My plans for Serenity Circle and the future

First of all, let's talk about Serenity Circle. After many months of debate and planning, I've decided to fully remake SC. There are a multitude of reasons for this. I'm not going to list them all, or this post will become even longer.

Instead, I'll go over some of the major changes. The game engine will be changed from RPG Maker to Ren'Py. All images and animations will be remade in higher resolution and quality. Ivy will no longer be the main character. You will be able to choose between a male, female, or futa MC. Ivy will still be a major part of the story, including most of her quests from the original. The school simulation aspects are being removed in favor of a more RPG/adventure game approach. I may return to the school sim in a later separate title.

I believe I now have a rather good understanding of what makes an enjoyable adult game. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, I'm keeping one motto in mind for the remake. Simplicity is best. I won't be (re)creating a simple visual novel, but I won't be adding tons of crazy features no one likes either. Combat has been my biggest concern. I believe I have figured out how to handle combat scenarios without you, the player, needing to hassle with annoying, slow turn based combat.

There's plenty more to discuss, but I'll leave it at that for now. Feel free to ask any questions. Now let's move on to the other changes.

(Note: GnB updates will remain monthly until the game is complete. The following is for everything after GnB.)

Patreon will undergo a few changes. All of these changes are based around the fact that I will no longer be posting strict monthly new game versions. Instead, new versions will be released when they are ready. My reason for this is simple. With my desire to aim for higher quality, a 1 month time frame per update is just not enough. Even with GnB, I sometimes felt like I was rushing to finish up that month's update in time for the monthly release. As a result, that rushed update would have bugs or simply not be the quality I desired. I don't want that to be the case any more.

Since updates will no longer be monthly, I'll be posting more Patreon only previews. I have been posting most previews on Discord. Those will likely slow down in favor of posting them to Patreon instead.

I'm aiming to branch out where I market my future games. As a result, the Patreon donation system will likely be less appealing. You will be able to purchase the full game(s) on other platforms such as itch.io or Steam. With this method, you will get the full game and all updates for a single, fixed price. To keep Patreon appealing, latest updates will be posted with a month delay to every market other than Patreon. You will also get access to all of the previews as noted above, plus voting power in polls that will pop up from time to time allowing you to affect how future content will be made.

Due to the changes involving pricing, free versions will become rather limited. I am sorry for this. With my aim to bring the quality of my games to an all new high, it just isn't logical to give them away for free anymore. There will always be a free demo. I'm a firm believer in try before you buy, especially with games of this type. The free demo will likely vary in available content from game to game, but there will always be enough to give you a good idea of what you would be buying. I'll definitely give away some free keys occasionally as well.

Monthly news posts and bonus images will remain as they are. I feel like those 2 things function just how I would like them to if I were a follower/Patron. New characters may be added to bonus image polls, though.

That's enough for now. I believe I covered all of the major points. We can talk further in comments, DMs, Discord, or where ever. I may post follow ups if need be. I ask for your patience while I shift things into what I believe will be a much better future of game development for my games. Thank you as always!

(Note 2: This isn't the monthly news post. That will be next week with more of a focus on GnB news.)

(Note 3: As of posting this, I noticed that Patreon had set comments to Patrons only. Not sure why or how that happened, but that's no longer the case. Comment away!)