Release date and status

Writing : 90%
Imaging : 70%
Mapping : complete
Eventing : 95%
Testing : 85%

We're almost done with Chapter 3.  I'm expecting to release it on Febuarary 10th or before to Patreons and then a week after that the public release.

What it will include:
The Mountain Glory subzone, focusing on Angelica, Noemi, Jessica and Phoebe.
A base sex scene for all slaves and a talk segment as well on each path.
A new side-quest hub in Eleen.
Text skip will be added, bound to left alt.
Total content adds : ~200 new images and pages of text.  Figure 30-45min per path if you take the time to read everything.  Longer if you do the sidequests!

Looking ahead to chapter 4

So we're finishing up the writing and coding for Chapter 3 and starting to look forward.  There will be a minor release before you actually get to go into the Corsix mines again and it's a few months out but I've been thinking about that section.  Initially there were tentacle rape-beasts in the mines because it was a hentai game so of course there was.  But as the plot and story behind Harem developed it became less of a hentai game and more a western adult RPG and increasingly they felt out of place.  As I'm rewriting the game I'm asking myself should they be in there at all.  I’ve created a poll for my Patreons but I do want to get everyone’s feedback.  So let me know if you want the tentacle beasts to still be in the game or should I create a new threat!

And just to clarify, Lesser Corsix will still be under attack and you'll still be venturing into the mines to save the city and earn the 'respect' of a few of its inhabitants.  Much of the structure will remain the same, I'm just trying to decide the nature of the threat.

Patreon reminder

First, thanks to everyone who chose to support Harem through Patreon.  Really means a lot to me.

And just a bit of information on how the pledges and rewards work in Patreon as I've gotten this message a few times from people signing up.  You pledge whenever you want, but you only donate at the beginning of the month and there is no ability to do so mid-month.  So if you sign up any time in February you don't actually become a Patron until March.

There will be a Chapter 3 release in February unless things go horribly and unpredictably wrong.  That means that if you want any of the tier rewards (early access, CG Unlock, Non-canon scenes) in February you must pledge in January or it won't actually happen until March.

A new path

Announcement:

First and foremost, work on Chapter 3 is flying along.  Mapping is finished, coding is about 90% of the way done.  Writing is about 60-65% of the way done and imaging is maybe 30% done.  We are absolutely on pace for a chapter 3 release in February.

0.3 status
Writing : 65%
Imaging : 40%
Mapping : complete
Eventing : 80%
Testing : 10%

But I want to talk to you all a bit more personally:

The amount of support that you’ve all given me so far has been so far beyond my expectations that it’s been humbling.  Enough where I had to really reconsider what I had been doing for a profession.  Something I didn’t think I mind doing, something I had done for 10 years but I finally realized that first I wasn’t enjoying it and second I wasn’t doing anything more with my life.  I had to reconsider what I was doing and when I asked myself that question I couldn’t answer it.  So I stopped doing it.

I’d saved up a good amount in my time there so I’m not going hungry, rather pursuing personal goals.  I’ve always enjoyed writing and thought I’d try to write a book.  Been doing the 9-5 grind for long enough to figure I owed myself a chance at a dream.  But what I found it is how much I enjoyed working on Harem.  The amount of time that I’ve spent working on Harem over the last two weeks has been intense and incredibly fun.  Now I don’t think I’ll be able to do this full time forever but I figure I’ll take a shot at that as well.  I’ve set a series of milestone goals in Patreon as if this was my primary income.

So I want to thank everyone for their support and let you know that it helped me focus more on achieving life goals rather than just getting through day by day.  Maybe we can make this work and we can start thinking of finishing Harem and maybe even more games in the future!

Also involved with the goal setting I’m going to be defining two types of releases.  Major and minor.  Major is what you already know.  New tracts of land opening up, having the primary plotline move forward with new slaves joining your Harem in bunches.  I’m playing with the concept of minor releases as well.  Minor releases would be more focused on flushing out existing areas.  More character interactions and side-quest within existing content.  This can involve new characters (although probably not new main characters) or a questline focused on a particular character.  Most of the slaves have far more in depth backstories then I can express in the narrative flow of the story but it would be fun to take a detour into some of their personal lives as well.  Minor releases would be focused on things like that.  Finally, content like the 0.6a and 0.6b would be considered to be separate major releases.

As always, I love feedback.  Let me know what you think of the game, what you’d like to see developed and feel free to talk about my own life-goals as well!  If I want this to work, I definitely have to be more involved with all of you!

Chapter 3 Teasers!

Work is proceeding nicely.  While I'll have a much more in depth post this Sunday, just thought I'd drop some teasers on you today.