Update News

Hello,

Potential spoilers.

So the few weeks have been my final exams for this year at University, and a short week holiday with my family, hence why there hasn't been any news or update progress so far.

I have several new things that are going to happen going forward with my video game/novel making.

Firstly this game is going on hold, but a new one drawing on everything I've learnt so far will be launching.

It's too big, with too many paths, and it makes no sense for me to continue it in its current form, even with nearly a thousand renders made over the last half a year I've seen Patreonage decline nearly every month. This suggests to me the appeal for this game is very low and maybe its time to redirect my efforts.  I tried to make something based on reality with lots of different characters and arcs, and I don't have the budget or resources to work on something of this scale to the level where it works.

Secondly, and more positively, I'm going to be working on a new game, and I'll release some images of the characters and the plan for this in the next few days.

I've learnt a lot from my time making The Manifest/Shadows over Manston and I intend on putting all of that into my next creation.

Here's some of the changes I'll be making for the new game:

1) It is going to be based in Europe. I'm British, I write in British English, I know a lot about Britain and British people, therefore the cast will be predominantly British. 

2) It is going to have a much smaller cast. Currently I'm planning on having about 12 characters, half of which will be just people you interact with in the story, one is the MC, and 5 will be potential romancables, not all introduced at once. This will enable me to offer branching choices whilst not making the game so big an update may not have any content for you.

3) The plot is going to have a much smaller focus, rather than being a villian, a cop and a school teacher, you're going to be a lawyer, again drawing from my actual knowledge as a law student rather than TV/movie tropes. 

4) The game is going to be 720p rather than 1080p. To a lot of people especially laptops there won't be any real change, but the difference in speed for me creating content is remarkable. This will enable me to create good quality renders at a consistent pace.

5) I'll actually build the characters knowing how to render them. There are several huge problems I had with characters from the previous game because I made them before knowing their limits (ie Amira's body texture does not work on genitalia, therefore it's impossible to show her fully nude, Mercedes, Emily, Jessica and Isabella all use a different model base to most of the assets I purchased, meaning 90% of the clothing and expressions do not work on them, and they are compatible with 0% of the animations I own, the asset I used for Miss Miller's house never renders at a good quality in under 6 hours regardless of lighting, meaning a scene there takes nearly a week to make etc) this time all will be made and tested in advance.

6) The game's just going to be from the MC's perspective, no more jumps in the storyline.

The only thing I haven't really decided yet is whether the MC is going to be a guy or a girl, the story could have them be either. Girl means lots of lesbian content with some straight, guy means lots of straight content as the supporting characters are primarily women. It doesn't really affect the story I've planned at all, it'll just be different scenes.

I'll put a poll up to decide, one for $5, one for $10 Patreons, I'll add the votes together at the end of the week (so if you're a $10 Patreon vote in each) and then create the MC depending on who wins at the weekend. 

If you wish to end being a Patreon now, thanks for all the support, if you continue to support then I can promise a much better second game.

WP