JPDE's 2nd Birthday - The Birth, the End and the Break

Hello, thar, Meinos Kaen here… And today is JPDE’s 2nd birthday.By birthday I mean the day I first had the idea for the overall story, thanks to a good long-time friend of mine that on the JPDE Discord server goes by the name of Penny –sic-. I had debated about maybe considering the birthday the release of the first demo, or of Version 1.0 but I thought I’d be completely honest and true with you guys. Also so I can weave you the tale of the game’s origins.

THE BIRTH OF JPDE

I didn’t get into RWBY until after the end of season 3. I was aware of its existence, I had heard about Rooster Teeth but I never got into any of their products. I knew of RvB but I was never into Machinima videos. Achievement Hunter? I prefer playing videogames instead of watching people play them –but I will tune in for good commentary even if I don’t always completely agree with the points made, shoutout to Jim Sterling, Yathzee and TotalBiscuit (rest in peace)-.

The first contact I had with RWBY was actually the Yang VS Tifa Deathbattle, a video with an outcome that even RWBY fans pretty much all agreed was bullshit and immediately made me not interested. I had friends who were fans, though, one of which was Penny. She tried many times to get me interested in RWBY, to the point that I pretty much knew the whole plot before even watching an episode. Still, she never managed to stir the embers of interest.

Until she showed me Penny –the character-. A fan-art of her, then her official sketches, and damn. Penny is still, by far, one of the best character designs I have ever seen in animation. Then she showed me the episode where she appeared and I was hooked. So cute! So freckly! So pure! So OMGGIANTLASERWTF! 

Then, after getting me on board… She told me Penny was dead, after I had already gotten to Season 3! THAT CHEATER!  So I got moody and eventually turned to my favourite coping mechanism… Imagination.

Hitting ideas off my friend and just shooting the shit about how Penny deserved more friends, maybe her own team, maybe someone who loved her, and a partner. Those talks gave birth to the concepts for David, Evelyn and Jack, and eventually to Team WHIT too.

Those conversations actually turned to a roleplay, but I have always been a writer first and foremost so I thought ‘hey, this could actually make a nice fanfiction’. Been writing fanfiction since I was 14, so the progression was natural.

Then, I remembered something else. I had been experimenting and using RenPy randomly on and off for years but I had never actually put my ass in gear and just made something… Then I realized I wanted to make a Visual Novel out of it. I wanted to make a story where Penny didn’t die and I didn’t just want to write it, I wanted to code it.

I started thinking about making monthly releases of it right off the bat, budgeting certain amounts of money out of my own pocket. That only lasted for a couple months before I opened the Patreon for JPDE and, my god, the support I received has been unbelievable. All for a little fan-game born out of love for a redheaded row-boat. I’m humbled every minute of every day by the all too real support I’ve been getting.

Two years later, JPDE is still going strong and I’ve even managed to start working on original projects of mine. I can’t thank you guys enough for the support you’ve been showing me…

And today, as year two comes to a close, it’s time to discuss year three. It’s time to discuss the road to the end-game.

THE ROAD TO THE VYTAL TOURNAMENT

As you may already know if you've been playing the game, the School Life part of JPDE will end with day 183, which is going to be the weekend of the Vytal Dance, corresponding to the RWBY Vol2 episode Dance Dance Infiltration, and then the events of the Breach of Vale City. On that weekend it's when the end-game starts.

On the weekend of the dance, instead of choosing who to go on a date with, you'll be asked who to bring to the dance out of all the characters you've been on four dates with. Once made, that choice can't be changed, and other than the dance it will influence how certain events will play out in Breach and during the events of the Vytal Festival.

The choices are mutually exclusive, meaning that once you've chosen one character it will be like all the other dates won’t have happened –unless it’s a threesome/moresome route, ahem-. If you choose Silhouette-chan, it will be like you will always only have gone on dates with her. I’ve stated in the past that JPDE’s route dates are like schrodinger’s cat. The dance invitation is like opening the door.

There are however, certain exceptions, which I will refer to as complementary characters. The dates of these characters will still count as having happened even if you choose someone else for the dance and will influence some events during the end-game. So far, those characters are:

Neopolitan

Qrow Branwen

Pyrrha Nikos (Optional)

Cinder Fall

The more dates you get with these characters, the more they will influence the end-game, even if you decide to not bring them to the dance. Also, they will interact with other certain characters’ stories in certain ways if you bring those other certain characters to the dance.

Got all that? Good, because now we come to…

END GAME DEVELOPMENT

Once we hit day 183, I will change how I release content for the game. Since I won’t be able to measure the progress in weeks any longer, I will just release as much as I can manage each month. But there’s also something else that is specific to the ‘date routes’ part: I will only ever work on one character’s end-game at any given time, exception made for the complementary ones.

What does that mean? It means that, when we first hit day 183, I will have a poll asking you to decide which character out of the ones currently at four dates you want me to work on. I will then work on that character’s end-game only until completion, then open another poll to decide which character to work on next.

This, of course, on top of the usual two dates a month and the story progression, provided that we keep a sufficient level of Patreon funding.

IN CONCLUSION

At this rate of releasing and updating, we’re going to reach day 183 probably on JPDE’s third birthday. So you have one year to get as many people as possible up to four dates before the final battle to decide who’s going to get the first end-game focused round of development. That final vote will be PATREON EXCLUSIVE. I repeat, ONLY PATRONS WILL BE ABLE TO VOTE ON THAT POLL AND ANY SUBSEQUENT ONES REGARDING END-GAME CONTENT.

And with that, I now officially declare fourth dates available to be nominated and voted for in New Route Events polls. All other rules, particularly the ones regarding Team RWBY and Team JPDE characters, stay in place.

Papa loves you, papa thanks you and I will talk to you soon. Put a mark on your calendar, prepare, plan, look for allies… Because we’re now entering Year Three of JPDE. And the stakes have never been higher…

- Meinos Kaen

Ah, also...

P.S. - SEPTEMBER BREAK

BunnyVoid, our background artist, has recently suffered a death in the family. ArsonicArtz is going to Japan and Papa is going to France and Poland in September.

Considering these circumstances, there will be a small break in September. Meaning that the September release will only contain the new dates.