Update on Build 0.4 and May Billing

Happy Saturday, all.

This morning I sat down to do a hard assessment of where things are with Build 0.4. Compared to where I was at the beginning of the month, I'm so close I can taste it... but it's just not ready. More details are below but the short version is this:  Expect a release in May, and all Patrons who were active in April will not be billed for May.

Status Summary

It's taken me most of April to stage images for ~2000 lines of dialogue, and I have 200 lines left to go. While I could almost certainly have those initial renders done before the end of the month, I am going to have a fair bit of cleanup to do in Photoshop for the images I've already done and, for the last 200 lines, there is a sex scene (which requires a lot of images) and the cliffhanger (which is going to be technically challenging for me and I don't want to rush it).

Once all that is done, I need to do several playthroughs to not only test the code but confirm that, from the player's perspective, things are working as I intended them in my mind. That may require additional corrections or entirely new images. 

And then there is the audio. Not only do I need to get music and non-explicit sounds in, I have a plan for finding new samples of explicit audio (and maybe replacing some of the existing sounds) but I haven't even had a chance to begin working on it yet.

All of that said, while this update is "only" two chapters, it is going to double the size of the game compared to Build 0.3a in terms of both dialogue and number of images.

Some Anticipated Questions

Q: Could I push something out to you before the end of the month? A:  Yes, and it would probably be "good enough" but I don't want the standard for Early Access to be "good enough." I want it to be the best I can give you and, to the extent there is anything I need to go back and fix, for it to be so minor that when I fix it you don't even notice there was a problem. If I crunched, I might even be able to push the whole thing out to you before the end of the month... but I'm not going to do that to myself.

Q:  What if my Patron subscription is scheduled to be cancelled at the end of April; will I get a free month in May?  A:  If you already elected to cancel at the end of April, I don't know whether Patreon will extend you through May. I know that in the context of annual subscriptions, Patrons are given an additional month of access in the event of a paused month, but I don't know if the same applies to cancelled subscriptions. Please direct this question to Patreon support.

Q:  What if I am not a Patron in April but join in May?  A:  If you were not a Patron in April but decide to become a new Patron in May, you will be billed when you become a Patron.

Let me know if you have any other questions in the comments, and have a fabulous weekend!