July Devlog + Fade Microgame

Hello! Welcome to the July Sour Lemondevblog!

If you're wondering what I've been up to since releasing Date an Otter last month, the main project has been a simple 3D Fade animation which you can view here. I think I'm getting a little ahead of myself, though. Let me catch you up!

• Date an Otter Release

Date an Otter has been my main focus for a while now, so it has been a relief to have the game finally complete and out for everyone to experience. So far, the game's release has been a success in my book! I did some work to help market the game with ADs and by propping it up in an adult games bundle and it's been keeping the game at the top of my itch.io statistics all month which is great to see! 

The game itself seems to be getting a decent response from players, which is what I really love to see. Did you have any favorite moments from the game? Feel free to post them! You can also talk about the game on the fan Discord - I love hearing what people have to say about my games.

• Fade Project

For my next game, I want to move to 3D so that I can make more complicated projects. The only problem with this is that I really don't have much experience in 3D game development. To help alleviate this issue, I've decided to spend a bit focusing on building new skills!

That's where the Fade project comes in. I made this simple project to practice modeling, rigging, and animating 3D models for use in the game engine, Godot. It took a bit of time due to commission work and life stuff, but the final simple animation is available for download on this post! It's not much, but I it was a great exercise for my future projects.

You can watch a video of the Fade project here.
(the glow was added in post)

• So, what's next?

I'm planning to get started on the blind date generation game soon. Much of the prototyping will be focused on the randomization and mod support, but once I have something to show it'll pop up here on Patreon. Expect next month's devlog to focus mostly on that project.

I also have a couple other pieces of news. 

First, I'm going to be doing a couple art poll tournaments like the animal girl polls from last year. The first one will be focused on science fiction + fantasy characters. If you have any suggestions for that poll, you can go ahead and send them here.
The first week of voting will be open to the public next week and Patreon exclusive voting will start on the 9th. Once this poll is done, I plan to do another one focused on Pokemon girls! 

The other piece of news is for those of you who remember me announcing that I was working on a collab project. We were about to reveal the project so that we could more openly discuss it with you all. Unfortunately, the other lead collaborator, Smex, was arrested a couple months ago. I've put the project on hiatus until I more info comes along, so I appreciate your patience in the meantime.

Anyhow, that's everything for right now!
Make sure you submit characters for the sci-fi/fantasy tournament and keep an eye out for next month's devlog!