State of the Game update July 2021 (Patreon)

Hello everyone. This is going to be a big post, so I'm just going to throw in some pictures here and there to make it seem less like a wall of text =D

In this update, I'd like to go over and discuss some things regarding the update schedule, the Patron reward tiers and the state of the game. Let's get right into it!

Disclaimer: All art in this post is conceptual, both the artstyle and designs may change over time.

1. State of the Game

And with that out of the way, let's look at how the game is progressing. Which is to say... it's going fine. A bit of a boring answer, I know. These early stages of a game are normally fairly boring. Systems are being planned out, characters are being designed, new coding techniques are being learnt.

This month I've been working on finalizing the intro for the game. This is a very important step. Can't be too long, needs to be interactive, gotta add something sexy, has to set up the characters. It's a step where many first time developers get stuck on. Luckily, I think I got a pretty solid basis now.

On top of that, my artists have been hard at work creating concept art for the game! Right now we're working on backgrounds and character designs (which you'll seen through this post).

2. Update schedule

All right, let's get this one out of the way. Over the last few years, you've come to expect a monthly game update from me. Although I'd love to continue that trend, it does come with several downsides. Downsides which I've been ignoring up until now.

Bugs. First up are bugs. Having monthly updates allows for very little bug testing. Resulting in a very buggy experience. Something which I've been criticized for in the past. To a point where people refuse to play my games due to the reputation of being buggy. I want to change that with Camp Mourning Wood.

It also takes so much time to fix these. Time I could be spending on adding cool new stuff to the game.

Incompatibility. I've received a lot of reports from PT where players got stuck and couldn't progress because they were on an old save file that wasn't compatible anymore. To try and solve this, I'd like to go with fewer versions of the game, have more testing and have bigger updates instead.

Motivation. And now we get to the big one. As much as I absolutely love this job I have to face the fact that I'm working an unreasonable work schedule. Paprika Trainer had me working 7 days a week, all year round. With only taking a break for Christmas. I want to work hard to show you all how much I appreciate your support, but it has begun impacting the game. There are several moments in PT where I look back and am unhappy with the writing. These were written during moments where I couldn't find the inspiration and forced myself to write.

Since then, I've talked to friends who told me I'm going to burn myself out if I keep doing this. This was back in September of 2020. I didn't want to change my work schedule this close to the release of the game, so I've put it off until now.

What does this mean? I'll be changing the monthly updates to a 'when it's done' upload schedule. Which realistically will be every 2 or 3 months, which seems to be the more common upload schedule in this industry. The benefit of this is that:

• 1) Less chance of a burnout.
• 2) More time to bugtest
• 3) Less stress for my artists
• 4) Bigger, more substantial updates (hopefully without bugs :D)

3. Patron rewards

This is a fun one! I can't say too much about this one yet. I loved the Jester Cards for PT and it's a trend I want to continue (well... unless you guys say that you're not interested of course).

I've been looking at what other creators offer their Patrons and I'm hoping to integrate this into my page aswell. Things like Discord, Q&A's, Early Access, etc. On top of that, I'd like to involve the community more in the development process. I experimented with this last week, where I put up the Monster Girl poll. Thank you all for voting in that!

More info will roll out when the game is further in development.

4. Paprika Trainer bugs

Aaargh...! They're still here! I've been patching this game over the last 2 months, and they just keep showing up! New patch hitting later this week.

5. Wrapping up

Phew~... so that was a pretty big post. I hope you all are as excited for Camp Mourning Wood as I am. Not too much I can share on it yet, but rest assured that we're hard at work behind the scenes. Thank you all for your support and I'll catch you soon!

-Ex