Development Update: Rework Before v0.17

Hi everyone,

I wanted to give you an update on what I’m currently working on, and what my plans are moving forward.

Right now, I’m catching up on the pinups I’m behind on, and I should be finished with those after the weekend.

Before I begin work on the next big update—v0.17—there’s something I need to do first.

I need to return to some unfinished work on the existing content. I know some people don’t love it when developers go back to rework old material, but in this case, it’s something that really needs to be done.

Why the rework is necessary:
I originally started working on this rework during the development of v0.14. I put about four weeks into it, but eventually set it aside so I wouldn’t delay that release any further.

At the time, my sister was battling cancer, and as her condition worsened, I began to struggle. I dropped the rework completely to focus on getting new content finished instead. Then, as many of you know, 2024 was a difficult year for me personally. My sister passed away, and I paused my Patreon for six months.

During that time, I came very close to giving up on Hillside. Not because I wanted to, but because passion and creativity are fragile things—and when they leave you, you’re not sure if they’ll come back. I simply couldn’t see a way forward.

Thankfully, in time, the creativity and energy did return. I was able to continue development, but after all the disruption, I felt it was best to start moving forward again and release something new. Now that v0.16 is complete, I need to go back and finish what I started.

This rework is even more necessary now than when I first began it. During that difficult period, I often had to cut things that weren’t essential just to keep things going. For example:

• The achievements system was put on hold

• The number of choices was minimized

• Suzi’s role has suffered—her relationship with the MC should be more developed than it currently is

• What I’ll be working on during the rework:

• Fixing various bugs and technical issues

• Expanding Suzi’s existing scenes

• Adding a subplot for Suzi to better understand her character

• Updating older sex scenes to match the quality of the newer ones

• Adding two missing sex scenes (Kaylah and Agent Fox)

• Fixing the achievements

• Adding more choices at appropriate moments

How long will it take?
I honestly don’t know yet. I want to get it done as quickly as possible—I understand how people feel about reworks—but I also want to do it properly. I’m very excited to begin work on v0.17, and I want to move onto it as soon as I can.

v0.17 will bring an end to what I consider the “dark phase” of the story. That phase was necessary to set up what’s coming next—more focus on the development of the romantic relationships.

The plan from here:
I’ll be releasing an updated version: v0.16.2 [REWORK], which will include the new content and bug fixes listed above. Once that’s out, I’ll post the first teasers for v0.17 and begin full development on it.

In the meantime, I’ll keep you updated on how the rework is going.

Thanks again for your support.
DB