Halfway Build 13.5 + Roadmap

Hello everyone! This devlog is for letting you all know that we managed to release Halfway Build 13.5 on our Patreon and Ko-Fi yesterday as planned! With no delays! That's... definitely a first, I'm sure. >_>

Now that I'm working on NMF full-time, you can definitely expect a lot more updates from the project, a lot faster than you're used to. At least, that's what we're hoping...

With Nik's very livelihood still hanging in the balance, the future of this VN is still very much uncertain, though we on the team are hopeful that things will improve with time. And so we're ready to get back in the fray, and work on this story for as long as it'll take!

In the meantime, I've decided to release a brief roadmap of sorts, to let you know what content we plan to release, and in what order. Keep in mind that life, and more specifically the war in Ukraine, can still get in the way of us releasing these updates in a timely fashion (or, in the worst-case scenario... at all).  Nonetheless, for now, here's what we're working on:

1. We just finished Halfway Build 13.5, which is now available on our Patreon and Ko-Fi to all our Extraordinary and Outstanding Reader backers. If you want a sneak peek into our next update for the game, and in general wish to support us in our development efforts, I encourage you to subscribe to either of them! Do note that, while Patreon might be more well-known in the community, Ko-Fi has fewer fees on both your end and ours (as all it does is facilitate direct Paypal transfers), meaning you spend less and we earn more. And you get all the same benefits, too! So that's definitely the best option if you plan on donating in the future, though either is fine in the end.
2. With 13.5 now over, we're now working on completing the script for Chapter 11. Chapter 11 is going to be very art-intensive (for reasons you can probably guess), and will take quite some time to be ready. Once the script is finished, I can hand it off to Nik so he can do his thing.
3. While Chapter 11 might take a while to come out, we don't plan on leaving you empty-handed! First things first, we'll get to work on completing the new Side Story we just released on Patreon/Ko-Fi, which will hopefully be out by mid-April. I'm sure you're just as excited about it as I am!
4. After that, another Side Story focused on Jasper is already in the works, and should release a month later at the latest. I'm sure all Jasper lovers among you (you know who you are) will be ecstatic at the idea of spending more time with the mean derg, and seeing his incredible talent (being an ass) at work.
5. If we're still working on Chapter 11 by this point (due to unavoidable delays or whatever else), we'll begin our rewrite efforts that we've postponed for long enough. Act 1 of NMF definitely needs a do-over, to smooth out some of the slower sections of the story and introduce concepts like Abilities, some of Isaac's old friends and family, and other worldbuilding concepts sooner in the story, as they currently do come a little out of left field when first introduced
6. After all that, or as soon as the new art for Chapter 11 is finished, we'll get to work on the new Main Story Chapter, and progress linearly from there.

As you can see, we have a lot of new content planned for the future of this visual novel. There's a lot of exciting stuff coming, even in the very near future, and more is always on the way! So don't lose out hope, and stay hyped for the many updates to come. ^w^

i'll see you all again when Build 14.0 is ready! =3