Date an Otter Beta 0.2
Added 2020-12-31 08:48:52 +0000 UTCHello! Welcome to the new Date an Otter update!
This is a pretty big update. It contains the entire first act of Date an Otter, up until the second main sex scene. The demo contains 9 unique CG, 10 songs, and 5 (technically 9) unlockable scenes. To put this all into perspective: just this update alone is roughly the same size as Date a Mink. Honestly, it's probably larger, but I don't feel like doing the math right now. I've been coding for two days straight.
There are a lot of cool new tricks in this demo. Most of the VN features I included in A Night With a Bat Girl are here, but I've also been using a lot more visual elements that should keep things interesting. You can see an example of that with the gif above. I wasn't able to move characters around like this in A Night With a Bat Girl since every scene was its own art piece, but Date a Mink is a more traditional visual novel, which means that I can slide the characters around as much as I want now.
I've also overhauled the intro/outro text using Ren'py's built in NVL mode, which lets me display multiple dialogue boxes on a single screen. On top of that, I've overhauled the character customization to make it a lot easier to get through. You can still plug in a custom name and pronoun set (though most of the game doesn't take advantage of the pronouns so far), but now everything's all on one screen, making it a lot quicker for when you want to get to replaying your favorite sex scenes.
Also, I'm most likely going to switch on "charge upfront" for Patreon to prevent people from nabbing a free copy of the game and running off, but since this appears to be something I can't turn off later, I was hoping to give you all a chance to weigh in on that decision. Any thoughts? (Edit: I've enabled charging up front! Thanks for your thoughts, everyone. Hopefully Patreon allows me to disable this some day once I no longer need it.)
Anyhow, if you're a $5+ tier supporter or higher, download your beta build below!
Message me if you run into any issues!
Anyhow, I only barely got out a monthly game update this month. I didn't even need to put together a full demo like this, but everything was honestly ahead of schedule until the holidays hit. See you all next month with more game updates! Happy new year!
By the way: If you want to chat about anything cool you've seen in the game, we have a #spoilers chat in the Discord server just for that! Pop in and let us know what you thought! http://discord.gg/Jqnkejk
Comments
I think you have enough content to switch to "charge up front". You've been consistent on your weekly polls, and you managed to squeeze out the demo before the end of the year. You're delivering everything your tier list offers, so any new patrons will not be shafted. The only thing that new patrons need to be aware of is the charging schedule. I.e. A person joins your Patreon today, December 31, at the $5 tier, they will be charged $5 today, and then $5 tomorrow, since it is the start of a new month. Otherwise, there's no real effect on your old patrons.
NovaShadows
2020-12-31 12:35:43 +0000 UTCThe only people it effects are new patrons and patrons who change their tiers frequently, as it would charge the difference. I was planning on just using it for the duration of game development, but it doesn't seem like something I can opt out of once I turn it one, unfortunately.
Sour Lemonade
2020-12-31 09:17:28 +0000 UTCFrom what I'm reading switching to charge up front wont really change much for those of us currently patrons? If so, go for it. And if I'm misunderstanding that I'd be interested to know what the changes would be.
Malkavio
2020-12-31 09:03:47 +0000 UTC
