itch.io

I think there is a difference between using a model trained on a bunch of artists with similar styles, and basing it on just one who worked hard to create his own, distinct art. I don't want to open a debate on AI here, but basically I try to follow my own rules and morality. Anyways, as for the consistency, it's definitely a priority, that's the whole reason for why I use my own base sketches while genning, and that's why I will be converting old pictures to the new style over the next few updates.

As for hiring the artist, yea, obviously, money is an issue. I don't plan to spend my own funds on this project, it's a simple hobby for me, not a job or even something that I would want to turn into a job. That said, I don't really need the money it makes either, what some people already paid me I will probably use on sprites and sfx for the project or maybe take less hours at my day job to be able to work on it more regularly, one way or another it's gonna get invested back into it. If it ever becomes profitable enough, I would want to hire an artist to at least help with more complicated stuff. But again, I don't want to monetize it or anything so I doubt it will ever get to that level, thus AI.

Mia's room is obvious bug, will fix, same with me missing the prologue text. Lingering screen tint is more mysterious because as you said, sometimes it happen, sometimes it doesn't happen, and I honestly don't know why, had the same issue during my playtesting, but hoped it's just MTool acting out. Will try and brute force it somehow I guess.
Roomba task is supposed to respawn for now simply because it's one of like 3 activities avalaible, I don't want to make map any emptier than it already is, once I add more stuff it will be set as a one-time quest. Overall, I will post a quick fix either today or tomorrow, waiting whether any other bugs get reported. Edit: I didn't get any other bug reports for now, and I'm busy af coz holidays, since they aren't game breaking patch is coming out after Christmas, have a Merry one and log off.
As for the schedule, it's as much for the followers as it is for me, if I don't set myself deadlines I will never realistically finish it, so I will still try my best to stick to what I set for myself.

I have literally, rn, finished making the last scene I had planned for this one, I will be playtesting it now, could take a day, could take a few days, depending on the amount of bugs that slipped through and how hard they are to fix.

Did you get the short scene with Elise after cleaning up? If so, Mia should talk to you as soon as you leave Elise's room, if it didn't trigger then honestly no clue why, haven't heard of such a problem yet, if you could send me your savefile I would greatly appreciate it.

appreciate the defense but this is more of my inexperience showing than game dev taking time, I just had my priorities wrong and underestimated how much time some things would take

I'm about week/2 weeks late, yea, I wasted tons of time on small things I was playing around with (parallax mapping, creating my own sprites and shit) instead of actually important stuff like scenes and stuff, trying to catch up rn, it's about 80% done I would say. I could release it right now, just with less content than I planned to, but I decided against it. After this update finally goes live, I will make a poll or smth asking whether you would all prefer regular, smaller updates or a big one every few months

I don't have any planned, no, I'm not ruling that out but not anytime soon for sure. The thing that hinted at is is probably the "snitch" option, this will be utilized but more as a way to get brownie points with Elise I think, and move the story forward.

Lol dunno who downvoted you but ye, seem like it. Anyways, I will look into it, and add it in the next update, seems useful

I had a few people choosing to buy this game on itch io, instead of downloading it for free, rn this kind of support sounds more fair than rolling out anything subscription-based, this early into the project. But ty for your comment, I'm happy to know there are some people who would consider supporting it financially.

There are only 4 full scenes in the game rn, adding a gallery seems like a waste of time when you can see everything in half an hour. rn I see adding more content as a priority, and when there is enough of it to justify the existence of a gallery, I will implement the gallery as well.

I have uni and a part time job going on in my life besides this project, for now it's only a hobby/thingy I'm trying out. It would be a bit shitty of me to ask for money when I can't really be sure I won't be forced to abandon it in a month or two. After a few more updates, if things look stable enough, I might rethink it.