Astral Lust, and me so far, also next release

Hey! 

I've recently thought over my Astral Lust career, my progress, my plans, expectations, and more. 

Beginning

I've always wanted to make video games, I loved them since little, according to my parents, I was able to install game from CD before I was able to walk, it explains a lot. I've started working on Astral Lust seriously back in the October 2020, at first it was learning basics for tools, programming languages, distribution methods, and so on. After I did know what I can actually do, I've stared planning, be it background, story, or gameplay, everything needed detailed planning, before I was able to start making game's bare framework. 

At first, my knowledge was limited be it Studio NEO, Ren'py or Python, I was working a lot slower than now, I didn't have any prior experience with any of these tools, and languages. The only thing I had any experience with was Python, but it was two days of learning basic language syntax, few years ago, so as well as nothing at all. I had some prior experience with making games, and programming though, just not with these things.

At first it was pretty hard, but as my knowledge expanded, it became much easier, I still learn everyday, as there is not limit to knowledge, there is only a limit to humans.

Now

As of now I've spend above 2000 hours working on AL, it's a lot, but that much is expected since I never took a break. As game becomes more and more complex, I must admit it's getting harder to expand as a whole, I can only expand some parts, and let other wait their turn. No matter how much I work everyday, I'm still a single man, so everything I need to do myself.

The bigger the community, the more time I need to help, and answer everyone. There are also other things that require my attention. Not gonna lie, making game with many mechanic like Astral Lust takes a lot of effort and time to see effect, this game is still very early in development, as it becomes more complete I believe my Patreon will reach the step where I can hire someone to help full-time, taking some burden of my shoulders, and fastening progress.

I've met with an opinions I should make more, and faster. Towards these opinions, I don't know what to say. I'm not a robot, please don't compare me to whole teams, where they can make big update every two weeks, I'm working on AL everyday, as much as possible. I didn't see my friends for three months already, I didn't take a day off for even longer. I work enough for my health to fall, according to the doctor, I should take a break, and rest, as I suffer from overworking and constant stress, and my health will only worsen. My day schedule is sleep -> work -> sleep, everyday, 7 days a week. I've abandoned basically everything else that could be abandoned. I believe there are some creators that can indeed make more, and faster than me, but I can't, I already give 200% of myself. To calm you down, no, I don't plan a break. I'll continue to work on AL, till I either earn enough so I can make it my only job, and thus have enough time to rest, or till I get hospitalized.

I was also asked if I consider abandoning AL if it doesn't reach full-time goal, the answer is no. I never thought about abandoning Astral Lust. Although, if I don't reach this goal, I would seriously consider if I have enough energy to work on the second game - AL prequel, and yes, I have also basic story, background, and gameplay plans for AL2, but it's only basics, as even if I make it, it's too far away.

Thanks

There are many people that helped me in various ways, and I'm immensely grateful to them, starting from the beginning it would be Runey, Harem Hotel developer, I believe most of you do know his game, if not, I sincerely recommend it, it's very good. He explained to me legal concerns of making HS render-based game, as I couldn't find the answers I was looking for elsewhere. 

Next person that helped me immensely is Strectmar, he volunteered to edit AL's dialogue, thanks to him you can play AL without many flow or grammar problems, I'm not native, so my writing is far from perfect, he made up for my flaws and did a lot of great work, to make AL better. Sadly one day he disappeared online, I don't know what happened to him, I hope he's alright, and just had enough of me. 😅 If you read this, let me know you're alive, man. I'm really worried. 

Lately two other people decided to help me a lot, first was Denker, he became Discord Moderator, he also works on Spanish translation, and once SFW mode is out wants to try streaming AL on Twitch. The second person, nickthewolf, helped by spreading AL's name to other servers, and groups, to help me make larger community, get more fans and followers. His work brought in more people than public release did. He also contacted a lot of other creators for possible cooperation for both sides to benefit, sadly no one was interested, as I don't have hundreds of Patrons.

I would also like to thank Darrdorack and hobby2121, they are my two highest patrons, but they also helped me in other ways, their support, ideas, and advices made my life better, I am but a human, I make mistakes, and they listened to me, and helped me correct my ideas, and logic where it was flawed.

Last but not least, I would like to thank all my Patrons, Fans, and Followers, it's you guys that keep me going forward. I remember the joy and excitement I've felt when first Patron joined, I also remember the pain of losing my first Patron. Many of you support me in many ways, some of you do so with their money, thanks to that I focus on development more, not needing to work overtime. 

While, I didn't reach a step when I can work part-time, previously I used to work a lot overtime to make a living, I live in a place where it's hard to survive on basic wage.  With your support I can spend more to work on AL instead, you also allowed me to pay for some things like art, custom buttons in the crafting screen, there are also new windows I have yet to implement, and more things across the development. 

I've received a lot of feedback from you, be it through polls, suggestions, or bug reports. All this feedback is precious, and helps me to improve, both the game and myself. Discord server is where I'm active the most, with over 2100 messages sent by me to this very day. I invite everyone, to join, you can catch waifus there, earn Grace Coins (yeah, no kidding), make memes, uncover new fun games,  find friends and talk about everything.

Next release

I initially wanted to release 0.1.7 on 9th June, but I've changed my mind to 12th June. The change is not cause by me not making it in time, it's solely because from my market research, the best time for release would be weekends, in the second half of the month. I won't make you wait till second half of the month, so I'll just move it to the next weekend. I'm still learning how porn games market works, so I change according to my current knowledge, releasing on the right day can triple community growth, so it's important to find the right time. I hope for AL to succeed, and increasing community I believe to be good way. 

This release is worth the wait, believe me.

Thank you for support!

Stay sane, be horny, Astral Lust awaits.