Dev Log #85 - Test release delayed!

Hi all! As you may have gleaned from the title, there is some unfortunate news regarding the test release, which will have it subsequently pushed back by 3-4 weeks! Let's get right into it!

Reason for delay
The main reason for the test release's delay is my decision to bring forward one of the character's story arcs. Originally, this character was already meant to appear in the free roam, but only in a handful of scenes (solely non-lewd ones). However, with this free roam being in a location that is primed for this character's development, I could not pass up the chance to invest more time into building him/her up instead of simply having them be "there" for the free roam!

With this inclusion and with how the character has been presented so far, it would be a non-trivial task to have this character be integrated into the free roam and to have their respective scenes (lewd and non-lewd) be as detailed as possible.

"What if you just released what you have and added the character's content later?"
This is a valid question and while doing the release this way is one avenue, it is not something I am keen on doing. Why? To put it bluntly, I want to put my best foot forward for this test release, even if it is just testing the new game mechanics or the albeit finicky free roams, I still want the content and visuals to be as good as they possibly are in previous releases as I don't intend on re-visiting this free-roam (render-wise, not bug-fixes) once it is released!

With that said, I do seek everyone's understanding on this as I would need additional time to get this done and I also apologize for pushing the release back. It was not a light decision to make being so close to the end of July, but it was something that had to be added given the circumstances described above!

Side story poll results
On a lighter note, the results of the poll are in! A true nailbiter this one, with nearly one hundred of you casting your vote of what you wish to see, resulting in over 200 total votes based on the different tiers!

The winner of the August side story is... Fathiyah's Baby Fever!

Winning with a total of 106 votes over Sarafe with 93 votes across the two platforms! I even had to count and re-count five times just to be sure of the result as the two were neck-and-neck!

As always, thank you everyone for participating in the poll! I am always warmly surprised to see how well these side-story polls are being received and I hope everyone is looking forward to the next poll to decide September's side story!

Poll cadence update
With the major pivot in the development of the test release, I was busy figuring out and planning the work, resulting in a lower cadence of polls for the past week. Picking up the pace slightly, there will be an outfit poll for our favorite resident nurse a few days from now, along with feedback polls for how good/bad you have found the July content update!

---------------------------------------- E3 TEST RELEASE BREAKDOWN --------------------------
Story: 95% done. Shifting one character's story arc into the test release will mean some contexts will need to be adjusted very slightly. Down 5% from last week.

Renders: 80% done. Added work for the character's story arc being moved forward, thus no change from last week.

Dialogue: 70% done. No change from last week. Will be focused on render work for the character's added scenes.

Game Playability: 60% done. No change from last week. Will be focused on render work for the character's added scenes.

--------------------------------------------- END OF BREAKDOWN ------------------------------------------

That's all for this week! It's always hard for me to share disappointing news, but I do look forward to having this character's story arc presented well within this test release and will be working to have it complete in a timely manner!

Stay safe and healthy!