June Progress Update

Things have been rough the last couple months but I'm still pretty hopeful about how things are looking for the future. (Goes for both game dev and well... life in general right now.)

So first off, Patreon.
As most of you have probably already heard, Patreon will soon be forced by multiple governments to start charging sales tax to many patrons it didn't previously charge. This should have little to no effect on THIS campaign, but I'm double checking my tiers to try to ensure minimal (preferably zero) taxes incurred since... TBH I haven't really delivered much in the way of rewards, have I?

I've always maintained the stance that this page is more of a tip jar than a sales transaction; and this sales tax thing has me wondering if I should just double down on that and officially nuke most of the rewards I haven't been able to regularly deliver on. And/or replace them with things that have no monetary value so sales tax can't be incurred. (Stuff like name in credits and voting power, etc.) Or maybe I can redo the tiers so the money goes towards different goals. (Though Patreon isn't really made for that and I'd have to regularly delete and make new tiers) I dunno I'll figure something out, but open to suggestions.  (For the record, regardless of reward tier screwiness, ALL of ya'll are going to get copies of the games, of course. Including Steam keys where applicable.)


So status on the three current projects I'm working on.
Amaryllis Little Black Bestiary Episode:
Oof. To be honest, this one kinda got held up in a development hell limbo for a while. TBH I kinda just want to get it done with already, so in July and August I want to buckle down and prioritize this one since it's kinda slipped to the back-burner the last couple months.

Noire Little Black Bestiary Episode:
This one is coming together nicely though. I'm very happy with how the script is shaping up. I've recruited two new writers whom have both done some excellent scenes for it. Bit more humor to this one than the previous episodes.
I've ordered a big batch of sex scene CGs of Noire from QueenChikkibug as of last week. I don't have a sketch or a preview yet, but if you want a sense of what to expect here's a big 12-part commission she did for another client (The goblin girl has nothing to do with LBB stuff. It's just that Noire's sex scenes CGs will have a similar art-style and extensive number of variations) https://twitter.com/queenchikkibug/status/1262554590060269568

I'm really hoping to shoot for a release date of November 13th on it (A Friday! For the theme!) But it's hard to say at this point if I can both pull that off AND get all the content I'd like into it; but it's looking doable right now, if the current pace holds up.

Takkyu Tournament:
I spent most of June trying to get the single player arcade mode update released on this in time for the Steam Summer Sale, a deadline I didn't manage to hit. I'm still hoping to try to polish it off this week (before the sale *ends*) The last boss is about halfway done right now and then there's a couple bonus stages to finish. (Again, for the record, 0% of the Patreon funds go towards Takkyu Tournament, all of it goes towards art/writing for LBB stuff. But I figure it's worth sharing updates on something that ate up a bunch of my time.) Again, Tbh, it's not exactly making money and releasing it as an early acess thing was probably a mistake, but I'm still comitted to finishing the vision we'd set out for it.


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Also on a personal note I got called back into work this month so setting back into my (new) work schedule threw me off a bit too. Not trying to make excuses just... I'm honestly dissapointed at the slow pace I've been producing content (or not producing, as the case may be) And I want to do better, so I'm still hoping to figure out ways to make things quicker and more efficient. "Just hire more people" doesn't always translate to pure speed since that invites coordination issues, "too many cooks" type problems or you still have projects hinging on waiting for one specific person to deliver thier part, so there's more to it than just throwing more money or people at it.

All right, venting a bit at the end here, but that's pretty much the situation at the moment. Thank you all for your support and for bearing with us through all this. Hoping for a  productive summer!