It's the "tax and update" update...(it's a biggie too)

Hi everyone and I trust you're all keeping well.

A lot to cover this week, including some dry but important stuff on the matters of taxation. So...off we go.

Tax

As some of you may be aware, due to new laws passing in several countries and US states, Patreon will be required to start charging sales tax on some pledges starting July 1st. 

Whether or not you will be charged sales tax depends on your location, and what is considered taxable there. Not every pledge is taxable, not all benefits are taxable in every location, and sometimes only a fraction of a pledge will be taxable. The money that Patreon collects as a result of these laws are paid directly to local governments.

I've spent a fair while looking over some of the high level tax legislation to get my head around what constitutes a taxable product. I have completed the data required on my side in respect of how much of each tier is in respect to a product and how much is general support. In doing so I have tried to strike a balance between a defensible (and indeed realistic and fair) position from my side with minimising the taxation burden on yours.  This will vary from state to state, especially for US patrons, but I don't expect many of you, should you be subject to your nations taxation legislation, to pay more than an additional 40 cents.  If you have questions, you should be able to find answers here. If you still have questions, the best place to get an answer is from Patreon’s customer support team, here. 

And now with that out of the way...let's get back to a progress update.

Sarah's caverns game

I'm pleased to say I got to grips with what I didn't like about it. It came down to two elements really. Firstly the game lacked any sense of introduction. It cut almost straight to the game which felt somewhat unnatural and unrealistic and so I've written some more to lead into the scene. Secondly, I've broken up the various shop visits with Sarah experimenting with her random encounter table... This has injected a much needed element of gameplay and steers the scene away from just being a series of sketches. I need to do a little bit (but not much thankfully) additional rendering and then I can cross this one off my list.

Sarah's VR game

This is looking good. I've refreshed the GUI to give a much slicker and professional feel to the whole thing, and with the new powah available compared to the old card when this was made originally the whole scene just looks so much better.

For those of you who never experienced the old version (and whatever you do, please don't hunt one down - it's awful in comparison) Sarah's VR game actually is a game with  turn based combat mechanics.  The gameplay has been given a buff and a polish and the whole thing is rather fun. The downside though was it was rather short. I've kicked this one around with my testers and have decided that the easiest way to expand this is, following the player's training level with Sarah, to allow them to then practice against the gender alternative of their own character. So if the player is playing as Barbarian Babe, they can then fight  the male Barbarian Bobe and vice versa. Although what happens should Babe lose (in either scenario) I shall leave to the player to decide...

So on this I need to do some more work...and some animations. Some...*looks shifty*...special animations. Just in case. Player choice depending. *coughs*. (Actually, getting serious for a moment, what adult scenes you see is -always- your choice. This is hugely important to me. You will never see or experience any adult content unless you choose to. Promise.)

Anyhoo....

The Chris training level

Not a great deal on this other than we've settled on the GUI and re-lit the scenes. This will be a biggie to do but everything is in place once I'm ready to roll on it.

The "Glam up" challenge

Again, the GUI is sorted, gameplay is now fixed and the mechanics are all down pat.

 So, if the player wants to follow up on the challenge  they'll be able to go to Sarah's new room and dress there (Sarah is the default for lending clothes). If they get Trisha onside to borrow some clothes as well she'll meet them at Sarah's room. The player then can choose from the clothes available (with the girls commenting on the choice as clues).  Further progress will then follow in Chapter Four with the player being able to go to Kelly's or Trisha's place if they're not happy with what they got in Three (providing they unlock clothing progression with Trisha and Kelly ofc)

Other work

I also been busy on a variety of other things too, as you'd expect. The new maps with fresh locations have been completed and the new locations themselves have all been given a polish.

The MC's tool kit has been given a bit of a brush up too with an eye on easy integration into scenes and I'm pretty happy with it for once.

The only thing I haven't designed yet graphically is the MC's new diagnostic tool although the mechanics have been sorted.

Finally, and the important bit, I have a better idea on the release date. I'm looking at close to 1,600 renders plus another 3,500 for animations I think. Word count would be, at a guess, some 45,000 in total. So again, a small novel. Although I can use a lot of the text from the original it also needs some buffing and additional scenes with the new alts and earlier new scenes. My guess is it's looking like a mid-August release given the render output and current speed limitations.

I think that's it for now. I'll pop further example renders behind the paywall.

Do take care of yourselves and I hope you have a very pleasant weekend.

Notty