The last month before the update.

Yes, it's May. If you need a more specific date, let's say between May 31 and June 7. Provided, of course, that everything will be okay during that time.

Meanwhile.

The draft conversion into the playable part of the game is 2/3 complete. Well, not quite yet, but it's a matter of days, not weeks, so let's simplify it to a clear 2/3 done, without any unnecessary blah blah blah.

One of the lewd scenes was removed. Long story short, when it came time to integrate it into the game, it seemed superfluous to me. Just plain unnecessary. Especially since there's more than plenty of those goodies in the next update anyway. As a result, the draft was reduced from 940 pages to 890 (including some natural text reduction during translation into English), which is still quite a lot, if you ask me.

Split tongues.

The unusually large size of the update and, accordingly, the time it took to develop it, had a predictable effect. Here and there, a certain type of person began to appear. Unsurprisingly, they weren't among the patrons, but on pirate sites:

“I'm deleting my saves and consider the game dead!”

Oh no, bro! Don't kill your saves! Think of their children! They'll be raised by restarts! You don't want that!

“No news, the game is dead, the author hasn't said a word in months, I'm losing faith!”

Be strong in your faith, brother! Even when I was silent for months - no! - for years! And here I don't write anything at all and don't inform anyone about anything. You also don't read this. Nope. It's a mirage, it just doesn't exist. You don't exist either. Nothing exists, and everything is futile!

“Longer than a pregnancy!”

Oh, that's the top of the month. Measuring in pregnancies. I suggest making this a new trend for all other games. How many pregnancies did it take to develop this or that game? Huh? Huh?! Do you get it? Now we measure games in pregnancies! It'll be epic.

Oh… Either way, I suspect that the number of panic-mongers will only increase this month. You know, partly I'm flattered. But partly... oh, dear.

Holding the line.

These are patrons. Thank you. This wait, which is coming to an end, has been long, but nothing lasts forever. And despite the fact that the numbers have naturally declined, most of you are still holding the line, financing the development of this game not only for yourselves, but for everyone else as well. It is only thanks to you that this story continues.

About all that tester's thing.

There won't be any. After thinking it through, I decided that it wasn't the best idea. There's the impossibility of preventing leaks, and my unwillingness to exploit other people's enthusiasm as free labor, oh, and a lot of other things, really. I'll manage on my own.

However, one of my patrons has been granted the right to preview the finished parts of the updates. At his request. And without any obligations. Will there be feedback and bug reports? Good. No? That's fine too. This is a privilege, not an obligation.

I am deliberately not naming this person because... Well, the internet is a big place, and there are all kinds of people out there. I don't want some lunatic to start harassing him with demands to leak the game or spoil future episodes.

In the future, if everything goes well, I plan to expand this list to a few people, 3-4 at most. But first, I want to make sure it doesn't backfire in some unexpected way.

Hey, but I want this too!

Well, if there are any, of course. If everything goes well, I will contact you here on Patreon via private message.

Two main criteria:

1. Be a patron. And for a long time, at least 6 months or more. The tier doesn't matter. What matters is the fact that you are one of those who hold the line. That speaks for itself.

2. Feedback. Lots of feedback. And by that, I don't mean flattering comments. No, of course I'm a pathetic human being and my heart melts from your praise... But by feedback, I mean meaningful, interesting, attentive to detail comments that are useful to me as a developer. Because I don't just read them, I often integrate the answers into the game itself in a creative way.

Just to be clear:

• Both criteria must be met by the same person.

• I will contact you myself and offer you the privilege of playing the playable part of updates before they are released to the public.

• This applies to all updates, not just specific ones.

• This person is not obligated to do anything if they don't want to (feedback, bug hunting, etc.). But I would appreciate at least some comments. Especially since it's much easier to make changes to an episode while it's being worked on than after it's been released.

• This person must not leak these versions or spoil the story for other players. Otherwise, the privilege will be revoked. And yes, I will know exactly who leaked it if there is more than one person. It's not difficult to do.

But for now, let's start with one person. This is a test, so to speak. To see if anything goes wrong. Because if something goes wrong, I will cancel this practice altogether.

Conclusion.

The biggest of them all. Even bigger than the entire first chapter. The most lewd of them all. And also the most I-can't-say-what update, coming in about a month.

P.S. Make a save with the virgin Selene before the next episode. Just do it ;)