v0.13 Alpha is Done - What Took So Long?

Yeah, you read that right—we're doing it! Version 0.13 Alpha for Hazelnut Latte is happening! It's been five long months since our last release, and a lot has occurred to make this a difficult road to traverse.

What Took So Long?

Hah, that is an excellent question! The answer is both simple and not so simple. The short answer is: Life got in the way. The long answer is that this update was ambitious, and not only did we crumble under that weight, but so did our game engine.

Personal Reasons

On the personal side of things, one of my cats had been sick throughout 2024, and despite our best efforts, he passed away just before Christmas. The year he was ill, the countless vet visits, and watching him deteriorate affected me mentally. I'd argue I'm still affected.

While this was happening, Donald Trump became my President once again. I know many of us like to ignore politics, but I cannot. The things he does negatively affect not only my life but also the lives of many others. I cannot simply ignore it. I've been to many nationwide protests and done all I can to help. Waking up every day and seeing my country get torn apart, and people's rights being taken away, and deported for speaking out, to name a few. It's a scary country to live in right now.

Then we have Tax Season! As it was my first year as a mostly full-time self-employed business owner, it was terrible—months of stress, organizing, meetings, and paperwork. Which, by the way, only just wrapped up last week. That's just ME!

One of our programmers also had a very terrible few months in his personal life. That is his story to tell, so I won't divulge that information. Just know that the whole team was really going through it mentally, emotionally, and physically these last few months.

Game Engine Limitations

This brings us to the other reason the update took as long as it did. We use Ren'Py to make our game, and while that is fine for a cut-and-dry visual novel, we are anything but. We have a complex map system, an excellent in-game phone and laptop, and we attempted to add a coffee-making minigame. The work needed to create the minigame would have set us back even further than we already had been. Creating such a thing in Ren'Py with the approach we wanted to take would require a significant amount of work.

A completed system that is in v0.13 is the cellphone, which took months of work to perfect in Ren'Py. You can text other characters, check their stats, change the wallpaper, check your finances and stats, and receive hints on how to progress with the main content. It took a lot of work and trial and error to get it right. At one point, we even had to restart it.

The final programming issue arose from adding Noto's Notorious Restaurant, including the location itself and its inhabitants. Six characters are interactable at Noto's, but they are rarely all present at the same time. Each character you can talk to in Hazelnut Latte has their own routine and work schedule. Usually, this isn't a big deal. Hazel and Vera are at Estros. Tay and Maki are at their respective stores, each with someone there to fill in on their days off. But the restaurant has Mr. Noto, his two goons, Jeze, and the two new servers. Six people are inside the restaurant, and six people are spread across the other locations. They each have a schedule and behave differently. Then you add the fact that half of these characters are hireable for lewd scenes. Calculating how much that costs, how often you can do it, how long you've been doing it for, etc. Then add that Jeze will act completely differently depending on how you treated him in Episode 3, if you even talked to him at all. You can tell by the size of the paragraph that it was a lot.

So, how do we plan on mitigating problems in the future? Simple. We're leaving Ren'Py and switching to Unity. We have hired a new programmer to assist with the switch, who will then remain on staff, so we now have two dedicated programmers. This switch will be in v0.15, so we still have one update with Ren'Py after v0.13.

It's easier to add a visual novel element to a game engine that can do everything than it is to add everything into a visual novel game engine.

~RadLord, 2025

Assets Take Time

The final reason is that we need to create assets. Now, I am usually ahead in writing. I have a number of episodes planned, and I'm currently deep into writing for Episode 7. So writing isn't too much of an issue. I've been writing for HL for so long that it's at that lovely point where it is second-hand. If I need to correct a scene, redo it, change it due to a limitation, etc. It's not a problem.

The only issue arises from the art assets. We have one artist, Kokman. He is incredible, but he is one man. I have tried to find artists that match his art style to take some of the burden off his shoulders, to no avail. No one has yet met my standards. So everything: sprites, backgrounds, CGs, lewd scenes are all him. He's a powerhouse, and he's too talented.

This means he needs to complete a scene before we can send it to an animator. Recently, I hired a second animator to expedite this process, but it still takes time. Especially when you have an update like this with 12 animated lewd scenes, most of which have three loops within them.

Wrap Up

Game development is hard, people. You'd think a visual novel would be easy, but no, there are many failed projects behind the scenes here at RadLord. Hazelnut Latte is just like Cool Hand Luke; he keeps getting back up. I want to thank everyone for their patience and understanding. It's always wild to see comments telling me to take a break. It makes me smile, even though I often ignore the advice. The comments and messages keep the fire inside me burning bright, especially during these dark times.

In another post, I will reveal the Release Date and the Changelog.

The team will also take some time off. While you play and review the Alpha, please be sure to complete the Google Form. Once we return, we will review everything and begin the journey to v0.13.1!