Contents: 1) Interaction with community 2) The report about development progress 3) General conversation Interaction with community Id like to hear your opinion about the combat system. Maybe you have any suggestions? Im trying to figure out how to make this system more interesting. The combat system both in the first/second episode is based on a pretty simple principle (rock, paper and scissors). There are enemies who dodge attacks, you have to use pierce attacks and build up your rage. There are regular and heavy enemies, those you have to crush using heavy blows. I thought about making a few strikes available right from the start of the fight, i.e. they wont depend on rage points. In order to avoid you spamming them, wed add cooldown. Maybe some of you have any suggestions regarding how to make enemies more diverse? Leave your thoughts in the comments down below. Of course, not everything you want can be implemented but about that later. Mind you, were not interested in hearing such things as: Drop the combat system, focus on the story. We have scriptwriters who write the story, theyre only focused on the story and arent doing anything else. For an upcoming intermediate release, we have the following stuff finished: 1) Meeting Mrisya in the inn 2) The apothecary. Three new random events, just to add to the atmosphere and one bonus scene (you have to unlock it). Its unlocked just by visiting the apothecary a few times. 3) The armory. Three new random events, just to add to the atmosphere. 4) Ilgas house. New events when visiting her. 5) River. Two new events upon going there. 6) The purification event (it starts automatically) 7) An alternative branch for Fuhrim 8) Alternative ways to start a quest line with vampires 9) Kilenas branch is slightly rewritten (weve added more logic to her actions) 10) Progress of relationship with Fiona 11) A lot of new ways to spend time in the brothel. (Lillina) 12) A few more small random events. We decided to cut out a completely finished event in the forest. There are so many events happening one after another in the span of these three playable days that we decided to leave it for the third episode. Events which are rendered and written but not in the code yet: 1) Elana. 2) Four new small events with Sarah. 3) Dreams. 4) A small event with Higrith 5) The first day of investigation is almost done. (aside from a few text edits) Quests that arent ready yet 1) The second day of the investigation. The texts almost ready, its being proofread now. We wont need that many renders there, its going to be mostly dialogues. Therefore, the renders can be reused sometimes. 2) The alternative branch for Sarah. Its mostly different only in terms of text, but Ill have to remake some of the renders to fit this new story. 3) Some more small events are possible. 4) The finale of the episode. The technical stuff: 1) We made QTE sequences two times simpler for the easy difficulty. I tested it myself, theres enough time to get your hand out of your pants and kick Fuhrims ass. 2) The MC is stronger now when you play on easy difficulty 3) Weve nerfed the last mercenary you fight at the barge for all difficulties (he was way too strong), but weve significantly boosted Fuhrim. If someones scared of Fuhrim, you can just let him go. Its not necessary to fight him. Overall, the easy difficulty now means you can play the game without leveling up. 4) Well add some practical use to the already existing items in the game. Kageras amulet, Meloras ring (I still havent come up with a buff that this ring might give to a player), and a vial with blood. Youll be able to equip these items using a slot for amulet (via your inventory) To be added in the third episode: 1) Perks 2) The option to sell amulets in the temple. As for questions like: - You promise the implementation of perks for so long, is it really that hard to make them? The answer is yes. The RenPy engine is made for visual novels. Its not built for games like ours. Our coder is trying to squeeze everything he can out of that engine using all his knowledge and skills. - Then why do you make a game like yours using the engine which isnt built for these purposes? Simply because our coder knows this engine. When we started making games, we would do visual novels for the lack of experience in making any other games. General conversation. As usual, lets analyze comments about the game: 1) You got rid of grinding, micromanagement and that basically useless leveling up system thats good! 2) You made a good Russian translation right at the release without any bugs thats good! 3) You added exclamation and question marks where theyre needed for the quests thats even better!!! 4) Once again you release an unfinished short story, where some of the dialogue options lead you to a message saying work in progress, this is disgusting! Like, seriously, this is not that kind of a game you need to work on balance for years, trying to make new textures and places. Why keep it early access for so long? Are you just trying to get some money as soon as possible? Its silly, the games split into episodes which isnt great and mixed reviews wont do any good to the sales either. Our answer: 1) It depends on the player. Some like it, some not so much. 2) Yep, that we can. 3) As usual, some players dont like it. However, since we had to split the game into episodes, which impacted the density of quests, we had to add it. 4) Yeah, why else would you release a game into early access? Mixed reviews only hurt my self-esteem, and they do it less and less with each passing day. Lately Ive been going through these mixed reviews with pleasure. I wouldnt say that I noticed any real negative impact from having mixed reviews in terms of sales. Overall, of course we all work for money. Like any other person out there. What else do people work for? What do you work for? Of course, we like our job, but wed also prefer not to work at all. Its possible that one day I wont have to work anymore. No, itd be correct to say that Id work only for my own pleasure. I mean, its more like a dream right now, its clear that were making a niche product, but Im satisfied with the income I get from my niche. Lately Ive been working in a quite slow tempo. Yes, sometimes we have to crunch but overall, Im trying not to overwork myself as much as possible. After all, the income of our team and my income directly depends on the release of new games. And yes, were doing this for money. I think its obvious. What matters is that Im not willing to do anything for money. Theres a type of content I dont want to add even though adding it usually means a lot of money. However, Im simply ashamed to add that type of content. What Im not ashamed of is releasing an early access of the game. The game will eventually come out of early access. The people whod already bought it saved money compared to those wholl buy it only once its a finished product. Everyone was warned that the game isnt finished. Whyd you buy an unfinished product? Did I force you? Or did I hide the fact its not finished? If this wasnt clear by reading the game description, how do I make it even more obvious? Overall, if nothing happens, weve got a few more months of work ahead of us. However, something does usually happen, someone gets sick or some personal problems appear, etc. That means delays but we hope that well be able to avoid all that. We all wait for the release. You wait to be able to finally play it, we wait to earn some more money out of it. Thats all for now.