Friends, I'm sharing an important update! I will not publish any more news about the new game within the Void calling topic. All news about our new project will be published on Patreon publicly. Don't worry, you don't need to subscribe and pay money - all information will be available for everyone. This decision is due to the desire to avoid unnecessary negativity, which began to pour out on us after the last publications. Although we are acting within the rules, and we can publish information about our achievements in the thread of this game. Times are hard enough as it is, so let's leave more room for creation. When can we expect a page on Steam? The page of the new project will appear closer to the release when the first demo is ready. Probable release date is not earlier than April. However, the demo version for collecting feedback will be ready at the end of January - beginning of February. What has already been done? We are actively working on the project and are ready to share some results: 1600+ renders and 86 animations are already completed. Script: about 45-50 thousand words (that's a bit less than half an episode of Voids Calling game). A full set of characteristics and parameters for the heroine that affect interaction with the world. Developing two versions of gameplay: For RPG fans: balance of parameters, freedom of action and branching plot. For visual novel fans: a linear mode with an emphasis on story. Experiments in storytelling: We are trying new approaches: the player will mostly control the heroine, but in some episodes, it will be possible to take on the role of a male character. We'd love to hear your opinion on these mechanics. We are waiting for your opinion: While the game is still in development, it is important for us to understand what you expect from the project. What mechanics and content are you interested in? What should we pay attention to? Your ideas and feedback will help us to make the game even better. See you on Patreon or already in spring on Steam! Thank you for staying with us and supporting us during this challenging time.

The game starts, as usual, with a move. Yes, a bit predictable, but convenient: new neighbours, no complicated connections and a fresh start for the plot. Such fresh start frees us from unnecessary explanations and gives more space for the development of new lines, events and unexpected turns. After all, it is not necessary to expect depth from such a genre, you must agree, although we tried our best. So, the characters of the game:

Tyler, Emma's husband. A warm, close-knit union. Their sex life is quite satisfying for both of them. He's not a harsh character, but he's not a softie either. Justin, new neighbour. A biker and rocker with a gentle, kind nature, though he can get a little rough if he wants to. He loves his wife, Shelly. Shelly, Justin's wife. Fun, breezy and endlessly positive. She loves life, her husband and isn't afraid to speak her mind. Mr. Stevens, Emma's boss. It is his firm that will be the career ladder Emma will have to climb, right from the bottom of it. Authoritative, strict, and prone to dominance - he will test the heroine at every turn. Jill, Emma's coworker and possibly friend. A strong personality with dominant character traits. Who knows how their relationship with Emma will unfold over time? Victor, one of the firm's top executives. He too may have a role to play in Emma's journey to the top. Other characters will also participate in the plot like Lillian - Emma's department head, Sophia - Mr. Stevens' personal secretary, and Maggie - a friend from the previous city. There are also those who appear in episodes like Justin's friend, a bartender, a photographer at the studio, and a stranger on the beach. These and many other characters make the story lively and multifaceted. And of course, for our most loyal fans, we will be organizing polls on our subscription services to add events and lines to the story that perhaps they personally find interesting. Subscribe and stay tuned for updates - we promise lots of content and the opportunity to influence the story!

Hello, everyone. About a month ago we published the first announcement of a new project. And this news was generally received positively. Yes, there were those who said that we are going to fail, because it is a game with a female protagonist. Thats a bit of a strange statement, since I have seen how much money games with female protagonist earn, and they earn a lot. However, the fact is that we do not really understand the principles of this genre so well, and that's exactly where we need some advice. But I'll talk about that a little bit later. For now, I'll tell you about how the development is going. While the programmer was writing the main part of the game engine, I was working on the interface. Now we are creating buttons, icons, menus, etc. All this is necessary for the realization of various side activities in the game. Also, a lot of time this month was devoted to the story part. The first released version will contain three large story days and part of the city, with additional activities and mini events. There will be a lot of content for a first version, in size it will probably be like DLC. As for the release on Steam, that will happen after 1-2 updates. I would like for Steam version to have more content than just a couple of hours, more like 4-5 hours at least. In any case, we will no longer work with episodes, but early access is inevitable. And now for the questions about the game. When I decided that the new game would be about a woman, I decided to play projects with a similar setting. Question 1: It's very common that alternative romantic relationship options, in the form of men, are so... well, how shall I put it. unpleasant. I'm not even talking about appearance, I myself do not understand nearly anything about male beauty, but these alternative romantic options are in character and behavior, extremely repulsive people. Is this necessary for a game of this kind? Question 2: Content with people who are older. So far, we haven't added anything like that and if we do, it will be only if we are directly interested in them. There is one model, a large man... is it mandatory to use it? I do not wish to offend anyone if anything, all people are worthy of love, it's just that the genre of games and the genre of cinema always embellishes everything a little. If it hadnt, Fiona's girls would look different too (and not just them). Why Im asking, 99% of the projects I've seen are really made like a copycat. And is there any point in trying to do something your own way... it's a rhetorical question. Developers are not fools. They do what makes money. Well, of course, within the limits of their own morality, which is different for everyone. At the moment, the heroine's husband is quite a handsome man, he has a normal penis, and he generally satisfies the heroine. They have a normal relationship, though not without friction. The other men are also not without their charm. So far, we're going down this path, but maybe that's a mistake and it wont resonate with the target audience. I'm not sure I want to do what I've seen in other projects, but I really want the money. I guess we're getting old. Once upon a time it wasn't so important. Overall, Im looking forward to the comments, especially from fans of this genre. What is important to you in games of this kind and whether you really need to have the things described in question 1-2. That's all for now. Thanks for your interest in the project.

So, the story of Forlan has come to an end. The king is dead long live the king. For some players, this is sad, but for us, its more of a relief. Doing the same thing for many years is extremely exhausting. We crave new experiences, new locations, new stories. The release of the final update obviously brought nothing new. Since I wasnt expecting anything, I wasnt disappointed either. Weve entertained you, brought the project to a decent conclusion, and now we can put a bold period on it. Anything left unresolved, feel free to imagine the rest yourselves. How the upcoming conflict between the mages and the Pure Ones will end, whether Foran will meet his Ilga, and what the outcome of that meeting will be. Now, lets turn to the presentation of the new project. This is the story of a girl, or rather, a young woman named Emmaher twists and turns, her problems, her relationships, and her career. Why such a change? When the problems began, it became clear that episodes based on VC were no longer needed by players. As many will remember, the decision was made to freeze the project. Novel Games would have ceased to exist, but a new developer with a new game would have emerged. Why was this particular setting chosen? Different options were considered. In general, everyone knows that nearly all the money is in family games. Any, even the weakest game, will make a lot more money than most games without it. Are there exceptions? Yes, there are. But the exception only confirms the rule. So why not choose it as well? When I started my journey of being a game developer, I was first hired as a screenwriter for another developer. I was writing a family game, a mother-son relationship. At the time, I thought money was tight. Now I look at things a little differently... however, I would do it. But nobody on the team wants to do it. Could I have gone ahead without asking the others? Sure, but its not something that resonates with me either. Teenage themes, for writers in their 40s... were too old for that and have long forgotten what the problems of puberty are like. Let's leave that subject to those who truly understand it. A daughter and father relationship is a taboo for me. I dont want to get my hands dirty with that, no matter the money. Brother and sister? Well, that's possible in this project, too. Again, not teenagers. So, the game is about a woman. Now, many will say they wont play a game with a female protagonist. We understand and were not forcing it on anyone. I love you all, but Im not going to redo over 1,000 renders that are already finished just because of that. Let me repeat, the project was chosen for the new developer we would have become, and with the new developer, this setting would have posed far fewer problems. Now were approaching the most delicate topic: gameplay and story. Im working on a rather complex parameter system that can influence the heroine. Im not sure if it will work, but Im going to try. Let me clarify: the complexity isnt for the player, but for the developer. There will be two modes: Game Mode and Story Mode. In Story Mode, well turn off all checks, so you can just watch the images, and all scenes will unlock regardless of the heroine's development. Weve heard your feedback, no problem. In Game Mode, youll have to balance things. Whats my goal here? The main issue with games featuring female protagonists is that the woman often turns into a complete slut way too quickly, which makes her uninteresting. But at the same time, we cant avoid including that kind of content altogether. Heres how I hope to tackle this issue: 1.A well-developed home for the heroine, with plenty of scenes featuring her husband. One of the biggest problems in such games is that youre often not given a real choice. You dont want to explore other options because the husband is a dumb impotent with a small dick. Thats not the case here. While their relationship is somewhat strained by routine, they love each other, and the husband is decent looking as well (though it's hard for me to judge men). Their sex life is good. The challenge is that well be putting them in situations that create problems and temptations. Will it work? Well see, but I believe an alternative is necessary. 2.Ill try to build and balance a system to prevent the heroines rapid moral decline. First, theres no need for it to happen quickly. Second, potential love interests will be normal people. Not every rival will accept a completely fallen heroine. Yes, there will be some casual encounters, but for that, the heroine will first need to significantly lower her moral standards (this wont apply to Story Modethere you can do whatever you want). Again, Ill try to balance the system. It sounds complicated, and in reality, its even more so, but Im eager to try. As a rough reference, Im looking at some old QSP games. That doesnt mean youll have to manually go to the bathroom or do other tedious tasks. No, Im referring to a few games where gradual corruption was implemented quite well. Plus, corruption can happen with her husband, too. For example, they might post their home videos or have sex in public places. So, the plans are ambitious, and I dont know how it will turn out, but Im really excited to give it a shot.

- 13 Unique Endings: Every choice you make will steer the story towards a different conclusion, some more surprising than others. - Expanded Narrative: Uncover new lore and explore the deepest mysteries of Forlans world as the story reaches its epic climax. - Multiple Paths: Decisions matter now more than ever, with outcomes that could decide not just Forlans fate, but the fate of everyone around him. - Some renders have been reworked and fixed. To load Ilga's branch you can use our save 1-1, to load Kilena's branch save 1-2.

Hello everyone! Finally, I have some great news! The release of the long-awaited update will happen in just a few days. Weve added several new endings, including an updated "Ending 7" for Ilgas story and a "grand" finale for Kilena. Weve also completed the endings for Londa and Fionas stories. With that, Forlans journey comes to an end, and we are now fully focused on creating new games. I especially want to highlight Kilenas ending. The testers were thrilled, and Im so happy about that. When our writer and I were working on it, there were days when we literally had tears in our eyesnot from sentimentality, but from personal pain. However, we pulled through. We aimed to make something that players would love, even though we were stepping outside our comfort zone with this type of story. And it seems like we hit the mark! Now we eagerly await the reaction of our entire audience. We initially planned to release the update in the summer, but delays appeared. First, we encountered issues with localization. We used to have our own translator on the team, but now we dont. Then our programmer faced technical difficulties. Still, as they say, better late than never! Since mid-August, Ive been working on a new project since my part of the work on the update was long completed. Ill share more about the new project later, and I hope youll support it with the same warmth as you have our previous games. We gave it our all to bring Voids Calling to the finish line under these difficult conditions. Not every project makes it to the end, but we are proud that we didnt let our audience down. To be honest with you, the situation is getting even more challenging. Not long ago, the double taxation avoidance system was cancelled, meaning we now have to pay taxes in both the U.S. and in our home country. This has significantly increased our expenses. Our survival has always depended on keeping costs low, but now those costs are rising. Despite this, we are pressing on. So, stay tuned, the update will be in your hands very soon! Thank you for your support and patience. With respect and gratitude, Your development team P.s. Also I suddenly discovered that the DLC Last stand, has a note: "Profile features are limited". This means that this DLC is not offered to players on Steam's main store. Perhaps this is because of the lower amount of sales of this DLC. I wrote to support and they replied that Steam has its own algorithms, that there is no error and this restriction will be removed when the DLC will meet their conditions. What these conditions are, they do not disclose. I can't do anything about it. I can only ask if someone hasn't written a review to write one. Maybe it will make a difference.

We haven't disappeared anywhere, moreover, the work hasnt stopped. The code for the update is already being made. I haven't posted news because there were several problems that caused delays, but weve worked through them. It took a couple of weeks to prepare the localization. We were offered help and decided to give it a try. The translation was done automatically through a software, but it caused a lot of problems in the game scripts. These problems took a long time to fix. The first and second episodes are additionally translated into three languages. Spanish, French, Italian. The translation is machine translated, low quality. If you are a native speaker and want to help us with proofreading, write to us in Discord: https://discord.gg/6J2rRuaBR5. Now I'll have to localize DLC, but this time I'll probably do it manually. There is less text, although it's still not as fast as I wanted, but the translation will be a bit better. The release of the update will be in six languages, and I'm still only translating the DLC itself. The code, as I said, is being made and as I said the update will be final. There won't be any more content for VC in the near future. We are done with that. Only new project ahead, which we will also finish (if we don't close). From here on out, we're going to work exactly like that. At some point we almost changed our principles, but further on we will finish our projects at any cost, even if there is no money and we have to intentionally cut content as it happened with VC. Because there has to be a finale. After the DLC release we had 8 different endings, now there will be 12. That's quite good in my opinion. We also finished scene 7 of the finale (memory 32) I will not set any deadlines. The programmer will finish the code quickly, there is nothing complicated there, but with localizations, there will be some work. I don't even know if it's worth it. Negative reviews for the quality of translations have already arrived. And it is expected, the translation is really terrible. We hope to find someone who can help us improve it. Otherwise, the reviews are likely to completely go into the negative. But even this translation takes up the resources of our extremely small team. Well, what we could have done, we've done. Thank you all and take care.

Language translations have been added: - French - Italian - Spanish. Translation was done by auto-translator. We are looking for a proofreader to proofread. Translation is temporarily not working with DLC. DLC translation is in process.

I don't have any special news for you in this post regarding the update. Im waiting for the programmer to have free time to start making the code so that I can start testing it all. Meanwhile, I'm finishing up the last scene and endings. However, I had an interesting idea. I recently played through a game called Atomic Heart from Russian developers, which has been quite popular not so long ago. I am interested in the theme of history and the theme of alternative history just as well, so I bought the game. And without any spoilers I will say that the games endings feel like they were made in a hurry. I assume that the developers did not have time to finish the project, perhaps they ran out of money.
Its quite similar to the situation we faced with this project. Some people wrote that they were disappointed with the way we finished the game. With the problems we had, both in terms of finances and time, we couldn't do a bigger project. But maybe someone knows how to finish the game in a better way than we did with our resources. So here is a small contest with some small prizes. Terms and conditions: Write an ending or endings for a game character youre interested in. It must start after the end of the last battle, when we have the final conversation with Higrid. All previous events cannot be changed. You have to come up with a different ending for your chosen character(s) and justify it logically. Other than that, you are not limited in any way. Based on the results, I will choose three endings I like the most. Deadline: 22.6.2024 (approximately two weeks from now) Small prizes: 1st place - 4800 Steam points or 3 keys for our games 2nd place - 2400 Steam points or 2 keys for our games 3rd place - 1200 Steam points or 1 key for our games. If there is only one submission, it automatically wins first place even if I don't like it. Also, if some submissions get Steam points from other users, then whatever submission will have the biggest number of points will get rewarded with a bonus Audience award, which equals to 3rd place reward. Go ahead, show us how you can do it better than us. If you can, of course) Endings can be posted in the comments or in this thread (do not use spoilers): https://steamcommunity.com/app/1797300/discussions/0/4330853975918478779/

Beginning of a new month is here and so its time for some news. I had previously planned to finish the story by this point, and I've pretty much finished it. Now I'm doing the final scene of the update. The decision was made to add a few in-between scenes for the sake of making the narrative flow better and make it more logical. They are small, just to tie the events together. Developers are often accused of deliberately delaying the updates to get more money from Patreon. We have barely any income at Patreon to have any reason to intentionally delay the update because of it. Quite the opposite, we are very interested in completing all the work as soon as possible. There will be no more updates to VC after this update, at least in the foreseeable future. Definitely not until the next project is fully finished. I'm intentionally putting emphasis on this, because the update contains references to a sequel. However, I repeat, next in line is the new project. This was unanimously decided in the team. I can't do the same thing for so long. I understand many people love the universe, but weve said everything we wanted, at least for now. The price of DLC before the update will be raised but not by much. In any case, those who read this news have already bought everything, and they will not be affected. But it would be silly to keep the same price, when it will contain 50 % more content after the update. What will we do after the update? Well, first of all, for the second project I have more than a thousand renders and dozens of animations ready. So, we will be working on that.
If we were to choose the concept of a new game now, maybe we would do something different. But it's not rational to remake such an amount of already-prepared content, so we'll work with it. Besides, we like what were doing, even though it's not a typical game for us. Apart from the new 18+ project, I have been working on a text-based economic simulator in my spare time. This is not so much for money as for creative reasons. Maybe I'll even publish it someday. Translations of VC are going on at the same time as well. It's vital for us to expand our audience. And we need to do that before the updates release. Overall, we have many ideas. I'm glad that we will finally bring VC to an end, even if its not the originally intended one. However, given the current situation, its still much better than what it could have been. Thank you for your interest and take care!

At the moment I can estimate the update is 80 % ready in terms of script and renders. However, additional scenes may be needed. Around 800 renders are finished and the work has slowed down a bit, as the final scene is more complicated than those I did before. The main character of the update will be Kilena. She was voted for on Patreon. Another character that will get a lot of content and possibly the ending is Fiona. She wasnt that popular in polls, but she fits well with the theme of the update. She is like a story link. Londa got some content as well. Her story was completed, but whether to make a full-fledged ending with her, I haven't decided yet. She's a popular character, even on Patreon, but for a proper ending we would need a few more scenes that aren't the easiest to make. A couple weeks extra is the minimum if I decide to give Forlan the opportunity. Currently, the volume of the update is already like half of the entire DLC, and I don't really want to increase the volume even more. On the other hand, the character is popular, interesting. I haven't decided yet how it will turn out, how the mood and inspiration will be. Why will Fiona get an ending, and Londa is still unclear? Because everything is set for Fiona, I don't need additional scenes for her.
After the release, before I continue working on the new game, I'll take a month for additional translations. Spanish, French, Italian, German, Japanese. Right now, one person is translating into PT-BR. One girl used to translate into Spanish, but she stopped contacting me a long time ago, as it often happens. So, I'll have to do it myself. And to translate such volumes of text, even with the help of auto-translation, is not easy at all. Please note: - This will be a machine translation. But it will be easier to find a native speaker who can proofread the translation. - I won't be able to finish the translation into all the language within a month. These are just general plans. As you realize, the only option to make translations of the game is to stop producing content for a while. I do most of the project alone, and the most important thing is the art (= the renders). Without them, there will be no game. There are quite a few projects with 2 and 3 artists, and they can work much faster. However, even there the developer often writes that he works alone, but my style is not that hard to recognize, even if I changed the name, I think an attentive player would recognize the hand of the master Saw a negative review recently that our game is not a novella, just pictures and text. More and more scenes have animations and apparently people are expecting the entire game to be full 3D animations instead of pictures. We live in interesting times... At this rate, soon we will be required to make games with the quality of AAA level games that cost 80 dollars. In general, if I have to do something other than renders, all work stops. No one will do it for me. Even as I'm writing this post, I'm not making new renders. Same reason I'm not returning to and refining old games where you desperately need achievements. All that costs time. And if they werent added earlier, whats the point of doing it now? It requires new code and that means new potentials bugs. An important thing to mention, before the release of the update, I will raise the price of the DLC. For those who already bought it (which is probably everyone who reads this post), nothing will change. For new players, the new price will better reflect the amount of content in the DLC. I think this is fair, however, it is unlikely that there will be many new sales. The main portion of sales happens at release. But in the current time, every extra dollar helps. That's all for now, all the best.

I planned to finish the main part by the end of April before I start working on the final event, and that's basically what happened. Some tweaks are still in progress, but the main scenes are already finished. It's hard to estimate how long the final part will take, maybe I can finish it within a month, maybe a bit more. We also need to come up with endings for the characters and it's hard to say how many of them there will be. Probably 2-4. This update will have about 20 000 words, which is about the same size as half of the DLC that was released
From time to time, I thought I could add Lilina's storyline as part of this update, but I finally gave up on that. To be honest, I feel like nobody but me and 10-20 people need this update. We get less and less feedback about our games, which makes me question the point of all this, but weve done too much to stop now, and its not in our nature. So, in any case we will finish this update, but we will not expand it. Ilga, Kilena, Londa and Fiona. These are the characters that will receive additional content. In general, it probably makes sense to expect a release in June. I will finish with VC and over the summer I will try to prepare the release of the new project. I don't know how I will bring it to Steam, maybe by that time all the problems will be over, maybe I will find a workaround, I don't know yet. There is also a chance I will release only the finished project on Steam, without any early access. It will depend on the financial situation and our options. There is also this question: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198872723920/recommended/1797300/ Several times I've seen reviews that there are bugs in the second part. We have done many fixes, and I cant find any bugs. If there still are some bugs in the game, they are probably not the most obvious ones. Perhaps there is some issue with transferring the progress, and its very well hidden. If you have encountered any bugs in the second part, please send us your logs and saves. Thank you all for your interest in our work. All the best.

Work on the story update continues, 512 renders are done, and 4 animations are prepared for rendering. Dialogue consists of roughly 12 thousand words. Important Message: After last week's news, a number of strange people started attacking us, claiming that we are scoundrels, and cheated everyone. That we promised to make the DLC update free, but in fact we will sell it for money. Let me be clear: - The update was promised to be free, and it will be. - There was no mention in any news that the update would be sold for money. I ask them, "Can I get some sort of quote of me that we are going to sell it? Silence. What's going on in people's minds, I don't know. The news is written by the same person who writes the VC events. Yes, my text goes through proofreading, for errors, since I do happen to make a grammar mistake or two, but many events go almost unchanged straight into the game. I already have doubts about my competence as an author. While this is our initiative, we did not originally intend to do this update and did not promise it at all. A small spoiler about the update. It will end with a "special event". Where we will bring together all the characters. The location will be Fiona's place. It's been a difficult week, and I haven't been working much. I've had some personal problems, but things are back to normal now. Dates: Tentatively, I'm hoping in April to complete the most routine part, the dialogues and getting to the climactic scene of the update. How long the final scene will take until the end is not clear. It depends on the scale. As you realise, there is a lot to do there, if only there was a desire as well. Is there any? To be honest, not at all. So far, I'm doing it by forcing myself and cursing the decision to go forward with this. But sometimes in the process of work some excitement does appear. That's all. Thank you and take care.

Firstly, yesterday my Patreon page was deleted. It was just for an hour or so and then it was restored, but why it happened, I still have no idea. Also, at least 5 more pages of other developers were deleted as well. Also, at least 5 more pages of other developers were deleted as well. So please join our Discord, Steam, or even subscribe to DeviantArt. Otherwise, if we disappear again, you won't know where or how to reach us. In general, I only had a mild scare since I have very few subscribers on Patreon. The income from it is like a small bonus, nothing more. But those who make really good games, and who have a lot of subscribers, probably got scared a lot more. So yeah, these things happen. As we wrote earlier there are two stories in development. One will put an end to Ilga's story. Although more like an ellipsis. Ilga's ending has caused some controversy, but I think it suits the situation. However, several unclear things we will still reveal and discuss, so that there are no ambiguities. Or at least fewer of them. The second will complete the story of Kilena, if Forlan stayed in town at the end. I think we'll allow direct access to this ending through settings in case you don't have necessary save files or didn't get this ending. And if Ilga's story I managed to create quickly, since shes one of my favourite characters, then Kilenas story is hard for me to work with. That doesn't mean we'll make it worse, just that its harder to do. As of right now, the documentation for Kilena has 146 pages and contains 10,000 words. Roughly 128 of these pages are finished. But it's not the full ending, the last scene hasn't been written yet. There is one more character that could use its own ending, but I'm not sure I'm going to do it. We've spent a lot of time on VC, and we have a lot of content ready for a new project. There's already enough for either one big update or two smaller ones, and I don't really care how it's received. I just want to work on something new. Development of VC started at the end of 2018 and it's time for it to at least take a long pause, if not to end. Thank you all and take care.

- Fixed several typos and localization problems; - Edited Chinese localization ; - The level of opponents now does not exceed level 23 (which led to too long fights); - Removed the inability to pass the game because of a bug in the quest with vampires.

About the addition, new project and plans. A patch will be released in a couple of days, in which some small things will change, in particular, the level of monsters will no longer exceed 23. This was done in order to prevent the fights being too long. There will also be a new version of Chinese localization for the DLC. Work on the Last Stand DLC addition is underway. It will touch on the stories of three characters in the game. I can't promise big endings for all these characters, but you'll definitely see Kilena, Londa, Fiona, and possibly another girl. We're not expecting anything special from this update since enough time has already passed to look at the results. Here's what we have: - We've recouped our investment. - We've made some money for the future. - Only about 10 % of owners of the second episode bought the DLC. Overall, the DLC was profitable, but I'm very glad I didn't take the risk of creating a full-scale episode. Episode 2 scores have risen to 80%, which seems more fair than previous scores for the game. Thank you, it feels good. Regarding the new project. The second episode was an expensive, over-budget and long-development process. After its release, the question was whether to continue or stop. It was scary to continue. The release didnt give us the financial reserve we needed to be sure we could develop the project further for a year or a year and a half. Plus, the constant threat of not being able to receive any money due to sanctions. So even if it was possible to find workarounds for Patreon, the Steam payment system doesn't allow you to do that. And then the decision was made to make a Patreon-oriented project. Nobody wanted to do it, but we decided that we would do something "popular", make money quickly and finish VC. Basically, everyone agreed that it was better than taking additional risks, because the third episode could have raised even less money and that would have been fatal. And thats probably what would have happened. As I said, the DLC sold a small number of copies, but there was relatively small amount of money invested in it, plus it revitalized the sales of other products, on top of other big seasonal Steam sales. Originally, we were going to make this new project on a new Patreon page, so that we could work in peace and avoid the possible negatives of it. Firstly, there would be those who would understandably hate us for stopping the work on VC, and secondly, there would be those who would berate us for the chosen genre. As for the new game, I won't reveal what it is until just before its release. Not because I'm afraid of anything, I've been in this business too long and Im used to everything. I just don't want to. Once the release is ready, everybody will see for themselves. We'll be working on it on our current Patreon, though I'd be interested in how this game would be received from a new developer. Either way, it will be a game with an interesting story and good-quality graphics. As always, though.

A little news regarding the development of the new ending for the wife of the innkeeper. Work is continuing with great difficulty. I have to push myself forward, but work should not always be a pleasure. I havent made that many renders so far, only 185. I wish it was better, but a lot of personal affairs accumulated, and they are very distracting. Also, after every release there are always many people writing about their problems with the game, about 80% of these messages are not real bugs, but they also distract me. I have to double-check things, sometimes I have to involve a programmer, sometimes I have to figure it out myself. It all costs time. In any case, I try to respond to every such message and try to help. The finale for Ilga is ready. I haven't made any animation for her scene yet, but it's not a big problem, I'll get to it later. We should add dreams to the main story DLC, since we haven't revealed several things that caused questions, but Im not that sure about it. I don't want to spend too much time on this. It's clear that we want to make the game even better than it is right now, but there are so many plot holes that we can't cover all of them anyway. Next week we will release a small hotfix. - We will remove some of the variability in the quest with vampires, it was too buggy - We will update the game engine, since the current version has some problems (I hope the new version will not cause even more of them) - Level of monsters will be locked at 22. That's all. Thank you for your support and interest.

Hello. I'm glad you enjoyed the endings of the game. I was quite worried since we had to condense things. As we said, we will be releasing an update for this DLC with one of the scenes for ending #7, and since I was touched by the reviews you left for the DLC (but not sales unfortunately), we will be releasing an additional ending for Kilena. However, a question came up. What is the best way for us to release these updates? - As they get ready, first for ending #7 and then Kilena - Everything in one update Feel free to post your answer in the comments. Thanks for the feedback and your trust.

- 587 renders will be replaced with better ones.

So, we've reached this point. Finally, Forlan's story will be complete. On January 17, we will release the DLC.
It's been a hard long road and it's even a little sad that it's ending. All good things must come to an end at some point and hopefully after this, the story will leave behind a nice aftertaste. I like the ending, given the circumstances in which it was created. We'll never tell you how it was planned before, because this is the ending that is now canon. We don't want to devalue these finales, since we like them. Yes, there are moments that didn't get revealed. Part of the storyline (an important part) is left open. It wasn't planned that way, but it's an acceptable story move and it's the only possible one. As I said, the DLC is average in size: about 40 thousand words, 1700 renders, and 40 animations. It's not a lot by our standards, but it's not nothing either. The content is quite concentrated in all of it, and I think it's enough. Initially, when I said we'd finish the story, I thought to create something much smaller and simpler. But it just kept growing bigger and bigger as we were making it, and it started to look better and better. It's not a masterpiece, but it's not bad either. Important updates There will be an update for the second episode. Approximately 600 renders will be replaced with better ones, in my opinion. I've always been very meticulous about the artwork and put a lot of effort into it. I really wanted to refresh some of the art, and in my opinion, Ive managed to do that. I worked on it for a long time, not to the detriment of the development just because I like it and I have the tools and skills. It's quite a lot of work that has been done. And of course, the DLC itself completes the story, thus completing the second episode and the game as a whole. There will definitely be another patch for the DLC, and it will add one more event in the final game. And possibly some dream sequences that will expand the lore and close some plot holes. Patch release with some of the remaining characters is still in question. I don't want to do another DLC, that wouldnt be good. Either we will have the opportunity to release a patch with new content for them, or their stories will be left to your imagination. But in general, we want to start a new project already. We have no goal to milk every penny out of this story, that's why I'm not talking about another DLC, but only about patches. We want to finish it. Maybe, no promises, we will create achievements for the endings. That is, one for each ending and one for those who have unlocked them all. That's all. Those who are waiting, your expectations will soon end. Those who are worried, wish us good luck. And we'll just focus on finishing our work. Happy new year, everyone!

Hello. Better late than never. Steam finally approved the release. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2576940/Voids_Calling_Last_stand/?beta=0 Apparently, there's been a lot of games, and we've been on the waiting list a lot longer than usual. Before the actual release, the game has to stay in "Coming Soon" status for at least two weeks. Because of this, the release is scheduled for January 17, 2024. We could do the release a bit earlier, but I looked at when the sales picked up again last year. "While other developers release DLC-sized games, we release game-sized DLC." By our standards, the DLC is not the biggest. It has about 40 thousand words, 1700 renders, and around 40 animations. The price will be small, only three dollars. (The price will vary country to country) Our tester liked the final update but had questions about the story. We will take the feedback into consideration, and perhaps we will release an extended version down the line. We cant make any major edits now since the game has been tested, and these types of things always carry a risk of new bugs. In any case, there will be a patch adding another scene to the game. As I wrote earlier, originally it was not planned, but in the course of development it started to seem appropriate. You will be able to create a save and see it after the patch is out. Sometime in September we found out that the last option to withdraw money from Steam was blocked. This is the very reason why in principle I didn't want to do the third episode. In this regard, the information about the possible addition of Kilena, Londa and others, which we wrote in this post: https://steamcommunity.com/games/1797300/announcements/detail/3737482976669808849?snr=2 is irrelevant. We offered another option. There is a public post on our Patreon, where you can read more information about it. I can't put a link to it here. That's all for now. Thank you for being with us.

Hello. It's been a long time since weve talked. I hope you missed me, I certainly did. I've brought you a new batch of development news. It's all going steady and even boring. Well, game development is a boring and monotonous job in itself. Now the programmer is writing code, the first half is almost done. I'm hurriedly trying to finish the remaining scenes. I still have to finish the final part. For the essential scene I have the plot, now I need to finish the denouement and then I will need to write an afterword for each of the possible endings. For characters whose fate we have not had time to reveal, we will put a "question mark". Their fate is kind of unknown. Whether there will be another DLC, time and sales of this DLC will tell. As I said before, we are not going to make big profits on this. However, if this DLC allows us to get by on something, we will release the second one for free. Also, most likely, a small extended version of the current "Void's Calling: Last Stand" will be released after the initial release. It will include a final scene with one of the central characters. It wasn't originally planned, but it seemed appropriate to me and also as a small expansion of the games lore. Your saves will not be affected by this update. Its just that we no longer have time to do it now, and so the game will get one more scene later to make it more complete. We already had to cut a lot of things as it is. When the first half of the code is done, maybe we will try to send the DLC for approval, so that the page for it will appear on the Steam. Don't forget to add it to your Wishlist even if you don't intend to buy it. It helps with the algorithms. The release is still scheduled for mid to late December. If we don't make it in time (I hope it won't happen), we'll have to postpone it until February, in which case we'll add more content. But I repeat, this is not our intention. We already have issues with finances as it is, so we ourselves need to release it this year. That's all for now. Thanks for your support.

So, a new batch of news. The most important news is that we have started working on the code. The work is progressing in quite a decent pace. The programmer will make the code to the castle, I will test it, in parallel we will give the files to the translator for localization. The final part will be released in three languages, Russian, English and Chinese. Further translations are possible, but it depends on our resources and morale after the release. Some of the content is not ready, but we will finish it while programmer is working on the code. There is not much left, although that doesnt mean it would be easy to make. There have been questions about the fate of characters like Kilena, Londa and the nun. We have discussed it and made a decision. If the DLC sells a reasonable number of copies, we will make another small DLC for free, in which we will finish the story of these characters. If sales are low, you will have to imagine your own endings for these characters. Maybe someday we'll release development diaries with additional material and the history of character development. Thoughts on how a particular character's story should develop changed regularly. Even our Possessed One has changed. I wonder, after seeing the final story, if you'll guess who was supposed to be the Possessed One in the original plan... it'll be fun to read your predictions. If you find bugs, please clearly describe the problem, if possible, attach your saves and logs to your message in Discord or e-mail. We often do not even know that there is a problem. So, send us an email or a message in Discord if you find anything. Recently one person wrote a negative review. It turns out there was a localization bug. I talked to him, he changed the review to a positive one, and we found the bug and fixed it. Bugs are not always obvious; they are not always easy to find and fix. Especially since we have made a rather complicated code structure, we sometimes get lost ourselves. Thank you in advance for your help. Thank you for your support and interest in our work.

1) Fixed an issue with missing scene 19 in memories. 2) Fixed a problem with fonts not working properly in the Chinese localization on the statistics and inventory screen. Please keep reporting any and all bugs and problems that you encounter. 1) 19 2)

Hello everyone! A bit of news about the final DLC Void's Calling: Last Stand. At the moment I'm actively working on the final scene. There are a lot of characters in it, it's always labour intensive. I made the decision to finish it now because of its technical complexity. It's better to do it now, while I'm not too tired and burned out. The rest of the events will be quicker and easier to finish later. There's not much left to do. One erotic scene, a few event-linking scenes and some small scenes, I don't even know exactly how many. Not much. A lot of things are finished already. Then the programmer will create the necessary code, and hopefully hell be able to start earlier while I finish the rest of the events.
Those who do not follow us too closely, the programmer works on several projects, not only on ours. Firstly, because I can't afford a full-time programmer, and secondly, most of the time he doesn't have much work to do anyway. This of course creates some problems when fixing bugs, because of some small things I cant pull him away from his projects, but if there are serious problems, I can always ask for his help. This is the exact reason why the "scene 19" that doesn't appear in memories hasn't been fixed yet, even though I've already found the problem. It's very hard to find the right people. I know bigger teams who cannot find the right person. It is rare to find a person who is invested in the project and doesnt just work on technical assignments, and also communicates adequately. So, despite all the problems, we will not change anything. An old friend is better than two new ones.
In general, I really like our work on paper. It will be interesting to see how it turns out in the game. On the other hand, I also like the second episode much more than the first one. This is the first game that I've enjoyed testing. Apparently, there is a certain difference in tastes between me and our audience. Any project is always a reflection of the inner world of the person who creates it. The inner world can change over time, and apparently now I and many of you have differences in what we find interesting. But there are also such opinions: https://steamcommunity.com/id/GrimReaper0406/recommended/1797300/ https://steamcommunity.com/id/pierrard/recommended/1797300/ https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198392643517/recommended/1797300/ Too bad you weren't here earlier and that there are so few of you, maybe the game would have been finished differently.
Overall, like I said, everything with the ending isn't bad. It's not worse or better than intended, it's different. We made significant changes to the original story, it was inevitable. Some events we will leave to your imagination. Don't worry, everything about Krazengoph, its inhabitants and Forlan's mission will be fully revealed. I'm talking about more global events embedded in the worlds lore and plot.
Release Date: We aim to release the final between the sales (autumn and winter). It is important that our release does not overlap with other major projects. If this situation arises, we will move even a fully finished release to a more appropriate time. This is a strategic decision, and we are not taking any more risks, even if it means breaking our promises. We have already made a mistake before (VC2), and we want to avoid repeating it.
Since 8th of September, the project has grown by 202 renders and 3 animations. In 21 days, that's an average of 9.6 renders per day. Quite an acceptable pace for me. I have of course more things to do than just art, this includes improving post-processing, working as a scriptwriter, and doing gameplay design documents for the programmer. I'm quite happy with myself, the work I need to do I still manage in quite a good time. Achievements:
Its a long, torturous, and time-wasting process. Yes, it would probably earn some money, but that's time I could spend on interesting content. I'm not good at coming up with this kind of activity. Some people are good at making beautiful renders, some people are good at making a good story, and some people are good at selling games. I'm not good at selling games. There are of course exceptions, and there are bigger teams with more resources and funds. We don't have the resources. Personally, I buy games when I like them, not for the "achievements". So, when I dont like something, I dont buy and spend my money on something more useful. All I can say is that we have no current plans for achievements. This needs to be planned more in advance and not now, when it would only cause new bugs. That's all, thank you for your support. Don't forget to write positive reviews if you like what we do and have a nice day.

Lilith Rising is a choice-driven adult Visual Novel focusing on a grand fantasy adventure. Become a prince that has to learn what it means to be a leader in order to save your kingdom. Your journey will be filled with adventure, romance, mystery, humor, drama and lots of sex.
You are a prince that has his life turned upside down when a demon worshiping cult takes over his land, forcing him out of his castle to a life of exile. On your adventures you will meet the most intriguing companions and learn what it means to be a leader in order to save your kingdom. And... if you play your cards right maybe even find some romance. Its a short 3-5 hour (depending on your expertise) game with lots of fun action and steaming romance. There are 3 more seasons planned to finish this great story that will go deeper and deeper into the war between the gods where the Prince (MC) and his companions are their playthings. Download and play now! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2424440/Lilith_Rising__Season_1/

Some Facts: 21,000 words and 920 renders are done. We've finished about 2/3 of what is planned, maybe a little more, maybe a little less. There's always more to add, but we really want to finish it. There are major events with three main characters, and we have plans to involve a few more characters. Naturally, Forlan will rescue Kagera from captivity. I'm not revealing plot spoilers here; this is the finale, and where else would we free her if not in the finale of the game? A question for you: How much do you think the final DLC should cost? I was actually planning to put it at a dollar (taking into account regional prices in different regions, they can be either much less or a little more), but I've seen how for a dollar others sell a link to a walkthrough and DLC is a bit more difficult to do, in my opinion. But I'll keep your suggestions in mind. The Steam page for the DLC has already been set up and submitted for review. We will be able to publish it after the application is submitted for moderation. I've been busy writing the script for the final act of the DLC. Of course, we are missing another scriptwriter. It's a pity that after the failure of VC2, our scriptwriter, who was doing a good job with this task, left. Of course, I can write myself, and I've done it quite often before, but it's not really my specialty. Anyway, we're heading towards release; there are a few plot problems that we're trying to figure out how to play out. We already know roughly how the game will end, but we're not getting to that point smoothly yet. It's still the finale, and it's important not to ruin it. It's hard not to and many fail at it. We'll do our best. We recently spent three hours talking to our scriptwriter, trying to tie up the threads of the narrative, which had been severed by the need to cut an entire episode. But I think we managed to come up with one more or less logical concept. Let's hope you enjoy it. That's all for now; thanks for your support.

Progress on the final act of the game is proceeding steadily. Most of the story leading up to the "castle" segment has been completed. There are some issues in the text and artwork that need to be addressed. A couple of events to connect the storyline into a cohesive narrative need to be finalized. Two major romance storylines will be concluded in this section. There's also a decision to be made about another scene. While it was initially planned, we're not satisfied with the idea and its setup. The character's development isn't fully integrated into the plot, so we might decide to omit it. We had a negative response to a poorly written scene, like the one with Kilena. We acknowledge that it came across as awkward. It's a mix of feelings it's unfortunate that other projects sometimes get away with less polished content, but it's also rewarding to have such a thoughtful community around the game that encourages us to strive for coherent storytelling. I'm aiming to complete the narrative part set in the city within a week and then move on to the castle segment. The latter might be relatively quick to finish, depending on whether we include character scenes and what scenes exactly. The story content itself isn't too complex in this section. There remain some inconsistencies due to narrative shifts and the removal of certain ideas, but the major issues have been addressed. Our plans remain unchanged we intend to start coding and testing by the end of September or early October. That's all for now. Thank you for your continued support.

As I mentioned before, I can't post artwork yet to avoid spoilers for important scenes in the story. However, I can share the cover for the DLC for now. We are currently finalizing one of the major plot twists, and while it's a bit different from what we initially planned, it's turning out quite well. Development is progressing steadily. I'll soon finish working on the city, and then I'll move on to the castle. Three love scenes are already finished, and I must say that at least one of them has stunning graphics. The lighting has turned out perfectly. The other two scenes are at my standard level. There will be more new artworks to come, but for now, we want to keep the plot twists a surprise. It's challenging to compete in the field of adult novels, where sometimes even simple options like calling one of the heroines "mom" and the other "sister" can make a project successful. In general, I sometimes play other people's projects and review them. Since 2017, I've been working on graphics, and it feels like not much has changed since then. The level of 3D "artists" hasn't grown, and the hardware hasn't become more powerful. But people will keep playing it and everyone understands that.

The work is progressing steadily, with art for events being created, and the script being written. Unlike the previous devlogs, this time we have more positive news to share. Recently, the scriptwriter and I had a productive call where we discussed the new concept, and it seems like we've been able to address many of the problems with the shortened script. There might be some logical inconsistencies here and there since we haven't touched the project in six months and have forgotten some details, but overall, I'm quite pleased with the new script. We encountered several challenges with writing the finale of the game, which we had previously discussed and struggled to solve, but I believe we've managed to overcome them. The current ending of the game feels even more logical than the original one we had planned, and if we can properly implement it into the game, it should be great. I'm also happy to announce that the graphics in the final part of the game will be even better than in Episodes 1 and 2. In my opinion, significantly so. You can check out some of the improvements on our Patreon page. Yes, we do have a Patreon page. We asked technical support whether we can mention it on Steam, and they said it should be fine as long as we don't include links on the main page. We don't provide links even here, but for those interested, finding it won't be too difficult. On our Patreon, you can also find our other creative works. At the moment, I'm finishing Ilga's storyline, and we've also completed one more character. The investigation storyline is also partially done. That's all the news for now. Thank you for your support, and until next time. Bye.

Why do we call it "long-suffering"? Initially, when Steam didn't yet accept games of this kind, we had planned it as a large sandbox with a multi-year development scope, much like other projects on Patreon. It was designed to have numerous branching paths and a wide range of characters. However, it didn't generate much interest or support on Patreon. Eventually, we released the VC (everything that we had ready at that point) on Steam as the first episode, and it was a great success. However, the original VC1 had too many storylines and characters, leading to a drawn-out experience in the long run. Now, we need to take the exact opposite approach and trim down as much as possible. The challenge lies in tying everything together logically, as we have hinted at a lot stuff in the past and now we need to make sure it at least makes sense. Either way, well do our best. Currently, we have 500 arts ready and 7 events in various stages of completion, with approximately 9.2k of words. Some of these were already prepared before the project was put on hold, so you may come across side events that were originally intended for the second episode. Please keep in mind that our main focus is on the main story, and these side events have been cut from the episode. Regarding the release date, all I can say is that we aim to release the DLC in October, after which we can continue working on another project that is ready for release. While we have considered the possibility of additional DLC focusing on side characters, we are not certain if that idea will come to fruition. Our expectations for the DLC with the conclusion of the storyline are not centered around making profits, but rather recouping the costs involved in its production. If it fails to even break even, we may consider the DLC matter closed, as our main satisfaction will come from successfully completing the main storyline. That's all for now. Goodbye.

Currently, all our games have three localizations: Russian, English, and Chinese (with Spanish partially available, as VC2 is currently being translated into it). We will explore the market regardless, but we would also appreciate your input on which language you would like us to translate the game into. Please note that translation is a time-consuming process, and we may not be able to satisfy everyone's requests. We will prioritize the most promising languages based on demand. If anyone is willing to help with proofreading or translation, we would gladly accept assistance. Unfortunately, we do not have the funds to provide monetary compensation, and payment through our cards is not possible due to sanctions. We are aware of a German translation for VC1, but we are unsure of its quality; however, we may consider adding it in the future.

It has been a week and a half since our last update, and we are excited to share some progress on the development of the DLC that will serve as the game's finale. First and foremost, we have decided that the finale will be released as a DLC rather than a standalone episode. This decision is mainly due to the inability to pay the release fee on Steam due to current sanctions. However, we have learned that the fee does not apply to DLCs, which allows us to move forward with this approach. Secondly, since there wont be nearly enough content to call it a third episode of VC and keeping in mind that most people dont read any news posts, therell be millions of reviews saying the game is too short. Since the DLC will be built upon the second episode, it will seamlessly continue from where players left off. This eliminates the need for exporting and provides a smoother experience. In terms of content, we want to manage expectation. The DLC will not feature a full episode's worth of content, as it will primarily focus on Ilga, her mother, and Sarah, since DLC will be taking place in the castle. We had initially planned for a more extensive finale, but maybe its for the best this way. Wed been dragging this whole thing for far too long simply because we loved our characters and wanted to give time to each of them. One of the key reasons we decided to resume development was the support we received from individuals helping with the translation. We have successfully translated the game into Chinese, and the Spanish translation is currently underway. Their dedication and enthusiasm inspired us to continue working on the project. At present, we have five events in progress, with most of them being finished before the development was put on hold. Additionally, we have 412 arts ready, although during the past 10 days, I have only managed to create 70 new ones. It has been challenging for me to regain momentum in the development process. As a wise man once said, "You must write when you feel like you cant write anymore." While my personal connection to these characters have changed in a way that nothing connects me with them anymore, I am committed to seeing this project through to completion. The question remains how it will ultimately shape up, but I am persevering to create the necessary artwork for the game. We have a strong desire to finish this project and will work diligently to expedite its completion. However, due to recent changes, we have had to temporarily block payments through Steam. This is a result of difficulties encountered with the previous bank that processed payments in dollars. For now, we are relying on our sheer will to move forward. Fortunately, the funds remain with Steam, and hopefully well get them sooner or later. That's all for now. Thank you for your continued support.

Launching the Chinese version after updating the app failed. Previously you could select a language when downloading, now you can't, and it doesn't automatically grab the right localisation. We waiting for technical support to respond. - - - Minor bugfixes. - Added chinese localization. Instructions for installing the Chinese language version. It's the same, but you have to delete the folders for the second episode. https://steamcommunity.com/games/1212020/announcements/detail/3683422028785359016

After putting it on hold following the release of the second episode, we have decided to continue working on it since there's a demand. Our focus will be on completing the main story and delivering a complete experience in a single, shorter episode that you can finish in an hour. The gameplay elements and side storylines will be largely eliminated, leaving only the core narrative. Naturally, this means that certain changes will need to be made to adapt the story to this new format. The initial ideas we had for the game in its original form are no longer feasible. Our goal is to finish and conclude this project within 5-8 months, preferably sooner. It's important to note that this is not a commercial endeavor, and we don't anticipate making any profits from it. It's simply a tribute to the few people who enjoy the game. Currently, we do not have the technical means to release the game on Steam. Due to sanctions, we are unable to pay the necessary fees for game release on Steam. We don't expect to earn any money from the game, and even if the restrictions were lifted, we would release it on Steam at a very low price. Once the project is completed, we will take a break from game development for a certain period of time and focus on another project we have been working on for the past six months. That's all for now. Novel. P.s There is an option to release the game as DLC on Steam.

- Gallery enabled - Several minor bugs fixed

I'll start with important information, so that as many people as possible can see it. 1) Your saves from the early access version will not be compatible with the current version of the game. We did not delete them, just changed the default folder. This was done to protect those who do not read devlogs. For those who wish to express indignation over this, I suggest that you read the list of changes. The content is mostly added at the beginning of the game. 2) Gallery and memories are disabled temporarily. We do not want to delay the release because of this and do not have time to make it. More precisely, we can make it, but we wont have time to test it. 3) We will make all the necessary changes in one patch, in a couple of weeks once weve had some rest. If any hotfixes are needed (although after so much testing this would be bad news), we'll release them tomorrow morning. The list of all main changes: The early access build had over 116k words; the current build has over 174k words. 1) The purification ritual (this is one of the biggest events added) 2) Events with Ilga 3) Random events at the apothecary, armory, brothel, and so on. 4) Two new events at the river 5) MCs room (Training, rest) 6) Alternative branch where you look for Kagera 7) Events with Fiona 8) Events at the brothel 9) New events with Mrisya 10) Events with Lilina 11) Alternative vampires branch 12) Two small random events in the town 13) Five events with Sarah. 14) Event with Higrith 15) Event with Elana 16) Kilenas branch fix Maybe I forgot to mention a few things in this list. The technical stuff: 1) Now you can set the speed of QTE sequences at the beginning of the game (this choice cant be changed afterwards) 2) Now you can choose a high difficulty for combat at the beginning of the game (this choice cant be changed afterwards) 3) The MC is stronger now when you play on easy difficulty 4) Weve nerfed the last mercenary you fight on the ship for all difficulties (he was way too strong), but weve significantly boosted Fuhrim. If someones scared of Fuhrim, you can let him escape. Its not necessary to fight him. Overall, the easy difficulty now means you can play the game without leveling up. Weve added some practical use to the already existing items in the game, Kageras amulet, Meloras ring and vial with blood. Youll be able to equip these items using the slot for amulets (via your inventory) and receive small bonuses to your stats. Tweaks to the combat system and games balance - Added options to use potions from your inventory (before you could only use potions from your belt). New sounds added (Were trying to make the game more atmospheric) It was a difficult release, and we are happy that this nightmare is finally over. Now we need some rest and reviews from you. Were interested in any sort of feedback. Thank you all for the wait. Enjoy.

Hey everyone. The release version of the second episode is almost complete. Were actively working on putting finishing touches. We plan to have the game out of early access by 15th of October. All your progress will be transferred to the third episode, the same way we did it for the second episode. That includes your experience, money, ammunition. Your potions we most likely wont be able to transfer. I really like the city part, but I cant say the same about the castle part; many of the ideas we came up with for the castle had to be abandoned. There are ideas as to how to improve the gameplay in the finale of the game, but before implementing any of them, wed like to ask the players for their opinion after the release. In general, the third episode is already being made, some of the events are even partially finished. The gallery (memories) and achievements (if were going to make them), well be added as a patch after the release. Weve got no time for that right now. In general, both us and the testers liked the update; theres plenty of new content to explore but it was quite hard to test it all. It was a lot easier when we had worked on VN. However, its more interesting this way. To keep it simple, just wait a little longer, the update will be here soon, in around two weeks. Though, in times like these even two weeks seem like a lot when you cant predict whats going to happen next. Leave your comments down below. Well listen to reasonable ones, those unreasonable well ignore. In short, nothing changes in this regard. Thanks everyone and bye. P.s. https://steamcommunity.com/app/1797300/discussions/0/3432327323066902550/

Its been a while since we last made any news posts and its all due to the lack of time. The last month was just a never-ending cycle of tests. Were basically running out of time here because its time for our coder to move on to his project. Most of what needed to be done was finished for the release version, but we still need to improve the castle part. Add things to the first day and create the second one. Weve lost two weeks sadly. Some time was lost due to illnesses, some to rewriting the code of the inventory. We hired another coder to build the inventory code for us, but it ended up being rather clunky to work with. We needed new functions but it was impossible to add them. As a result, I think we just shouldve done the rewriting with our own coder. Weve wrapped up all the content before the castle, the build is currently being tested by our community. The coder will take a few days to rest and then were going to siege the castle part. That part of the game has some problems to it but its three times smaller. Theres hope we can get it done in a few weeks but then well have to test it and itll take around the same period of time. We lack testers, especially Russian speaking ones. Simply because localization comes later. Talking about gameplay, we havent been able to do all the tasks. The option to equip potions mid-battle is a balance-breaking feature. I wanted to let you equip one potion at a time and after that youd take on a fight with a group of enemies, but itd require four or even five days of coding which we didnt have. We left it as it is but added a hard level of difficulty. I tested the game on that difficulty and I was quite comfortable playing that way. For QTE therell be three modes, the standard one (the one you all know) and two simplified modes. A lot of things have been cut or postponed because we don't have time for it. It's a very hard update for us morally. You know, Im interested in the history of game development and noticed the following pattern: "In agony, either masterpieces are born or deafening failures, other games are made peacefully." Torment we have already experienced, it remains to understand whether we created a masterpiece or a failure. However, personally, I will be satisfied with both options, because often failures are the beginning of a new path. As for ETA, we really need to get it all done before October. We wont waste any time on achievements, simply because we wont have time to make them. In a situation where events and mechanics are cut out, wasting time on achievements is a questionable idea for me as a developer. Yes, it affects sales, but I don't care. Anyway, the next news post will be the release, but for now I have to go focus on game development. For even writing this post takes time which I don't have right now. All the best Novel.

I wont be listing all the stuff here. I see no point in mentioning some small events/edits. The fully completed part of the game: 1) Events with Ilga (a few different events happening at her house). 2) Random events at the apothecary, armory, brothel, and so on. (Around 10 events) 3) Two new events at the river 4) MCs room (Training, rest) 5) The purification (a huge event) 6) The alternative branch where you look for Kagera (when you talk to Fuhrim, youll have an option whether you want to help him) 7) Events with Fiona (four options) 8) Events at the brothel (two new interactions) 9) New events with Mrisya (three new interactions) 10) Events with Lilina 11) Alternative vampires branch (a few new options to kick off the event and to finish it) 12) Two small random events in the town 13) Kilenas branch fix Its around 37000 words. Were about to wrap up testing of the current build of the game. Most of the bugs have been found. Currently, were working on technical aspects of the update, catching bugs as well as: - Tweaking the combat system and games balance - Adding options to use potions from your inventory (before you could only use potions from your belt). - Amulets - Sounds, therell be a lot more of them. (trying to make the game more atmospheric) Theres hope that well be able to finish testing the game this week. After that, well send that build for testing on our Patreon, while our coder will start working on the castle part of the update. Therere events that are finished both in terms of text/renders (castle part): 1) Five events with Sarah. (well add it very fast) 2) Event with Higrith (well add it very fast) 3) Event with Elana (well add it very fast) Overall, around 6000 of words here. Events that are still to be made: 1) The first day of the investigation. It requires some small changes in the text. The art for that event is finished. The complexity of adding this to the game is rather high. (Editing is always a difficult thing to pull off, sometimes its easier to wipe the slate clean and just write a new event if therere a lot of edits to be made) 2) The second day of investigation. The texts ready, as for the art, we might reuse the old art here. The complexity of adding this event is medium. 3) The alternative branch for Sarah. Most likely were going to need a few more renders for this event. The complexity of adding this event is medium. Around 9000 words and 4000 of them will be edits, not new text. In other words, the part of the update were going to keep working on is around 3x smaller, in light of this I see no point in releasing an intermediate update to Steam. Well release the finished product once its ready. Once were done adding all the stuff I just mentioned above, the game will be released. I dont know how long it will take us to get there, it depends on how quickly well be able to deal with the hardest parts of the update. We want to make the best out of this update. Its been a long time since the last update, and I think that one more month or two wont really change anything for you. Whyd we decide to rewrite (edit) the first day of the investigation? Because of the comments I saw. People say that investigation isnt really a fun part of the game to play and as a tester, I can agree with that statement. Therefore, I asked one of our writers to rewrite some of the questions. Whether we changed it for better or for worse, youll see soon enough. However, making changes to the code is an unpleasant process, to say the least (at least when it comes to Renpy). I must say therell be a lot of gameplay changes and the game will become significantly easier for those who prefer to play on the easiest difficulty, the same goes for medium difficulty. Though weve increased the number of coins you get for doing different tasks, simply because there are a lot more activities you have to pay for now. I like what weve achieved with this update. Testers like the update too. However, our testers are the people whove grown to like our projects. They thought that the early access was good too, so yeah. And I guess thats it about the update. Now lets talk about some interesting things I ran into on our forum: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1797300/discussions/0/3184614124784484049/?ctp=2 Regarding whether Im a misogynist or whether I write my MC to be misogynists, Ive given my answer to these questions here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/1797300/announcements/detail/3341121186845160151 Ill repeat that I dont agree with that statement. However, its not what I wanted to talk about. There are so many scandals in the game industry these days. I wont be calling names here. Freedom of speech is the best tool our society has ever invented. It reached some truly big heights. Therefore, in public space, I tend to speak with caution and sometimes its best not to talk at all. However, I dont like staying silent. Anyway, to the point. Lately, there's been a lot of scandals in the gaming industry like with the company known for its "you guys all have phones, right?" phrase and many other famous companies were crushed by mass media. We all followed the news about the terrible details of working in such places as a woman. Strikes, lawsuits, investigations. Its terrible and we have to fight that. However, theres one question When you enter one famous website (just like I do) Lets call it a laboratory. You get to see some high-quality videos.And youre just scared of what you see. The things they put in girls there Sometimes there are two or even three of those things The only thing I feel is a pity. Im worried about girls health when I see that. When they take a close-up shot you just realize, yeah, she needs to see a doctor. I read a few interviews with such stars. Hearing the things they say makes me feel uneasy, to say the least. Some of them even said that they have to take a powerful pain medication to be able to shoot. You know what Im surprised about the most? There are no scandals about this. I dont believe that there are double standards in this world. Its either these girls really enjoy this, or I just made it all up. The gaming industry might be the last stronghold of all misogynists. Or maybe people just dont know that. And someone will say, how can you compare? Well, I don't see any difference. Men, women, but first of all people. As long as they don't harm anyone, it doesn't matter where they work. What are your thoughts? For my part, Im ready to face ostracism for the crimes I committed. Provided they were crimes. I decided to speak my mind while not hiding anything from you. If Im to blame for anything, feel free to throw some stones. Thats it for now. We keep on working, both on the game and ourselves. With all due respect. Novel.

Contents: 1) Interaction with community 2) The report about development progress 3) General conversation Interaction with community Id like to hear your opinion about the combat system. Maybe you have any suggestions? Im trying to figure out how to make this system more interesting. The combat system both in the first/second episode is based on a pretty simple principle (rock, paper and scissors). There are enemies who dodge attacks, you have to use pierce attacks and build up your rage. There are regular and heavy enemies, those you have to crush using heavy blows. I thought about making a few strikes available right from the start of the fight, i.e. they wont depend on rage points. In order to avoid you spamming them, wed add cooldown. Maybe some of you have any suggestions regarding how to make enemies more diverse? Leave your thoughts in the comments down below. Of course, not everything you want can be implemented but about that later. Mind you, were not interested in hearing such things as: Drop the combat system, focus on the story. We have scriptwriters who write the story, theyre only focused on the story and arent doing anything else. For an upcoming intermediate release, we have the following stuff finished: 1) Meeting Mrisya in the inn 2) The apothecary. Three new random events, just to add to the atmosphere and one bonus scene (you have to unlock it). Its unlocked just by visiting the apothecary a few times. 3) The armory. Three new random events, just to add to the atmosphere. 4) Ilgas house. New events when visiting her. 5) River. Two new events upon going there. 6) The purification event (it starts automatically) 7) An alternative branch for Fuhrim 8) Alternative ways to start a quest line with vampires 9) Kilenas branch is slightly rewritten (weve added more logic to her actions) 10) Progress of relationship with Fiona 11) A lot of new ways to spend time in the brothel. (Lillina) 12) A few more small random events. We decided to cut out a completely finished event in the forest. There are so many events happening one after another in the span of these three playable days that we decided to leave it for the third episode. Events which are rendered and written but not in the code yet: 1) Elana. 2) Four new small events with Sarah. 3) Dreams. 4) A small event with Higrith 5) The first day of investigation is almost done. (aside from a few text edits) Quests that arent ready yet 1) The second day of the investigation. The texts almost ready, its being proofread now. We wont need that many renders there, its going to be mostly dialogues. Therefore, the renders can be reused sometimes. 2) The alternative branch for Sarah. Its mostly different only in terms of text, but Ill have to remake some of the renders to fit this new story. 3) Some more small events are possible. 4) The finale of the episode. The technical stuff: 1) We made QTE sequences two times simpler for the easy difficulty. I tested it myself, theres enough time to get your hand out of your pants and kick Fuhrims ass. 2) The MC is stronger now when you play on easy difficulty 3) Weve nerfed the last mercenary you fight at the barge for all difficulties (he was way too strong), but weve significantly boosted Fuhrim. If someones scared of Fuhrim, you can just let him go. Its not necessary to fight him. Overall, the easy difficulty now means you can play the game without leveling up. 4) Well add some practical use to the already existing items in the game. Kageras amulet, Meloras ring (I still havent come up with a buff that this ring might give to a player), and a vial with blood. Youll be able to equip these items using a slot for amulet (via your inventory) To be added in the third episode: 1) Perks 2) The option to sell amulets in the temple. As for questions like: - You promise the implementation of perks for so long, is it really that hard to make them? The answer is yes. The RenPy engine is made for visual novels. Its not built for games like ours. Our coder is trying to squeeze everything he can out of that engine using all his knowledge and skills. - Then why do you make a game like yours using the engine which isnt built for these purposes? Simply because our coder knows this engine. When we started making games, we would do visual novels for the lack of experience in making any other games. General conversation. As usual, lets analyze comments about the game: 1) You got rid of grinding, micromanagement and that basically useless leveling up system thats good! 2) You made a good Russian translation right at the release without any bugs thats good! 3) You added exclamation and question marks where theyre needed for the quests thats even better!!! 4) Once again you release an unfinished short story, where some of the dialogue options lead you to a message saying work in progress, this is disgusting! Like, seriously, this is not that kind of a game you need to work on balance for years, trying to make new textures and places. Why keep it early access for so long? Are you just trying to get some money as soon as possible? Its silly, the games split into episodes which isnt great and mixed reviews wont do any good to the sales either. Our answer: 1) It depends on the player. Some like it, some not so much. 2) Yep, that we can. 3) As usual, some players dont like it. However, since we had to split the game into episodes, which impacted the density of quests, we had to add it. 4) Yeah, why else would you release a game into early access? Mixed reviews only hurt my self-esteem, and they do it less and less with each passing day. Lately Ive been going through these mixed reviews with pleasure. I wouldnt say that I noticed any real negative impact from having mixed reviews in terms of sales. Overall, of course we all work for money. Like any other person out there. What else do people work for? What do you work for? Of course, we like our job, but wed also prefer not to work at all. Its possible that one day I wont have to work anymore. No, itd be correct to say that Id work only for my own pleasure. I mean, its more like a dream right now, its clear that were making a niche product, but Im satisfied with the income I get from my niche. Lately Ive been working in a quite slow tempo. Yes, sometimes we have to crunch but overall, Im trying not to overwork myself as much as possible. After all, the income of our team and my income directly depends on the release of new games. And yes, were doing this for money. I think its obvious. What matters is that Im not willing to do anything for money. Theres a type of content I dont want to add even though adding it usually means a lot of money. However, Im simply ashamed to add that type of content. What Im not ashamed of is releasing an early access of the game. The game will eventually come out of early access. The people whod already bought it saved money compared to those wholl buy it only once its a finished product. Everyone was warned that the game isnt finished. Whyd you buy an unfinished product? Did I force you? Or did I hide the fact its not finished? If this wasnt clear by reading the game description, how do I make it even more obvious? Overall, if nothing happens, weve got a few more months of work ahead of us. However, something does usually happen, someone gets sick or some personal problems appear, etc. That means delays but we hope that well be able to avoid all that. We all wait for the release. You wait to be able to finally play it, we wait to earn some more money out of it. Thats all for now.

Were lacking two files for Steam release of the second episode. Those files are some edits for the first day of the investigation arc. Like Ive said before, were editing the questions you can ask the suspects and some lines of the second day of the investigation. Most likely were going to need new renders for these goals but only a few, its just dialogues after all and you can re-use some renders in this case. All the events that happen prior to the castle are already in the code. Right now, were testing the build. Its hard to say when well be done with it. To release the game in early access, we had to test the build for a month and a half. However, this build is a lot simpler. Weve got one tester left and hes doing his job while I keep rendering and working on sound design. I try to pay more attention to the latter compared to the first episode. We still havent started codding the castle part. However, like Ive said before, the renders and script for the castle part are all finished except for the investigation part. If our coder could start working on the castle part right away, it would be nice, but hes got his own project to look after and there could be a problem with intertwined deadlines. There arent that many events in the castle and most of them are simple. Well, maybe Sarahs arc is a bit more difficult because there are a few paths you can take with her. If our coder starts working on the other project, well, well have to wait for him to finish. No, its not an option to start looking for another coder. Even if we had another coder, we would still need someone to unify the games code. Freelancers are not really suitable for that position, so it wouldnt really help with the ETA. Were going to release OST separately right after the release. One thing though, itll be only the songs which we bought. The songs we use by CC 0 or CC BY 4.0 license wont be included. So yeah, not all tracks from the game will be available this way. Well keep simplifying the game on easy difficulty and balancing it for medium difficulty. First, I wanted to bend to your wishes but then I thought like hell I would. If someone wants a simple kinetic VN, theres an easy difficulty for you. Its so weird to hear things like: I picked a medium difficulty and I cant play the game. Theres an easy difficulty for you even QTE sequences will be simplified for you. If people will ask us to slow them down even more, we will do that. BUT ONLY FOR EASY DIFFICULTY! I hope I made myself clear. From now on, Ill direct everyone to this message with similar claims regarding the game. Thats how itll be now. Anyway, the business part is over. Time for a small chat. I recently got a message: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1797300/discussions/0/3408678077957403925/ A person wanted more sfx sounds like those hed heard in Treasure of Nadia. I never played that game but I think its amazing. People in the thread told him that we should focus on the story, because the story is what truly matters. And here I found a person saying he wants more gameplay. https://steamcommunity.com/app/1797300/eventcomments/3408678077953644596/#c5788831477022780347 Well, whos more right? Overall, everyones right. We all want something for ourselves and so do we . Therefore we do something we want based on our resources, skills and our own wishes. We want to see some gameplay in our game. I find it funny to read how people claim that first episode of VC had some nice gameplay and that the combat system in that episode was better. As a developer, I had a good laugh reading all that. You want to know why? Because no ones tried to implement a deep gameplay system in the first episode of VC. The combat and levelling system didnt play any part in the game and thats how we intended to make the game. There was only an illusion of some system, we were learning and testing things back then. We knew that we wouldnt be able to create something truly interesting right off the bat. Therefore, we did a sketch for the future releases, but it was an optional content, and it didnt really affect anything story wise. Someone will probably say that they liked the game the way it was. They just like watching renders, they dont need anything else. Well, I understand where youre coming from and youre even right, in a way. However, then why do you buy VC? Even the first episode of VC wasnt really a book experience. Some gameplay elements were present even there. Though, I have to say were used to hearing these things by now. When we first released VC on our Patreon after ToML, we lost around 40% of our patrons. It hurt a little that our ratings were bombed but overtime I started viewing this whole thing with some humor. Truth to be told, theres actually a lot of irony in my posts but unfortunately, it doesnt translate too well. Were just talking here, you and me. Here we are, chilling on some couch while drinking beer and discussing the game. No marketing, managers or hypocrisy. Yes, having a big mouth can easily lead to getting punched in the face, but thats life. Is it that bad?) The second episode of the game is experimental, and we will keep experimenting. After all, we need to learn how to do new things and is there any other way to do that than by experimenting? I dont know, maybe you can tell me?) Well, time to wrap up this little chat. Im eagerly waiting for your comments. Overall, I rarely feel offended by them. I always try to be as straight-forward and explicit in my answers as possible. Some of you like it, some of you not so much. However, thats how I like to do these things. Thats it for now. Just hang in there a little longer, the release will happen very soon, I hope.

It finally happened. We entered the active coding phase of the first part of the second episodes release version. Weve been waiting for our coder for a long time but on the other hand, we used that time to add more content. As to why were going to release the update in two stages Ive already explained before. I will just quickly remind you: 1) This will allow us to catch more bugs thanks to our community 2) The castle part isnt finished yet. Even though there isnt that much text, the investigation part underwent huge revamp. Our coder couldnt start working due to a number of reasons but now hes working and were progressing rather quickly. Now we run into a lot of small things that need editing, but thats totally normal. Now when I carefully look through the updates documentation, I realize that some of the things couldve been simplified, others improved. Overall, its hard to keep the games picture inside your head even if you write it all down. Even now I cant see the full picture in my mind regarding how exactly the game will look. Im fairly sure therell be some mistakes, its just impossible to avoid them. As for how soon were going to release it on Steam, its hard to say. A lot of different factors play a role in this question. A few different people do their part of the job and most of the times, theyre irreplaceable in their area. The proofreading made by the main scriptwriter is an essential thing to keep the whole games writing in the same style, while I need to prepare all the renders and documentation and of course, if our coders busy, no one else can do his job. Weve done a lot of new events. I even think theres a bit too many of them given therell be only three playable days. On the other hand, having many events is never a bad thing. Were too far away from calling ourselves professional game developers. Talking about what content you may expect to see, were mainly focused on the games beginning part. Most of the new events will happen prior to the castle. The castles part has been improved too and the investigation arc was partly edited. The part of the game before castle will have around 40k of new words, which isnt that bad if you ask me. The castle part which is mostly finished will add around 13k of words more. Once were done with the castle part, we can finally release the update on STEAM. I repeat, we arent going to release intermediate releases on STEAM, only finished and tested game will be published on STEAM. Even though a lot of people ask me to do otherwise, I wont do the same mistake twice You can thank all those reviewers who said: I dont recommend the game before full version is out Price question. Ive read countless comments saying that we sell our games for way too cheap, and it may scare away possible customers. If the game is cheaper than other similar games, it may indicate that its of poor quality. We arent planning to raise prices for already released games, however we will increase the price for the finished version of VC2. Theres definitely a lot more content in that game, the jobs difficulty increased, and no ones canceled the inflation. Bring me back to my 2007 So yeah, Id like to know what price you would consider to be acceptable, given everything stated above. The recent poll. There wasnt any poll on the Steam. You cant make one, only create a corresponding thread. However, we did hold a poll on our Patreon and it showed me what Id already known. A little story behind this poll. I was once talking to our good friend. So, we were talking and I said: Look, Im always angry, I tell our haters and those who whine to get lost, I dont really do any AD. The games completely not trendy and people still buy it. To that he said: Its because you have good graphics. I answered with: Itd be nice to know that Im the only one in our team who keeps our boat afloat but I think that the main story is as important in our game. Therefore, we decided to hold a poll, the results of which you can see right now.

Our second scriptwriter who happens to be a girl wanted to see QTE and even though we dont really have any feminism ideas in our country, a girls wish is something we cant deny. If she wants QTE, shell have QTE. Have you watched Shrek? Remember the cats eyes? How can you deny a person with similar eyes? Well, I cant. I bet haters started writing hateful comments after the last paragraph, so Ill talk with those whore still reading this. Gameplay-wise the games still weak. During one of the last conversation with our writers I said the following thing: We arent making an erotic game in its usual form (and we dont want to) and yet we cant call our game a game. As a result, our game doesnt really do it for those who like erotic game and neither does it for those who love common games. So far, we cant seem to fix it. Were lacking something and I cant really tell what. Weve got millions of ideas, yet we lack time and human power to bring them to life. Were trying, were experimenting, maybe one day well feel what we should strive towards. Thats it for now. The release will be here soon, that is if consider from developers perspective. However, the times flying for us, you dont even notice how quickly you get old. From the players perspective, I dont know. Just keep waiting, we arent running anywhere from you. We still need your money Bye everyone.

Now that the work on the games back to routine track, Ill keep talking about the inner working of a game developer. Not so long ago we held a few meetings. One with the writers, the other with our coder, and we discussed the problems of the second episode. Ive already pointed out the main problem a few times before. We never planned to make a quest where you save Kagera and that event with the vampires, even that it was planned, it was supposed to happen later in the game. Then whyd things ended up the way they did? We only have a general idea of the main story which we constantly edit as we keep working on the game. This isnt a new way of working on something, you can see this both in movie industry and game industry. And when we planned to make the abduction event, it was supposed to have a bit of a different quest structure and different gameplay, but it didnt work out. No, we partially achieved what we wanted, a lot of people were furious about this event and emotions are our primary goal, something we always strive to achieve. However, both in terms of gameplay and overall representation it ended up being completely different from events you could see in the first episode. Thats when we decided to return to a more usual gameplay in the castle part. We did it and a few things became clear; first of all, the game ended up being boring and while the players would actually get to that part of the game, theyd have tons of questions like what the hell is going on in this game and whyd it suddenly become a typical VN. We started thinking what to do next. It was decided to quickly transfer the drawn-out prologue to some sort of open world. When working on this concept, it quickly became clear that giving free access to all locations, like we did it in the first episode, was not an option. Itd break the game logic. We had to redo everything from scratch right before the release, crunching our asses off like it usually happens before releases. As a result, weve managed to fit the game into that new concept. Now a few more events will be added into that concept and things will get a bit more interesting. In the third episode we arent planning on returning to the system of limited days for exploration but who knows. We plan on returning to the old concept of open world. I also talked to the coder, and we decided to simplify the barge quest sequence. Well keep the leveling system in the game for those whore interested in it and let the others pass the main quest without leveling up. We talked it over and decided that it has some sense. As for level restrictions, were probably going to keep it for now until we find a better solution. Though I dont think we will, simply because VC is split into episodes. It is connected with burnout from working on a single project for a long time. Either way, in the future we arent planning on making such huge games anymore. The main reason for that is burnout. The mistake I mentioned above lead us to the point where well have to make another episode. However, if we do make it to the end, well never work again on games that take 2-2.5 years to finish. Luckily, now we have options to write a more detailed script. Still, theres no guarantee that we wont make the same mistake twice. Its okay to make mistakes. Weve made mistakes and well keep making them. We constantly analyze them, talk them over and when possible, we fix them. We constantly work on different concepts with our writers, the presentation of the story constantly changes, sometimes for the best and sometimes for the worst. Still, its all a part of our work. This bring us to the topic of us not being able to take criticism. No, we have no trouble with that, and we criticize ourselves all the time. The problem is that most of the players dont know about game development anything at all. If we havent learnt much in five years of actual development, what can you expect from a regular player? And whats most important is that players dont know the story. Not everything is as obvious as it may seem. We try to keep surprises for later. Even in our team, only the writers know whos the Possessed One. The only thing were lacking so far is the creation of gloomy atmosphere and environment. We just cant get it right even though we try. And thats it for now. Thanks everyone and bye.

The coders started working on the update, its going slowly for a number of reasons, but weve already discussed the whole update and we dont see any major problems bringing our plans to life. Heres what were going to do: 1)Implement all the content prior to the castle 2)Testing with the help of supporters 3)Adding the castle part 4)Public release This way therell be no rush, less mistakes thus better product at the end of the day. The first stage will contain around 29k of words, maybe well finish some other events. The castle part will have around 10-15k of words. Overall, the update will add around 40k of words to the game. What will be added in the first part of the update: - The purification event (the biggest one). Overall, therell be three huge events prior to the castle. That is the purification event, the vampire event and the search for Kagera. - Alternative branch for the quest where we search for Kagera. - Alternative branch for the quest with vampires. - Completion of all quests by the river from the first episode. - MCs room, new interactions with Ilga, trainings. - Some small random events at locations like apothecary, brothel and armoury. - More ways to interact with girls in the brothel - Event with Kilenas been slightly rewritten, the scene doesnt come off as illogical anymore. What will be added in the second part of the update: - Some of the questions you ask during the investigation will be changed. The questions now will seem more logical, based on the current situation and social status of the person youre talking to. - The second day of the investigation. - New interactions with Sarah. - New interactions with Higrith. - New interactions at the kitchen. - Alternative branch for Sarah which will depend on decisions youve made in the first episode. - New scenes to show background of some of the characters. Gameplay changes: - We will increase the QTE window time on easy difficulty. - The ship quest sequence will be simplified. After talking to our coder, we decided to omit the need to level up your character. Therefore, the level of enemies on the ship will be lower. Theres a chance well add one more difficulty level (the hard one), and itll be based on the current build. Maybe well simplify the easy difficulty even more. Then again, it all requires some proper testing and balancing. - Well add amulets and make the items you find actually usable. Let me get this straight, not everything that I just listed will be added for certain. Things might change during the development process, but thats our general ideas for the next update. We constantly review some gameplay moments; it all undergoes testing and long discussions. Some people complain, some people leave, some people argue but we just keep moving on.
By the way, talking about arguing Id like to discuss with you one of the comments Ive seen recently. Its somewhat of a tradition by now, I guess. Just so Im clear, theres no need to say stuff like: Dont pay attention to that. No, I will keep paying attention to it because it brings me joy. The process of trolling haters is something like a therapy for me, it helps me fight with creative and artistic burnout. I suggest you try doing that too, that is if you arent afraid of possible consequences. You can find our conversation here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1797300/discussions/0/3184614124784484049/ Ill start from an unimportant stuff and end with something that really matters. - I need to learn how to writes stories. Anyone who didnt like the story in TOML you can leave Ill explain it to those who stayed. Im not planning on learning how to write stories simply because Im not a writer in our team (now thats a twist, huh?). I wrote ToML only because there was no one else to do that. I simply didnt have the money to hire a writer. Now Ive got the two of them and Im satisfied with their work. As for ToML, its not really a game but my personal pain and therapy for me. I poured all my feelings into that game and then I just lost any interest in writing and those hurtful emotions that brought me into this industry in the first place. Though I did write some small events for VC1 and VC2 and whats funny, people praise those events even though they dont even know who wrote them. Now to the more important stuff. Misogyny. I never really reacted to any of this bullshit thinking that people who claim theres any misogyny in my game are simply narrow-minded. Now I decided to comment on this. I think the biggest problem is with that event with Ann. Thats what people most complained about. Hm. Well, thats strange if you ask me. The whole point of that event with Ann is that she left MC no choice but to do what she wanted him to do. Everything pointed to that, the way she talked to him, the way she walked around in panties, the way she slept naked knowing that MC would see her. And this accusation of hers: Ooh, whatcha gonna do if I dont? You tiptoe around your beauty, fussing over her, treating her like a princess when what she needs is a real man, not someone weak like you. If a girl says that youre not a man enough while shes standing there basically naked, well, thats a big hint. Now Im really interested to hear the opinion of those who played the game. Did I really fail to convey such a simple idea in this scene? It wasnt him punishing her, but Ann getting exactly what she wanted. Whyd she wanted it? Some of you probably thought because Ann liked MC? Did no one think that she wanted to just toy with MC and then ditch him? We dont know what she was thinking. By the way, initially that was the plan, she was supposed to destroy MCs life. However, then I fell in love with Ann, and I listened to pleas and therefore altered the story a little. Though now I think it was a mistake, a dramatic branch would be more suitable. Moreover, the branch with Helena has been and always will be the most canonical one, that is by creators design. All other branches are just there for variety. I still find it weird. I never saw anyone accusing the authors of incest games of misogyny. Its they who seduce their own family by means of blackmail or force. Or maybe coming late into the bedroom of your mother or sister and putting your thing into their mouth isnt a rape? Well, Ive got a surprise for you. Whys no one saying anything now? There are games where daughters (probably underage ones) are being forced into sex and for some reasons, no ones accusing the authors for that. Selective morals? Here we see something wrong, and we turn a blind eye to that? Double standards? Everyones equal but someones above that rule? I can keep listing such examples for a long time. Sometimes I thought it could be due to the difference in our cultures. Even though we have a lot of common with people from the West, theres still a lot of differences. Thats a good thing. Theres no such thing as a bad culture, theres only bad people. You know, Ive always been interested in other cultures. For example, theres a channel on Youtube called (Entony the American man) who talks about his life in America. Theres a channel (Coci the Japanese man) who talks about his life in Japan. I was genuinely surprised when he said that in Japan the age of consent is 13 years. Its very weird for me, to us thats just a kid. However, that only means that the Japanese society came to that mutual decision based on their inner, cultural, social and economic determinants. Im not in any position to judge them. I could say the same about anime, I dont understand it, but many people love it and its fine. If I dont like it, it doesnt mean Ill start writing comments saying that anime is bad. I just dont understand their culture enough to make any logical conclusions. I wonder if theres any people out there who think the same way. And thats all I had to say for now. Some people will find my thoughts weird; some people will agree with me. All the best to you. Thank you for your interest in our art.

A small but rather important piece of information. 1) Weve been paid for the last two months. This has reinforced our financial stability. We dont know if this problem is solved for good but now when its become clear that we can lose our main source of income at any moment, Ill be very careful about handling our resources (though I always have been), so that if something goes wrong again, we can keep working for even a bigger period of time. 2) The work on the release version of the update is almost finished. It doesnt mean were going to release the update for the second episode any time soon. First of all, I usually leave the most difficult part of the work for last and secondly, organizing such a big update for the coder will take a few weeks at least, and thirdly the testing period will be long as well. Thats more or less how it looks right now:
And all these documents are almost finished. And as always, some of my personal thoughts. Weve received a lot of interesting comments under out last devlog. Its always nice to talk to those who leave some constructive thoughts. Heres an example: Episode 1 of Void's Calling was very interesting and it had a lot of replay value. I really liked getting a daily routine for the character to build up money and build up stats. I took my time to explore and I didn't feel rushed. I also appreciated the freedom to grind my character and build up stats. I was really surprised when Episode 2 of Void's calling didn't have as much freedom as Episode 1. I felt restricted. And heres my answer (this way more people will see it): The second episode wasn't initially planned to be like that. Initially, we had an idea to make a branching story with Kagera. However, we couldn't write it the way we'd pictured it in our mind. Realizing that things aren't going according to plan anymore, weve decided to try to give players more freedom in the castle. However, soon it became clear that weve made a huge completely linear story block prior to the castle part and a lot of players would probably have a hard time understanding what is going on. That's when weve decided to write a Fuhrim event where you look for Kagera, so as to create a visibility of an open world in the beginning of the second episode. That in turn took us a lot of time to pull off and the game was delayed, we had to redo a lot of stuff. I've said this a lot of times and will keep saying it, the game development process is a hard intellectual work and things don't always go smoothly. Can a developer make mistakes? Of course, he can, and he will. Can a developer see his mistake? Most of the times yes, at least if he understands what hes doing. We do understand. All developers want to make a good game. The problem is that we dont have a detailed script or plan for the game. Its impossible to make it now. Its incredibly time-consuming process and we dont have anyone for the job. We have a finale of the story in our mind, we know some crucial points in the game, and we lead the story towards them. Before we hired a second writer, we could barely keep up with the rest of the team in this area. Now things are definitely looking up, most of the text is now proofread a few times, which is where we fix most of the mistakes. Though, theres still plenty of them left. We love experimenting and I love playing with our players emotions, especially I like giving you events that make you experience some bad feelings, those kinds of feelings are stronger, they stay with you for a longer period of time. For this kind of thing to work its important for you to have some connection with the character on the screen, without that it simply wont work. When someone writes a review saying something like: You abducted Kagera, I hate you, this is like a balsam for my soul. Thats exactly why we did that event, didnt we!? :) Actually, wed like to create a more sinister atmosphere in the game but so far, no luck in this area. We lack the experience and knowledge. Maybe one day. Good luck to all of you. Stay safe at such trying times.

First of all, Ill list the events (finished/planned) in the order of their size and importance. 1) The purification. One of the biggest events. It shows the relationship between the Pure Ones, deepens the lore of the game. Itll be available during the first three days and between the other events. The event will consist of a few stages, and itll be finished by evening of the third day. 2) The investigation arc. Were currently editing and proofreading some elements of this event. So far, we think about making it into a two-day event. The option to leave the town will be left for the third episode. I think many players didnt even realize that the castle part is in essence unfinished. The events are misplaced. There are no random events between the interrogations of different residents of the castle. About that slightly down below, most of these events are prepared though. Were doing a big overhaul and working on mistakes of the investigation arc. Our second writer is currently working on looking for any logical holes in this event. Of course, refining something always takes a lot of time and its easier to just make something from the scratch instead of trying to fix what you already have. However, therere plenty of mistakes in this arc and we cant just turn a blind eye to all of them. Allow me to go off-topic for this one. Back in the day when we had only one writer, we had some serious troubles with the scripts. Our main writer has a main job and when we were busy writing this arc, he had a lot on his hands and in such circumstances, we had to accept any text just so that we could move on. The opportunities we have now allow us to fix most of the problems weve accumulated over this long period of time. 3) Random events prior to the castle. This is a huge set of different events. Thats including events in Ilgas house, merchants events and new events in the castle. A lot of events are still in the works, somethings only yet to be proofread and edited. However, one thing is certain, therell be a lot smaller events in the next update compared to the early access release. Ive published a few renders of these events in the past. 4) Three alternative branches, for vampires, Fuhrim, and for Sarah. Well give you more options on how to access vampires arc and a few more options how to end this storyline. As for Fuhrim, even back in the early access build there was an option for an alternative route with him, but it was unavailable at the moment. Now its available. Weve also added an alternative branch for Sarah, and itll depend on whether you found her in the town in the first episode or not. These events are there to add variability and role-play elements to the game. However, we cant create a truly big number of different alternative branches. The events we create are too big to make more alternative branches for them. 5) Interaction options with Fiona and Mrisya have been expanded. 6) The event with Kilena is in the works. 7) The dreams are written. With a strong desire you can come up with a lot of different interactions between characters but at the end of the day, it all comes down to human resources. Moreover, things get a bit more complicated when you want to tie all these events and add some backstory to each one of them. Its quite hard to maintain the logic of the story. You always forget about something during the work and more often than not you had thought about those things before but you just forgot about them. When I was working on ToML everything was way easier. It was a simple story that I wrote without any serious plan, without any huge twists. I even managed to roll out updates every month even though back then I could devote way less time to the game. Anyway, its all water under the bridge. Even back then I noticed people saying that Im rude, that I cant take criticism and that I cant talk to people. In fact, its not really true. Im usually way more rude but my translators refuse to translate what I want to say and my level of English isnt good enough for me to be able to convey these thoughts on my own. Thats just who I am; I dont want to please; I dont give a damn about money, and I just take pleasure in the job Im doing. The games rating is 60%. Well, thats not so bad considering the game is unfinished. Its early access. With all that, people whove bought the game now will automatically have access to the full version of the game when we finally release it, even though well raise the price, of course. Therell be a lot more content in the second episode compared to the first one. And if you keep in mind that around 10-15% of those reviews were about the developer itself and not the game, the result of 70% positive reviews is quite good. When I was exhausted after the release, all these reviews made me feel bad and I even stopped working for almost a whole month, but now with a clear head and knowing how unfinished that build was, I consider the result to be quite good. Now let me get things straight about the criticism. Im the only one in our team who actually reads the reviews from time to time. And to be honest, I just dont take negative reviews seriously. Sometimes I dont even read them. I honestly dont believe that a player whos never had any experience in developing a game can know more than people whove been purposefully trying to get good at it for the last five years. And we still arent good enough for were still learning. Its a complex and hard work. My attitude to feedback doesnt imply that our games have no problems. Our games have tons of problems and were well aware of every single one of them. Some of them can be fixed, others are in the core of the game; its always a compromise between your desires and possibilities. And with all that, feedback can be important in those moments when a developer cant see a problem due to lack of fresh eyes. Like, something can be obvious for us who work on the game, but for a player who hasnt taken any part in the development process it might be a difficult problem. By the way, about problems. Not so long ago I watched a video about QTE, and it gave me some ideas. I noticed a few mistakes weve made when implementing QTE. For example, well make it so that MC cant die when fighting vampires during QTE sequence. All future QTE sequences wont be able to kill MC too. Other events couldnt kill the main character anyway. Well also give you more time to react to QTE if you play on easy difficulty. As for financial aspect of things, the question is still open. For as long as we have funds to get by, well keep working. I cant give you any exact dates, its possible well make a test release for our Patreon with around half content planned, just to test the build. After all, the bigger the update, the more difficult it is to catch all the bugs. Im not planning on making this release available on Steam. I think many of you know why. For those who dont, Ill explain Ive had enough of the early access release and those 10% of negative reviews from those who dont know what early access means. I dont want to engage in similar experiments anymore. Yes, considering the current situation, the early access release was a saving decision because we earned the money that helped us keep working, but when I read that we only did that to get money in short, its not the best feeling. I mean, of course we earned something, but why wouldnt we release only the finished product (with higher price) and thus earning even more money if we so cared about them, that I dont understand. But Ill repeat myself, that decision, which was heavily imposed by my colleagues, kind of saved the day. No matter whats happening, its all for the best. Maybe one day well even get the cut from current sales. Thanks everyone and bye.

Ill start with the main topic of the day. The sanctions have finally reached us. Ive received a message saying its impossible to pay us our share of money from the sales. Temporarily impossible, of course. I cant say Im devastated by this news. Ive always said that I dont give a damn about money, and I can say that again with all the confidence. Im more worried about people Ive given a job to. Ill try to keep them employed of course. As for money from Patreon, well, they wont be much of help. Itll be enough to pay a few people, but thats all. That is if we even get those money. What are we going to do? Were going to keep working. I dont exactly live rich, and I have some good funds to keep going. Ill keep financing the project and monitoring things to see if theres any point in doing this. Ill do that for at least a few months. Now to the development process. Well, its been going slow. The warm welcome of the second episode and the feeling of approaching mess that were seeing now has taken a toll on us. Though its silly to be afraid of something inevitable like being afraid of death; however, the constant feeling of anxiety doesnt really help the creative process About the work. When it comes to the script, I feel like its around 2/3 done. The thing that currently worries me the most is the code. As always, though. Weve added a lot of small events along with two big ones. A few alternative branches have also been added (Fuhrim, Sarah). Overall, I like where were going with this update. Weve got a bit of a problem with the investigation branch though. Its hard to pull off and were not experts at writing such storylines. It sounds interesting as an idea but its hard to make that idea come true. You may ask then why did we even start working on it? To learn things, of course. You cant learn stuff without doing something youre bad at. Now a little about achievements and other fan favourite stuff. Its needed, its fun and we have absolutely no idea how to work with all that. What Im saying is that its a problem for us to even come up with ideas. Were not abandoning these things, weve just put them at the back burner, as always. The next piece of information is only for our Chinese players and its regarding localization. () https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2463986089 1) 2)

Have you had any trouble passing QTE? Someone said that you need to double click on the icon. We haven't experienced similar problems on Windows. We've faced a problem after releasing the second episode. A lot of users have reported difficulties with passing some gameplay parts even though they're pretty simple. Both we and our testers have had no difficulties with them. So far we've received a few messages (the last one came today) that Linux users experience such troubles. We don't know the reason of that trouble. Linux version of the game hasn't been tested, it's an impossible task for us. The code of the game's identical for both platforms, it's unclear why it works differently on Linux. We didn't release the first episode on Linux initially, then people started asking us to do that and we did. At that point, no one's reported any problems. And we're probably going to do that in order to avoid any criticism. Still, it's important to acknowledge this information. We've received three messages about QTE problems on Linux and that's I'd call statistics.

1) Small talk: Hi, everyone. Id like to start this by introducing you to our team. Im the leader of our small developer team. My first game was Twists of my life and I first started working on it in TyranoBuilder engine. Shortly afterwards Ive found a coder, and he helped me build it with RenPy. Our coders been a big influence on how we approach the question of making games. He was the one to suggest making ToMLs story less linear and adding elements of open world. Sadly, at that time, I didnt have enough experience, and it all resulted in an infamous line about beacon and eggs which is well-known in small circles. However, what I value the most about that game is that its given me that priceless experience which I was able to use when working on VCs first episode. The biggest issue with our coder is the fact that hes working on two projects. That means we cant give him new tasks all the time. That in turns slows the whole process of resolving some questions. Sometimes we need him to do something urgent for us, but at the same time hes really busy with his other project. Weve tried looking for coders who would help our main coder, but the end result was a failure. Coders (at least those who work with RenPy) have a hard time working with someone elses code. Most of the time, theyd have to code everything from scratch, otherwise thered be bugs and its not so easy to find a bug in a code thats not yours. By the time when we were almost done with ToML, our current main writer joined the team. With him we wrote the main concept of VC. By the way, what you can see in the first episode is drastically different from our initial view of the game. A lot of things that now stand out like a sore thumb are actually the remnants of that old view of the game. Even characters and their role in the game was changed during the course of the development. Nevertheless, the general plan for the game is written, and we know how were going to end this story and guide our main character to the finale of his journey. Anyway, lets get back to our team. Im responsible for graphics, game design and partly for the script. Shortly after the release of VCs first episode, a girl joined our team. She quickly realized whats what and started actively working on the script. If our main writers a sucker for something grand and serious, shes responsible for all the crazy stuff in the game. Can we add a monster that would have an additional torso growing right from his own body Damn, if only my abilities could match her wishes The Void would be truly horrifying then. By the way, it was her idea to add interactive events. Whats funny is that I was a bit skeptical about this whole idea at first. I was worried about how troublesome itd be to add this to the game. In order to add renders to all the written text, Im left with no choice but to simplify and automate as many processes as possible. However, in case of QTE you need to carefully position everything, which means doing most of the work manually. That scene with Fuhrim that you can pass in approximately 30 seconds, well, Ive spent a week and a half working on it. In the end, I gave this idea a try, and I liked what I saw when testing the game. It adds immersion to the game. We also have a translator, an editor (who also happens to be our all-time moderator), an animator (who joined us just recently), and a girl for post editing. 2) Devlog: After the release, we basically didnt write anything on Steam or Patreon. It was due to an extreme fatigue. Just so you understand, in order to release the game in early access we had to rebuild the whole game, and so those three months prior to release were a complete crunch. However, it doesnt mean weve been just slacking off. The anger that I got so saturated with actually gave me strength. I havent even realized how quickly I managed to render seven events. Most of them are about Ilga and some castle events; currently Im rendering renders for alternative branches. Overall, the works progressing very nicely so far. I wont announce any release dates though. Many players havent even read the post about early access because Ive seen so many funny comments. The update will be released as one big patch and that will happen only when everythings done and ready. 3) Q&A 1) Rough, rough estimate of EP.3 release? 6 months? 1 year? 2 years? The episode 3 isnt even in the works yet, so its too early to talk about that. Even the second episode is not fully finished yet, its still in early access. We hope to release it as a full game in about 6 months from now. 2) I hope that there will be more dialogues, more about history of the world, maybe some adventure quests where you can find legendary armour or sword or something like that. Yes, all of that will be added to the game. The new core mechanics are there, now we just need to focus on the story. 3) Are you planning to make an option to skip the minigames? [Well give you more time to react to QTE on easy difficulty, so that people who have health problems can play the game. Therell be no option to completely skip QTE. 4) How many seasons there will be? We planned to make three episodes, but we havent been able to get to the crucial story point in time, and so therell be four of them. Our love for big events sometimes plays a dirty trick with us. Im trying to make sure that writers focus on small events as much as possible. But we need big ones too, its just that we cant allow ourselves to make a whole lot of them anymore. 5) Will there be any changes to the combat system in the future or is it done? We dont plan on making any changes to it, only expanding it further. We plan to add perks, amulets, maybe some expansion of the rune system for sword. 6) When is the next update? The next update will be the full release of second episode. As for release dates, its approximately half a year from now, maybe more. 7) Will you add new characters in episode 2? We dont add new characters if theres no need for them. We already have plenty of characters to work with. 8) Will you add an official guide? Theres already a guide in the corresponding thread. Since there werent that many questions, Ill give some comments about the feedback weve received: 9) Who thought it was a good idea to add interactive elements to the game? Try searching for what a hybrid game is. You might be surprised. Tell me, why arent you surprised to see animations in the game? They dont fit the genre of interactive book. Its a bit of double standard. There are interactive books and interactive movies. Both these genres go hand in hand. As a big fan of Quantic Dream, Ive always been interested in similar game mechanics, and so Ill keep working with them. Maybe one day Ill be able to leave the genre of interactive books, and this will be a useful experience for me. 10) We wont buy your game. Well ruin your ratings, so you go broke. Okay. Were actually quite pleased with the sales of early access. I live in a very humble way, I dont spend that much money which means I have a pretty good safety cushion, which will allow my team to keep operating without any sales at all for a long time. But we do have sales even now, when the ratings have been bombed. And Im not talking about just the second episode, even ToML is still selling rather well. Is it possible that we stop operating? Yes. What will we do if that happens? I want to give you an example from my past. Before we got on Steam, we only had Patreon. And we didnt have that much success there. We had miserable income which wasnt enough for anything. ToML was cheap in production. I was responsible for story and renders + I had a coder with a translator. And the game was a simple, linear VN. When we were making ToML, we often had messages coming from people saying something like no incest no money. However, that didnt affect us in anyway, and we just kept doing what we were doing, even though we knew we could get some easy money that way. When we were done with ToML, it was time to move on to VC. Thats when I hired a new writer. It means that the production cost has risen, and the income sunk even lower. At some point I told my coder that Im done. We make one last update and thats it. Ive been thinking for a long time to apply for Zbrush training courses and maybe land a job in some big project. Even now we discuss the prospects of releasing an isometric RPG or interactive movie, but of course, its all just dreams and fantasies at this point. We dont have enough money nor experience for that now, but its not forbidden to have dreams. And its not because itll mean a bigger revenue for us, but because its interesting to work on something as big as that. However, it was at that time when Steam allowed erotic content and we decided to release our finished game ToML on this platform. It was a big surprise for us when it started bringing us good money. So, we kept working. And when people cite other games with clear focus on porn and compare us with them, they should realize that we have a bit different view on these things. We arent better than those who make interactive porn nor are we any morally higher than them; we just keep doing what we think is right for us. Its not because it brings us more money, but because were just simply ashamed to do otherwise. A lot of people tell us that we position our games similarly to all the other adult games, where the game is just porn with some context. Let me ask you, whend we do that? I mean, the renders you see on screenshots are present in the game. It adds to the sales, but can it really be considered a misleading information about the game? The scene with vampires is an enormous scene with 12 big animations and a huge number of renders. Yes, we have that in our game. However, if you take a closer look, youll see that our game doesnt have that many fetishes, there are a lot of dialogues and even more events whose whole purpose is to progress the story. All of this you can read in the description of the game; no ones promised you a different game. Everythings right there in the description. For example, the writer sent me three events the other day. I tell him: Listen, we could add one erotic event here where shed show her breasts. He asks me: Wouldnt that be too much of erotic content?. After that, I tell him: Four to one ratio sounds good to me. And its just breasts. The whole writing team has such vision of the game, not just me. And with all that in mind, our vision of the game sometimes differs regarding different aspects, and were forced to look for compromises. The coder told me the other day: I wouldnt play a game with QTE in it. And to that I told him: I cant play your game without cheats because theres too much grinding in it for my taste. Its totally fine that someone doesnt like our game, but many just started throwing insults. At some point, I was ready to find a compromise, but because of all this, Ive now taken a position of principle and thats it. Im like a mountain now, nothing will change my mind. Moreover, we can be very critical to each other in our team. Its fine. We have a person in our team who thinks that games are bad in general. It doesnt bother me, and I keep working and even talking to that person. We can take constructive criticism, but we wont tolerate unconstructive and hateful messages. Thats it, I guess. A lot of what I said is off topic, but I just love writing such news posts. Thanks everyone and take care.

Collectible cards: I was asked to make them, and I did. Im not sure if someone really needs them because I never really understood the purpose of them. Maybe Im making them solely for those who asked me to make themAlanna_flirt You can check the example in my profile. Questions for developers: In order to avoid making a whole post about such a small thing, how about we turn this into Q&A. You can leave your questions for developers in the comments below. Once there's enough of them, we'll make a post with answers. (We've already done this for the first episode, if anyone remembers).

Thank you, guys. Its been a while since weve last received such a big wave of positive emotions and desire to keep working. Let me thank everyone who suggested us releasing the game in early access, it was a really good idea. We got the money we needed and thats always a good thing Alanna_flirt We planned to release a patch this weekend thatd let you skip mini-games. Wed planned to implement this feature right from the start as Ive said a lot of times by now. However, we didnt have enough time and decided to do it later. Some of you started criticizing us for being soft and that we have to stand by our vision of the game no matter what. I woke up today in good spirits, read some comments and reviews, and I decided that youre right. Why make these adjustments? Well leave everything as it is. Mini-games are cool. I hope that you wont criticize us now for being fainthearted Yeah, sometimes you want to sit on two chairs at once, were people too and want to earn some money. However, the design vision is above any money, youre right. Forgive us for doubting our loyal fan base. Thank you. Cheers.

- Improvement and proofreading of English localization. - Correction of small logical inconsistencies in quests. - Correction of typos and duplicated phrases. - Fixed the inability to complete the game under certain conditions. - Adding one more animation to the vampire quest.

Before you read the news about release, please take into account the following information: 1) The game isnt finished yet, its an early access. Theres a big missing event at the beginning of the story and its end. Your saves from 0.9 wont be working with the 1.0 version. 2) You can export your progress (money, relationship level) but all players will be level 10 in the second episode (for balance purposes). The maximum level you can reach in the second episode is currently 15. Your weapons, potions and armour will be lost when transferring the saves. The second episode contains: - 3788 renders; and many of them are of really high quality if I can say that. - 95 animated scenes. Now we have some truly good animations, theres even a video consisting of 700 frames. - 116, 890 words. For comparison, the first episode includes: - 2754 renders. - 48 animations (5 we added recently). - 121,819 words. Overall, the second episode contains a bit less text but its way more vivid and dynamic thanks to increased number of renders per scene and new animated sequences. Description: - As good as the story is, it should be noted that in this update weve paid a lot of attention to gameplay. We havent implemented everything we wanted to yet, but we think that the second episode is a big step forward. However, no need to take full advantage of the new gameplay mechanics. If youre here just for the story, choose the easy difficulty. Easy difficulty doesnt mean you wont see mini games, nor does it mean youll have a kill everyone button. All it does is help you easily pass most of the fights on your own or by using the auto-combat feature. - The interface has been reworked (vendors, combat system) - Weve listened to our players wishes and now all main events are marked on the map. - I wont go into details about the story, play and see for yourself. However, not all events are ready, for example, Kilenas event has been done in a rush and itll be reworked. - The animations have been severely improved. Achievement system is in the plans. The game has items that you can find but at the moment they cant be equipped, you can only look at them. Thats it for now. Let us know what you think and how you like it; we can still change a thing or two if needed. We always read your comments and more often than not respond to them.