If you didn't see the test build go up on Patreon and/or Subscribestar (why not? there's literally a free follow option so you can get those updates and the people who pay me are the biggest reason my games get made) and you're familiar with how I do early access from the days of Maids & Masters, you'll already know that means v0.2 will go into early access this Friday, and v0.1 will have its public release on the same day.
As of writing this, I've just finished implementing the quest log, which was one of the two things that weren't done in time for the test build. The other is the rendering for the new character that was teased on Patreon and Subscribestar a couple weeks ago.
The rendering is a bit more work than the quest log, but it's still only about a day's worth of work, and there's certainly more than one day between the day I'm writing this and Friday, so I'll likely have a little time left over for things like polish and extra bug-testing runs, which is always a good thing.
One part of that process was adding in some things that function off of a new internal in-game update thing that I've been wanting to address. The idea of updating things inside your game when you load your save for the first time in a new version might seem a little boring, but it's something I'm actually really excited about.
There were a lot of things in Maids & Masters that required me to implement some sort of bugfix feature. Sometimes this was to make sure a trophy was properly discovered in your Estate Info, sometimes this was to update a character's entry in your Estate Info, occasionally there was some weird progression thing that didn't happen correctly under specific circumstances... there was a lot. While bugfix features did what it says on the tin - they fixed the bug - it required you the player to go out of your way to find the thing that was broken and take an action in-game. Those actions were usually really simple, like talking with the affected character or reading the appropriate trophy plaque in your trophy room, but unless you found me and asked, there was no real way for you to know that the issue was fixed or how to fix it.
Having a "version update" process that happens every time you load the game does make implementing those bugfix features a little more complex on my end, but it makes it all completely automatic for you. If you progressed past the point in one quest where you should've unlocked another, I can just show you a notification saying you have a new quest. If I need to fix a typo in one of the encyclopedia entries, I can just silently change it and it'll be correct. No hunting down characters or interacting with anything, it'll just be fixed.
You know, like a proper video game hotfix or patch.
Probably doesn't mean much to you, but I'm stoked about it.
Anyway, keep an eye out on Patreon, Subscribestar, and itch.io for the public release of Redemption Harem v0.1 (or if you're one of the cool kids, the early access release of v0.2) this Friday, November 6th.
We really got a new game out of The Mithril Hourglass before GTA VI.
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