Status Report and More

Hello everyone! I have lots of things to talk about today so this will be a long update, though I'll try to keep it as short as I can. I have been silent for a little while because I have been waiting for the dust to settle after this month's round of charges at Patreon. More on that below.

The Road to 0.5

I messed up with 0.4. It's not that I consider the update itself to be bad in any way, but my own estimates of what I would be able to do with 0.4 when I first started working on it, were way off. I promised features that I expected to have no trouble implementing in time, and this resulted in me having to work my ass off through almost the entire holidays to catch up with the most modest of my estimates. Truthfully though, this is nothing new, and I should have expected that it would happen. My day job is in software development. Estimating development time is a central part of what I do at work, and I tend to underestimate how much time is needed to implement features there too. Something needs to change, both for the sake of you, my patrons, and for the sake of my sanity as I develop this game. 

I have decided to do the following until I get a better handle on things and can create better estimates: I will no longer tell you in advance what I expect the next version to contain, at least not in any great detail. My ambitions tend to get the better of me and that's not good for anyone. Those are the bad news. The good news is that I will be much more forthcoming about what I have already implemented, starting today. Roughly once every week, you will receive an update from me where I talk about what I have done so far. These are features you will see in the next version, allowing me to focus on maximizing the quality of the game without having to stress out over deadlines that benefit nobody. You still get a version every month, of course. There will be no changes there. They won't get any smaller either. This just keeps development more flexible and less stressful. The game will get much better for it.

So, without further ado, here are the things I have been doing for 0.5 since the release of 0.4: (I try to avoid spoiling anything important, but if you want to remain completely spoiler free, skip this list of bullet points and read on from the "Pledges and Fraud" header below)

• I have rendered 115 new images for Evelyn and Primrose. These are going to be used for their night scenes in combination with further increases to Agility. Not all of these images will be in 0.5, but most of them should be. The rest will be kept in reserve until they are needed, saving us time when we get that far. Things are about to get very naughty at night for these poor, poor girls.
• I have created a concept for how Perversity will work and implemented it in Evelyn's night scene. As of version 0.4, Perversity has no effect, but that's about to change. This ability will work differently from the other ones in that it locks off choices completely, hiding what they even are until you get the appropriate level of Perversity. You'll know a choice is there and what you'll need to select it, but you won't know what it is until you qualify. 
• I have begun expanding the code and dialogue for Evelyn's night scene to use more levels of Agility as well as Perversity. I have further plans for this scene that I'm not yet sure if I will implement in version 0.5 or save for later. These additional concepts shouldn't be rushed.
• I have started work on the renders for stage 2 of the Agility training. If you're expecting more of the same from stage 1, then... Well, it's not going to be exactly what you think. Let's just leave it there for now.
• I have changed Evelyn's breast reveal scene to be more in line with my original concept for it. This required two new renders. I originally had to use a boring, temporary solution for this scene because of technical limitations, but those have now been solved.
• I have fixed a handful of bugs, most of them thanks to feedback from you guys. 

Pledges and Fraud

If you've been following the development of this Patreon, you might have seen that we dropped dramatically at the beginning of this month. We were nearly at $1,850 in pledges, only to fall almost all the way to $1,600 in a day. This sucks, of course, but it is also entirely normal. Some pledges just don't go through for any number of reasons. Some people also drop their pledges at the beginning of the month, having intended to only pledge for a limited time. Others straight up commit fraud. This was a bit of a shock to me this time around as this campaign has been spared from fraudulent pledges until now. $86 out of the lost pledges at the beginning of the month were fraudulent. I don't know exactly what this means, but I assume it could be stuff like stolen credit cards. Apart from that, $104 in pledges went away because of declines. Last month, only $10 in pledges was lost due to declines, and nothing due to fraud. We doubled the size of the Patreon campaign in just one month, but the number of pledges that failed to go through was multiplied by almost 20! At the time of writing, we have just caught up with the loss. It's a bit of a setback to be sure, but nothing too dramatic. 

One thing I would like to make clear, however, is that many people make pledges to Patreon campaigns, download their rewards, then pull the pledge before they can be charged for it. This can be okay in some instances. Real life can sometimes cause unforeseen problems requiring people to reconsider their economy, and I understand if a Patreon campaign for an adult game is the most straightforward post in the budget to cut. That's fine. However, it's when these pulled pledges become a pattern that this no longer is fine. Let me state for the record that I keep notes of every patron who creates "fake" pledges like these. If it becomes a pattern for someone, that person is blocked. Permanently. This will be my one and only warning on this subject. The vast, vast majority of you guys are fantastic, and I can't thank you enough for your pledges, but there is a tiny number of people souring the experience. If they think I don't notice what they are doing, they are wrong. I notice every single time, and I keep notes.

The $10 and $20 reward levels

I've been neglecting you guys, I know. I'm sorry. My only excuse is that I've been so laser-focused on releasing 0.4 that everything else fell by the wayside, but that isn't really good enough. You deserve better. For those of you pledging at the $10 level, you can look forward to some juicy behind-the-scenes stories this month. For those of you at the $20 level, expect more previews. I will also try to create high-quality renders where I can. I am also going to contact each $20 level patron, both the current ones and those who have pledged at this level previously, to ask whether or not you want your names in the credits and what name you want to display, if so. Keep an eye on your inboxes. Please note that you will not be asked about this until your $20 pledge is successfully processed at the beginning of each month since this is the level where people create the most fraudulent pledges. 

2017 in Review

It's hard to believe that I only started this campaign back in September of 2017. It's been just a little over 3 months, but it already feels like a lifetime. Thinking about what we're going to accomplish in 2018 makes me giddy with anticipation. We began with version 0.1, replaced within a few hours by 0.101. This version contained almost nothing but the tutorial and the first few interactions with Evelyn. How far we have come since then. Two weeks later I released 0.15, which focused on Callie. Two weeks after that saw the release of 0.2, which focused on Primrose. One month after that, 0.3 was released, overhauling most parts of the game, extending the main storyline, and giving Belle some naughty action of her own. And at the end of December, I officially released 0.4 for patrons, focusing on the two previously unintroduced girls Samarra and Nell. There is still a LOT to come, and there are many girls you have yet to see. I can't wait to continue working on this throughout the coming year, and I'm really looking forward to sharing this journey with you guys. I'm so thankful for what you have done for me so far. These have been an incredible few months.

Game Recommendation

Finally, I'd like to use the opportunity to recommend an adult game I recently played that I think many of you might appreciate while waiting for the next version of Long Live the Princess. Rest assured that I won't post recommendations all that often, but sometimes I stumble upon something that sticks out with its quality and promise, and want to make sure people hear about it. This is one of those times. 

The game is called Depraved Awakening, and it's a noir detective mystery. It is very well put together, and the developer strikes me as incredibly dedicated and passionate about what he does. I played the latest version a few days ago, and now I'm eagerly waiting for more. The graphics are of a high quality and varied as well, the music is fitting and sets the proper tone, and the story is intriguing and takes things in a different direction from most adult games. You can find the game over at the developer's Patreon.