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I have been honest, and I've very openly stated numerous times that the game's development is on an "indefinite" hold while we focus on Radiant. I know this sucks, and I do feel quite guilty about it: it's a bad feeling to know that I've let so many people who enjoyed Polarity down. I love hearing feedback from you guys, and knowing that my games brought some joy/respite to others is important to me. When I achieve the opposite and instead disappoint players, this isn't a good feeling.

I will finish Polarity when I'm able, but as I've said quite a few times, it's going to be a while and players shouldn't wait around for it, as this will just lead to disappointment (which I don't want: I just want to provide fun games for everyone and add some fun/respite to the world through my creative endeavors). 

Something a lot of you guys may not know is that Radiant actually saved my life:

Unlike Polarity, Radiant is not a "free" game... and when I released it, I was less than a week away from being evicted from my home due to enormous debt and financial struggle, primarily because I had to spend all my savings on funerals for two immediate family members. We were very fortunate in the fact that Radiant blew up: it is not only the reason that I didn't end up homeless on the street, but it also is the reason I can now do something that I love for a living.

Anyways, steering back on topic: I love Polarity: I want nothing more than to finish it, and when I'm able I absolutely will. That being said, now that game development has become my job, I really have no choice but to spend my time developing the game that is most popular with players, as I rely on the income. The moment I'm in a comfortable enough spot/and have the time, I will push more updates for this, even if it means hiring an artist who works with Polarity's graphics engine (which btw I've already attempted, but it hasn't panned out). In the meantime, I'm very sorry for the wait and I love you guys/appreciate all the kind words and support.

I know I'm very late to the discussion, so my apologies.

The themes described above are also present in Radiant, just an FYI. I'd never create a beta-male MC, let alone a swinger or a cuck. There's a lot of "cheating" in both games, but the player-controlled character only forms bonds and relationships with girls who are loyal and/or "pure." In other words, only the protagonist is a filthy cheater.

And yeah, the other guy is correct that the game doesn't shy away from giving players the option to make decisions that are pretty assholish: as I mentioned above you can cheat on all of the girls and we don't sugarcoat that or put a nice bow on it to make players feel better about their decisions, haha.

That being said, it's all in the interest of good fun and not meant to give any sort of moral lecture or social commentary. The game is your oyster and we don't punish players for their choices, neither in Polarity or Radiant. If this sounds like something you'd enjoy, then Radiant is for you as well.

Hey thanks for the compliment, I'm really glad you've been enjoying the game. And don't worry, I don't mind answering questions about this sort of thing even though we do get it a lot. If you're thinking about playing Polarity: there's already a few hours of content, but there will definitely be a long wait before you get any more updates for the game... and to make matters worse, it leaves players on a pretty significant cliffhanger (I didn't do this on purpose, haha).

While I do plan to continue work on and finish Polarity when I am able, it's going to be a long time, potentially years before I'm able to do so. The reason is because our sole focus is currently on Radiant, and developing that takes a lot of time and effort, more than I ever expected it to. If having to wait is something you don't want, then I would recommend holding off on playing it, as the wait will be a long one. 

The game has around 20 planned chapters. Glad you're enjoying it!

Hello! I recently re-explained the Psyche System in a FAQ I posted for our subscribers. I'll share that section of the post here so you can better understand what these things mean:

QUOTE

#5: Lust, Purity, and Darkness (choices)

Another common concern:

"So I chose so-and-so, and I guess the game gave me some Dark points. Is that bad?"

So I want to explain how the choices in this game work very clearly: there is no "correct" way to play, there are no game overs, and none of the outcomes are designed to punish players. Instead, the variety offered by the choices you make in this game are narrative-focused. Forcing yourself to be adherent to one single path, while optional... is not actually optimal. Instead, the "best" way to play Radiant is to simply make the choices that you want to make.

This is why I've put such a large emphasis on not needing a walkthrough mod or some sort of guide to play Radiant. This is also why the status screen is reserved for the end of each chapter. It's more of a summary screen that says, "Hey look! This is the impact of the choices you made! Cool, right?" – I wanted the game to be an immersive experience and I wanted players to avoid manipulating their stats/trying to closely adhere to a single path.

All of that said, here's some important clarifications...

• Without restricting yourself from pursuing multiple girls and playing like a nun, it's pretty impossible to not accumulate some "dark" and/or "lust" points.

• Do not worry: the game will never punish you for having said "dark" points.

• Pure is very similar to Lust... however a "Pure" MC is more selfless and respectful of others, while a "Lust" MC is more selfish and degenerate, generally prioritizing his own desires over that of others. That being said, the Lust MC is still generally a pretty good guy. Dark MC... not so much. He's selfish, controlling, dominant, quick to anger, etc. Of course, this isn't a lecture on morality or anything: it's a game after all... and the path is designed to be enjoyed by sadists or people who enjoy dominance/corruption.

• The game checks to see which stats players have the most points in: prioritizing the highest two out of three. For example, a player with 40 Pure, 25 Lust, and 10 Dark will not suddenly find themselves going down the path of the "Dark MC." Rather, the game will acknowledge that you're a Pure/Lust focused player who generally avoids Dark.

• Only in very rare, specific circumstances will players be "locked out" of certain choices. For example, there's certain "Dark Path" choices that a Pure/Lust centric MC will not even know exist... as presenting them with this choice wouldn't make much sense. For the most "diversified" experience where you see everything... consider having a mixed Pure + Lust save-file... and a Dark save-file.

• Expanding on the above, wherever it's possible/makes sense... the game will always give players the option to choose what happens... rather than making the choice for you. As I said, sometimes giving players a choice just outright doesn't make sense... but this is fairly rare/doesn't happen too often. This allows players to dynamically control the flow of their playthrough in a way that few games offer.

END QUOTE

No sir, check your collections page. You should have the option to download the latest update from there.

No need to apologize, and hopefully my response to you didn't come off as hostile or impatient. I actually really appreciate the feedback.

I play the games myself as well, so I know how much it sucks to have to wait for them. Some of my favorite games release rather short (25-40 minute) updates every 3 months or so, and it always feels bad when reaching the end. On the other side, some of them release really long updates... but only about once every year. This also sucks. We are trying to settle somewhere right in the middle of that for Radiant.

I'm glad you like the game and hope you continue to enjoy it, we're going to do our absolute best to stick to that 4 month update schedule. Just a heads up though, Ch7's release date is August 20th, since my co-dev needs to go visit family out of country for 3 weeks in June (we added 2 weeks to our deadline to be safe).

Chapter 6 came out on the 23rd – exactly 4 months after Chapter 5. Our monthly subscribers get it 7 days early as per our early-access model.

Chapter 6 is the second largest chapter of the game, so it's the furthest thing from short. Keep in mind this is a "harem" game, so if you're rejecting girls or glossing over their big scenes, updates will seem shorter.

As a developer of this game I can say that getting the chapter done in 4 months was no easy feat, considering the level of polish and production quality the game has. Sure, we could throw out a scuffed/half-assed version in 3 months. Sure, there's some developers who have entire teams behind them who get it done faster. But for Radiant, we're a 2-man team and we need our players to understand that these things do take time to create – we can't just wave a magic wand and have it done.

Also, if you compare the playtime-length of our game updates vs. the amount of months Ch6 took, I think you'll find that we're right in-line, schedule wise, with the overwhelming majority of games and their own update speeds... some of which are far less polished or have far less emphasis on production quality.

Thanks for reading.

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I want to expand on the above a bit more for the sake of clarity, for those who care to read further.

What I can say as the person who writes the story, does the coding and overall game design etc... is that the scripts alone take literal months to finish. I can produce about 3 out of 20 (average chapter scene#) scenes on a really good week, but some scenes are much larger than others and take about 1 full week alone when considering choices/branching. So if we say an average of a half-week per scene (which is a generous estimate), that means I need around 10 weeks just to revise and finish writing the game's scripts (or a total of 2.5 months)... and that's a fairly low approximation, since like I said they can take even longer.

When you add the wait for renders and animations, the time it takes to code, test, and properly polish the updates, the regular communication I have to keep with our supporters over on SS and Patreon, and other extenuating circumstances... 4 months is not unreasonable at all.

It's releasing to our Patreon and SubscribeStar on or before March 23rd.

Patreon and SubscribeStar get it about 7 days early before we release it to other platforms as a bonus for their monthly subscription. It'll likely release 1-2 days earlier than the 23rd, but to be safe I wanted to set the release date here to the 31st (as to not accidentally mislead you guys). I wouldn't let Alorth abandon ship!

Hey, Itch will continue to be updated until the game is complete... even when we have a Steam page.

Hey, thanks! Glad you're enjoying the game. Ch6 will be finished no later than March 23rd, though it's possible we'll be finished a little earlier (late February to early March).

I think you'll like it. It's significantly more popular than Polarity (for good reasons, I learned a lot from my work on the former), and there's a good several hours of content/story already.

As always, feel free to drop me some feedback when/if you get the chance to check it out!

Have you already played my other game, Radiant? It's still ongoing and would likely tide ya over until I can work on Polarity again, haha

I appreciate the feedback by the way, and I really am sorry about keeping you guys waiting for so long with this.

The answer to your question is that I'm a terrible artist 😅

Oh and this isn't officially abandoned, but it's on hold until further notice. Just so people don't hold their breath or feel like I'm leading them along: it will be a while. I apologize for leaving you guys with such a big cliffhanger.

Can confirm knocking the girls up with our super-sperm is rapidly approaching!

We definitely plan to try! But it won't happen sooner than Ch10.

The post is very clear that it's a pre-alpha that's a few scenes short of the full chapter (it's in the title and the changelog) and there's a public progress report detailing this as well.

The beta/the rest of the chapter will be here before the end of the month. Hope you enjoyed/enjoy playing through the rest when it's ready!

xD

Thanks for the support!

Yeah it will be! Chapter 5 will be published here the moment it's out of Beta.

Eventually, but I've gone into some detail about why it will be a little while.

Polarity is a huge passion of mine and I want nothing more than to see it to its end. It makes me very happy to know you guys enjoyed it so much!

Thanks for the support! I'm glad you're liking it/hope you enjoy chapter five!

Radiant Chapter 5 is here in early-access, and will be posted here on Itch ASAP. Radiant will be developed normally and updates can be expected every 4-6 months. Polarity is another story, it won't start receiving regular updates again for quite a while, but it's not abandoned/will return as soon as humanly possible.

Thanks for the support and feedback, it's greatly appreciated.

Just launched in early-access over on Patreon.

Thank you for the support and I'm glad you enjoyed the first four chapters of this. Unfortunately a lot has changed since I posted that devlog and Polarity is currently sleeping, but will be revived as soon as is humanly possible. My other game Radiant, on the other hand, just launched its fifth chapter and is being developed normally.

If you'd like to follow my projects and see direct/regular communication from me, our official Discord is the best place for that.

This is false. The screenshot is from a pirate site that marks games abandoned after x-amount of time passed, regardless of whether developers can prove a game is being worked on or not. It's just their policy and isn't necessarily an accurate reflection of reality.

As I've said/proven numerous times, I've done quite a bit of work on Polarity Chapter 5, however currently my focus is on Radiant, which isn't abandoned (has received two very large updates in 6 months) and isn't going to be. Polarity's development will be resumed as soon as it's possible and I'll make an announcement when it is.

Fans of the game and those of you who supported me and this game in its infancy, just know I greatly love and appreciate you all!

We have an official Discord where I've discussed and explained what's going on with Polarity numerous times over the last two years. For news and updates regarding my games, the RK Studios Discord is the place to be.

I understand that you're upset or angry with us, but it's pretty clear that Radiant isn't abandoned. It received a massive update with over 3 hours of new content less than 2 months before you posted this, and Chapter 5, which isn't far off in size, was just launched today.

I was also pretty clear with what I said, but I believe you misunderstood me so I'll reiterate: Polarity is a free project that I started developing on my own. I've never charged a penny for it or received a single dollar in exchange for the game itself.

Radiant, on the other hand, is a paid project and therefore consistently developing it has to take precedence over Polarity. Not long after Radiant Chapter 2 launched, we had some personal and real-world issues that delayed development and set us back by months, but those things have been resolved and development is back to normal.

This most likely means I'll be able to resume development of Polarity at some point in the near future, and when I do, I'll make an announcement. None of what happened means Polarity is forever abandoned: it's a passion project that I'm eager to continue, and I will do so eventually.

Finally, I don't know why you're so dead-set on lumping me in with struggling or failed developers. Since I started creating games 3 years ago I've published nearly 20 hours of content, which is substantially more than most indie game and AVN developers for such a short time period. I'm very passionate about game development, and if I can find a way I'd like to get to the point where I can publish 20 hours per year... but I'm not superhuman and have to consider things like family and health.

P.S. I'm not trying to be petty but Radiant has over 8,000 followers, sits between 850-1400 paying subscribers, and has directly sold several thousands of copies... so "a game nobody cares about" is kind of a stretch.

I hope you have a good rest of the year my friend.

Love your game, can't wait for the next update. Keep up the good work and stick to your guns with the nice cheating content!

Hey, I had a suggestion for your mod!

I recently unlocked the ability to assign "High-end Clients", but unfortunately I had tons of zip-locks filled with coke in my inventory, but no ability to turn these into bricks!

So one thing that would really make your mod stand out is giving us the option to "re-package" ziplocks of powders into "bricks" (I believe one brick = 50 ziplocks).

Far as I can tell, there's currently no way of doing this with the base mod or any other mod with this function.

Another cool thing you could do is program the option for us to "rip high-end customers off" (similar to how we can rip customers off using ziplocks with the base mod) by letting us sell them average quality bricks at the same price as high-end quality bricks. Actually now that I think about it I'm not even sure if it's possible to get bricks that are less than high-quality.

Thanks!

No worries at all, ty for the feedback!!

Sorry to hear that you aren't as interested in Radiant. To answer the "if ever" part of your question: yeah, I absolutely plan to continue and finish Polarity.

The question of "when" is a bit more tricky. I'm currently seeking an artist for it because the artwork for the game is the single biggest struggle for me as a developer (I have zero natural talent for artwork, and not the best eye either).

Once things have gotten back on track with Radiant, I will be far more proactive and aggressive in seeking out these services... and when I've done so I'll be making a huge update here on Itch and on the game's Patreon with information about my plans going forward. Until then, I can only ask that you bear with me.

I know this priority may seem unfair since Polarity was started before Radiant... but Radiant is not a free game, unlike Polarity, and I'm also working with an artist... meaning I have to be more strict with its development.

I hope you can understand, and regardless, I appreciate you and your support of my projects.

Hey! Thanks for the feedback. I believe the issue here comes with your interpretation of "Purity," or what a "Pure" playthrough means vs. the way I'm using "Pure" "Lust" and "Dark" narratively. 

In the context of the relationships you can form with each character... Purity means slightly different things. Sometimes it means no romance, but that's not always the case either.

With Olivia, currently the only way to get on/stay on her "Purity" path is through romance. While this might seem odd on the surface, keep in mind that I treat every character as if they are their own person, with their own feelings, and they will therefore have different reactions to the type of (or lack of) relationship you desire with them. In Olivia's case, which path you're on is determined heavily by the way your actions make her feel... and she's not happy if you reject her, regardless of your previous interactions.

While rejecting Olivia leads to her Dark Path, and there's currently no way of getting around that -- even "dark" players are never forced to do anything they don't want to and you can also steer things away from that path in the future. Players will be given the opportunity to "fix things" and the MC can correct his mistakes with her... namely, the way he sort of (intentionally, or) unintentionally leads her on prior to the rejection.

Now as for giving players the option to express only platonic feelings for her initially... something you should consider is that while I do try and give players a lot of control, it's impossible for the main character to not have some autonomy/his own feelings and behaviors. Olivia is written to be a lot like Gracie, and therefore when the MC first meets her, he indeed feels romantic feelings for her, and there's no way around that either. Sorry if that's not ideal for the type of playthrough you were going for! I definitely get where you're coming from and understand that the MC sort of... messes up by admitting things he feels initially.

If you want my advice... it's not to treat romance with the characters as a "negative," even if you suspect they might be leaning more towards the taboo. My recommendation would be to romance Olivia fully, and reject her as little as possible if you desire the happiest/best possible outcome with her.

Yeah, a year wait is not the norm buddy. We are going to release a new chapter every 4-5 months, and future ones aren't that much smaller than CH4.

You don't have to take my word for it, just wait and see! That said, I do apologize for the wait for Ch4. It's not something either myself nor Alorth are proud of, but we plan to make it up to all of you.

I'll be making a big news announcement about Polarity as soon as I'm able. I'm currently seeking a full-time artist for it, and what is included in said news will be dependent on that.

Might sound biased since it's coming from the dev, but the feedback we've received so far has been overwhelmingly positive, with the majority of players agreeing that it was the best chapter so far.

It's quite the rollercoaster and there's nearly 4,000 more lines of code/dialogue than the largest previous chapter, the most renders and animations of any chapter, etc.

That said, feel free to play it and see for yourself/let us know what you think! Would love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks!

Beta2 is just the public/open beta of the newest chapter, since we're still making some minor improvements and tweaks to v0.4... which will be shared here instead the moment it's done.

That said, it's more or less the completed/perfected version, free of bugs, and save-file friendly.

It should be displaying properly now! Appreciate the heads up... sleep deprivation hitting me hard x_x'

That comment was in response to Smash. Sorry for the confusion. Also, hope you enjoy Ch4!

Oh yeah, fully agree with you! The plan is to be a bit more mindful of communication here and on SubscribeStar as well, and you can expect bi-monthly devlogs or brief updates of some kind.

Additionally, we recently posted a Completion Status Monitor for new chapters of the game over on Patreon (the post is public -- you don't have to be subbed to see it): https://www.patreon.com/posts/completion-5-71523497

It's indeed live on Patreon (in beta), and the full/completed build will be here Sep. 7th.