As the title suggests, let’s start with scene optionality.

I don’t know how to make animations—even if I wanted to, and it shows. I’ll learn, just like I learned other things, but right now it’s not great. Currently, in the game, to get closer to Yuni, you need to play a scene with Vanya. Those scenes are what they are in terms of quality, and not every player will be into that particular type of girl. So from the very beginning, my intention has been—wherever it makes sense in the story—to make every possible scene optional.

It’s a thousand times easier to make a linear storyline where the player goes from scene to scene, especially on the systems I’m basing this game on. But that’s not the vision here.

The idea is to give the player at least some control over their path, to build their own story. Obviously, as a solo developer working on a hentai game, I’m not going to create 40 fully fleshed-out storylines with hours of unique content each. But it doesn’t have to be that massive. I still think it’s better to have even a small choice than none at all.

Already, the dialogues you pick can lead to different responses from characters, not just the typical question > choice A, B or C > NPC reply system. It’s not always possible to branch everything wildly while keeping the main storyline intact—but yes, the game will have a main storyline. Still, I’ll do my best to let the player break off from it at their own will, even if the optional paths are short at first. And those will be expanded—plans are pretty ambitious.

So yes, scene optionality will be implemented.

Next up is the amount of dialogue. This is, after all, a visual novel. You can expect a lot of it—especially because creating the world, characters, and story is what I enjoy the most. I’m sure, with time, everyone will find something in the game to really love.

But not every topic has to be a wall—or 30 walls—of text. I’m planning to, for example, turn character backstories into illustrated segments with descriptions, and eventually into short gameplay bits, even if they’re just 5 or 10 minutes long. Not every character will have an epic story arc either—sometimes, simple side characters are needed to reflect parts of the player's personality or preferences. That’s part of a much bigger vision—creating a world with many minor characters, their own little minigames and bits of story, even if small. Giving side characters that kind of love without the same level of detail as main ones will definitely be a challenge. We’ll see how it goes—it really depends on how you all receive this kind of system and how far it develops.

As many of you have probably noticed, another thing I’m bad at is drawing. So if the illustrations end up being terrible or I can’t afford to hire artists at the time, we’ll probably transition from text to 3D storytelling. Time will tell.

But again, this is just one of many "game systems" that may or may not evolve depending on your reactions.

As for gameplay—it’s basically not there yet. That’s a fact. I have a ton of ideas, but I’m annoyed by the current state of the village. I thought I could keep it as it is for longer, but it has to be improved. I wasted way too much time trying to make good rocks, only to end up buying them. I just can’t afford to lose that much time on something that’s not working, when there’s so much to be done in the game.

I try to make everything myself without help, but ultimately the quality of the game and player satisfaction is more important—as are frequent updates. Organic shapes and sculpting were never my thing, but I’ll learn. Until then, I have to keep pushing forward.

As I said on Patreon, I’m in the process of modeling new houses and village elements, and also working on a new character. The last update was 11 days ago, and ideally, I want the next one to drop within a month. No one likes waiting forever, especially without knowing if the game is even being worked on. I’ve been doing a good job of keeping everyone informed, with weekly or even 4-day updates, including screenshots and breakdowns.

I’m doing my best to make sure the next update brings noticeable changes to the game. I’d love to focus more on new characters and scenes, but the village and gameplay also need attention.

And that’s it for this short news post. I won’t go on about everything right now—just focusing on the most immediate things with a few small teasers about the future. As always, more frequent updates with behind-the-scenes info are available to supporters on Patreon, where I regularly share what I’m working on.

Hope everything's good on your end—take care, and talk to you again in about three days as usual!