[EN] Gil Day 12 Completion and Current Situation

Hello, everyone, it's Andy here! Gil's Day 12 is largely finished, and we'll do a bunch of playtesting to ensure it works nicely. Since we're trying to return to our previous schedule, we'll release the unpolished version for Bear tier and up soon (talk about one or two days), while Lion and Bull tier will have to wait for at least a few days while we're working on the polished version.

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Now, while we're waiting, there's something important that you guys need to know, but I'll provide a tl;dr first as usual: Steam has been delisting many NSFW projects from their page, and itch.io has deindexed all project tagged with adult NSFW content. While AFCL should be unaffected since we adhere to their terms of usage, we still would like to take precautions with this in case it gets out of hand.

Itch.io has also released news on it here. Read it if you want more information.

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Okay, it's going to be a long one, but please bear with me.

This wasn't the first time this kind of thing happened within the adult-oriented project space like ours; in fact, there was a similar issue happening a while back where some NSFW Patreon pages got deleted, and it caused a major uproar within the community. Many people had DM'd me about how AFCL's Patreon page could be deleted, but I knew it would be okay as I reviewed everything to ensure that we won't be affected by their change, and so we didn't.

Now, while I'm not entirely sure about this current situation with itch.io and Steam, I'll assume it's most likely the same issue with payment processors and its rules just like back then. I'm not super worried as I have carefully reviewed what is allowed and disallowed within their usage terms.

With that in mind though, I won't point fingers about who is at fault for this current situation at the moment; it could be the said organization that people have been calling "anti-porn", it could be the payment processors, it could be the platform--it could be anyone. What I'm saying is, I don't know anything about this, and I won't pretend that I understand. But, what I know is, currently, their goal is to stop payment gateways profiting from rape, incest, and child abuse themed games...which is not what After Class is. While at some point the story might be directed into a heavier topic like those, it is purely part of a larger narrative, hence I refuse to join the mass' decision to pin this on the said organization.

If I was being honest, I don't feel strongly about this situation in general, but I still have to address it regardless.

Of course, if somehow AFCL gets deleted and there's no other way for me to grow and/or publish the project reliably, it'll be super bad for me since your pledges on Patreon are one of my main sources of income and why AFCL hasn't been canned as of now. So, I want to take precautions about this whole situation to ensure the project's longevity, but it won't be effective immediately.

Before that, I want to clear up some things: After Class has always been a SFW project about Walter's and in extension, my own self-discovery along with some fantasy and horror fluff...with some optional NSFW scenes just like Nekojishi. It's supposed to be suggestive with a lot of sexual jokes (and lame memes, heh) at most--not about explicit and passionate sex; but since sex sells, I've been leaning into making more NSFW content for the VN.

Now what "precautions" am I gonna do for the project? Well, I'll make SFW scenes and CGs a priority, and then NSFW scenes later on as an optional patch for people to enjoy should they want it. We actually have that SFW toggle in game now, and I call it Streamer Mode, but it'll be changed once we start making changes to prepare for the purge in case that happens. You can't turn it on now though.

I know my reaction to this versus the actual situation might seem a little downplayed, but I don't like being disingenuous so there's no reason for me to make this a big deal and pretend that I react to this strongly. I'm well aware that some of my income and funds for the project here is at stake, but After Class, to me, first and foremost, is a story I want to tell, not a business model.

So, if worst come to worst that I stop getting the necessary funds (that I get from the readers) to develop it, I probably won't stop writing it, although it'll take significantly longer for me to finish, and there won't be any new assets anymore.

Well, until our project is actually in trouble, I'll still prioritize the NSFW version of the story, so please stay a little longer! I'm too far into developing this to pull out, I'll finish it one way or another, sooner or later!

With love,

Thanks for reading!