!