The Month Ahead

Howdy everyone, thanks for another great month! I'm just dropping in to let you know what our plans are for the month ahead and to give you an update on where we're at right now.

Streaming

Before we get into that though, I'd like to quickly touch on the topic of streaming. Sorry it's been a hot minute since the last one, there's a combination of reasons as to why. Something that's become abundantly clear is that there's at least a couple of people who really don't want to be notified about steams. Unfortunately, this makes the idea of Patreon exclusive Sileo streams rather difficult as they would only be available via a link here on Patreon and wouldn't even be announced to subscribers on YouTube. This is part of why there's been a break of sorts since the last stream as Patreon simply doesn't give me the tools needed to really do anything about that - if only people could unsubscribe from alerts bearing a certain tag, but alas, that is among the many features Patreon lacks.

Going forward, there will be one Patreon-exclusive stream per month targeted specifically at the latest update and the content it contains. If a single stream is too many notifications for your liking... sorry, but deal with it. These Q&A streams are exclusively available to you guys to tackle new content releases only available here. If you don't want to join in, that's fine. But viewership has shown that there's more than enough interest in these streams to justify their existence and while I wish I had better tools at my disposal to handle notifications re those streams, for the purposes they serve, I simply do not. 

The next Patreon-exclusive stream will take place sometime in the next couple of weeks. I will generally aim to do these as close to release as possible but this month will be an exception. Following this upcoming stream, with the exception of the monthly Q&A, other streams will be made available to the public and notification will not be given here on Patreon. I will however let you know prior to the first public stream where and how to get notifications for those streams. I'll probably put a role in our discord for streaming notifications as well, but more on that closer to the time.

A Short Break

This month unfortunately has to start with a sizable break on my part. You might recall that at the beginning of the month, I was essentially bedridden for a short time and sadly, that has reoccurred and for the same reasons. The long and short of it is I'm medicated for ADHD but over time, you develop a tolerance. This tolerance essentially resulted in me taking larger and larger doses to keep up with the workload which, naturally, has resulted in me running completely dry more than two whole weeks before my next renewal. And if you've ever withdrawn from amphetamines before... well, let's just say it's great fun. Really!

Of course I know this is what needs to happen. I know it should have happened months back. Doesn't make it any easier though. I ran dry... jeez, four or five days back now? I've spent most of that time lethargic and mostly bedridden. The good news is I recognize the worst of that whole debacle in the rear view mirror and I'm gradually getting better now. It's still a whole ten days before my next renewal so by that time, my system should be totally clear and my tolerance all going well will be more or less back to zero. That'll make the coming months far smoother though I know I'll inevitably be back here again at some point. The withdrawals are terrible and I know if I had the medication on hand, I'd have taken some to try and feel just a little better. Running out is pretty much the only way to force a proper reset in my case. Sad but true.

With the above in mind, I'm going to mostly be taking the next ten days or so off entirely. I hope to fit the aforementioned stream into that window somewhere but I can't promise anything at this stage. I've been working like crazy as of late and I know the best thing for me is to just focus on my wellbeing over the time I have left. Renewal day is the 13th. And I'll tentatively make that the day work continues on Sileo this month.

Plans for October

Once work resumes, my first priority will be to finish Chapter 3. Sadly, there was no way the artwork for that content was going to make the cut in this months release and to be fair, it needed a little extra time in the oven anyway. Right now I've got a fully playable block of content (with placeholders), which should hopefully make finishing up a relatively breezy process. That being said, the only way the first half of this sequence is going to land the way I'd like it to is by doing that thing I've been talking about for a little while now - being concise! Right now it's a big block and because of how the scene plays out, I don't think there's really a better way to handle it that doesn't require more artwork. As such it will be delivered in a block, so the best thing for it is to trim the fat where possible and have it get to the point more quickly than it does right now. I guess we'll just have to see.

The second half of Day 17 is a real doozy too. Pretty much all the sequences going forward set up events at the end of the day and because of how it all lands. That means after a certain point, it becomes very difficult to split the content. Either we get everything done on time... or... well, we'll just have to see. The end of this month is when CurryCatz finishes his other job which makes him 100% dedicated to Sileo going forward. There will be a small sliver of time right at the end of the month where he can grind out artwork for this build, but there's a lot. We'll just have to see how it goes.

Starting November we'll be able to pick up the pace and look at things such as merch which have been on the back burner for a little while.

Early Tales Route Poll

A big thanks to everyone for placing their vote for what Tales route we'll be tackling early. The winner of the poll was Diego's tale 'At Land's End' by a complete landslide. I'm sure there's a joke here about lands end and landslides, but...

As of right now, we plan to finish Tai's Route before tackling this tale. We're still aiming to have Tai's route finished by the end of the year (kinda optimistic ngl) and as such, we'll start development on this tale immediately following that. We don't want to delay the completion of Tai's route any further. At Land's End isn't a long piece of content, but it does incorporate a few rather interesting ideas and mechanics, at least it does right now as of the development plan which is far from final. We don't expect it to take all that long to finish after which we will begin work on the next main route. 

As such, our immediate plan looks something like this...

> Finish Tai's Route
> Develop 'At Land's End'
> Begin Work on Next Main Route (???)

The poll for the next main route is still forthcoming. With At Land's End skipping the queue, it'll be a little while yet before work can begin on that. I think it would make the most sense for the poll to be held after Tai's route is complete, especially because the remaining days of Tai's Route help to set both of those routes up in a way. Once we've played our hands and shown you what we have planned for both routes via the final days of Tai's, we'll open up a poll.

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That's about all from me for now. I'll be back with another update when there's something to be said, but until then, I'm just gonna sleep a whole lot!