The Road to Chapter 3
With 0.3.9 out the door, I want to take a moment to look back at the last few months and then forward at where MindWare is heading.
The good news is that I have finally settled into a rhythm that lets me put out content on a steady schedule. In fact, MindWare got three public releases and eight hotfixes during this summer:
0.3.7 in June closed out the Trix supply closet storyline, added the Masturbate to Saved Porn mode to the Files app, and brought in a new ByteBunker gig at the Panacea Clinic.
0.3.8 in August was mostly HiveClean, but it also turned the EroSphere glory booth into a real earning route, moved Aegis forward to the Stage 3 results visit, and opened Yuki's Stage 2 messages.
0.3.9 just a few days ago added Ray's feminizing-pill quest and its two very different routes, brought the Panacea psychiatrist back into the game, and let you apply for a job at HiveClean.
I also moved from a manual release workflow to a mostly automated one, with both online and offline builds hosted on my website instead of on various third-party hosting services. The automation of the release process has been saving me a ton of time, and it has also been helping me make fewer mistakes when releasing updates.
Needless to say, I want to maintain this pace going forward. The main challenge in achieving that will be the semester that is about to start at my university. I spent a good part of the summer working ahead on my thesis because I knew this was coming, so hopefully that buffer will be enough to absorb the worst of the workload and keep releases landing on roughly the same schedule.
Where Things Are Going
You can see a brief overview of many of the to-do items I would eventually like to tackle on the to-do board (it's a snapshot of what is on my mind rather than a queue I work through top to bottom).
The main to-do item is the transition to Chapter 3, and with it the possibility of reaching a feminine-leaning body status. I am currently implementing the many things that need to be implemented for the game to still make sense once our main character starts presenting as female. Alongside that, I am writing the main story content that actually gets you there. As the to-do page shows, the road there will not be a straight line since there are many other storylines and side activities that need plenty of work, but the direction is set regardless.
There was a time when I was drowning in bug reports, each of which could easily take me a day to diagnose and fix. That's been a thing of the past for some time now, thanks to the reports (and saves) many of you have been sharing with me via the public bug tracker.
Thank you all for taking the time to describe what went wrong and to share your saves when the tracker gives you the option to do so. A report with a save behind it usually takes me anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours instead of a day, and that difference is a big part of why the recently achieved content release pace has been possible at all.
I also want to thank everyone supporting MindWare on Patreon and SubscribeStar. Your support is what lets me dedicate significantly more time to the game than I would be able to otherwise.
Keep those bug reports and feedback coming, and I'll see you next week with another update. Version 0.4.0 is getting close.
Comments (8)
So no keeping ray as he is and making you his target?
Not for now because I want to keep the number of branches relatively low until we reach the final stages of the game. Eventually, I would like to explore alternative routes much more, including the one where Ray continues looksmaxxing and you become his "target."
When is chapter 3 coming cantt wait!!
Hopefully, sooner rather than later, but it honestly will largely depend on how demanding this semester at my university turns out to be.
played the game and love it. but i want to ask something. i know this is a game that focus in feminization. but is there any plan or route that will allow the mc to be a hung femboy instead?
You will be able to keep your penis, but the rest of your body will be somewhere on the scale of feminine-leaning to hyper-feminine.
Can't wait! The game is absolutely beautiful. One question: I tried to import saves from 0.38 into 0.39 to keep going from the point where all venues reached end of content, but I couldn't move forward. Should I play all the way from the beginning on 0.39 or is there something I am doing wrong? Keep up the good work! Thank you so much for this amazing game!
Thank you, that's really kind! You don't need to restart. Saves from 0.3.8 carry over to 0.3.9 and get upgraded automatically on load. The thing that trips people up is where the new content picks up. 0.3.8 ended right after the supply closet scene with Trix and Ray, at the point where you decided what to do about Ray's supplement. 0.3.9 continues from that decision, but not at BrainFry. Check your Tasks panel. If it says something about replacing Ray's COLOSSAL JOLT, the next step is at Panacea Hospital (talk to the nurse about the pharmacy) or at Trix's apartment, depending on which plan you picked. The task text tells you which. One exception is if you sided with Trix and let her take Ray to Drake, he got fired, and that closes off most of what 0.3.9 added. If none of the above matches what you're seeing, send a bug report from the in-game menu with your save attached and I'll take a look.