Waifu Wonderland - 1 Month In

It's been a little bit over a month since I announced Waifu Wonderland and started creating the characters and artwork. So I wanted to do an overall update on what's done, what's left, and how I want to keep moving towards that initial release.

What's Done - 

Here's the overall stats on what's done - 

Character CG - 8/33 - 24%

Scenes - 8/43 - 19%

Sprites - 1/33 - 3%

I added a rough percentage next to each part in order to show just how far along each section is. As you can see, character CG is farther ahead, and at the current pace, will easily get done first. I had wanted to do multiple scenes a week when I could, but haven't been able to. As a matter of fact, I've been busier than expected and have barely been able to keep up. 

Current Status - 

You may notice that there's 8 characters and scenes done, and only 7 released. The numbers included everything that's actually done. I'm only about a week ahead right now, which is a problem. 

Like I said, I've been busier than expected and have been barely able to keep up with the post schedule. Mainly because I was supposed to graduate with my bachelor's degree last semester, but it turned out that I was one credit away. I missed a core class that I can't test out of, so I'm having to go for one more semester. The job I had lined up couldn't hire me anymore, and my class is right in the middle of the day, so I can't find another normal full time job and still take care of this last credit. So I decided to take a full schedule of classes, so that I could get the maximum amount of loans and grants. Because of this, I'm way busier than I expected to be. I'm having to take full-time classes, and while the loans and grants have given me enough money for a couple of months of bills, I need to find a part-time job in order to make sure I can at least make it through to the end of the semester when I'll be able to get a normal full-time job again. So I've also been looking for a job on top of classes.

Which brings me to why this matters to the project. 

Why this matters to the project - 

I'm sure it's fairly obvious to anyone reading this, but I haven't gotten any paid patrons yet for this project. Which is completely understandable considering the game isn't out yet. Since I'm not making any money though, I just can't put as much time into it as I have been. I need to focus on learning as much as I can in this little bonus semester, and focus on finding a job. And then of course working said job. I'll put this in all bold because it's really important.

I AM NOT DROPPING THIS PROJECT

I'm still convinced that this project has potential, I'm not dropping it. I want to at least do an initial release and an update or two before I consider it another failure. But I've also decided to adjust some things to get the initial game out faster, and adjust my work schedule for the project.

Project Changes - 

So the first thing I'm going to do in order to get the initial version out faster is cut out some content. Basically, when I go to export the project, I'll make a copy of it, and then remove some characters. I was going to cut the two losers from the first poll, but they're both a little too important. Akari is meant to be the first non-starter you run into, and is supposed to be an intro character you can use to level up easily at first. She's right outside your house, making it easy to run back and rest after seducing her.
And then the other, Almiranda, is just way too important to cut. She's the first character from the lab storyline, so she just can't get cut without reworking the whole thing. She's also the character that's being released next week, so it's a little too late to cut her anyway.

With the next poll though, all three can be cut fairly easily. So I'll be cutting the two who lose. It looks like I'll be decided which one wins and who gets cut, in which case I'll probably choose to keep the housewife. There's a housewife, office lady, and beach babe. The area you start is the suburbs where most housewives are, and I'd rather have one area that's more complete, rather than random one-off characters in other areas.

Now we're down to 31 characters and 41 scenes in the initial release.

Staying along the line of thinking that I want to keep the suburb area as complete as possible for the initial release, I started looking at other areas for characters to cut. Starting with the university. Looking through there was meant to be 4 teachers available in the initial version. Two in classrooms, one in the staff room, and then a volleyball coach in the gym. One of the classroom teachers is Ms. Hartley, so she's staying in. But there was no need for the other classroom teacher, so I cut her. There was also no need for the coach, so I cut her too. I kept the one in the staff room, mainly because you have to have the apartment unlocked to seduce her. I forgot she was put in that way, but I wanted to keep her in because of it. As a way to give some value to buying the apartment, as well as have one case that shows that not all women will let you try to seduce them right away.

Now we're down to 29 characters 39 scenes in the initial release.

Then I went to the lab to see how far along it was, to make sure all the ones I had written down that need artwork actually were fully coded and in the game. And I realized I had written down the scientist in charge of the experiments as needing a scene, but you can't unlock the scene until you complete all of the first tier experiments. And not all of them are in the game yet. So that's one less scene that needs to be made. Her character CG still needs to be made though. I could technically do just a face and sprite, but that would just make for more work later, so I'll be doing her full CG.

Now we're down to 29 characters and 38 scenes in the initial release.

Then I went back and double checked the suburbs just be sure there isn't anything weird, and there was something weird. There's one character that's technically in the game. She's fully coded and everything, but in order to unlock her, you need an item that isn't in the game yet. So I was able to cut her. I just made it so you can't go into her house and then replaced her scene CG with another character for now.

Now we're down to 28 characters and 37 scenes in the initial release.

The final area with seduce-able characters in the initial version was the hospital, so I went and took a look at that area. And that's when I noticed that I missed a character. Here's a screenshot of the area.

You might be able to tell which one I missed, but it was the one in the bottom left room. She just blended in with the background a little too well when I did my initial pass through the areas. And that's a big problem. I'll explain. The hospital area is a little more built than it may seem. The doctor in the bottom right room has a short little quest that you have to do to unlock her, and then the nurse I missed, actually has two scenes. She has one at the hospital, and once you clear it, she has to go to class, and then appears at the university. You then need the apartment in order to do that scene. So this area does a lot to introduce different concepts to the game. One being that some women have somewhat secret unlock conditions, and the other is that a character can appear in multiple areas, and you may need different things to unlock certain scenes.

So I was left with the choice of either cutting this area entirely by making it inaccessible in the first version. Which would free up 3 characters and scenes from the current count, but also getting rid of a potential reward for unlocking the apartment as well as some more interesting ways of unlocking women. Since most of the women in the suburbs are just, talk to them, enter seduction mode. It's meant to be a mostly beginner area, so I didn't want anything too complicated there.
Or keeping the area and adding more scenes onto the total.

And after thinking about it, I decided it was best to keep the area. I did compromise and ended up cutting one of the one-off nurses though. I was going to cut both of the nurses that just had the one-offs, but one of them is the receptionist. I thought the area would look too unfinished and people would think nothing is there yet if there was no receptionist, so I left her in. She's also going to be black, and I want to be sure to include all kinds of racial representation in the initial version. To show that there isn't just going to be the same types over and over. That's also why I kept Sandy with tan skin. 

So I cut one character and one scene, but then added another character and two scenes, making the totals 28 characters and 38 scenes for the initial release.
Technically, the character that appears at the hospital and the university should have different outfits on each time, since it doesn't make sense for someone to be in a nurse outfit at school, but to save time, I'm just going to have it be the same outfit with some slight tweaks. Like the nurse version will have a nurse hat, and the normal version will be a different color dress. Maybe for the next version I'll do a full different outfit, but to save time, it'll just be a variation for now.

One last area to take a look at, the beach.
Right now, there's 3 beach babes in the game. Alicia is already done, so she'll be there for sure. Then another is in the poll, so depending on how that goes she may or may not be in, but then there's the third. This is a black girl on the beach to practice volleyball. I didn't really want to cut the only other black girl currently in the game, but she is a one-off character in an area that isn't important. So unfortunately she got cut.

Which brings us to 27 characters and 37 scenes for the initial release.

Making for 6 fewer characters and 6 fewer scenes for the initial release. Not bad, but also not as substantial as I had hoped. So I also decided to cut one of Ayako's scenes. I don't remember if I mentioned this, but Ayako is technically a secret starter. You aren't explicitly given the option to choose her, but she was the only one who got an extra scene for after you unlocked the apartment. Along with this extra scene, she was planned to have a different outfit on. But since she's a secret character that not everyone will even be aware of, and even if they are they may not choose her. So it didn't make sense for her to have an extra scene in the initial version.

Now we're down to 26 characters and 36 scenes for the initial release (I was counting the extra outfit as a character).

The only other area that could possibly have characters cut, is the suburbs. Technically, there's also just one downtown, but she's in the poll. There's also one housewife in the poll that may or may not be in, but we've already counted those cuts.
Anyway, if I really wanted it to be super bare bones for the initial release, there's another 6 characters that could be cut. 2 of them have 2 scenes, so that would be 8 scenes. But one of them introduces the pregnancy mechanic. They have two scenes, one impregnating, and then one while pregnant (I'll go into the pregnancy mechanic more when the character is introduced).
Then there's two that live together and only one of them appears at a time, which I want to include to show that areas can change once you've done certain things.
And then there's one that has a second scene that only unlocks once you've done her first scene at least 3 times. Which shows that some women will have multiple scenes, but only after you've seduced them enough times.
Then there's another that you can only seduce by choosing certain dialogue options. So she should stay to show that you may just need to choose certain dialogue options to be able to seduce them.
Which leaves us with just 1 more that's just a one-off character. I'm going to kind of play it by ear with this one. It seems a bit unnecessary to cut one character to add back into the next version, so I want to include her, but I'm going to see how long it takes to get everything else done. So for now, I'm going to say she's cut.

And that leaves us with a total of 25 characters and 35 scenes for the initial release. Let's take a look at those stats adjusted for the new totals.

Character CG - 8/25 - 32%

Scenes - 8/35 - 22%

Sprites - 1/25 - 4%

Wow, so much progress today!

Seriously though, while I don't like having to cut anything, I want to get something out as quickly as possible. Especially with the changes to the update schedule. Which brings us to...

Changes to the Update Schedule -

Like I said way earlier at the beginning of this post, I'm not going to be able to devote as much time to the project as I have over the past month. There just isn't enough support. I've been posting on Twitter, F95, posted the public H scenes on HentaiFoundry, and I've even started posting on pixiv, but all of that has only translated to 3 new free followers here on Patreon. One comment on the F95 thread. Nothing on Twitter. And while I've gotten a handful of likes on HF and pixiv, there hasn't been much else. Which again, is totally understandable with no build of the game released. But since I need to find a new job and focus on school, I just can't dedicate as much time to this project. So instead of posting a new character and a new scene every week, I'll be posting once a week instead. So either a new character or a new scene.

Which is why it was important to go through and cut characters. By doing one illustration a week instead of two, that would effectively double the time it would take for the game to get done. So I had to do something to cut down on the amount of work.

That being said, this change will start next week. So we're just getting a new character intro next week, then their scene the week after. With this change, it will be a bit easier to balance out doing scenes and character CG. Since there's so many more scenes than characters, there may be times where I do two scenes in a row. I may also end up doing two characters in a row if I'm really crunched for time. Since a lot of these scenes are taking longer than I expected. 

There will still be something new every week though. And at least as of now, I plan on using breaks, like spring break, to do a bit more than usual. 

And of course, if the project does start to get supported enough, I wont need a part time job and can go back to the old schedule instead. Just to be real though, that would need to be at least around $600 a month.

We'll see what happens though.

Changes to Releases - 

All that being said, I've been kicking around the idea of releasing censored versions of completed scenes as sort of samples. Since there aren't any paid patrons yet, I've decided to start doing this as a way to try and attract more people. Maybe wanting to see uncensored versions will help. 

Okay, that's it - 

That's everything. Probably. Just wanted to keep people informed about what's going on and why. I sprinkled a lot of new info about the game throughout too. Things will still be progressing until we get to the initial release. My hope is to get it out as early as the summer, but at the very least I want to release this year. So hopefully there aren't any other problems.