Bat Studios

Novembear Jam and Chapter 7

Hello dear supporters,

I hope you're all doing ok, or at least good enough to be able to move forward. That's my current status: surviving. I really hope that I will get some things going soon, but I am no longer expecting much. For the ones who followed me since last year, I have to say that things haven't changed that much. I'm still sad and angry and depressed. I thought going back to work here would somehow help me stabilize, but all it did was make old feelings resurface in an ugly...

A little progress here, and a little there

Hello everyone. 

For the first time in the novel, we might use a random background with a filter on top of it...I just can't afford to commission new art for the novel right now. I added an extra part that was needed in the story to make more sense. In my head, it made sense. But it needs to make sense to everyone, so I added the extra part, and with it comes an extra background or two. We'll see how this goes, but at least you'll be glad to read that Chapter 6 has been fully fini...

Chapter 6 - Change

Hey everyone. It's been a while again.

I'm slowly getting accustomed to my work hours and all the work I need to do again. I haven't really recovered financially, but it is what it is for now. Things will become a bit more stable in the coming months, I'm sure, however, it will also take up a lot of my free time to get there.

Today is my free day and I have decided to finish up with all the small stuff needed to move the chapter into the coding part. There are a few illustrations ...

Silence is wonderful, but don't let it get too quiet

Hello everyone,

I know I posted recently that I would make time for the novel, yet here I am again writing that I want to write. Today, I had a realization: maybe...just maybe, I could have postponed getting a job and stuck to writing more to see where it would go. Maybe the support was there, but I didn't give it enough time to get to the point of actually transforming itself into what I imagined at the start. 

It's obviously much too late now, but I do want to say that I pl...

Update on Bat Studios and Chapter 6

Hello everyone,

It's been a while since the last update and I had to get you all up to speed with why the long silence.

My new job has taken over my life and the little free time I have left, I use to decompress and relax. The good thing is that now I am becoming just a bit more financially stable which means that future releases for Light My Way will continue. I've mentioned before that every new chapter costs me around 500€ or more to make. It's not easy moving forward with th...

Beyond Romance: The Evolving Journey of Light My Way

Light My Way is kind of growing. Not in terms of the Patreon count necessarily, but growth has many forms. There are a few more YouTube channels that focus on furry visual novels that have picked up my story. I get a hit of dopamine every time I see a link being posted with Light My Way. If there is any type of drawing related to Light My Way, any mention, literally anything related to it, my day instantly gets better. I smile all day long and am in a great mood. I can't stress enough how muc...

Inevitability

It's been a few weeks since my last entry here. I've been busy with a lot of things in my life. Something that has taken up a lot of my time has been the flat where my mom lived. I needed to remove all the furniture, paint the walls, basically clean it out as best as I can in order to give it back in proper shape to the landlords. It hasn't been the greatest of times, in fact I still have to go there at least a few more times to finish up with some painting I still need to do and washing wind...

Crash and grow

It's been a while since my last update here regarding...well, everything. 

I have considered not writing anymore about my life here and keeping things to myself or just talking about them with my real-life friends. But I figured that you should get to know more about who you are supporting even if you mostly care about the visual novel. And that's ok and expected. I am just another guy on the internet in the end. After all, you can always skip reading these if you don't feel like i...

Giveaway winners announced!

https://batstudios47.itch.io/lightmyway/devlog/676579/giveaway-winners-announced

If you've participated in my giveaway, please take a look and see if you've won!

- Hadrian Maximus

Chapter 4 - Displacement Release!

Hello everyone!

We are finally ready with the build. There are some things that still need to be edited, but for the most part the build is solid and stable. Let's hope you all like it. It's been a while yes, and I know it's not how I planned it, but I can't do more than I am doing now...Anyway. Let's just focus on the now and the future. Give Chapter 4 a read and tell me if you liked it. I am looking forward to your opinions if it was good, bad, a growth in any direction, et...

Grand Unification Day

Hello everyone. I know it's been very slow with

Obstacles are just there to get us hyped for victory

Soundtrack: Dark Waves by Attack Attack!

Life, like most things, is not some linear constant that we can easily sail with cruising winds behind us while we sip on a cocktail and enjoy the breeze. Life tends to shake us, sometimes flat out smack us with a closed fist and then laugh at how weak we truly are. Other times every step we take feels like it was preordained by some god-like entity from the depths of the unknown and endless cosmos, as if we could do no wrong no matter w...

Let the New Year in, leave the old one out

We've managed to finish another rotation of our planet around the sun. I've never been much of a Christmas guy, but the New Year hits different for me. Today is a day of reflection: what did I achieve this year? What were my mistakes, and what could I have done better? I always use this time to think about my future plans as well.

In recent times, it has become more or less a joke to talk about New Year's. There are memes all around how the main goal is just to survive or something si...

A different holiday

I arrived at a friend's place 2 days ago. I decided that I didn't want to spend the holidays by myself at home, so I travelled 6 hours by train to get here. It's cold and windy, but it's where my friends live, and that's the most important part of it all. There is so much social pressure, especially during the holidays, to be with your family or with your significant other. But what if I don't have that? What then? Does that make me a loser? I don't believe in these social constructs that ser...

Time does heal

Things have been moving along in the past few weeks. Although it's been only a month since that final day, I am going through a better phase now. Yesterday was exactly one month since my mom passed away, and even though this is probably the most amount of time I have ever spent in my life not talking to her face to face, I still talk to her from time to time anyway. Maybe she hears everything I have to say, maybe she doesn't, but it makes me feel better anyway. So I'll keep doing it :) <...

Recovery

Losing a loved one, especially a mother, is a profound and heart-wrenching experience. It's a journey through the deepest valleys of grief and despair, and I find myself on that path now. My mother's battle with cancer ended, leaving an unforgettable and powerful mark on my life.

The weight of this loss is like a heavy cloak, and it's easy to succumb to the darkness of depression. Every time I think of writing about this my chest tightens and breathing doesn't come as easy anymore. But ...

Acceptance

Soundtrack: lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird

There is no easy way for it though. Acceptance. Mom is gone. Accept? No. Well...yes. I have to. There's no other option, is there...So I have to move on one way or the other.

Define "the other": stay stuck forever in memories and feelings long past and have a semi-functional life where everything has an asterisk made of sorrow attached.

Define "one way": accept that she is gone and move on with my life. Accept death. Accept an...

The light, the void and everything

It's 21:27. I am at the hospital in this room that's meant for coffee breaks, I assume. The light towards the hallway only shows me the way to where a strong void awaits. I'm no longer sure how to feel. Some days, it's ok and bearable. Some days, it's pure chaos in my head. Today is a good day. And I think that moving forward, things will become clearer. Absolutely not easier. Terrible from many perspectives, but clearer nonetheless.

I need to accept a lot that's happening. The change...

A life worth living

Dear readers,

It's getting close to the point of no return for my mother. I am with her every day trying to do my best to help out as best I can. I wanted to share with you some things about me so maybe you get to know me better.

I came from nothing. After my drunk and violent dad left the picture when my mother finally divorced him, it was just the three of us left: my mom, my older brother, and me. There were times when we didn't have much to eat, sometimes nothing at all. Liv...

Better days are coming (sad entry, read at your own risk!)

At least I hope they are. I've been going through some tough times lately. My mother has become so much worse in the past weeks that she can barely walk. I need to be there daily to take care of basic stuff like washing dishes, cleaning around the flat, and doing other household chores. I don't mind in the slightest obviously, but it's getting to me seeing her almost every day looking weaker and weaker. She was once a beautiful flower and now she's wilting away and I can't do a damn thing abo...

A short update on things now

I played the novel with the new sprites yesterday. It felt weird, but I expected it to be that way. I mean, for the better part of a year, I have been familiarizing myself with the old sprites. For most of you on the other hand, this change will have a much lower shock level especially since you had the illustrations to somehow create a different sense for the upcoming new art. I am happy that the sprites are finally done, but I had to pay for a new set in full...I would like to say something...

A short story

Hello everyone,

I would like to post from time to time some of my short stories that I wrote. Some were written during writing courses, others were written by me for fun when I had a bit of inspirtaion. I don't know how often I'll post these, but here's one. Feel free to tell me what you think about them.

Patrol Duty
Agent Blue is walking back to the car with his usual elegance about it. His smile, a weapon in itself, unravels any thoughts or emotions I have. A great spy indee...

Rethinking how Light My Way moves forward

Hello everyone. It has been a few days since I returned from Eurofurence but I didn't get to write an entry here. I kind of hesitated because I wasn't sure of the direction of the novel and some other stuff that I'll explain below. But now I have more clarity and I want to share with you my future plans for Light My Way.

A secondary illustration artist

I'll start with the fact that I am actively looking for a secondary illustration artist. There is nothing wrong w...

Chapter 2 now live!

Hello, everyone!

After days of agonizing with Itch and Patreon, I believe we finally managed to get everything settled. Use this link to access the project if you are a Patreon:

https://batstudios47.itch.io/bat-studios-patreons/patreon-access

There will be a follow-up devlog with more details about our future plans, but for now, just enjoy the second chapter.

<...

1000 downloads!

19 days after the release of the demo build, Light My Way has finally reached 1000 downloads. You can see by the graph above how fast the hype went away. The first 500 downloads happened in about 6 days I believe. Then almost 2 weeks for the same amount to happen. The views (top graph) didn't drop like the downloads, but after those 5-6 starting days, things went down. I mean it's to be expected. Th...

An open-ended beginning

Hello dear readers,

I wanted to start my Patreon-only content by telling you what you can expect from me. Since I'm not a visual artist, I won't have many artworks to share outside of some spoilers if you'll want to see them. I could post sketches and such, but that will be dependent on you, if you prefer to see spoilers or not. This will be a blog in most ways and I'll be talking about various things surrounding my visual novel and sometimes how my life is going. 

A little a...