A lot has happened these past two weeks.

Today

Today’s the public release day! I’ll update the download links to point to Chapter 9 sometime today.

The Chapter 9 releases went very smoothly. Almost too smoothly, as least compared to past releases. I’m kinda holding my breath waiting for the other shoe to drop, but so far (knock on wood) it looks like I pulled it off.

Chapter 10 is well under way. Scenes 1, 2, and 3 are already in the can, and scene 4 is underway. Like most chapters, these first few scenes are expositional, with only a couple of animations. Although, as our story comes to a close, the scene dialogue and plot branches are becoming more and more complicated.

Steam/GOG

I was planning on doing a major UI overhaul for the finale release, but in the end I’ve decided to limit it to whatever small changes are required for the ending. In the coming month, I’ll be spending a lot of my time on setting up Steam distribution. I don’t plan on doing an early access release, since we’re so close to the end. But I would ask that once our page is up and running, that you mosey on over to it and put in on your wishlist. Having enough interest expressed in my story before release will guarantee that Steam will promote it so that it can reach the widest audience. I’ll send out a notice when it’s ready to go!

There will be a couple of new scenes added for the Steam release, mostly backstory that didn’t naturally fit in the story as it currently stands. I’ll also be redoing a lot of the earlier animations and backgrounds that aren’t up to my (current) standards. New tools and techniques have vastly improved images in these later chapters, I believe, and I need to bring the rest of the story up to snuff.

Below is a sample scene done “the old way” and using new tools at my disposal. ZBrush, in particular, has been a Godsend, along with Topaz photo and video tools. I’m still getting the hang of them, but you’ve already seen the by-products in Chapters 8 and 9.

The Future

I’ll be taking a couple of weeks off starting after the public release today. The grind to get Chapter 9 out the door, plus my recent hospitalization have taken their toll. So there won’t be a status report two weeks from now, but they will resume the following fortnight.

A lot of people have asked me about my plans for after Confusion’s completion. Aside from publishing to Steam and/or GOG, I’ve been doodling around with some concepts for my next title, and outlining some story plots I might use. I’ll be doing a poll for that on our Discord in the coming weeks, to see if there is enough interest to sway the decision to a particular title or subject.

As will be seen by the end of story, there really isn’t a path for a “sequel” to Confusion, whatever that would be. Some friends have tried to convince me that there’s more story there, but I don’t know. I might come back to it later if there is enough interest.

The Present

I’m thrilled to greet all the new supporters who have come on board in the past few weeks! Your support is my foundation and keeps me moving forward. If you haven’t already, please join me on my Discord and participate! There, you can find everything from lewd images, discussions about LGBTQ+ rights, reports on our daily progress, to programming tips for budding Ren’Py developers.

Gather, friends, and behold the fruits of my recent toil: two masterful images!