Dev Update 17
Hello everyone!
Another month of work has gone into the game and we're excited to share our progress!
Spoiler Warning!
This post contains screenshots from the new Trent Update that some may consider spoilers! Continue reading at your own risk!
1. Character Update Poll Winner - Quinn
This past month we held our third official Character Update Poll where you got to decide which main character would receive an exclusive update after Trent and our upcoming feature update. After a very close race where Victoria took second and Peter took third, you all voted for Quinn! You can check out the final results here!
With the vote decided, we've already settled the outline for the Quinn Update and Dr. Bird has begun writing those scenes! We know you'll enjoy finally being able to buy that skateboard!
2. Poses
Most of our time this past month was dedicated to creating a ton of new poses for the Trent Update. Both Trent and our main character are getting tons of fun new art to bring these new scenes to life. Here is a quick sneak peek at a few!
3. Small Changes to the Grading App
We made some slight adjustments to the look of the Grades App and have gotten Professor Taylor's grading mechanic fully implemented into the game!
4. Screenshots
Since finishing all of the poses, we've moved on to Scene Assembly! With the help of Dr. Bird, what used to be our most time consuming process is now flying by faster than ever. Here are a few screenshots from the upcoming Trent Update!
5. Introducing A New Visual Element
One thing we know Edgefield needs is more natural build up leading into our romance scenes and animations. Grounding these moments makes the interactions feel much more realistic, and longer intimate build ups make the payoffs that much more rewarding.
To achieve this, we are introducing a brand new visual element we are calling post card images. These give you close up, more detailed snapshots of intimate moments leading up to our romantic scenes, complete with new internal dialogue and descriptive narration text. Following the Trent Update, as part of the next Feature Update, we'll also go back and add these intimate moments to all previous romantic scenes in the game.
6. Simplifying the Dark Room
We took a close look at the Dark Room and decided to give the interactions a complete overhaul. We have replaced the somewhat confusing minigame with a streamlined montage showing our main character completing the actual photo development process. This change removes an unnecessarily tedious gameplay loop that a ton of players have had trouble with. Expect a first look at this soon!
7. Feature Update Reminder
As a quick reminder of what is coming down the pipeline, our next major milestone after the Trent Update will be a new Feature Update. This will be an update where we add new mechanics, tweak existing ones and just prepare the game to continue scaling in an efficient and enjoyable way.
While we're not ready to share any details yet, just know that we are incredibly excited about it and know that it will be one of our most impactful updates yet as well as a huge improvement to the game.
8. Upcoming Playtesting
As we enter the final stretches of development for the Trent Update, we are gearing up for an extended playtesting phase. Our goal is to run multiple rounds of testing to ensure our supporters receive the most polished, stable version of the game possible.
As a quick logistical note, please do not message us directly on Discord to ask about joining the playtest. We will drop a formal announcement as soon as we are ready to open recruitment for new testers!
Those interested in testing will be accepted in order of Patreon Membership Tier status until the spots are filled.
9. Progress Bars
We have made great progress over the last month and the finish line is coming into view. We look forward to sharing more updates with you very soon!
Thank you all so much for your continued support and enthusiasm. Edgefield truly would not be possible without you! <33
-Gopher
Comments (42)
Im not into gaystuff its the reason i said no to everythink like that, maybe im dumb. But is jung to only one i can make more than talk?
waiting for the game
hope for more kerry content want to make kerry the best friend. no homo
Love the profile pic!
Release kab hoga
The closer we get to a new release the more excited I am! :]
I need the full game already 😭
Excited about the new version. I hope that in the future we'll be able to invite our partners to spend the night with us. Just sleep I mean.
First of all, I want to say that I genuinely really like Edgefield and its concept. The characters look great, they already feel distinct from each other despite the limited time we spend with them, and I especially love that the game allows you to pursue relationships regardless of gender. I think the game has a lot of potential. And i also know that this is very early to make these assumptions that being said, after finishing the current public content, I feel like the game is currently much wider than it is deep. One of my biggest issues is that we're introduced to so many interesting characters very early on, but then many of them almost completely disappear. Theo and Peter are good examples. We meet them at the beginning and get a sense of their personalities, but after those initial events we barely see them again. The same happens with Trent and Lucia after the theater events, and with several other students. I don't think every character needs a full storyline immediately. Even just having them around campus would make a huge difference. Let me see someone eating in the dining hall, studying in the library, practicing a sport, working, rehearsing at the theater, or simply walking around. Give them a few lines of small talk. They don't always need to have a major event waiting for me. In fact, characters having schedules could even explain why we can't find them sometimes. If I message Peter and he says, “I'm at work until 6, maybe later?”, that's perfectly fine. Now I know Peter isn't available because he has his own life, rather than feeling like he stopped existing because there is currently no content for him. This is also why I think the phone has so much unused potential. We can receive messages and even calls, but we have very little ability to initiate interactions ourselves. I'd love to be able to message someone to ask where they are, ask if they want to eat together, study, hang out, or meet later. Their answer could depend on their schedule, relationship level and previous choices. The university itself also feels strangely disconnected from university life at the moment. We have days, time, studying and weekly exams, but no real class schedule. I can theoretically stay in my room for days, never attend a class, and nothing happens. Having actual classes and consequences for skipping them would make time management much more meaningful. It doesn't need to become a hardcore life simulator with hunger and hygiene bars everywhere, but I would love more everyday activities. Eating, showering, attending classes, studying, working and socializing could all interact with the time system. The dining hall in particular would be a perfect place to naturally encounter other characters. Most importantly, I would love more agency over who I choose to spend my time with. Right now, it often feels like I wait for the story to decide which character I'm going to interact with next. I'd love for my dialogue choices, activities and the people I actively seek out to gradually open some relationships and perhaps close others. That's actually why I'm writing all of this: I really like what is already here. The characters are appealing, the university setting is interesting, and there are already a lot of promising systems — the phone, calendar, jobs, studying, exams, photography, clubs, locations, relationships, etc. My concern is that many of these systems currently feel like foundations waiting to be connected to each other. Personally, I would rather see the existing campus, characters and mechanics become deeper and more interactive before seeing lots of new characters and locations added. I know this is a small team and that game development is far more complicated than it looks from the player's side, so I'm not saying any of this as if these changes were easy to implement. These are simply the things I noticed while playing and the direction I personally think would make Edgefield feel much more alive. There is a genuinely great game underneath all of this, and I really hope we eventually get to see the university and its characters reach their full potential.
You have to know when your criticism is branching into telling devs what their vision for their game should be. And especially when you couldn't have experienced the full game yet haha. And you acknowledge the team size but because you have (I'm assuming sorry) little to know dev experience you don't realize some of your suggestions are simply not the direction of the game and way too different even think about. You have some genuinely good ideas and tips here that CAN be actually implemented but it's mixed in with suggestions for whole gameplay systems and gameplay philosophies friend lol. You are setting yourself up here for disappointment as you are asking for things they did not promise nor indicate they want to make. Games are art and that has to be understood. Not trying to antagonize you, I just thought I'd try to help you gear your criticism (since it's always great to see people take the time to treat it serious) into material that can actually be useful to the team! I know as a developer when I'm reading good critiques but so often because of their lack of actual understanding of development time and resources, they get mixed in with things that just are not relevant. Criticism is easy to do, but understanding what's useful criticism and what material you are actually seeing in front of you is what is golden. Understand the game they are making without imagining one that you'd prefer I think is a good way to think about it.
As always, we are really looking forward to what you cook up.
Man keep up those updates
I just downloaded the game yesterday and I absolutely LOVE IT!! I can't wait to see more content come out for this, especially for the "nerd" routes (Theodore, Kerry, and Sunny). I'm also really excited for the Trent update! I loved the acting scenes and can't wait to get to talk to him more!! Also can anyone tell me what the heat level means on the character cards?
Heat level = how horny the character naturally is I guess (like Peter has high level lol)
Awesome work, Millions of changes are coming, and they look great.
That’s hot 🥵
give female MC diff dress options. add like a dress store section on mobile
give us theo next!!
I NEED A DATE OF WHEN THE UPDATES OUT
Will there be more cards to collect?
I hope we will get naked locker room or shower scene with trent. If not It will be so waste of that scene.🙏🙏
Peter road 😍
Trent was the first person to catch my eye, and reading the scripts with him felt like such an amazing inclusion! Can't wait to see where this leads in the new update! Can't wait to see more of the characters aside from the main romance addition.
Trent looks Ah-mazing and so do the other updates! Thanks so much for putting in all the effort.
Finally, foreplay with an impressive touch by our impressive devs. 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Please tell me that we'll be able to be dominant with him? 😭🙏
In my dream world, Trent sleeps with literally every other character. But seeing him pull his shirt off is a nice start.
A pity you had to dumb down the photo development because so many people are idiots (after you had to dumb down the process of getting the map...). I guess it's a matter of weeks now, until the burger making will be changed to a single click... Looking forward to the feature update. Will that bring new options for the tinder app as well? Btw.: Is Prof Taylor really saying "Welcome to intro to photo journalism"? I am no native english speaker but that sounds weird for an educated person to say.
Thanks bit I will wait for more
I can't wait to play
We can romance all characters?
Most of them yes. There's 13 main romanceables and most side characters will have some sort of romance option. Though some of them may be MC specific (spoilers: Cooper is Elliot exclusive)
Mal posso esperar pelo lançamento do jogo. Tem vários personagens muito interessantes para desenvolver
Make Trent the jock that first doesn't want to play DnD, but then gets the one who gets the most engaged in it, roleplaying-wise. :D
Damn Trent 😍
Can't wait to romance the hell outta Trent!
I love Trent and Kerry. Hopefully we can get more Dating App content too!
Always happy to see Kerry love! -Dr. Bird
Can't wait guys, just like the Jun update I'm so hyped for Trent and Quinn ❤️
won't romance trent but excited for more jun interaction
Cant wait! Won't romance but feels like Trent needs a bro from what ive seen
Nem fala isso, ancioso para romance com trent