Perfect Home [v.1.11.1]: Table for Two

Hey guys! I'm sorry I was so inconsistent this last month or so-- I always prided myself on being able to communicate better about expectations, but I just ended up dealing with a lot more than I thought I'd have to, between my mom's recent surgeries and other interpersonal this-and-that. It made it very difficult to sit down and work at the brisk clip I normally can when everything's going smoothly, like at the beginning of this year. Coupled with the sheer scale of work that had to be put into Flores' introduction for this update, it just really got overwhelming to the point that I totally burned myself out and couldn't fulfil all my promises.

I was worried that I had to do more work in order to make up for how much extra time it took to develop this one, which ended up making delays a little worse... truth be told, even after all of the extra time I took, I wasn't able to add in everything I hoped/was excited for right away, meaning I'll have to split this one up into two parts. Even so, there's still a LOT to do here-- I'm really happy with how the bad end turned out, Flores was a DELIGHT to write for, and though I lost track of exactly how many words I wrote altogether, there's a bare minimum of 20k+ words of content, between the date encounters, the bad end, and all the scenes in-between...

For Flores, their entire aesthetic resolves around the ideas of possessiveness; making a lover out of you through repeated dates and making you fall in love, until any resolve you have breaks under the weight of their intrusive, non-stop affection. They'll start off innocently enough, but the more you engage with them, the more the mask will slip, they'll become more obsessive, and they'll pursue you with increasing intensity until it culminates into a hunt-- first with you as their prey, and then with them as yours.

I really wanted to make a character that made you feel as if YOU were one of the rivals being pursued, complete with a sort of reverse-hunt you have to undergo in order to evade their clutches...

Next month, I'll be incorporating a few of the features I was most excited for! The things I had to delay for time purposes are:

• VOLUNTARY STAT-DRAINING:

After Flores is captured and tamed, you will be able to let her drain your excess stats in exchange for a witch bottle! This effectively allows you to respec stats if you want to change what "build" you've got, though the more you do it, the more erratic Flores is likely to become...

• STALKED IN THE MANOR:

One feature I REALLY wanted to include is a one-off dungeon that takes you through the mansion itself! This turned out to be the biggest source of concern, since I want to add in a lot of little things-- encountering your named servants in the manor, snapping them out from under Flores' control, stuff like that. It also made me interested in figuring out how to interact with the manor at night, too, outside of story beats...

• IMPROVED 2-STAR DUNGEONS:

My hope is to make it so 2-Star Dungeons aren't just longer or feature tougher challenges, but for the rooms themselves to be completely different. I introduced only one this year so far, and I want to expand upon the concept of harder, more interesting dungeons as soon as I've gotten some rest after this update.

• CASUAL PLAY WITH FLORES:

... choosing my words carefully hear so this site does not unalive me!!!! But after selecting the option from the bed, you should be able to do Things with Flores just as you can for the other servants in the estate.

There's a lot of other little things I'd like to adjust-- expanding further on Flores' bad-end(s) would be fun, and I want to add in a lot of new art... I'd also really enjoy adding something for Locke, since I didn't do anything for 'im during October this year! I'm just really burned out right now. I never experienced burn-out before, since after I'm done with an update, I get to move onto something else, but because I've spent so long on this lovely little bat, it's been difficult!

I think I'm going to take a week to decompress, then start making good on all of my promises going forward. I appreciate your patience and support in spite of my absence recently-- now that this huge weight is lifted off my shoulders, I'm sure I'll be able to talk to y'all WAY more... assuming I don't just throw myself into another big project. ; w;

That's about it for now! At the beginning of August, I hit 10k followers over on twitter, and the incredible reception of my work has been kind of stunning. I always thank y'all for the support, but I don't think I can ever talk about how life-changing this has been enough to do it justice. From the bottom of my little orange heart, thank you! Here's to even more great things going forward!

PATCH NOTES:

• A new character, Flores, has been added to the game! After you've captured all 4 heroes and encounter her a few times, you'll unlock the ability to join her for dinner dates...

• A new stat has been added: Vampiric Love. The more you go along with Flores, the more you'll fall in love, culminating in a marriage-related bad end. This can be mitigated with Bottled Clarity.

• Mid-way through your encounters with Flores, she'll begin to stalk you, featuring unique scenes for the Ruins, Work, Town, and Forest areas, as well as one for if you try to sleep through it all.

• Flores' hunt, conversion scenes, shed scenes, End of Day events, and casual dialogue are all finished!

• A small placeholder event has been added for exploring the dark parts of the ruins, reserved for after you've been introduced to Flores.