Orphan, New Release Schedule & QoL update

The newest update includes a short (teaser) sequence at the end of the Academy arc for the upcoming update. In addition, I've made some minor visual changes to the UI and have thrown in a character sheet page that will be expanded upon in the future, along with some bugfixes and corrected typos that will hopefully make the novel a smoother experience over all. As you can imagine, there's good and bad news.

The Good

The new release schedule will be biweekly (every 2 weeks) updates.

I'm revamping the Patreon to provide more benefits to those who have shown me support. Legionnaires and up will gain access to new updates 2 weeks before the public, whilst Gladiators will gain access 1 week before the public.

I've gotten a tremendous amount of support these past few months from a select number of individuals. Collateral Animation was my first Sorcerer tier supporter, and I'll forever be grateful to him for his belief in my project. Zed and Dominic, my two other sorcerers, haven't asked a single thing of me despite being well-entitled to do so.

Hongfire, PixelatedAfro, Tilly, Stonebystone and Zhou are just a few others that have given me support without asking for anything in return. All of my patrons have my undying gratitude for showing me that there's a badass audience out there for what I'm trying to create here!

The Bad

This isn't a 40,000 word update like the last one, despite the last major update being around ~2 months ago. This past week was supposed to be "crunch time", but it wasn't. When I tried to write some of the major scenes that I had planned, I was paralyzed by writer's block. I dreaded the idea that I had to write such a big amount of content, and I simply didn't have the concentration to focus on one idea or story branch at a time.

Over the past week, I've realized that I need a different strategy if I'm going to keep making progress. After some insightful conversations with supporters and other developers, I've settled on an approach that I find exciting. Because at the end of the day, I need to be excited by my work in order to create something worth engaging with.

I'll put out a small update every 2 weeks that tackles a couple of scenes, regardless of branch. Sometimes I'll put out a poll to decide what scenes to work on, and other weeks I'll just work on what I feel inspired to put out.

I know some players hate this small update, piecemeal approach to game development and prefer huge chunks of content to be released at once. I just can't see myself returning to that at this moment in time. I want to make Orphan a little bit better & longer with every release, every 2 weeks and that's how I'm going to steadily progress moving into 2025.

Moving Forward

The next update for Orphan will release December 27th for Legionnaires and above, January 3rd for Gladiators, and January 10th for the public. It'll focus on the dream sequence with the succubus in the Academy arc and the meeting with the mysterious, unnamed noblewoman in the Gladiator arc. There may be more included, you'll just have to wait and see!

Expect an updated Patreon page and an increased number of weekly polls.

I won't reveal any more details for now, but I'm working on a second project. It's cross between a visual novel and a political sim. If you enjoy the energetic and high-stakes storytelling in Orphan, there's a decent chance that you'll love this project as well.

If you can't see yourself supporting a creator who's working on two projects at once, I don't know what to tell you, besides--thank you for your support up to this point! I'm going to pursue what inspires me while following through on the projects that I've already started.

That's all I have for now. If you continue to stand by me and lend me your support, trust that I'll deliver something worthy of worship & admiration--not uninspired slop. I want to inspire, empower, uplift. So let's become dauntless together.

Truth Serum, 12/13/2024