Update for the 1.9 Update/Future of Eros Academy

So, normally I make status updates Patron-only, but I have a relevant announcement for the general public as well, and I don't like splitting things into too many posts for fear of some of them getting lost in the shuffle. Please read the second announcement in this post. In a lot of ways, it's more important than the update news.

First:

Update 1.9

All renders for the next update have been finished! I spent the weekend (plus yesterday) grinding away at the last set of renders I needed. There's always a chance I missed something (it often happens that I realize I need an extra render during the programming/story portion), but as-is the total render count came out to 82 renders, which I believe actually makes this the single largest number of renders in any update since the very beginning. 

Unfortunately, I have a couple of deadlines coming up for freelancing work, so I need to take today and tomorrow off before I can start on the programming/writing. This was an anticipated need, and will not affect the release schedule. Indeed, the whole reason I crammed so many renders into the weekend (almost 20 of them, which meant I basically stayed home and did nothing else all weekend and yesterday -_-), was that I knew this was upcoming. Even despite this, as the writing/programming portion usually takes only 2-3 days total, I'm officially anticipating a December 15th or 16th release date for version 1.9! Which is exactly on the 'mid-December' schedule I've been shooting for. So, yay!

Secondly:

About the Future of Eros Academy

First and foremost, I want to remind everyone that there will be another full-scale update for Eros Academy. Version 2.0 will, unusually, not be voted on content-wise, due to me wanting to finish up Naomi's quest/date-line. The Version 2.0 Update will contain:

- The Ability to officially ask Naomi to be Faith's significant other.

- Additional chat content for Naomi.

- 10 to 12 scenes added around the academy to reflect the change in status. Each scene will be between 6 and 10 renders, and some will require specific triggers.

- There will be at least 2 scenes with specific triggers (Exhibitionist group related), 1 new scenario, 3 scenes encounterable only via 'Explore the Academy' and 3 easily-repeatable scenes accessed through finding Naomi in her usual place at the pool.

Next is the overall fate of Eros Academy.

Let me say, first, that I actually feel a bit guilty about all the new patrons that came in after I made my announcement about probably stopping development. Grateful (Thank you, both to those who stayed and to new patrons, seriously)! Very grateful, but a tiny bit guilty...as I hadn't intended to extort more support for the game :-). I didn't even announce it anywhere else, after all. I was actually caught by surprise by a number of new patrons coming in and offering vocal support. And it is thanks to both them and my old patrons who stayed that I am now considering a sort of compromise platform.

Understand this, before I say any more. Eros Academy is far, far, far too time and resource intensive for me to continue full-scale development on without a lot more support (like $250+ monthly levels of support). This is not me trying to extort money, it's simply the reality I've been faced with. It consumes something like 120-160 hours of render time, as well as upwards of 100 hours of my personal time, to generate updates of the current size. It would take a big boost to support levels in order to change that, as I would need the ability to both perform some hardware upgrades and routinely be able to purchase new 3D assets. 

Having said that, however, I acknowledge that there IS more support for the game than I had thought there was, and I've been wracking my brain to put together something of a comprise platform as a result of the new support I've gotten. Currently, this is what I'm considering:

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Eros Academy development will NOT stop under this plan, but rather become an extra that I perform at a somewhat slower pace, as a Patron reward. Every month, as part of the new reward system, I would add at least 10-12 new renders (1-2 scenes) to Eros Academy. In addition, extra development time toward Eros Academy would be one of several rewards that patrons will have a chance to vote toward. Other possible rewards that would be part of that Patron-Only poll would include additional short stories from Jaylee Coglin (in exchange for allowing her to continue writing Eros-related stories for her own audience, she will be allowing me to use any she creates as extras), or rewards related to whatever new game I start.

If it won the monthly poll, Eros would get double the content, roughly 20-24 renders for that month instead of 10-12. As I would not, then, have to create or use other reward content, it would be possible to do so. As currently I'm hitting about one 60-80 render update every two months, this represents a drop in overall work on Eros. But if it was chosen as a poll reward, the overall content speed drop would only be about 30-40%.

As a note, I would likely push the content out to non-patrons at a significant delay. Say, non-patrons either get the new stuff at a 3-month delay, or else only get it in update-packs a couple of times a year.

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Meanwhile, primary focus will be shifted to one of six new game ideas. Patrons have already had a chance to get an early glimpse at the ideas I'm currently considering, and both Patrons and the general public will get a chance to weigh in on them before I choose which new game will become the primary focus.

Due to the holiday's coming up, I will not be working on much beyond a Christmas Reward for current Patrons, for the second half of the month of December. During that time, I intend to draw up better-researched drafts of what options there are for new games. Which will then be shown, first to Patrons in poll format, and then to the general public for feedback.

I also intend to acquire, after the holiday's(and their expenses -_-), a Wacom(or similar) drawing tablet that will allow me to pursue a hand-drawn art option for new games. (I have already acquired some very good courses, intended to give me the basic skills required.) 

Hopefully, this comprise, which will see some development continue on Eros Academy, will be acceptable to those of you who wish to see it continued :-).