Overview

So unfortunately, we didn't have any big updates during April. But we did update our Patreon feed every week, so if you want to read what we do on a weekly basis, feel free to pledge any amount and you will immediately be able to read them.

This announcement will be a long one, because there are a lot of things I want to cover in this post. So brace yourself, and let's dig in!

Snowball Saves Summer

As mentioned in our previous post, we've been hard at work developing Snowball Saves Summer in order to raise funds for Detective Butler's artwork and music. We've documented our progress by streaming on Twitch and archiving the videos to YouTube, so please feel free to stop by and watch as we code the game. I will often take suggestions from the audience and attempt to code it into the game during the stream, and if you have any questions I enjoy answering them.

Currently we've made about 30% of the total levels. We've reached the halfway point of the main game and just last week finished implementing the optional minigames. We'll be adding lots of other features such as boss fights, Steam achievements, leaderboards, and of course the remaining levels in the weeks ahead.

My best estimate for a release date is late July to early August. As such, I also intend to open beta testing during June and July, so we'll spend the rest of May preparing a beta demo, exclusive to certain Patreon backers. I'd also like to release a shorter public demo before the end of this month.

You can view the page with all the details of the game right here.

Detective Butler 2

So with that said, we have a very exciting update to share for Detective Butler 2.

Since the writing and coding are mostly complete, my primary focus is gathering funds to pay for the art and music. Though there are still some things I need to do, right now it's more important to get the art and music assets up to speed with the story that's been written.

While the artwork depicted in previous screenshots had served us well for building the prototype, the final game will be getting a graphical makeover. So I am happy to announce that I've recruited a new artist, chocojax, to draw the final sprites.

Here's a small preview of the new artwork:

Yes, that's indeed Cecila Querida from the first game, now in a GG uniform! Some time has passed since the Maiden Voyage Murder, and she now works alongside Gilligan at the company... well, I won't spoil anything other than that for now. The remainder of her already-made facial expressions can be seen on our Patreon page. We'll also be posting snippets of music over there, too.

Also, as you can see we're returning to the cel-shaded style from the first game, as that was very positively received by most players. We'll look into using cel shaders for the backgrounds too, since most players told us they disliked the blurry backgrounds.

If you'd like to see more artwork and support our artist, then please consider buying our games or our products on the store, pledging to Patreon, or following on Twitch. I'm working very hard every day to accumulate the funds myself, but any amount will greatly help speed things up.

New Website Pages

You might have noticed our website is organized a little differently. Rather than each game being on the navigation bar, there's simply one Games page that leads to a list of them all. This should be more informative for people just getting to know us, so they can easily find our completed games and our works in progress.

You'll also see a Rewards page which gives a detailed explanation of all the rewards you can earn from Patreon and our Twitch streams.

One of the rewards lists access to a Discord server, so you're probably wondering "Where can I find the Discord server?" We've added a link to that on our website as well, and you can also access the Discord server by clicking right here. You can chat with other fans, discuss potential ideas for our games, and maybe we'll even put them in. Who knows! Just have fun.

Conclusion

I'm confident that 2018 will be a very productive year for us. We've launched a lot of new features for our website during this first half, and we'll see the release of at least one game (maybe more, wouldn't that be nice?) before the end of the year.

Also, I want to personally apologize for taking so long with everything. In many ways I feel like I have let down so many fans -- I've allowed so many things to distract me from accomplishing my goals -- but I'm thankful for the wave of support I've been getting lately. I'm working very hard to get everything back on track, and I really do think things are starting to look up for us again.

Probably the next big post will be announcing a new demo for Snowball. Or, if we get enough funds, I can commission some more art and we'll do another character reveal. Either way, I've got a lot of work to do over the summer, so wish me luck!

Thanks for reading!