Hey everyone,

Happy New Year to you all!! I wish all of you health, wealth, and happiness. I have released "Isabella's Promotion," another one of the Patrerotica stories voted for by my patrons on Discord. That said, it is high time I update you on what is happening with Katie's Diary. And what else you can look forward to this year. 

Let's get into Chapter Five; most of you already know that I made a collection of Christmas-themed short stories for my patrons called "HO! HO!! HO!!!" and thus, I focused on getting that project done, which in turn made the development of Katie's Diary take a back seat. Coupled with that, it was the holiday season, and I had to do some travelling where I had very little opportunity to work on Chapter Five. Right now, I stand at a little over 4k words with two routes almost complete. I haven't had the chance to edit the images, which I usually do while writing, so yes, Chapter Five is still in the early development phase, so to speak.

All that out of the way, the best estimation of a Chapter Five release would be sometime in mid-January. As one of my new year's resolutions, you will have a complete game of Katie's Diary before the end of 2023. We are almost nearing the midpoint of the story I envisioned for Katie at the start; please don't be mad or sad about it. I can't tell you exactly which chapter the story will end on, although I know there is a definite end to it. I made this decision right at the start of the creation process; I didn't want this game to drag on or be watered down. Many Devs I know are scared to move on from one project to the next as they would lose potential patrons/income. But it is only fair to my current patrons and the story to do right by Katie and send her off to the sunset. This is still a long way away, but I do believe if I keep this pace of development, it could be achieved within 2023.

This brings us to my next resolution, which is honing my art. As you know, both in "Patrerotica" and "HO! HO!! HO!!!" I use 2D art instead of stylized images. I will be moving forward with my own artwork for any future project I start. I know there's a lot to be desired with the current artwork, and I will be working on it to sharpen my skill and give you guys a more visually pleasing story/game.

Talking about stories, I have realized that there are specific themes or fetishes I would like to explore further. As I enjoy writing said stories, I have a couple doodled in one of my notebooks, and I hope to share them with you guys in the future. There will be one constant in these stories, and it will be that of the perspective, and it will be female.

So to my final resolution, some of you may have seen it coming from the path I have been forging for myself as a game Dev. And that is to learn Python so I can start coding in Renpy. I love coding in Twine, and it's sad to say that Renpy is taking the cake for creating an AVN, especially when 2D artwork is involved. It's a mountain I need to climb as a Dev and a person, and I have added it to this year's list of resolutions.

Lastly, thank you all for believing in me and joining me on this adult Game Dev journey. I do read your comments, I do see your likes, I do read your reviews, and I also read your criticism. All these things keep me going and keep me on my toes to improve. Thank you for the love and support you have given me in the past few months, and I will leave you with this... "You gave me faith to go on."

The Zombies - This Will Be Our Year 

XOXO

~S