Now that patch 1.01 is out (and still fails to account for one world state due to a Ch7 bug) and Kent and I are enjoying our traditional week off from development, I thought I'd take a moment and post about the future of our first title. Here is the planned release cycle and what to expect with each: v1.02 - Sept 2024: This will include bug fixes for all chapters, including the one mentioned above from Chapter 7. If this update adds new content, it will only be to patch bugged paths, such as Mallory still thinking she's on the casual sex path after MC has rejected her every advance in Ch6. (Potential spoilers ahead) v1.10 - Dec 2024-Mar 2025: This will be our Epilogue Chapter. It will begin a few days before the scene in Walter's bar at the end of Ch9, and take the player through the outcome of the lawsuit. (Yes, there will be a trial) and then take the MC through the immediate outcomes of his ending, followed by a glimpse of his future. We are evaluating a mechanic that would allow the MC to have an incomplete look at what his ending might have looked like had he made different choices as well. This version (the final chapter update) will be titled "Chasing Sunsets" and will also endeavor to tie up any loose ends, such as what happened to Vince if you left him alive, how that ring ended up on Jaye's finger at the end of Ch9, and most importantly, what happened to Hank the Wolf. The final content update will certainly offer the player an opportunity to see some faces that have been absent such as Rikki, Bianca, and others. Each will have individual content, depending on choices made up to this point. The points system will go away in the final chapter, and while there will be choices, they can affect pathing within that ending. v1.11 - TBD 2025: This will be our final version, after which we will only patch the game if bugs are discovered, and it will be considered a completely finished product. This will focus on bringing legacy animations and art up to our current standard, refining dialogue, and possibly adding additional choices or providing a smoother experience navigating the relationship realities. v1.11 is not expected to maintain save compatibility with previous versions, because new variables will be introduced and some legacy variables removed. I will upload this version to its own depot on Steam so it doesn't overwrite your old saves before you're ready. That's it in a nutshell. After taking a few days off, Kent and I will be burning the midnight oil to get this entire project into a state we can call "a job adequately done." We'll let you know periodically how things are going, and of course, watch the Previews channel for a sneak peek of what lies ahead!

Or in my case, "writing a wrong," I suppose. I just wanted to make a small announcement about the upcoming v1.01 patch for Chapter 9. Some of the feedback we've received has indicated that named saves were causing compatibility issues on Steam Deck and that the animated main menu was stressing some lower-end hardware. As such, I've created new options in the preferences menu that can disable both features with a click. Here is the changelog:

• Adds about 70 new images and a new scene, and two additional choices (Details below)
• Two additional relationship states (not endings) have been added to the summary
• Enable/Disable Named Saves in Preferences Menu (To prevent Steam Deck issues)
• Enable/Disable Animated Main Menu in Preferences Menu (For slower systems)
• Corrects some spelling and grammar issues
• Fixed condition that allowed players to be intimate with Jaye after having burned her relationship
• Expands on a fun scene in Chapter 6 where Jaye jokes about getting stuck in the clothes dryer.
• Makes end-of-chapter saves consistent and eliminates all intrusive "save now" messages
• Branding visible on certain products in Chapter 6 has been removed (unnoticed trademark)

This is not (repeat) this is not the end!

Well, here we are near the end of a journey that began three years ago. Tonight, we release Chasing Sunsets Chapter 9, which brings the main story arc to a conclusion. We were targeting the end of July, and we're sad we missed that date, but the result were some scene additions that will hopefully make up for some of that. Today we moved out of Early Access, but there WILL be at least three more updates to this title. The next update will be an effort to stomp out any bugs or other inconsistencies in earlier chapters, eliminate duplication of any assets, and settle on a compression method that Kent agrees is a fair balance between visual fidelity and file size. Chapter 9 will lock in the player's ending, which will be explored in greater detail in the final content update hopefully by the end of this year. There are still some story lines left to wrap up in the next update, as well as some exposition on how things will evolve for characters as the ripple effects of their decisions expand both through family, friendships, and even the world. As of today, Chasing Sunsets contains just shy of 16000 renders, 200K words of story and dialogue, nearly 150 pieces of music, and nearly 300 different sound effects. Our game contains nearly 100 different characters with speaking roles, and has 204 achievements. Chapter 9 explores a world that has grown smaller for our protagonists after returning from the island. Against the continued threats from the usual suspects, Mallory wants to return to the fun she and the main character had the first time they met: Outdoors with no labels on their relationship. Needless to say, Mallory is well aware of Jaye's bungalow adventure with the main character, so she knows the bar has been set pretty high. Will she be up to the challenge? Meanwhile, Jaye is wrestling with the specter of her medical school dreams evaporating, and all of this while the pressure is still on from their government and corporate enemies to nip the threat posed by Mallory's existence in the bud. We will see some new faces as well as revisit a few from earlier chapters as events converge on a trajectory that, unsurprisingly, ends where it began. There are changes beyond the content addition. You'll notice a new main menu with updates to dated animation, and improvements throughout the UI. Additionally, Kent created real animations to replace the slideshow lewd pseudo-animations scenes in the Prologue and Ch1.
Where do we go from here? Chasing Sunsets moved on from Early Access on purchase platforms today. While we will add one more content update, and modernize the oldest parts, our focus will begin moving toward our next project, Firebreak. We hope you enjoy Chapter 9 as much as we enjoyed making it. We hope you laugh a little, maybe get a little bit of the feels, and, of course, enjoy our ladies doing what they do best. Thank you to everyone who has supported us on this project. We couldn't do it without you, and we hope what we do next only raises the bar.

The wait is nearly over! As we close in on Chapter 9's release, it's well past time for another update. As of today, our render count sits at 1200, with one remaining scene requiring animation, and about three remaining scenes requiring art. Chapter 9 will feature two crossovers from other popular titles, both of which leave a mark on the story. (Sorry, no spoilers!)
This chapter is taking a bit more time to finish, but it's also a somewhat longer update, as you will know your character's ending when the credits roll. This will be the last time you see the chapter summary screen that's become a hallmark of this title. This will also mark the end of "Early Release" and the title will head into the mainstream on the Steam Store. To be absolutely clear, this is NOT an episodic property that will be released over multiple "seasons," but rather a self-contained story. As teased previously, some of these characters will have roles in in future titles.
The last update (targeting late Nov/early Dec) will be something between a normal chapter and an extended epilogue showing how your ending plays out once the immediate crisis is past. At least one choice made in the first five minutes of the game comes full circle as the sun sets on the present for the final time. Assuming we finish the game by the end of the year, we'll will then remaster the prologue and first chapter to bring the art/animations and sound up to the standard our current state-of-the-art.
All of that nitty gritty aside, we are shooting for a July release for Chapter 9. This will be a bit of a squeeze for us, but that'll mostly fall on the coding side of things to make sure everything is as bulletproof as it can be before being released.
On a personal note, when we started this, it was a different time. People were locked down with COVID, there was less war in the world, and the AVN community was full of promise. As we begin putting a bow on our first game, Kentyrr and I want to thank everyone who's supported us from the bottoms of our hearts! Early release asks a lot of the purchaser, and we couldn't be more pleased that we're on the cusp of delivering on the promise we made when we launched on Steam!

Chapter 9 has borrowed a page out of Mallory's playbook and really taken flight!
I won't sugarcoat it, It has been a pretty stressful month for Kentyrr and I on the development front. Two long-planned scenes that I've asked Kent to deliver turned out to not have any assets available to create them. Normally, if we're doing something a little unusual, we'll check well in advance to ensure the store has adequate models available for the scene, but every once in a while we want to do something relatively pedestrian, only to find what we need just doesn't exist. In either case, we had to really dig deep, but we were able to break through in the end. And we did it in a way that doesn't feel like compromising at all. I can say unironically that we haven't been challenged with the art like this since Chapter 4!
Speaking of art, those of you following the preview channels already see the improvements we're making to old and dated animations and UI elements. Since Kent and I work in parallel, this extra work hasn't impacted development timelines as he's still chopping away at his backlog of art. [previewyoutube=zgaXpFhu7g8;full][/previewyoutube] From a straight up numbers perspective, we're almost 600 renders into the chapter, with about half the script complete. Music selection is complete, and the last of our scenes requiring really custom environment work is behind us...Except maybe one at the end. This has been a fun chapter to craft so far from a writing perspective, since so much is coming together near the end of our story. As previously stated, Chapter 9 does bring the focus back onto Mallory and Jaye as each struggles to settle into their new lives following the events on the island.
After taking stock, it quickly becomes clear that our genetically-suspicious team isn't out of the woods quite yet. While prior chapters have been pretty predictable in size, this one is definitely in a "when it's ready" state.
We have a lot of ground to cover before our characters ride off into the *cough* sunset in Chapter 10, and we can't leave any branches on the floor. That doesn't necessarily mean we're not tracking to our usual release cycle, but it does mean that if we get toward completion and discover we missed something, we'll have to decide whether it can be tied up in Chapter 10, or if this is our last chance. So far, so good...And I can't begin to say how good it feels to have the biggest art challenges behind us! More updates will follow as we close in on a release date!

Stone Fox Studios is excited to announce that Chapter 8 has arrived in time for the holidays. This will be the "expansion chapter" since we were unable to close out the Tonalu arc in Chapter 7 as originally planned. Chapter 9 will pick up where the original Chapter 8 would have opened, in Boston. The final tally for Chapter 8: 1900 new individual static renders 6 new animations 1 Crossover with another popular VN 22 new original audio tracks 21 new achievements Chapter 8 was bittersweet for us because we say farewell to a few characters (for now) and the next chapter effectively wraps up the pathing, with the final chapter being more of an epilogue that explores the consequences of the player's cumulative choices. The Chapter has been retitled "Conflicts of Interest," and picks up shortly after the post-credits scene in Chapter 7. There will be a lot to unpack before Team Throatpunch leaves Tonalu:

• What will George's decision be on the inheritance?
• Will there be fallout for MC following his deadly incident on foreign soil?
• What were the results of Jaye's DNA test?

• What happened between Gary and Bianca?
• Why did Lisa keep MC and Jaye's shower tryst to herself?
• Who is buying the MV Sunset?
• What was the impact of Jaye's sabbatical from pre-med?

As the dog days of summer continue, Kent and I are plugging away at Chapter 8, which is shaping up to be even bigger than the last one. In the short term, I will be releasing a minor bug fix update in the next week or so with a few spelling/grammar corrections, and a few other corrections that have emerged as Chapter 7 becomes well-trodden. As of today we're sitting at well over a thousand images rendered, with four large and four smaller scenes left to go in development. My PC is running around the clock as Kent is keeping the render queue well-fed. This is the point in the development cycle where we begin art and script integration and plan animations. While we've been somewhat quiet, it hasn't been for lack of effort. We're at the point in the development cycle where we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, not only for the chapter, but for the entire project. This has been a tremendous amount of work, but it has been rewarding beyond words watching the fanbase evolve and our little proof-of-concept take flight. Our focus at this point is in sticking the landing! Once we have the game finalized, our intent is to "remaster" the Prologue and Chapter 1, as well as remake the earliest animations to bring them up to the same level as the more recent ones. After that, Kent and I will move on to Project Next, so stay tuned to hear what we have planned for our second project! So, what can you expect from Chapter 8?

• The fallout from MC's encounter with Vince
• The outcome of the inheritance evaluation
• Deeper insight into Lisa and Bianca's lives
• The outcome of the Bandit gambit
• The thinking bench returns
• At least one easter egg with another popular AVN

While we work furiously on Chapter 8, and see the end of the Chasing Sunsets story come into focus, Kentyrr and I have decided to undertake a more ambitious second project. While we won't be releasing many details today, we thought we'd give you all a sneak peek at the lovely ladies who will breathe life into our world.
Meet (from left to right):

• Ren
• Akshaya
• Monica
• Taylor
• Tara
• Lisa
• Mikaela
• Amie
• Skye
• Imani

Stoya and Kentyrr

Happy Summer! With the weather heating up, the development cycle here at Stone Fox does too! Chapter 8 is progressing with no speedbumps so far, and a focus on showcasing some relationships that may have been simmering in the background for a while now. That doesn't mean there won't be quality time for our two main girls as well! Kent has over 500 renders complete covering the first four scenes of Chapter 8, and is taking next week off from his day job with the intent of testing what full-time development feels like. Sound and music selection are nearly complete, and Kent has managed to resolve some issues with some models that were causing us genital asset headaches. As for features, we are looking mostly interface tweaks this time around. The named save function is a little finicky with character input, and I'm looking at cleaning up a few other items. Chapter 8 says goodbye to Tonalu and sets up the final two chapters in Boston. As always, updates will become more frequent the closer we get to chapter release. Once again, Kentyrr and I are humbled and grateful you've come along with us for the ride. As the Chasing Sunsets story approaches its penultimate chapter, keep checking back for announcements about what Stone Fox has lined up next!

Patch 08b Changelog -The Mac version is now live! -Moved two kink points to the appropriate choice in the Mal/PB threesome in Ch7. -Corrected failure of script to jump to post-credits scene in Ch5 if player chose to send Mallory away. -Fixed dialogue bad math between Jaye and Mallory in hallway where they discuss alternating days with MC. -Fixed black bars on image pan during Ch7 Post Credits Scene -Various spelling/punctuation fixes Mostly cosmetic fixes here, but if you are min/maxing kink points on the Mal path, you can pick up a couple of extra if you replay from that scene forward. Barring any surprises, this should be the last update until Chapter 8.

Dev Cycle 9 has begun! It's hard to believe we're closing in on the finish line of our little project, yet here we are. Tonight, Kent and I selected two new characters for the first scene and began picking up where Chapter 7 left off. Beginning tomorrow, Kent will begin building art off the first Chapter 8 dialogue, and we're off to the races. As previously stated, Chapter 8 will be the final one on the island of Tonalu before the story moves back to the States for its conclusion. Entitled "Smoke and Mirrors," the Campbells will get their first real glimpse of how far down the rabbit hole the events surrounding their inheritance go. Don't expect they'll go wheels-up without opportunities to enjoy some of the alluring distractions along the way! As development ramps up, continue to check the Previews channel on Discord for sneak peeks at what we're cooking up while you wait! We'll continue to post updates as the development cycle progresses here. While art renders tomorrow, I will complete the final Chapter 7 build with grammar, spelling, and minor bug fixes, none of which require a replay.

Following release, several bugs were discovered, two of them game-breaking. For those who have already completed Chapter 7, we encourage you to play through on this updated version from the end of Chapter 6 before our next release to ensure all variables are set properly. While none of these were critical to the central plot, they could result in some incorrect dialogue in future chapters.

• Fixed issue on SteamDeck that was causing Save Game screen to break. On-screen keyboard can now be summoned with Steam+X.
• Fixed coding issue that resulted in poor animation performance during the hotel scene
• Pathing issue Fixed: If MC rejected Mallory at end of Ch5, it does not end her path, but Ch7 failed to allow the player to continue a physical relationship with her.
• Two variables were duplicated from Ch6. They are not story-critical for the most part, but a replay is worthwhile to avoid weird dialogue in Ch8 onwards.
• Fixed erroneous reporting in the Chapter Summary about how the MC handled his chat with Jaye when he returned her phone.
• Reverted an error in Chapter 2 where a variable was malformed. (Recording if the player hugged Jaye after she arrived on the yacht)
• Made the trigger for the Erica phone chat in Ch7 more forgiving, and corrected dialogue to accurately reflect MC's behavior up to that point.
• Lowered the love requirement with Mallory to ask Sophie to replicate Bandit from 34 to 31. This value is achievable without pursuing her romantically.
• Corrected numerous spelling errors, typos, and flawed grammar.

• Some players have reported broken saves.

The story continues!
Stone Fox Studios is pleased to announce the release of Chapter 7 for Steam customers! Titled "Cause and Effect," the player will navigate the main character through the gradually-unraveling consequences of the decisions made through the preceding story, while opening up new branches to explore as his time on the lush Pacific paradise of Tonalu approaches its end. Chapter 7 is easily our largest yet, weighing in at: 2033 original static renders 4 animations 10 new Songs 7000 lines of code/dialogue 23 achievements 2 cameos/crossovers with other titles Of course, you'll find Stone Fox's unique blend of humor, drama, and intrigue has returned for the latest instalment, along with our trademark focus on quality and delivering sexy scenes with beautiful and compelling ladies who feel a little more fleshed out than the norm for the genre. We hope you enjoy this update as much as we enjoyed creating it!

Stone Fox Studios is proud to present to Steam customers Chapter 7 of our (planned) 10 Chapter story-driven adult visual novel "Chasing Sunsets!" Chapter 7 adds: 2033 new original renders by Kentyrr 4 new original animations 10 New Songs 7000 Lines of Code/Dialogue 23 Achievements 2 Game Overs Follow the main character as he navigates the consequences of his day off with his fiery step-sister Jaye in Chapter 6. Chapter 7 focuses on the player's time on Tonalu nearing its end, with reveals aplenty and foreshadowing of the challenges to come upon return to the United States. We hope you enjoy following the continuing story as much as we enjoyed creating it!

Hey all, just checking back in with a quick update. We're still stitching "all the things" together for Chapter 7, and the truth is Kent still has a couple of scenes left to pose. Not super small ones either. The first animation work has come off the presses, and is looking really solid, and we don't anticipate animation delivery being our last box to check. Unfortunately, we did hit a bit of a speed bump due in part to a family emergency on Kent's side. Everything's alright, and it's behind us now, but it did slow us down more than we would have liked. This will, sadly, push our release out a few more weeks. I know this isn't welcome news, and I can only offer that our slip will be weeks rather than months. Sometimes, in spite of our best efforts, we fall short of the goals we set for ourselves. In any case, the silver lining is that this chapter has quite a bit going on with bad endings, chickens coming home to roost, and subplots starting to wrap up. I expect we'll have the entire script playable front-to-back by the end of this coming weekend, and at that point will just be backfilling art, tweaking audio, and path testing. Just as a refresher, we're looking at:

• Approximately 2000 of Kent's tasty renders
• All new Puggy animations
• Side girl content (without leaving out our two main LIs)
• At least two ways to get a bad ending
• New exclusive music
• At least two crossovers with other popular titles in the AVNCU
• 14 new achievements
• Moar pop culture references

As the holidays approach, and Chapter 6 is firmly in our rearview mirror, I thought I'd take a moment to make a few announcements. Chasing Sunsets 0.7a (Bugfix) Released This is not a critical update, as none of the bugs were really game-breaking, but this does resolve a number of spelling/grammatical issues, and also tones down the Chapter Summary statements if you chose certain paths after becoming more serious with Mallory. Chasing Sunsets is Gaining Weight The third announcement may be a bit more controversial: After flowcharting what needs to happen in Chapter 7, I do not believe we can comfortably fit it all in one chapter. After speaking with Kentyrr, I believe the best option will be to increase the planned chapter count to complete the game to Prologue + 10 chapters. I know this may be frustrating for people who saw the story coming to a quicker conclusion, but we feel we would not be able to do the story justice if we tried to cram everything that needs to happen next into a single update. Alternatively, we could have just made a super-sized chapter, but we feel that regular content updates keep our story relevant. We're sorry if anyone feels let down by this scope creep. Post-Release Developer Livestream in December Next, I'd like to announce that we'll likely host our post-release Livestream on Dec 10th. As we get closer to stream date, we'll finalize the date and time, with no small deference to our host's availability. Please don't hesitate to begin posting questions for the Livestream in the #questions-for-dev-streams channel in Discord. All are welcome, and Kentyrr and I love every chance we get to interact with fans of the story. We hope to see you there! We will announce the venue for the stream at the same time we finalize the date and time. Chapter 7 Announced! Lastly, I would like to announce the kick-off of Dev Cycle 8, as we begin working on Chapter 7, titled "Convergence." It's time for the Campbells to start wrapping things up on Tonalu and begin to looking at returning home. As the chapter title implies, a lot of moving parts are starting to build toward a climax, and some of them will determine the shape of things to come. Accelerated endings will become more common in the remaining chapters as the story moves into the third act. The echoes of choices made far in the past may return to help - or haunt - our protagonists.

This patch brings all versions of CS into code-parity. Please see the patch notes below for the changes. There is no new content. Changes:

• MAJOR - Corrected achievement triggers for "Positive Reinforcement" and "Smooth Operator," which were reversed in Chapter 1. **
• MAJOR - Adjusted Chapter 6 Summary text to make the results of certain choices less harsh. **
• MAJOR - Corrected reporting bug if MC refused to spar with Tanaka in Chapter 6.

• MINOR - Made transition to End of Chapter Summary consistent with save notifications on all paths.
• MINOR - One image in post-intimate scene was incorrect and has been replaced.

• COSMETIC - Numerous spelling and grammar corrections.
• COSMETIC - Removed innocuous additional DiscordRPC call during the motorcycle scene.

Minor bugfix and QC patch: -Fixed corner case where refusing to Spar with Tanaka inaccurately reported in chapter summary -Restored missing line of dialogue if MC refuses to race Jaye -Minor adjustments to chapter summary text -Corrected swapped achievement calculation at end of Chapter 1 for maxing Mallory/Jaye Trust -Several spelling and grammar fixes

This is just a short update to let everyone know that Chapter 6 is in beta, and that we are tracking for release within the next several days. Beta has identified a few minor issues that we are working to adjust, and at the last minute we decided to add an additional scene for balance, which is rendering as I write this. That said, nothing has materialized out of beta that looks to endanger our intended release in the next few days! So, what can you expect in this update?

• 1600 of Kentyrr's expressive renders!
• Lots of Stoya's big dumb words!
• More animations! (Including much-improved Lisa animations from Ch5)
• All of the flashbacks!
• 15 new achievements!
• New original music with multiple tracks commissioned for this game alone!
• Road rash and Monkeypox! (No panik pls!)
• Some of our best lewd content to date (at least beta team thinks so!)
• Our protagonists figure some stuff out!
• Creampies!
• Today's forecast: Chance of butt stuff!

Where we are

What's next?

How about a hint?

Barring any other jarring issues, this will be the final patch for Chapter 5. Changelog: -Minor continuity issue correction with package receipt in post-credits scene -Minor spelling/grammar fixes There are no adjustments to points or any other data that requires replaying any saves. This is purely housekeeping and adds no new content. Onward and upward to Chapter 6, which began production yesterday!

Changelog 0.6a - Minor bug fix Critical: -Corrected game continuing to Chapter 5 after game over scenario in Ch4. -Corrected repeated dialogue and double award of points on one path in the Ch5 club scene. -Corrected incorrect point assignment during lewd scene at end of Ch5. Mallory max trust increased by 1. -Corrected issue where sound effects and music continue to loop after the overboard scene in Ch4. Major: -Corrected typo on MC writing sayer which would result in an an error. -Removed obsolete beta test warning placard in Ch4 (It said: Save here, no art past this point) -Line in text conversation with Sophie in Ch5 incorrectly attributed to MC corrected. -Fixed an issue with the Jaye text conversation where dialogue could be repeated. -Fixed a continuity issue in Jaye text conversation that did not properly take into account if MC chose not to shower with her. Minor: -Fixed continuity issue during shots scene that did not take into account MC may not have showered with Jaye in Ch4. -All identified typos, and double or missing words corrected

Stone Fox Studios is pleased to announce that Chasing Sunsets Chapter 5 is now available for all owners. We hope you have as much fun playing it as we did making it. Chapter 5 is the windup before the throw into the concluding half of the story and squarely at the intersection where several story arcs we've been following from the beginning converge: Thus, the chapter title; Crossroads. In any case, this ended up weighing in by a small margin as our largest chapter to date, with nearly 1500 renders, six new animations, 14 achievements, three (and a half) lewd scenes, and more of our patented cinematic brand of storytelling, action-packed with innuendo, pop culture references, meme fodder, smoking-hot ladies, self-aware jokes and ginger throat punches. Also keep an eye out for our largest crossover cameo yet, courtesy of our friends at Thunderline Studios. As always, stick around for the post-credits scene! A few notes:

• All known bugs from previous releases have been addressed
• Some points in Ch5 are only available if certain choices were made in previous chapters

Stone Fox Studios invites you to join the lovely Jaye and Mallory for the Steam launch of our visual novel Chasing Sunsets at:

8:00AM UTC on February 15th!