The Future

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Sigh. I've been putting off this post for the last week or two, but it needs doing. Before anything else... Please Read the Post in Full. There is quite a bit of explanation packed in here.

First. I was intending on announcing in early December that development on Eros Academy was ending at the end of the year. Those of you who have been around since last December know that I almost did so then, when I originally planned out making a new game do to lack of interested in Eros. I got so much feedback at that time, that I compromised, keeping Eros Academy updates going (though at a somewhat slower rate) while I worked on The Sexy Cosplay Cafe (which is part of the reason that the first release of that game took so long). Unfortunately, despite redoubling my efforts to bring attention to the game, Eros Academy still never really became popular. I deeply appreciate all the support I've gotten from those that enjoy the game, but the truth is that I actively hate working on the game at this point. 

Mostly, this is because I loathe working with Daz3d on a shoestring budget. While I reinvest the money from the patreon into new models/assets, the number and quality of those I can add isn't really that significant, resulting in me mostly using a lot of piss-poor quality free models, plus the digital equivalent of gum and duct tape, to piece scenes together. Had enough people actually liked the game, the enjoyment of making something people like to play would be fulfilling enough in it's own right. But, let's face it, after nearly two years, it's never really gotten any significant following. I love you patrons, you guys are awesome for supporting me...but...sigh...

Anyway...you probably caught the mention that this announcement was supposed to come in December, right? There were a lot of really good reasons for that, including the biggest one...which is the fact that I'm hoping to have another 2 releases of The Sexy Cosplay Cafe out by the end of the year, making it a seamless transition from one game with a lot of content, to another with a decent and rapidly growing amount of content.

THAT IS ACTUALLY STILL THE PLAN. 

As in, I'm planning to still release not just this month's patron release for Eros Academy (which is about half done, FYI), but also the releases for November and December, with a final public release in January. That is Plan A, what I hope is going to still happen. 

Unfortunately...I've had a bad couple of weeks in multiple ways. Some of them have no relation to continuing development...but two of them do. Some of you may have caught a mention earlier this month (in one of the art posts) about some issues with my graphics card that threw me into a panic. Sadly, this issue has only been partially resolved. To be blunt, my graphics card is dying. 

Among my various past careers(before I got tired of working for others and went freelance), I was a computer tech (as in, fully tech-school trained, worked for Hewlett Pakard's engineering campus at one point, etc.). I was able to use a couple of quick-and-dirty tricks that I picked up during that portion of my life to get the card working again, but those solutions are never permanent. And, sadly, with the crypto currency market spiking the price of graphics cards for the last few years, I simply can't afford to replace it with a similar model at this time. As it happens...that doesn't effect ANY of my ongoing projects except Eros Academy. 

Now, that would have been bad enough on it's own. But then...things got worse. Because of course they did. Some of you might recall that I recently wiped my OS and started fresh. I've been complaining that I did stupid stuff when I did that and lost a lot of settings and such for my art programs. I'd gotten over all of that, finally...right up until the external hard drive I'd backed a ton of the files from my primary OS-SSD to died without any warning. 

Thankfully, by sheer good fortune and a little paranoia, I have most of Eros Academy's assets stored elsewhere. Unfortunately, most is not all, and there are now a fair number of 3d object files I'd picked up over the last two years that I no longer have access to...meaning I can't actually make some of the already in-game locations again. The pool, for example. I can use imagery I already have, but I no longer have the ability to modify the content for that specific scene. 

Of course, on a personal level, I lost a lot of other stuff that I'd placed in what was supposed to be nothing more than a temporary backup on that drive. Including my notes for a number of writing projects, among other things (Technically, this includes all the notes I had for The Elven Maid...but the nature of that project made those notes pretty loosely defined. As such, the loss of the outline and plot files is only mildly annoying, rather than crippling like it is for some of my other projects). Needless to say, I'm more than merely a little stressed and upset. And, unfortunately, none of the little tricks I know for hard drives has worked (yet, I'm still trying one that takes a little time).

With these factors combined...I felt I had no option but to up the timeline for my announcement. If my graphics card dies before the end of the year...that will be it for Eros Academy, and I don't want anyone to not be forewarned of that possibility. If that happens before the end of the year, I will beg, borrow, or steal computer time from others to chew through whatever renders I need for the effected month's update (I refuse to take patrons money and not follow through with promised content for that money), but that will be it. Period. And regardless of if the card dies or not, I will be shutting down development of Eros Academy, in favor of more time to spend on The Sexy Cosplay Cafe, come January 2019.

I know that probably isn't something any of you want to hear...but the simple truth is that I'm burning out badly trying to work full time and develop two games. I have to trim down what I'm working on, and cutting Eros Academy (which I no longer enjoy and has never been popular) is the logical thing to do. I apologize to everyone this inevitably upsets...but this time I'm not going to be talked out of it. I hope most of you (or at least some of you!) decide to stick around even past the end of the year, to support the new game, but I will understand if you don't...most of you came here for Eros Academy originally, after all, even if you've hopefully enjoyed all the other content I've made! 

-Novus

NOTE: None of this effects The Sexy Cosplay Cafe or the various reward stories! Development on that game and writing of those stories will continue into 2019. If for any reason that changes, I will give everyone fair warning. Something I try to do whenever there are changes to the patreon or game development (this post being one example of such).