March 23, 2026

Dev Diary #3 - "The First Course" Arc - 0.7.0

Hey everyone,

Week 3 with some progress!

Production started:

As I mentioned in previous updates, instead of doing all CGs first, then all scripts, I'm gonna do scene by scene. And before I can tackle Act 2 scenes, I need to sort out some systems.

Namely the affection system since it's foundational to how Act 2 scenes branch.

Good news is that while building it out I realized that rather than release that later, I can probably bundle it into the 0.6.1 patch so the public release is clean from the start.

If all goes well, that could even mean this week.

Affection System:

Talked about it before but for those wondering what this actually means in practice: character relationships now are more explicit based on your choices. How you interact with someone in an early scene influences what's available later.

The affection system meant reworking some existing choices. Some earlier scenes felt a bit too railroaded with certain characters, Terrace especially.

This was one of the most frequent feedback points. That's now been adjusted.

There are, of course, limits to this. You still need to choose Terrace or Ari on Day 3, for example.

By default, unless you want to replay, the game assumes more permissive choices. (existing saves default to higher affection)

In-game display so you can actually see where you stand. Early version and honestly not the prettiest thing yet.

The UI will evolve over time but the tracking is the main goal.

And for anyone using skip-to-day, you can also configure bond when jumping ahead. Naming might change before release but the functionality is there.

(Yes, the UI is atrocious 😂)

Tease Queen/Submissive Pet Hints:

Path-relevant choices now have a simple visual indicators for those who want clearer guidance. Some route-specific scenes have also been reworked to fit this vision better.

I'm still going back and forth on whether every choice gets this or just the major ones.

Part of me likes players discovering the moments organically. Part of me knows the frustration of not knowing. Open to thoughts here...

Platinum tier:

Act 2 preview later this week.