Episode 5.2 - Summary

Hey everyone!

[p align="start"]It’s been a week since the release of update 5.2, so I thought it was time to say a few words from my side. After every update, I read all of your comments wherever I can find them. I try to learn from them, take useful feedback, and implement it whenever I feel it makes sense, but I also try to ignore things when I believe they should simply be ignored. What I mean is that I’m doing everything I can to meet your expectations and improve the game we are making with passion, but at the same time, we are making it our way. We have our own vision for SoD, and we are not going to let ourselves be pushed around or change everything just because someone doesn’t like a particular decision.

[p align="start"]That’s enough for the short introduction. I was very curious to see how you would react to the latest update, and honestly, I wasn’t disappointed. Apart from all the usual comments about “waiting so long for so little content” and similar things that seem to appear after basically every update, there was also quite a lot of constructive criticism, as well as a few comments from people who are now permanently banned . This is quite an interesting point in SoD’s story because I know this part will not be for everyone. Some people will love it, while others will probably hate it. Why? Because we are getting closer and closer to the end, and I know that many players enjoy this slightly stretched-out slow burn. At the same time, if I were a casual player who bought a game advertised as a visual novel with adult elements, I would probably be disappointed if that slow burn continued all the way to the end.

[p align="start"]I also want to point out that the game is experienced very differently by people who play every update as it comes out and people who play the entire game from start to finish. For the first group, something happening in one particular update can feel like a huge jump, while for the second group, it can be something they have been waiting for for a very long time. Either way, SoD is already quite a long game by AVN standards. We could easily split it into 2–3 separate games or acts and charge money for each one. But from the very beginning, I said that SoD would be a one-time purchase, and nothing has changed in that regard. It won’t change either. Even if this is a bad financial decision on my part, I honestly don’t care that much about it. I want people who bought the game to get the entire experience without having to pay for every major part of the story separately.

[p align="start"]Anyway, back to the point, because I’m already going off track. The bar scene and the school scene caused quite a lot of controversy. As for the bar scene, it was partly meant as an introduction to what Riley and Mike are planning for the future - changing the direction of the bar, or at least part of it. And come on, who has never wanted to cuddle with a waitress after a few drinks? Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

[p align="start"]As for the school scene, I agree that it might have been a little over the top, BUT the entire scene was optional. You had choices that allowed you to keep Riley on a slower path, or choose a Riley who wanted to take a bigger step into debauchery. So if you didn’t like what she did, THAT WAS YOUR CHOICE, you filthy bastards. Sure, the scene was a little less realistic than some of the others, because who wouldn’t notice something like that happening in a classroom? But that is exactly what fantasy is about. Everyone has their own kinks for a reason. I’m not going to deny that the scene was a bit too much; in fact, I agree that it was. But all you had to do was tell Riley to simply finish her presentation like she was supposed to, and the rest of the scene would never happen. Unless, of course, some of the people complaining secretly wanted it to happen.

[p align="start"]Now, about having to replay the game and make new saves just for one scene. There will be more scenes and branches like this, and this was also an introduction to the potential endings. There will be 4 main endings, with possible sub-endings, so you could say there are practically around 6 different outcomes. They will be fully introduced in episode 6.1. At that point, your ending will already be determined by YOUR CHOICES THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE GAME, and you will only have an influence on whether your ending will be positive or... well, not necessarily positive. This is also one of the reasons why some choices and branches are being introduced now rather than all at once at the very end. Your decisions throughout the game will eventually come together and have a real impact on how the story ends.

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[p align="start"]Not important note>

[p align="start"]And finally, I want to share a small observation from my side. These days, it seems very common to complain that the games we receive don’t meet our expectations. In the past, things felt much simpler. People played a game, enjoyed what they got, and simply got lost in its world, whether it was exactly what they imagined or something completely different. Nowadays, we compare everything to everything else. If something isn’t exactly how we imagined it, or if we don’t get what we wanted, then it must be bad. And I’m not talking only about SoD here; I mean many other games as well. Instead of trying to get into the world that the developer created and accepting it for what it is, we often complain that it isn’t the world we wanted. And I’m saying this both as a developer and as a player. Don’t compare everything to everything else, and don’t compare yourself to other people or, even worse, to influencers. Just enjoy the moment and enjoy what you receive. Okay, that’s the end of my little philosophical rant and my intrusive thoughts.

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[p align="start"]Work on update 6.0 has already started. You still have 4 full SoD updates ahead of you, each roughly similar in size. We are probably talking about around 12,000–15,000 renders in total, plus a ton of animations. We are working on it whenever we have free time. I don’t know exactly when these updates will be released, but when they arrive, they will be made exactly as we planned from the beginning, without compromises, unnecessary simplifications, shortcuts, or rushing things just to finish the project. Maybe I’m not the best developer, and maybe some of my replies on certain forums are too sarcastic and don’t exactly fit the role, but I’m a perfectionist, and when I decide to make something, I want to do it from beginning to end without taking shortcuts. I would rather take longer and release something I’m genuinely happy with than rush it just so I can say that the project is finished.

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[p align="start"]That’s it for now. Thank you for sticking with us, for playing SoD, and for taking the time to share your thoughts, whether they are positive or negative. We don’t always agree with everything you say, but we do read it, and a lot of it genuinely helps us shape the game. See you in the next update! ❤️