Hi everyone! I'm back with a small update as I approach my expected release date (11/12/21) for my first chapter. These past couple of days, I've focused largely on my marketing strategy and scheduling posts for my countdown to the release. The past couple of days, I've focused on different features for the game that will be introduced. Some sample shots for my four main features are listed below. I focused on the updated GUI for the Extras Menu, the new Codex and Free Time Features, and the completed Personality Feature! I tried using Twitter to briefly talk about these and then Tumblr to go more in-depth about what each of the features will do and how they will play out in the game.
Currently, I'm shifting my focus to more promotional art as we get closer to release date. I'm planning to also write up a full announcement post that will accompany the release. The place I'm struggling with right now is knowing what to do next week after the game is released. I know it's probably best marketing practice to continue marketing the release so people can know about it, but I'm trying to think of the best way to do this as well as future directions for the game as well. With the Winter VN Jam coming up, I don't know if I want to make a side winter story special, priced at maybe $1 to help support the main game development, or if I should just continue with Chapter 2. Either way, I think Crunchless is really helping me to think long-term right now as well as how to "milk out" the different stages of game development/release, since I'm very accustomed to grinding and just jumping to my next goals!
I've also play-tested the upcoming release a bit and am going to use the rest of this week to create the build and play it outside of the Ren'py engine to see how it goes :')