Hello Steam,

All that\'s left for Episode Five are animations. We\'ve done quite a few so far but still have a lot left to do. Other than that, all writing, renders, and coding are all pretty much done and I\'ll be sending it to my playtester shortly. However, do keep in mind that there is still a lot of work left on the animations. I don\'t know whether I will release it in January, but barring some disaster befalling my animator it should at least be done by February.

Thanks for your patience! While you\'re waiting, you may be interested in checking out the \"Extras\" menu in Leaving DNA, as I noticed that only 15% to 20% of you have played through the bonus scenes. Bonus Scene #4 in particular is guaranteed to entertain. steamthumbsup

And be sure to check out my latest public render here.

--Monk

Hello Steam, this is a quick update to let you know I\'m still working on Episode Five. I\'ve completed nearly 3,100 renders for this episode and now almost 13,000 for the entire game. Although the game has gotten a lot bigger than I originally anticipated, one purchase still gives you all eight episodes--you don\'t have to purchase separate seasons for Leaving DNA. I am getting closer to being done, but there is still a fair amount of work left.

In the meantime, you can check out my latest public artwork here:

Malena

Aghavni

Thanks for your patience!

--Monk

Hey everybody! Just wanted to give you a heads up that we\'re running a sale along with the other games in the Work and Play bundle. Until November 30th, you can not only get every game in the bundle at a 15% discount, but you\'ll get a discount on top of that from each developer! Also, this particular bundle is a \"complete the set,\" so if you already own one or more games in the bundle, you\'ll still get the full discount for those you don\'t own yet.

In addition to Leaving DNA, you\'ll be able to pick up the following games: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2405280/Office_Perks/?snr=2___\"" style="color:#bb86fc;text-decoration:none;">Office Perks by Amomynous Games, https://store.steampowered.com/app/3263380/Heavens_Door/\"" style="color:#bb86fc;text-decoration:none;">Heaven\'s Door by AlterWorlds, and https://store.steampowered.com/app/2676180/Fog_of_War_Book_One/?snr=2___\"" style="color:#bb86fc;text-decoration:none;">Fog of War: Book One from Story Machine Studios. Check the links for more details on these fantastic games!

--Monk

A quick post to let you know I\'m still working hard on Episode Five. There are about 2,650 renders completed and I am currently working through Jamie\'s exclusive path. I still have quite a lot of work to do and I will not be finished before the end of the year.

Thank you for your patience! In the meantime, you can check out my latest public renders here:

Jamie

Malena

--Monk

Quick update to let everyone know I am working hard on Episode Five. There are now 2,270 new renders created for Episode Five. Getting closer to being finished but there is still a lot of work left to do, including a ton of animations left to make.

Check out my latest public artwork of Donna Lee here .

If you haven\'t already seen, Leaving DNA is now in a bundle with three other great games : Heaven\'s Door, Fog of War, and Office Perks. If you already own Leaving DNA you can still get the other three games for a 15% off discount!

Thanks for your patience everyone!

--Monk

Just dropping a quick note to let you know I\'m still working on Episode Five. I\'m up to 1650 new renders and making good progress through the story. Compare that with Episode Four (3751 renders), Episode Three (1896 renders), Episode Two (2536 renders), and Episode One (1705). It\'s hard for me to predict how much more work I have to do, but there\'s still quite a lot left. Branching will be the main villain, as each of the four LI romance paths and the \"dark path\" each necessitate their own coding and renders. I thought this update would be much smaller than it\'s turning out to be, but I\'m running with it.

Check out my latest public artwork in the community hub:

Jamie

Thanks for your patience!

--Monk

Hello Steam Community. This is a quick note to let you know that I am still working on Episode Five. If you haven\'t yet, check out my recent public art postings here:

Aghavni

Emmeline

You may have heard that Steam is removing some adult games due to containing some content they don\'t like. These games are being retired, and games that are retired can no longer be purchased but can still be played by those who have already purchased them.

I am hopeful that Leaving DNA will not be affected by this--we don\'t know yet if Steam is only taking out the \"worst offenders\" or if they will go deeper, but assuming you\'ve already purchased the game then even if it is retired you will not lose access to it. In the meantime, I will finish development of the game and continue with the planned story regardless of what Steam does.

Thanks very much for being patient while I continue to work on the update.

--Monk

Hello everyone. This is a quick check-in to let you know I am still working on Episode Five.

I still have quite a lot of work to do. Normally I do one scene at a time and work on the coding and renders for all variants of that one scene before moving on to the next. For Episode Five I've been focusing on each scene on Emmeline's path first, and I'm finished with about nine scenes. I'll go back to each scene to add the variants for the other LI's (as well as the "dark" path) when I'm finished with Emmeline's, as well as creating the handful of unique scenes that may only be available on a particular path. I'm not sure if this is an easier way to do things or not but it's what I'm doing.

So far I'm right around 900 renders for this update.

Thanks for being patient.

--Monk


If you haven't already, check out my latest special renders in the artwork section:
Jessa (MC's law clerk) Dely (from the Ep.4 bar scene)

Hello friends. This is a quick check-in to let you know I am still working on Episode Five. Progress on this episode is not happening very fast, unfortunately, but I am slowly getting it done.

When I published the first demo of the game (roughly the first half of Episode One) back in July 2022, I had already planned out all eight episodes of the story and I had the first four episodes mostly written as well as a light draft of Episode Five. As I worked on each episode I made substantial rewrites as my writing skill improved and I made tweaks to the story. But unlike the previous episodes, I've scrapped my original draft for Episode Five and started over completely from scratch. I haven't changed the major plotpoints, but how I was getting to those plotpoints wasn't really working and I've had to do big restructuring of the episode.

Anyway, my report is that writing is slowing me down more than usual this episode, but I am getting the job done. Just a reminder that I have a separate full-time job and I work on Leaving DNA in my spare time, so I appreciate your patience.
Check out my latest special render of MC's ex-girlfriend Vega here!

Hello Steam community. I hope you have all had a chance to play through Episode Four and I hope you enjoyed it! I have started working on Episode Five. You were very patient waiting for Episode Four, which took a full year to produce. Please be patient again with Episode Five.

I think Episode Five will be shorter but wider, with shorter playthroughs for players on single paths but more divergent pathing. I don't want to make any predictions about how long it's going to take to develop. I believed Episode Four would be my shortest episode and it turned out to be my longest. So please be patient and eventually this thing will get done.

If you've never been in the art section of Leaving DNA's community hub , check it out now. I frequently post special renders I've done in that section, including one I posted this morning of Jamie who won the "Best Girl" poll for Episode Four that took place on another website.

Anyway, thank you to everyone who has purchased the game and thank you for being patient while I develop the next episode!

--Monk

Hello everyone. For everyone who has already completed Episode Four, I've found a bug that will be a big problem for Episode Five if you are on Emmeline's path. If you haven't played yet or if you don't want to be on Emmeline's path, then ignore this announcement.

If you've already played Episode Four and you want to be on Emmeline's Path, then in the final scene of the episode (i.e. when you and Emmeline are in your apartment) you need to go back to at least the following choice while you are eating together:

"She's right, you're too different"
"She's perfect for you"

You must make this choice again. Otherwise when Episode Five is released the game will not recognize that you are on Emmeline's path.

I apologize sincerely for this mistake.

--Monk

Fixed a bug where animations from a lewd scene weren't showing.
Fixed several other grammar/typo issues.

I'm very happy to announce the release of Leaving DNA: Episode Four! Thank you for your patience. I know that production of this episode took awhile, but I'm very happy with the final product. I hope you have a memorable and engaging experience with this new update and that when you finish you will already start pushing me to finish Episode Five!

Edit: I am getting some reports that a few players are finding some of their old saves don't work. I sincerely apologize if this happens to you! You can try reloading a different save, but if you do have to start over, remember you can use the "CTRL" button to skip through content you've already seen.

(Buying Leaving DNA now gives you access to all future episodes.)

Changelog Episode Four:

35,722 words of dialogue
3,751 still renders
4 unlockable bonus renders
70 lewd animations
3 story lewd scenes
1 unlockable bonus lewd scene
31 music tracks
Updated walkthrough PDF

Also see this previous announcement re a bug.

• 35,722 words of dialogue
• 3,751 still renders
• 4 unlockable bonus renders
• 70 lewd animations
• 3 story lewd scenes
• 1 unlockable bonus lewd scene
• 31 music tracks
• Updated walkthrough PDF
  

Leaving DNA: Episode Four will be released on Steam on Tuesday, February 4th. I'll post an episode changelog on the 4th, but the game now features nearly 10,000 still renders with over 100 lewd animations. There are over 110,000 words of dialogue for Episodes One through Four.

If you have already purchased the game on Steam, the new episode is already included with your purchase. All you will have to do is login and the Steam client will automatically update your game.

I do need to make you aware of one bug I found and have fixed for Episode Four. Remember this choice back in Episode Two?


Unfortunately, due to a typo in my coding, the game did not save your choice for this menu. If you are only interested in dating one of the four LI's, then don't worry about this--she doesn't do much regardless of what you chose. But if you are interested in getting to know her a little better then you will need to reload a save from the very beginning of Episode Two or end of Episode One to make this choice again. Remember that in any Ren'py game you can press and hold "CTRL" to quickly skip through content you have already seen. I apologize for the bug.

I will talk to you on February 4th and thank you very much for your patience!

--Monk

I hope you all enjoy this holiday season and that you're able to spend quality time with some people you care about.

Thank you for being a fan of Leaving DNA and a great big thank you for everyone who has supported me by purchasing the game on Steam this year!

--The Impious Monk

Hello everyone.

I'm sorry I didn't post a progress report in November. I keep thinking I am almost done with the episode and so my original intention was to postpone the report for just a short period so I could announce a release date. Unfortunately, these last few scenes I've been working on have just ended up being much bigger than I expected them to be, so that short postponement turned into a month, and yet I still can't announce a release date.

While Episode Four has taken me longer to finish than I expected, I have been working hard over the last ten months. Episode Four will be big and will have significant story progress. I hope once it's released you will feel it was worth the wait.

At this time I've finished over 3,300 still renders for Episode Four. Compare that with 1,896 renders for Episode Three, 2,536 renders for Episode Two, and 1,705 renders for Episode One. I've also finished rendering 45 animations and Sandem is hard at work on posing the last batch.

I will keep you posted on my progress. Thank you for your patience.

--Monk

For a limited time you can buy Leaving DNA for 20% off, or for big savings purchase the Exhilarating Stories Bundle and get four great games for one low price! For the next few days Glowing Stones , Neverwhere Tales , and Color of My Sound are all on sale for 20% off with an additional 10% off bundle discount, so get this great deal while it lasts!

Hello, just a quick note to let you know I'm still working on Episode Four. At this time there are over 2100 post-worked renders and ten new animations. By my estimate there is over two and a half hours of new gameplay so far. By comparison, my estimates were 2 hours for Episode One, 3 hours for Episode Two, and 2.5 hours for Episode Three. I still have a lot of work to do before Episode Four will be ready. (The attached image is not an in-game render, just something I made for this post.)

Thank you for your patience!

--The Impious Monk

There is still quite a bit of work left to be done on Episode Four. At this time I've posed, rendered, and done post-work on roughly 1,450 still renders. I've been working on Episode Four for almost six months (since the end of February, 26 weeks ago) for an average of 55 renders per week. That's not as much as I would like, but there is good progress being made. I've also set up the episode's first lewd scene and I'm just waiting for the animator to get time in his schedule to pose the animations.

Please keep in mind that I work on this game in my spare time--I have a full-time career and other personal responsibilities as well. In case you are wondering if I'm making enough money to quit my job and do game dev full-time, the answer is that Leaving DNA will never be successful enough for me to do that. It's a niche AVN with limited appeal, and frankly I live in one of the most expensive cities in the world and already have a good career, so quitting my job to work on this full-time isn't realistic.

If you're wondering about the financial success of the game, I've sold about 8,500 copies of the game on Steam and Itch and I've had Patreon and SubscribeStar pages up for two years. After those businesses take their cut, I've grossed about $7,500 from Patreon and SubscribeStar and about $52,000 from Steam and Itch. After subtracting state and federal taxes and my own financial investment in the game, including two high-powered desktop computers, thousands of dollars worth of 3D assets, paying the animator, and other smaller costs like an Adobe subscription, music rights, and energy bills, that number whittles away pretty fast. My best estimate is that I've probably profited maybe $10K at this point.

So, $10K so far for over two and a half years worth of work, which generally takes place at night after I'm already exhausted from my full time job and on weekends. Based on the thousands of hours I've put into the game, that probably works out to something like getting paid $2-an-hour for my work. And I live in Los Angeles where $2-an-hour isn't jack shit. This isn't me complaining--on the contrary, I didn't make Leaving DNA because I thought it would make me money, I made it because I wanted to tell a story. Any money I've made has been a happy bonus, and overall I've been very pleased with the community's response to the game.

I bring these numbers up first to emphasize that quitting my job to work on this game full-time isn't realistic. Even with the advanced progress I could make on the game by working on it full-time Leaving DNA just won't ever sell as well as some other AVN's, and I could never come close to a sufficient income replacement to quit my job.

The other reason I bring it up is because some dumbass a few weeks ago called me a milker. Comments like that are based on a lack of knowledge and incorrect assumptions, so I'm putting these numbers out there to establish a few facts.

I promise you there is no person on Earth more motivated and eager for Leaving DNA to be finished than me. I want very much to finish telling this story and to share it with everyone who has supported me over this period. When I started working on the game, I thought it would be a two-year project. It has been very disappointing to me that the game has taken as long as it has, but I remain very motivated to complete it. Progress is not as fast as I would like, but quitting this project has never entered my mind.

I am very aware and appreciative of everyone who has pledged ongoing support on Patreon and SubscribeStar, and of everyone who has purchased the game outright on Steam and Itch. You have my word that I am still working hard on the game every day. I do give weekly updates to my Patreon/SS supporters and I can always be reached easily through Discord or email. No one should ever worry that progress on the game has halted or that I have stopped communicating about what I'm up to.

As I said, there are approximately 1,450 renders finished so far for Episode Four. By comparison, Episode One contained 1,705 renders (and took nine months to publish), Episode Two contained 2,536 renders (nine months to publish), and Episode Three contained 1,895 renders (seven months to publish). I can't tell you exactly how much more work there is left for Episode Four, but I believe I am past the halfway mark. However, work on Episode Four will continue for a period of months.

Thank you for your support, your understanding, and your patience.

--The Impious Monk

Hello Steam. My plan is to post a quick update once a month-ish just to let the community know I'm still working on the game. It's not possible for me to give you an ETA yet for Episode Four, unfortunately--it am still months away from being done. But I am working hard on the game.

Here is a cool render of Future Samurai Malena saving a Japanese village from some alien invaders.

Did you know that as of Episode Three, Leaving DNA has six lewd scenes? That's right! I thought I'd mention that since I'm still seeing lots of reviews either on Steam or elsewhere saying there are no lewd scenes in the game.

Four of those scenes happen in the story, two of them are available through the Extras menu. Of the four story scenes, three of them involve the MC and an LI, while one of them is a solo scene for one of the LI's.

The early lewd scenes in the story are a bit controversial, as they aren't exactly handed to the player on a silver platter. Unlike the lewd scenes we'll get to in the later chapters, which can mostly be reached by normal AVN choices like simply showing interest in an LI, the earlier scenes require the player to make certain choices by correctly predicting how an LI will react. If you've played through the game and you haven't unlocked any of those scenes, check out the free "Official Guide to the Love Interests" which is available both on the game's Steam hub and under Guides on the community page. Fortunately, even if you miss the game's early lewd scenes, this won't prevent you from unlocking the lewd scenes that come later in the game as the MC forms true romantic connections with each LI.

There are also a total of three bonus Dream scenes, two of which contain lewd content, which are accessible through the Extras menu. If you haven't clicked on the Extras menu (from the main menu screen) you're missing out on the Dream scenes, which you unlocked after each of the first three episodes, and a bunch of special renders you've unlocked. Plus you can watch replays of the story lewd scenes you've unlocked.

Thank you to everyone who has purchased the game! I am still several months away from finishing Episode Four, but I have about 800 renders finished and I am working on it every day.

--Monk

Hello, just a note to let you know I am still working on Episode Four. There is still a lot to do and it will be several months before it is finished.

This render of Malena was a scene test that I didn't end up using, but I liked the render enough to share it with you here.

--Monk

Hello Steam community! Leaving DNA launched in early access one month ago. Thank you to everyone who purchased the game! And an even bigger thank you for those who left nice reviews!

A lot of you will be wondering about how long until Episode Four is released. Episodes One and Two of Leaving DNA were each in development for about nine months. Episode Three was in development for seven months. So you should expect that it will take several months to release Episode Four. I do work full time at another job and work on Leaving DNA in my spare time. I work very hard on the game, but I only have so many hours in the day, so I will ask you to be patient while Episode Four is in development.

So far I've rendered the first couple of scenes of Episode Four, and also Sandem is in the middle of redoing the animation of Jamie and the teddy bear from Episode One. That's the only animation in the game I did myself (before I hired Sandem) so he's going to improve the motion and also expand the animation a bit.

If you ever want to reach out the best way is through my Discord !

--Monk

Hey everybody, just a quick message to let everyone know that I am on schedule to release Leaving DNA on Steam in early access on March 7th. This early access version of Leaving DNA will feature Episodes One through Three (eight episodes planned) and feature 75,000 words of dialogue and over 6,000 renders for seven hours+ of content.

Leaving DNA is an adult visual novel with dark themes. It is story-driven with a mature, engaging plot supported by strong dialogue and character development. In-game choices impact both the main character's relationship with the people around him and his own internal journey of growth and change. It does contain some graphic sex scenes, but the adult content in Leaving DNA is not the primary focus of the game.

Thank you for wishlisting the game, I really appreciate your interest and support!

--The Impious Monk