I'm currently out of town and not able to work (outside of posting this, which I'm only managing because I managed to get my tablet partially set up before I left home), which means I don't have much in the way of news, so this is mostly just going to be repeating information I've already put out in various places for everybody to see.
Being out of town also means I can't put as much polish on v0.21 as I'd like. I managed to get everything that the main story needed in order to function done with the test build that went out Friday. Similarly, I got nearly everything that needed doing that was more supplemental but belonged in v0.21 done (such as implementing the quest log, updating all the Estate character dialogue, and adding all the Estate Info entries for the new content) before I left for the week, so I'm comfortable releasing v0.21 into early access on Friday, even if there might be a few other things (like renders for the end of v0.21's story and a couple of trophies that are meant to be fully implemented) that might not make it into the initial build.
Part of me does want to delay v0.21 by another week so I can put some more time specifically into polishing up a few things, making sure everything that's been reported is confirmed fixed (bug fixes are done, but there are some QoL things that might get neglected, such as confirming all the information for Anne's quiz is available in Uncle Gil's library), and other little "double check this" notes that I've made after v0.20 went into early access while I was working on the most recent April Fool's Day release.
However, a much larger part of me wants to continue running the sprint to the end of the story. On top of that, the reason I don't have this week to polish up v0.21 basically comes down to a lack of planning on my part. I knew I was going to be out of town for a week, but I forgot to chceck my calendar, so I thought I'd be gone the week after release, not this week. It feels like bad form to put on a delay for my own mistake after telling my Patrons v0.21 would be done.
In future update news, for the sake of my own sanity, I'm heavily considering breaking up v0.22 into two updates so that v0.22 is the next story update but is still missing the finale, make v0.23 the update that adds in everyone's affection quests, and go to v1.0 and include the end of the game and include post-game content. That feels like a much more natural "okay, the game is done" conclusion to me, rather than having a bunch of content left to add after finishing the story. Doing that also gives me a lot more leeway when it comes to getting feedback on these last few updates and making sure v1.0 goes into early access with as few bugs and as many QoL additions complete as I can physically manage.
So, with all that said, I'm staying committed to v0.21 going out in early access this Friday, April 18th. Even if I do miss a couple things here and there, v0.21 is a much smaller build than v0.20 was content-wise, and all of the story content has already been tested through twice. Thanks to the size and early testing, there should be next to no bugs within the new content, and I can jump straight into developing v0.22 once I'm back home and v0.21 is in early access.
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