Hazelnut Latte Progress Report 7/29/25

Hello everyone! Welcome to another progress report. Let's get into it.

Itch

I'm just going to get this out of the way: the Itch thing cast a dark cloud over the team. And not the fun Dark Cloud for PS2. Everyone is understandably frazzled, scared, and confused.

If you read all my reports, you know I've been worried about something like this happening for a while, and it's one reason I've been out protesting all the time. I know a lot of people don't want to think about politics, but it's that mentality that lets shit like this Itch situation slip by.

If we are all active in what is going on, we can stop these issues before they affect us.

This means going out and voting, even in small elections. Making your voice heard, online and in person. Calling your representatives and companies when they do something you disagree with. Sermon over, I just wish more people were in touch with what is going on, even if it's upsetting.

Regardless, the Itch thing happened, and it blows. Yesterday, Noba's own lewd game was supposed to release on Itch, but his game's page was delisted because Itch sucks.

We plan on doing business as usual because we make 90% of our income from Patreon.

Writing

I spent some time this past week writing in some fun, smaller scenes between characters to flesh out the update and give the new location some repeatability.

There are a few more I want to write, but I'm not feeling it, so I'm just waiting for inspiration to strike. But these scenes are small and not plot relevant, so if I can't think of anything good, it's no big loss. I don't want to force more stuff if I can't make it good.

I did write 2k words for some Unity stuff and did a lot of plotting for some fun stuff. So this past week was as productive as it could have been given the circumstances.

Coding

Small progress. I made some older lewd scenes repeatable and coded a way to watch movies with Hazel and Robbie at their apartment. Depending on your relationship, you can also watch movies with both of them. All while cuddling, of course.

Noba was working on compiling his Unity work with our Unity project since he is using Unity for his game. He was also working on his own game, which was supposed to come out before Itch said they hated fun. But Noba has been killing it, working so damn hard and doing some wizardry to get not only HL working, but his own game. The new Unity build wouldn't work without him and his hard work. Praise be!

This week, we will begin focusing on v0.14 in earnest; the compiling took longer than expected. Noba just has to read my huge script and make sense of my mad ramblings.

Art

All for Unity! Kokman finished a new sprite and is working on another. Pamika already delivered her first background, and it blew us all away. She is going to up the production value of the game immensely.

On that note, Kokman was redoing a lot of backgrounds for the Unity refresh, but since Pamika is taking over, I will add his redone backgrounds to v0.14. I would feel bad if these never saw the light of day, and it's fitting they will be featured in the final Ren'Py version.

Kokman's redrawn backgrounds for v0.14 include: Newhaven Office, Noto's Restaurant Exterior, Movie Theater Exterior, Cafe Estros interior, counter, and behind the counter.

We also scrapped a new Cafe Estros exterior and Newhaven Nightclub exterior that won't be there, but maybe I'll add them to the gallery for fun.

I also want to say, I never talk about what Koth is doing since it's a big secret, but he has been kicking ass. Whenever my publisher wants updates, I show them what Koth is doing because I am so delighted to have him on board. That big Unity update post is going to go crazy. Also, if it weren't for Koth, we wouldn't have Pamika. So he's kinda the GOAT.

Wrap Up

We took significant psychic damage, but we persevere! I forced myself to have an actual 2 day weekend, and I think it helped my brain recover.

There are a lot of spinning plates since I am overseeing the Ren'Py build and the Unity build. But when this is all said and done, it's going to be amazing.

I want to take this opportunity to remind everyone: We are open to your feedback/comments/concerns!

If you want to speak your mind, do so either in the comments or on the Discord! The only way we grow as a studio and improve this game is if people speak their minds, especially if they see us doing something they don't like. I've had a few people cancelling their subs, and in the exit survey (which is anonymous), they say that they didn't like something. That's it, "I don't like this." That doesn't help either of us! You may never come back because I never understood your real complaint, so I couldn't act to fix it.

The point of Patreon is that you are all my shareholders, and you are investing in this studio so we can make a game you can enjoy. If you see us doing something you don't like or don't understand, please, speak up. I only bite a little, it depends on how early it is ;)

That's it for now! This week, I want to kick us into full gear on Ren'Py and start making some real progress. We'll see if Newgrounds bans adult games or something else dumb that destroys morale.

Thank you all for the continued support, and Stay Rad!