General update on the game (and myself)

Hey everyone! The last few days have been very hectic for me, and much has changed since my last devlog. I wanted to write another one of these to let you know how the VN is coming along, what our plans for the future are, as well as a more personal look into my own personal situation.

I'll start by sharing the info pretty much everyone wants to know about.

First off, Build 5.0 will release at the end of this week on Patreon/Ko-Fi: this one will feature the complete UI overhaul, the full gallery (CGs + Fanart), Android bug fixes, and the first batch of answers for René's meta story. Like 4.5, it sadly won't feature any new story content. Build 5.0 is scheduled for a public release a week after the Patreon/Ko-Fi release.

Next, Build 5.5 is scheduled for a Patreon/Ko-Fi release on the same date as the public 5.0 update: this one will feature the first half of the new 5th Chapter of the game, which is already shaping up to be an unexpected rollercoaster of emotions that'll undoubtedly leave you breathless! It'll also feature the second batch of questions for René, which I'm sure will be even more exciting than the first! Extraordinary Readers and above will get to read it immediately, whereas Dedicated ones will be able to read it a week afterward; as it is a halfway build, it won't be released publicly at any date.

The complete Build 6.0 should be released on Patreon/Ko-Fi within the end of October, with the public release happening a week after that.

That's all for now in terms of game updates! I hope you'll enjoy our future updates, even those that don't necessarily bring any new story content to the mix: though I'm just as big a fan of cool new story beats as you guys, you'll definitely appreciate all these great quality improvements the longer the game goes on!

For the rest of this devlog, I want to focus on my own personal life. Like I said in the beginning, some things have changed recently, and I wanted to address them as they directly impact my relationship with this project and its future.

Don't worry, I'm not going to abandon it! Far from it. And I'm not slowing down either. It's just a very complicated situation, which I'm sure not all of you might be interested in learning about. If you don't care about this stuff, that's totally cool: I'll see you guys next update! ^w^

When I found about the FVN community, I was studying Business in university: I didn't like the subject, I didn't like the way the school was set up, I didn't like the reasons why getting that degree were so important... and yet I felt like I had nothing better to do with my life but keep trucking forward and hope I got somewhere. In truth, I wanted to be a writer, since I loved coming up with stories and characters and seeing people's reactions as they read my works, but everyone around me told me that it was too risky a career to drop out for; especially when I had nothing to my name to prove that I had what it took.

For the longest of times, I was lost. I felt like my life was never going to go anywhere; like I was born in the wrong time and place.

 Everything changed when I began reading Adastra, FBTW, Repeat, and many other visual novels written by talented members of this community: I hadn't been this absorbed in something ever since my old Undertale fanfiction days, and I immediately realized the potential this medium possessed. At the time I was slowly working on a webcomic idea with a buddy of mine but, seeing as that project was sadly going nowhere, I decided to take my chances, spearhead my own team, and write an FVN.

Writing a VN isn't like writing fanfiction or a book: if you want to make something memorable, you need to be both extremely skilled and well-off in terms of either money (for those like me who are only good at writing) or time (for those who try to master all aspects of VN development). That's why I decided that, if I was going to try my hand at this, I wasn't going to make something mediocre or try to emulate this or that existing project: if I was going to do this, I was going to make something big. Something bold. Something unique. Something that had never been done before; at least in this medium. Something expensive and very risky, but definitely rewarding if it could be pulled off. Most importantly, I wanted to write something that would never be forgotten and that would make a lasting impact in other people's lives as it would mine.

The story behind NMF, as I already told some of you, was conceived during a particularly awful depression in August/September of last year: back then, I was particularly afraid of death, the idea of the absence of an afterlife, and the meaninglessness of my own existence should there be nothing after it. I had regular anxiety attacks during the day, and at night I couldn't sleep. It was while plagued by these recurring thoughts and haunting questions that No More Future was first conceived. At its core, No More Future is a manifestation of my own hope that my life isn't just worth living, but that it won't end as easily as my darker thoughts want me to believe. And when I ultimately decided, in early January of this year, that I would turn it into an FVN, it began to represent another kind of hope as well.

As of a few days ago, I have made the decision to leave uni and focus entirely on NMF. From now on, I will no longer hesitate to give my project, and my dreams, all the dedication they deserve. From now on, I am confiding fully in my writing skills and my capability to turn this medium, which so many view as just a fun hobby, into an actual career. From now on, we're working on this even more seriously than before.

Of course, dropping out of uni means that I will have to start pulling my weight around the house; both physically and monetarily. Right now, I make about 500EUR a month through this project, which just about covers the costs of my artist and musicians: if I want this to become a career I can sink 100% of my time into, we'll need at least double that amount as a start. To that end, I will be reducing the Patreon/Ko-Fi prices effective immediately: Extraordinary Readers (who can read the exclusive halfway builds) will now be priced at 7EUR a month, whereas Outstanding Readers (who can also ask questions to René) will now be priced at 13EUR. Dedicated Readers, additionally, will no longer be able to read halfway builds.

I hope this is enough to convince some of you to support our project. I know it's not as convenient to donate to our project as it is to buy an actual, finished game off of Steam or Itch, but the money you donate goes directly towards supporting our efforts and paying our staff. Now more than ever, I would be grateful for any and all help.

I will share more info about my situation as it develops. Right now, this is all I can say with absolute certainty. Hopefully, I'll have a new devlog out by the time 5.0 drops covering everything I couldn't cover today.

Thank you for your patience, and I pray you'll keep on reading my story for a long time to come.