Howdy All,

    July and the beginning of August were rather dismal. After finally getting released on Steam, I had 12 sales. Here on Itch, I only had one sale in July, and one more in August.

    If I wasn't so passionate about writing 'SOSThunder', this is point where I would just give up, and not continue the project. But, even though I am enjoying it immensely, I can't continue to invest $10,000 per game Day Installment without the sales returns to recoup my investment. 

    Which puts me in quite a quandary. Sure, I could just continue development and leave out the voicing and enhanced animations... an idea I don't like, because the kick-ass acting crew I've put together really knock it out of the park and add so much to the experience, especially Harrison's actor. 

    Also, without the voice acting, there's no way I can compete in the Steam Market of AAA titles, where voicing and polished visual animations are required for gamers to even be consider making a purchase.

    So, to resolve all of these issues, I think I've come up with a satisfactory solution:

    A) For the Itch community, I will replace the demo with an 'in development' version of the game. I will align it with the game and keep the demo updated with current builds as a slim version, minus all the bells and whistles, (Voicing, fancy animations, etc.) on a donation tier. Which means the new update for today will be version 1.19, including all of Day 1, beginnings of Day 2 for each route, with the Day 2-Crazy story-line extending into the evening.

    The main game [with all the glitz included] will align with the steam updates.

    B) I will do fewer updates on Steam, and those updates will contain major builds with all of the AAA features so as to compete in that market.

    C) At the end of Day 2, and all subsequent even day releases, I will release a soundtrack of all the musical numbers for the latest days, which I will put up for sale on Steam as a separate purchase. For the paid Patreon members, I will make each soundtrack available for free in a limited time period.

    On the Work-In-Progress development front, I've finally managed to squash the nasty bug in the Gallery mod that's been causing problems. With Update 1.19, both the CG Gallery and Jukebox are fully implemented now. Also with the latest update, I've added a new song in the opening Prologue, to trim out some of the dialog. And the Crazy Day 2 has an added Dream Sequence, so we're starting to fill in the backstory...

    With all that's been happening lately in the NSFW genres, I'm glad I made to initial decision to focus on the SFW game, and add in the sexier stuff with a follow-up patch at the end. I'm keeping with that schedule, and to avoid any future hassles, I will release the NSFW Patch exclusively on my Patreon page, available for free for paid members, I'll figure out the proper tiers when the time comes.

    On to the topic of Art... 

    I've heard the feedback. Some of you are still very upset that I'm using AI for character artwork. 

    As I mentioned in my very first post, those are temporary placeholders until I find an artist to redo the work. My continuing search is still turning up nothing useful. 

    For some reason, when I send out queries in GameDev Market, OpenGameArt, DeviantArt, Fiverr, etc., I'm mostly getting ghosted. I don't know if it's the LGBT tag, or the 1890 era clothing styles, or what, but only 1 artist has shown any interest in the project in the last 16 months. Sadly, they wanted to charge $500 USD per image. Since the latest build contains 59 menus, 238 images, and 54 screens, all with unique artwork, it means that artist would want $175,000.00 USD for the project, way beyond my budget to afford!!

    So, I will once again put out a Call For Artists. If you want to draw sexy men in (or out of) 1890 era clothing styles, I'll set up contracts to pay mid-level Fiverr rates for your work. And I have lots of examples for inspiration.

    Could also use some help with a GUI make-over to give it an 1890 Art Nouveau style. My attempts aren't really the best. Same Rates apply.

    Also, if you have any ideas on other locations or art boards to look into for hiring artists, please let me know.

    Anyway, back to the restructure. I'm hoping, these changes will help make all of us happier going down the road...

    Jaxx

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TL/DR:  

    Update 1.19 contains a new Prologue song, fixed CG Gallery and Jukebox, adds more content to Day 2, all 6 branches have their opening songs, plus extended Crazy storyline into evening, with a new Dream Sequence.

    Another Call-Out for Character Artists, I'm paying mid-level Fiverr rates for work. Need all character sprites, backgrounds, plus GUI update to Art Nouveau (1890) style. Attached a sample of the kind of Style I would like to have for the game.

    Changing release paths, Steam will be AAA quality with voicing and animations at a market price, on Itch, will change the demo into a slim version of the full game with no voicing and raw animation at a donation level, while the pay version will follow Steam Releases. 

    Sexy patch will be implemented through Patreon only at end of Day 8 (final release). 

    Soundtrack for Day 1+2 will go up on Steam and Patreon after Day 2 completion. 

    Patreon will also have weekly postings of song versions that didn't make it into the game, along with the continuing dev-log.