VIsual Novel — How Updates Will Work

Hey everyone, hope you're doing well!

I have some news that might interest some of you, it's about the Visual Novel I've been working on for a few weeks. Progress is going well, but I have way too many ideas, so I've decided to split things up and add them gradually as chapters progress. Doing it all at once would take months just for Chapter 1, so I'll be going little by little to avoid burning myself out.

At the start, it'll feel like a pretty classic visual novel, but you'll start to see the direction I'm going as you play, like freedom to explore the Town, side characters, events (including secret ones) and mini-games.

So you're not left in the dark, I'll be sharing progress updates over the coming months, along with unfinished versions of each chapter for anyone curious, so things like "0.1.0 Alpha."

[Example]
Alpha → Missing/Sketch elements: backgrounds, characters, BGM, VA, SFX, dialogue etc...
Beta → Finished, but fixes still being checked with the community
1.0.0, 2.0.0, 3.0.0... → Chapter finished
0.1.0, 0.2.0, 0.3.0... → Content added
0.0.1, 0.0.2, 0.0.3... → Bug fixes

0.1.0 Alpha → Chapter 1, incomplete
0.2.0 Alpha → Chapter 1, further progress
0.3.0 Beta → Chapter 1, content complete, testing/fixes
1.0.0 → Chapter 1, finished and stable

Hopefully that's clear! If you only want fully finished content, just wait for 1.0.0, 2.0.0 etc... Could go up to 15.0.0 if there end up being 15 chapters, though I have no idea yet, I'm going with the flow. Some chapters will be longer than others, the early ones will be shorter and more linear since backgrounds and character designs are still being built, so expect more story and events later on. The game needs time to grow. Hope it interests you, and that we can go further into this game together!

Thanks to everyone who's been patient and supportive, without you I probably wouldn't be making this VN today. I'll share more content (images, or the first playable 0.1.0 Alpha) in the coming weeks. I still need to finish setting up the Itch.io page too.

Version 1.0.0 will release free on both Patreon and Itch.io (same time). I want the game to stay partially free, with Patreon only needed to access the other chapters early. Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5 etc... Will be Patreon-exclusive for a while, until I'm far enough along to start sharing free content on Itch.io too, this gives the project room to grow, since I honestly don't know yet how well it'll be received. We'll see what the future holds!