And as always, here are a few words from Joshua: 😄
Firstly, I have to thank the patrons. Usually I talk about this at the end, but the last month has been incredible. Underground Studios cracked 200 patrons, and the amount of people on patreon, discord and other channels that have expressed their best wishes to Jachu has been really encouraging. It's a great reminder about how a community is what you make it, and there are some genuinely fantastic people in this one, so thanks for that.
For myself, I've been spending some time the last couple of weeks working out some plot knots in later episodes. With a normal story, you tell it from beginning to end, and that's been done for the main plot, but then you have to add in the various ways the love interests interact with that main plot, the side plots, what changes are made based on your relationship status with them and so on. I don't want to write on the fly or write myself into a corner, so having these smoothed out now makes it a lot easier to write dialogue later when I don't have to make huge changes. I don't want the story to turn into some sort of overly-complex soap opera where everyone is someone's long-lost relation or childhood best friend's neighbor or something, so I'm not trying to be too cute, just give our players a story that they can remember between episodes rather than trying to keep track of a few dozen plot lines (trust me, it's hard to do, even when you're the one writing them all).
Aside from that, there's been the usual tweaks to the current episode, and some work on the dialogue for the next one. As the relationships unfold, I'm sure everyone will have their favorite, but just keep in mind that the episodes have to have content for each girl, and a relationship isn't always flowers and sunshine—not that I'll go out of my way to bum you out, but choices have consequences, y'know?
Anyway, thanks again to the whole community that has been so understanding. It's greatly appreciated. As always, if you guys have any questions, send them in here or on discord, and I'll do my best to answer them, provided it won't spoil anything.
Oh, and if you have a favorite kink, drop it in the comments. If it gets a lot of likes, I may work it into ep 3, if I can do it justice and it isn't one of the ones we're avoiding (scat, NTR, CNC, etc.)
Thanks again everyone!
I have good news! Recently, I’ve received a call with a surgery date and it will not take place as soon as the doctors had previously assured me. My current surgery date is set on 22nd of October this year. It's much later than I hoped for but the positive thing about it is that it won't affect the release of Episode 2 for sure and I can focus fully on working on it. 😅 I still have some medical examinations, tests etc. to do before October, but they will not affect the pace of work on Race of Life. Unfortunately, the timing of the surgery will rather affect the pace of Episode 3's work, because during its development time I’ll be in the hospital and then recovering for a few weeks. I'll keep you all updated about it and we'll see where Episode 3 will be at the end of October, it’s pretty hard to predict right now.
Getting back to Episode 2, I've already exceeded the number of 2500 renders, corrected some earlier animations that turned out to have some hair/clothing clipping or lighting issues that came out only after rendering, and I even managed to make a few more. The number is growing all the time and I am very happy about it. 🥰 I waited with the development update until I got the final information from the hospital, so I'm only now informing you about everything. Thank you all for your kind words and wonderful support! 🥰 You are the best supporters I could ever dream of! Now I can work in peace, because, to be honest, when I was waiting for news from the hospital, I couldn’t really focus on work and I tried to spend as much time with my family as possible. But since I got the surgery date I feel much more calm!