Halfway House EP9 is out!
After a long and torturous wait, here it is finally. The release of Episode 9. I don't know how happy everyone will be with the final product after such a long wait but I did the best job I could. Personally, I'm pretty happy with it but I also realize that I took way too long to finish this. Almost unacceptably so... Nothing I can do but ask for everyone's forgiveness for that.
Anyhoo, on the the release! Hit the link below to get to the downloads:
Thanks and hopefully everyone enjoys EP9,
Az.
Comments (39)
I loved episode 9, but I hate the cliffhanger we were left on
Felt weird to be failing point checks when the update didn't have any choices. Awful lot of lines to read for how far the ball moved down the field story wise. At least there's the sex. Oh wait, no...
This has not been my experience of this or any other update and, it seems to me in any case, that a fast-moving, superficial storyline employing contrived sex scenes is far from what "Halfway House" is meant to be about. As I perceive it, this story is a study of characters with differing disadvantages coming together in a new and previously unknown (to them) environment and, as such therefore, especially in terms of relationship building, an inevitably wordy slow burner. The incidences of sex are intended to be naturally spontaneous occurrences (not contrived, as in many VNs) which, under the circumstances presented in the story and taking into account the characters' age, personalities and past experiences seem completely understandable and credible in their low number and infrequency. You're entitled to your opinion of course, and I may be completely wrong in my interpretations but it seems to me either misguided or unfair to criticize "Halfway House" for not being something which it seems (to me at least) it was never intended to be.
Cant wait for the return of Hollis. Hope he has his way with all the girls
Dude... I fall harder and harder every chapter. Em is pretty much my perfect girl O.o
what an unexpected treat. Thanks for all your work.
Not sure if anyone else is having this issue with the Android version but it doesn't load beyond the warning screen for me. Have downloaded from both sources and restart device to no luck.
Not sure how to help you. I've tested the Android build on 2 different phones and 3 different Android versions (7, 10 and 11). Both as a fresh install and as an updated install. Ran into no issues. Also, I haven't received any other reports beyond yours. Try a different phone if you can?
It's just my opinion, but it's hard to wait for the next episode (of course, it's a little comforting if there's a bonus episode) so why don't you post an illustration of your character every month? I'm sure other supporters will like it. It would be nice to vote on what character to make every month. As you know, many other developers did that and I was satisfied. Or just post your cool illustrations more often hehe
I can tell you right now there will be no polls and such. Preparing different outfits simply to do a poll for the sake of community engagement takes time out from actually working on the game. Running polls on which character appears next means I have to write the story based on the results of the poll. As for posting illustrations every month. I do post special renders from time to time and I post renders from the in dev episodes from time to time, I guess I can do more but again it takes time out from actually working on the game. I know, this is not what you want to hear. If other devs can do it why not me? Answer is simple, other devs are much better and more talented at this than me. I'm not the easiest or the most pleasant dev to follow I realize this.
That's quite a cliffhanger AZ, I love it! Can't wait for more outstanding work as always!
TY Kevin, glad u enjoyed it.
Will this also be the solution for future episodes too? where if a episode takes way too long to finish you'll sperate them into 2 parts? or is episode 9 cliff hanger/separation a one time only thing because of work load?
Part of the solution I guess? But I don't know if it would make much of a difference. EP9 took this long and it really is the biggest update I've released yet but still the consensus among players is it's still too short. If I cut the next one to get it out faster, it'll be even shorter. So, much shorter episodes but much faster releases? Maybe. One of the main reason EP9 took so long was because I decided to work at a more relaxed pace compared to earlier episodes due to feeling the burn. I just couldn't work at such a crazy pace anymore. That and the work has just gotten more complex. That's something I hope that's evident when you compare the visual quality between earlier episodes and the later ones. Having said all that I realize though that the time I took with EP9 was unacceptable. So I got some things to figure out.
Since a lot of people are showering you with praise i just wanted to ask some serious questions. Do you feel like it's the right decision to keep introducing all these "side-chicks" to the game with the pacing that we have going on? How many characters besides the main 3 do we have so far? Doctor, Ashley's sister, Piper, the 2 girls on the train from last episode, Lyzabeth, 4 girls at the club(well 2 if those blondes aren't bi), Jess(bartender), Madison(waitress), i dunno if i miss any.... but that's A LOT of girls... With how short the updates are and with how slow the pacing is to getting to the sexy stuff(even with the main girls) what are the chances that we will actually do any sexual stuff with most let alone all of those girls i mentioned? Unless we get updates with 3-4 different sex scenes in it, this seems like you are overwhelming yourself? I say all of this in good faith, because i love the game, the favorite character out of any game i played is in your game, you made her that great. But i feel like you will either burn yourself trying to tie in all of this together or either just ignore most of the girls you introduced... I feel like the main focus should have been already to move on developing a bigger relationship with the girls we already have rather than introducing so many new ones... Once again i am coming to this in good faith, not trying to crap on you, you are already above 99% of developers i see that take forever to update the game but never pause their patreon, so i don't think you are doing any of this out of malice or anything, i just feel like you are screwing yourself over with the pacing... Sorry about the long post, didn't mean for it to come off as a rant...
A good indication whether a girl is going to play some part in the story beyond being mere NPC is whether or not they get a panning intro shot render. If they do, they may make multiple appearance and may have a sex scene. If not they're merely there as flavor to add life to the world or give context, or to act as a foil to the main characters. They just happen to be super attractive because I like making attractive characters. It's fun. Doesn't mean they are going to play a significant part in the story or have a lot of time and effort put into them. Think of some of them as a young and attractive version of Gabby in terms of screen time and story importance.
Um when do the none ten dollars a month member's get it?
14 days from now for Friend Tier and 30 days from now for everyone.
Dang I'm loving this one. Light on the sex stuff but the story is grabbing me. Keep it up AZ.
Thanks, glad u liked it.
been waiting a while for this was awesome content seemed shorter than episode 8 when you said it would be twice as long still awesome content
Almost double the word count and almost double the render count. EP9 was sposed to be even longer but I had to move parts of it to EP10 otherwise it wouldn't be out for months. Sorry you felt it was shorter, glad u liked it nonetheless.
Thankfully I just found this AVN a few weeks ago, otherwise I would have ended up having to play the whole thing again since I would have long since forgot what the MC was doing. Some comments on Dik Games where I found it were writing it off as abandonware. Hope next update is in a few months or even better 1 month instead of almost a year.
I wouldn't put all my eggs in one basket, expect at least 6months, it's only really one person AZ doing most of the leg work with some help, with minor things. So expect quality over quantity, which I 100% support
First of all, congratulations and thanks! I'm sorry I'm not good at English, but many adult games disappear irresponsibly without being completed. Nothing is strange during this COVID-19 period, I just forget it thinking that way. But Az, you proved it. This game will continue, and Emily is getting cuter and hotter! 😏
Thanks Mixture, hope you liked the update and enjoyed seeing Emily again.
out to certain people
It'll be out for Friend Tier in 14 days and everyone else in 30.
Really want to heart more than once
Thanks.
Super Bowl & Halfway House. What a great night!
Awesome. Hope you liked the update.
Yay, it's done, so all good. I'm just glad to get to see more of Em...
Thanks. Hope you enjoyed seeing Em again.
Don't put yourself down. You did your best. So what if it took a bit longer... (O: Personally, I get more ticked off if the quality isn't there. The real expense in playing your game is my time, not the couple of dollars per month.
Thanks!
Hello ! And thank you for doing this update, I became a fan since I played for the first time and it was in French version the episode 8 so it pushed me to play it until the end but I started again at the very beginning because of the bad choices, the girls are super hot especially L... I won't spoiler because it doesn't deserve any spoilers. I'm really waiting for more violent and uninhibited choice categories to have maximum freedom. I noticed that there are some categories not planned, please add them...
I'm very happy to hear about this release, I'm very excited! Don't push yourself too much and take your time. Developers always have the issue of "The next release has to be better than the last" which causes more headaches in the future. All I can say is keep doing what you're doing. Don't worry about other expectations and worry about what you feel needs to be accomplished in the game.
Yay!