The Future.

Hello, as I'm sure all of you have noticed that there's been a storm happening in the industry right now because of what happened with itchio and steam.

Now, I had a lot to say but after time has passed, I've reached a certain level of calm.

Before we start, I know that a bunch of words can be boring so I'm slotting in some images here (some new for next update, some you've seen).

If you're here for news on the update, it'll drop before (and latest) August 9. If you're here for another one of my rambling, then thanks and read on. If you uh, don't wanna get spoiled because of some of the little sneak peek images, then just come back at a later date after the update, it'll still be relevant.

Okay, you're reading this. Nice, I appreciate it.

For SSP, I won't lie that my initial ambition for it was to be really successful. Yes, it's crazy to think that, but I was aiming for it to be close to the best games in the genre in terms of number of players and revenue. I say this because I like to think we're a small community and I won't be judged for aiming high, but if we're being frank here, if I don't aim high, then this game is dogwater by my or any standards. So it works out as a motivator at least.

With the current situation, and even if we can't say this for certain, I do think that at least in the near future this game will be a hard sell or it'll be nearly impossible for it to exist on either of the platforms. And don't get me wrong, there's some level of entitlement and delusion at work when I'm aiming for it to be that successful. But that's probably because I fell from my cradle that one time when I was a kid.

Realistically, that amount of success might be unlikely to happen even if the recent mess didn't occur because anyone that played SSP for like, what, two hours will know that it's different from Scars of Summer or any famous NTRPG. I honestly don't know how the hell it became the visual novel length it is now. However, the project is ambitious, and I want it to be a huge success. Or a success. That meant being able to publish on itch/steam. With that endpoint now closed off, I hope you can understand my frustration.

Okay so what the heck does this all mean? It means that the show will go on even if my desired outcome from this project is now even further away than it was. The cards we were dealt with were taken away. Tough, but we'll play with the new hand.

Nothing changes, SSP continues to be worked on.

Fortunately or unfortunately (look at my declining mental state and time sunk), I've thoroughly enjoyed this little world I've built. This little village of debauchery and villains within this small world is something that I found myself wanting to improve and work on, regardless of whether the game turns out a success or not. There are so many more stories to tell here at Seaside. It's fun and I have fun doing it and have fun sharing it.

Also, Shion being hot is the real reason but I'll never say that. Nope, all here for the literature.

Anyway, nobody knows what'll happen in the future but don't take this to mean that the incident won't affect SSP's direction and development. I will strive to make this a success and that meant the possibility of breaking into the Japanese/Eastern market. Efforts towards that will have to be accounted for in dev time/releases going forward if I do take up that task (which meant translation, and with the amount of text I have, I wish someone would shoot me in the head now.)

Don't worry, English releases will always be the priority. This is all castles in the sky stuff now, but if you see me linking my pixiv and ci-en, you know that I now have to wear the translator hat too, because apparently the many hats I'm wearing now still hasn't given me the brain damage to want to stop doing this.

Before we end this segment, how can you help? (if you want to, please..? you'll help everyone in the industry too!)

Sign the petition. Whether it'll result in anything tangible isn't as important as knowing you've fought the good fight. It's worth something.

For SSP itself, you're not going to be insane enough to spread the game through your real-life socials but if you can, if it takes just a bit of your time, spread the word on adult communities with your alt accounts if you really enjoyed the game. Anything that'll help bring visibility will help me keep on keeping on. I can't emphasize enough how important bringing SSP to more people is. Thank you if you've done so and will be willing to do so, know that it meant and it'll mean a lot.

SSP's future:

Moving on to some changes I've been pondering and will adjust for SSP going forward.

The lore stuff will be shortened. At this point, I'm not sure whether the routes require three whole endings. The nature of the game being a NTRPG meant that I can't afford every route to be the size of a visual novel. However, because this route has two female characters, we can justify that.

Don't worry, the build and slow burn will be a key emphasis regardless. You won't lose that, I've just learnt a bunch from Masaru's route that it can be more precise and concise. Let's aim for more quality in our quantity.

After Masaru's route ends, we'll be doing two routes at one go instead of just one. There's only two other characters besides Masaru when you open your in-game phone and check Shion's heart status, so you can guess who. Both of them are bridges for other npcs to come in too so there's that fun to look forward to.

Similarly, future updates after the next one will be more frequent. I'm looking at once every two weeks. It'll no longer be strictly released as arcs as it once was. This helps the project grow its community and make sure patrons get what they want with a degree of consistency.

Free releases will only drop when the update warrants it. So let's say we have 3-4 updates over time that adds up to an arc (for reference: Bakery/RV arc), I'll release an update version that says Major update! or whatever's the equivalent. O

If you look back on SSP's releases, its content was massive compared to other games per update but the period in between, you can actually hear crickets from my patreon page.

If you like that style of release, I think it's fine but I see the value of changing that method and will try it out. You can always come back when the releases make up an arc, no worries.

Cut content/background content:

What does this mean? There's an entire segment that has been partially written that links Masaru to the overarching plot, supposed to be the truth/third ending. That is why the Mansion exists. That is why there's a "true ending". It'll be either cut completely/shortened to read-only logs or worked in the background while I do the other routes.

So...the short of it is, the third ending won't come anytime soon. And when it comes, it'll be cut down from the intended length because more doesn't always necessarily mean good.

The Mansion can be considered a sunkcost fallacy because I've put so much time into it and how it is the core of the story I'm trying to tell so I'll never abandon it and will try to make it matter.

I don't expect everyone to be as similarly invested in Masaru's route or do a replay when they're going to be invested in another character on the other routes in the future either.

But for the long-term, it has to exist unless the game goes the route of "ntr guy=bad, love potion exist just because" and all those tropes. I hope this doesn't come off to mean that this was to be an intellectual game, I just don't want to do tropes like that. Even if true endings as a concept is wiped, it can still be done in the form of memory energy/recordings/written text in-game. I'd rather not but we'll see.

TLDR:

The show goes on, SSP continues to be worked on even with what is happening now. If it slows down, it'll be things outside of my control. I'll repeat this (as I've did in previous posts), it'll only stop development or go on hiatus when my mental health and/or personal life becomes a priority. My life is already a burning house, but if I can help it I'd rather not sleep buried in debris and ashes.

Masaru's third ending will be indefinitely delayed, but will come (some content cut/edited down). Two routes will be worked on, and you'll start experiencing them after Masaru's route ending 1 and 2 is done. Release frequency will also be changed once Masaru's route endings are released(goal being once per two weeks).

Update's coming on the 9th. I'll release another post with more sneak pictures and dropped content later this week. Next update will only contain one ending (but it's long) and the final bar scene. Second ending will come close or if not, come together with the start of the other route.

Game's here to stay unless something really, really irreversibly bad happens.

Till next time and thank you for reading something this long.

P.S: Everything said here is subject to change so please don't badger me or anyone if you're upset or unhappy in the present or the future. This is to set expectations so that you have a general understanding of where SSP is going.