Come Home News

[p]Hey everybody! First of all, the Free version of Update 19 has been released. [/p][p]Secondly, I called this annual post the State of the Game for the past 5 years, but I'm changing it to State of the RJ, because lately I've actually been working on more than just one Game. I'll go into that later in this post. This is going to be a long one, but within, I'm going to talk about my plans for the next year or so. I'm going to announce the game(s) I'm planning for after Come Home. Then I'm going to answer a bunch of questions that people have asked me in a Q&A. [/p][p]Hope it gives you some insights, or just a little entertainment![/p][p]If you’re curious to read the first, second, or fourth year state of the game, or the first Q&A that I did, they are available here.[/p][h2]Come Home[/h2][p]Let's talk a bit first about what is planned for Come Home. At this point, we're getting very close to the end of the game and I'm looking at how I want to wrap everything up. [/p][h3]Update 20[/h3][p]Top of my priority list right now is Update 20. This update will be finishing up the story, adding all the multiple endings, and wrapping up the game. [/p][p]The update will likely be pretty short, as it's really just a little lead-up to the endings, then the ending itself. If you're the type to want to see all the endings, you'll get a little more gameplay out of the Update, but if you only care about one or two of the endings, it's probably not going to take you long to finish. [/p][p]Right now, it's looking like Update 20 will be released around December/January. These are very preliminary dates though, so please don't hold me to it. I'll announce an official date when I get closer to it. [/p][h3]Come Home - Complete Edition[/h3][p]After Update 20, I'm going to do one (probably) final update for Come Home. This update will be for the Premium Edition only and will add more sex scenes, dates, anything else I feel like I want in the game, but didn't get a chance to do before the endgame. I'll also be cleaning the game up as much as I can. [/p][p]After this, I'll change the name of the Premium Edition to the Complete Edition. It will only be a name change, not a completely different version that I'm trying to sell you or anything. If you have the Premium Edition, you will have the Complete Edition. [/p][p]At this point, Come Home will leave early access on Steam and have a full 1.0 release. Then Come Home will be finished and I'll be moving on. I'm expecting this to happen next Summer. [/p][h2]Happy Trails[/h2][p]I'm excited to finally share a little bit about my next game after Come Home! The game is called Happy Trails. In it, you play as a character who decides to through-hike the Appalachian Trail. On the way, he/she meets many people and develops relationships, while enduring all the highlights and hardships of the trail itself. [/p][p][/p][p]The game features 2D art animated in Live2D. Gameplay is going to be similar to games like Oregon Trail - you will be traveling along the trail and encountering random elements while managing your character's fatigue, happiness, health, and inventory. [/p][p]The art is made by Chocoleth, who I met after doing a lot of interviews with artists. I really clicked with her and I loved her art style. Background art is going to be watercolor and will be supplied by Chocoleth along with other artists as well. [/p][p]People who talk to me on Discord or on Patreon know that I love hiking and I love nature and this game is sort of a love letter to that. I wanted to make something with a little more gameplay involved than a visual novel and I wanted to explore some new things and learn more about a different type of game development. [/p][p]I recognize that this game is very different from Come Home and a lot of fans of Come Home might not enjoy a game like this. That's okay, if you feel like this isn't going to be your type of game. I hope you'll at least give it a try. It'll still have my mix of emotional and comedic writing, but I understand if it's not your thing, due to art style or gameplay style. There will be some Come Home characters who make an appearance in the game though. And Gertrude will be returning as a love interest. [/p][p][/p][p]I'll be revealing more about this game in the future. Right now it's still in early production - I have the skeleton of the code down, I've written pieces of it, and we have done some of the early artwork. It's still a long way away from release. Come Home is still my focus, so this is something I've been working on in my off-time mostly. [/p][h2]Soul Purpose[/h2][p]That's right. I have two games to announce here. [/p][p]Since Happy Trails is a 2D art game done by another artist, that takes a lot of things off my plate. I just have to focus on coding and writing for it. Because 2D art tends to take a little longer to produce than something like Daz, I expect production on Happy Trails to be a little slower. So I decided to go ahead and get into production on a second game as well. [/p][p]Soul Purpose is a traditional Ren'py visual novel, with some point-and-click adventure game elements. It's non-sandbox, has a small cast of characters, and is very story focused. The story follows a man who meets a girl at a bar and discovers that she's something special. Together they get pulled into a science-fiction action story that could put the entire world in peril. [/p][p]With Soul Purpose I'm going for a sort of gritty sci-fi vibe. Think the first Terminator movie. It's planned to be a pretty tight story, told in around five updates. [/p][p]The plan at the moment is to do the art in Daz, much like Come Home, though I'm hoping to increase the quality a bit. I think people will agree that my art in Daz has improved throughout the development of Come Home. With Soul Purpose I'm hoping to continue to improve, along with using newer, higher quality, models. I'll also be increasing the resolution of all the images to 4k to try to increase the visual quality. [/p][p]I say that is the plan, because I'm not 100% at the moment. Daz has been doing some things that I don't really like. Their software currently doesn't work with the RTX 5000 series of graphics cards and it seems like they are trying to put newer versions of the software behind a monthly subscription paywall. I don't plan on paying a subscription for Daz, so I have been looking at moving away from it and may move entirely over to Blender for Soul Purpose. I'll devote more time into this when I'm finished with Come Home and make a decision then. [/p][p]For Soul Purpose, I have already written the complete story, front to back. I'll have to code it in and add some things, expand some of the branching paths and such. But mostly I'll be focused on the art and sound on this one. [/p][p]I'm hoping to release the first chapter of Soul Purpose late next year. I expect it will release before the first release of Happy Trails, due to it being a much simpler production. [/p][p]Most of the time, I would be like, just focus on one game at a time, but I feel like producing these two simultaneously will not be too much of a stretch for me. On one, I don't have to worry about the art too much. On the other, I don't have to worry about the writing too much (because I've already written it). So between the two of them, it's like I'm working on a single game. Also, I just like to work. [/p][h2]Other Future Games[/h2][p]I have so many other ideas for future games, but those two are the ones that I am most passionate about and decided to invest in. [/p][p]There are a lot of people wanting more with the Come Home characters. I have some ideas about how I would like to do that, but none are on the agenda at the moment. [/p][p]I also would like to eventually return to the Come Home gameplay style. I could see myself making a Come Home 2 at some point with another 20 characters, a new MC, and a new background mystery. For now though, I want to work on some other ideas and stretch my muscles in different ways. [/p][h2]Timeline[/h2][p]So here's the timeline for what I'm planning right now: [/p][p]Dec 2025/Jan 2026 - Come Home Update 20.[/p][p]Summer 2026 - Come Home Complete Edition[/p][p]Winter 2026 - Soul Purpose Chapter 1[/p][p]2027 - Happy Trails First Release & further chapters of Soul Purpose[/p][h2]Conclusion[/h2][p]It's scary to finish up one game and move on to the next. I know that the fan-base is going to change a bit. I hope many of the Come Home fans will stick with me for what follows, but both of these games are very different from Come Home. Happy Trails is also a pretty big investment, because it requires paying an artist. Making games is my only source of income, so it's very important to me that these games are successful. [/p][p]But while I'm scared, I'm also very excited to create something new and tell a new story and introduce you all to these new characters that have been in my mind for a while. It's going to be very fun and I think that people are really going to enjoy it. I haven't seen any game out there that's like what I have in mind for Happy Trails. And Soul Purpose I feel like is just a good story that I want to tell, done in a visual style that I hope will be fun. [/p][p]Thanks as always for all the support you all give me. I hope that you continue to enjoy the games that I make. Love you all. Q&A[p]Now let's do a Q&A. I took these questions from Steam/Patreon/Discord/Itch, wherever I found them and I've answered the questions that I felt like answering.[/p][h2]Come Home Questions[/h2][p]Do you see additions to the group in the near future?[/p][p]I assume this is about adding more characters to the game. Come Home will not be getting any more characters. 20 is enough. [/p][p]Where does the inspiration for your characters come from? [/p][p]Inspiration comes from everywhere. Mostly personal experiences. Sometimes there's just a story in my head that I want to tell and I create a character as a way to tell that story. [/p][p]Are the relationship dynamics in the game based on people you know? And how much of it is a reflection of what you'd like to see? [/p][p]Some of the relationships in the game are based on people I know or knew, or based on myself. Most of the game is a reflection of what I'd like to see. I think most of the characters in the game look at the relationships in a mature way that is not necessarily realistic. Most of the time feelings get in the way of emotional maturity. [/p][p]Which characters in Come Home would you Marry, Fuck, or kill?[/p][p]Ooh, this is a really mean question. Marry Brandi, because I feel like she would be fun to travel the world with and explore new things and I think that she would be a very caring wife. Fuck Izzy, because she's so fucking hot and I know that group stuff with her would be a blast. Kill… Kendra… she's my favorite character, but unfortunately, she's going to die anyway. Harsh, I know. You made me do it. [/p][p]Do you have a favorite and least favorite ending for Come Home?[/p][p]You're not going to trick me into talking about the endings. Yes, I do. [/p][p]Will there be maybe a spinoff to Come Home?[/p][p]I have some ideas in mind. I think it's pretty likely that I'll do a spinoff of some sort at some point.[/p][p]Is there a possibility of a Come Home Dungeon Crawler?[/p][p]Probably not.[/p][p]After finishing up with the game, would there be one of the women's stories you'd like to spin-off as a separate adventure, visual novel game?[/p][p]I have some ideas. Not as a visual novel probably, but I'd like to make some other small games based on some of the characters. Kendra, Brandi, and Adrian are the ones that jump out to me the most as maybe needing a spinoff game. [/p][p]Was there any thought during the update 19 process of cross world item sharing to help with home world situations?  [/p][p]I did have some thoughts about maybe the MC bringing back a bunch of valuables to help set up for the ending. I had ideas about him bringing characters back with him as well. In the end, I felt like bringing back valuables wasn't necessary and bringing back characters was very complex coding-wise. Neither were necessary for the story, so I didn't move forward with them. [/p][p]Which one of the in-game jokes makes you laugh most when you think about it?[/p][p]Right now, probably the MC's tiny penis with the Kendra fairy. Visual gags like that get me. [/p][p]Was there any other characters you wanted to introduce that ended up getting cut?[/p][p]Yeah, originally Come Home was going to be broken into two semesters and I had some characters in the second semester that I was going to introduce. There was a math teacher, an art teacher, a computer science teacher, and a goth girl, I remember for sure. The goth girl kind of got folded into Adrian and a little bit of Tammy .Maybe one day, I'll tell those other stories in another game though. [/p][p]Will the endgame have where-are-they-now scenes? like, there being consequences for not choosing certain characters and how they coped? [/p][p]I don't want to talk too much about the end-game, as I don't want to spoil things, but I think I'll answer this one a bit anyways. I don't want people to feel bad for the characters that they're not choosing, so no, I don't have plans to show what happens to the characters that you don't choose.[/p][p]ANY chance Gertrude can be convinced to change her mind about the MC????[/p][p]No, Gertrude's story is basically complete at this point. She will not end up with this MC right now. She will be a character in Happy Trails though, and we can see how things go with her there. [/p][p]How many of these characters are based on people you know/knew/loved/love? No need to tell me which ones.[/p][p]Six. [/p][p]Are you planning to translate the game into other languages? Do you need help with it?[/p][p]Yes, after the Complete Edition is released, I'll be looking more into translations. I'll put out a call at that point, if you're interested in helping.[/p][p]What was your motivation or inspiration for creating Come Home? [/p][p]Motivation was money. I saw an opportunity to make a living by writing, which is all I ever wanted. I didn't want to have to get a real job again and I didn't want to ever have to work for a boss again. Inspiration was mostly porn and other porn games - Summertime Saga and Harem Hotel being the big ones. [/p][p]I'm curious what are your most frequently asked questions?[/p][p]Pregnancy? Translations? Can I date Suzy without Tammy? [/p][p]During Brandi's unplanned lewd stream, the animation stops with one of the chatters named Penn tipping 20 dollars. Was that a coincidence? If not I would be incredibly honored to have my name in your game. (This one was from Penn on Steam)[/p][p]It probably wasn't a coincidence. For Brandi's stream, especially for things like the tips, I often go into Discord or Patreon or Steam and look for users who I like or who say nice things and use their names there. I don't remember specifically, but I probably saw yours somewhere and used it. [/p][p]Who is your favorite character in the game? and what was the inspiration behind that character?[/p][p]My favorite character is Kendra, though Izzy comes very close. My dad had neurofibromatosis and that was a big inspiration on Kendra's character. Kendra is how I like to imagine I would be if I had a disease like that. Realistically, I know that it's harder than what I portray in the game though.

Is there a character that you wish you could have done more with? [/p][p]Juliana. I feel like I didn't give her enough of a story. I wanted her story to be about a socially awkward introvert learning to experience things outside of books. I feel like I mostly did that, but there's not really much to it. I probably should have given her something else. [/p][p]Do you plan on adding any audio or voice lines to this update?[/p][p]I talked about this more in-depth in my Update 19 Post-Mortem, but right now I'm unsure if I'll be adding more audio or voice lines to the rest of the game. If I do, it will come in the Complete Edition or afterwards. I don't expect there to be new voice lines in Update 20. [/p][p]Any plans to write erotic novellas still after the game has finished of these characters?[/p][p]No plans right now, but it's possible. They'd probably be shorter than novellas. It doesn't make a TON of sense for me to write novellas that require playing through the game to understand the story. It's something I'll think about. I'd rather focus on making games though. [/p][p]What character in come home is the closest to a foil of yourself?[/p][p]A foil of myself? So sort of the opposite of me? I mean, they're all kinda me, so this is hard. I could go the easy route and say Bai. He's easily the least like me. That feels like cheating though. Probably Whitney. Whitney is more logical and emotionless than I am capable of being. She's a genius, but in many ways, she doesn't have the heart behind it. I'm kinda of the opposite. I have a ton of heart and motivation, and while I don't think I'm a dummy, I know I'm not a genius either. [/p][p]Is there a scene/story part you regret making or regret making in the way you did?[/p][p]Not really. I could always change things if I wanted, so if I had any major regrets, I would change them. I mentioned Juliana, and that's probably my biggest regret, is not giving her more to do. [/p][p]Where is an unexpected place/chat/forum/channel/group/board/etc... you have seen your game being discussed or referenced?[/p][p]This hasn't really happened yet. I haven't seen my game being discussed outside of the normal places. That Polygon/404Media interview I did was pretty wild though! Having my game mentioned in the same conversation as stuff like Cyberpunk is crazy. [/p][p]Have you ever posed as a reference for an animation? [/p][p]Yes, I have. Sometimes I'll have my wife take pictures of me, or I'll take pictures of her, to get some pose that I'm thinking of. That doesn't happen to often though. What does happen a lot is me making faces while fiddling with expression dials. I find myself frequently imitating the face of the character that I'm trying to make while I'm moving sliders around. My wife makes fun of me for it. [/p][p]Has there ever been in a point in development, where you thought you'd like to overhaul a character (look wise, personality, story, kinks) but didn't do it because it would've taken too much time?[/p][p]Well, I have done this a couple of times during the game - with Kendra's hair, Lisa's and Jamie's skin, and a couple of characters I redid their appearance entirely early on (Jez, Adrian). I think the biggest thing that I would have liked to change, but didn't is Jamie's hair. I kinda hate her hair. As far as personality, story, kinks - no, I haven't really wanted to change anything there. [/p][p]Which fan favorite of your characters surprised you the most?[/p][p]Hm, I don't know. Out of the 20, I don't think there's any that I'm surprised fans loved. I love all of them and there's a few that I'm surprised that fans don't love more (Izzy!). Out of the side characters - the love for the Brandichat characters was a little surprising for me. Connie got a lot of love too that I didn't quite expect. The Connie scene and the Troutsmell scene were not planned, but were added as fan service because people liked those characters. [/p][p]What's one kink you'd have liked to add to the game, but thought the audience would "hate" that and thus didn't do it...and vice versa, what kink did you implement because many people like it but it's not your cup of tea?[/p][p]I don't think I have an answer to the first one. If there's a kink I wanted to add, I did. I'm not a super kinky person overall, really. I like a little light play in various things. As for the second part, I also don't think I did add any kinks that I wasn't into. In all honesty, I feel like I've made the game I wanted to make, from beginning to end and I've always stuck to what I want more than what fans want. [/p][h2]Future Game Questions[/h2][p]It occurred to me that with the popularity of Brandi Chat, that there might be the equivalent in your next game. Is this being considered/planned?[/p][p]I enjoy Brandi Chat a lot and I love that everybody else enjoys it too. Yeah, I can see myself having something like it in future games. Specifically Happy Trails. I don't think Soul Purpose will have anything like it. [/p][p]What are the biggest lessons—technical or creative—that you plan on carrying into your next project? Are there things you're excited to do differently now that you have this experience under your belt?[/p][p]I've learned SO much with making Come Home. On a technical level, I feel like I've gotten way better with coding and with UI elements that I can make much more interesting games now. I've also gotten better at planning and I feel like I won't hit near as many pitfalls with future games. I'm going to keep pushing myself though and trying new things, so there's always going to be mistakes, but I know so much more now than I did five years ago. [/p][p]I'm excited to experiment more with the UI and with the way stories are told. I'm also excited to try out a different release strategy. Come Home was free with Premium Edition bonuses, which I think worked really well for it. Both my future games will be different though, probably. I won't be doing the thing that some other games are doing where they'll sell you part of a game, or seasons, or chapters or whatever. If you buy a game from me, you're going to get a full game. But I'll be doing something different than I did with Come Home. I'll let you know once I get the details nailed down. [/p][p]Will your next Adult Visual Novel Game project involve a lot more Transgendered Characters when it comes to the Lewd Sex scenes and non lewd scenes? [/p][p]I'm always going to be about diversity and inclusion. There will be a transgender character in Happy Trails. There won't be in Soul Purpose. I don't have any plans to make a game about transgendered characters specifically. [/p][p]Which 3 Come Home character's stories that aren't similar to your personal experience resonate with you the most?[/p][p]Izzy - I don't really have any of the experiences that Izzy has, but I tried my best to write them in a way that is sympathetic and relatable. Izzy is probably my favorite character in the game, all around. Lisa - I don't have experience being a mother or being abandoned, like she has, but I feel like I did pretty okay with her story and I really like it overall. I have a hard time with this third one, because thinking through the characters, all the ones remaining that really resonate with me have large portions of their character based on personal experience. [/p][p]While some of his personality is based off our decisions and preferences, I still feel like the MC is very much his own character. Where did you come up with the ideas for the MCs backstory?[/p][p]Most of the MC's personality was invented during the production of the game. Really I just wanted him to be there as an insert for the player. He was intended to be a little bland and average so that a majority of people could see themselves in his shoes. He developed more as I started writing the stories around him though. I wanted him to be a good person, overall. I didn't like other games I see where they give you the option of becoming an asshole, so I just stopped giving those options. My MC is not an asshole. I wanted him to be a little childish at first, but develop into a more confident, accepting character as the story went on. I think I just made him into being the sort of guy that I would like to date. The sort of guy that 20 characters of various backgrounds and personalities would all fall in love with. [/p][p]I ask this knowing that update 20 may surprise us, but was it a deliberate choice to include women in the game who would be emotionally unavailable for more than just a sexual relationship, or was it something that came about organically as you wrote the story (examples would be Gertrude, Eden, and Mrs. Mills).[/p][p]It was deliberate, yeah. I wanted some characters who just weren't interested in being in a long-term relationship with the MC. Eden was never going to leave Pete - they love each other so much, I could never see them separating. Eden is almost not really a main love interest in the game. She's kind of there to explore different sexual ideas with, but she has no interest in a romantic relationship with the MC. [/p][p]Mrs. Mills also was never going to be with the MC long term. I really like how her story turned out, honestly. The last couple scenes with her hit me in the right spots and I feel like I did pretty good with them. She's a cynical older woman and she doesn't want to change. The MC has been good for her, but he hasn't really changed her. Sometimes that's okay, I think. I want to have some characters who don't shape their lives around the MC and I wanted to explore the idea of temporary relationships. Just because they're not forever doesn't mean they're not good or worthwhile. [/p][p]It's the same with Gertrude. Their relationship isn't going to last forever, but it was good for both of them while it lasted. Flings are good. They make you a more well-rounded person, fulfill some desires that you might have, and give you a lot of memories to think back on. Gertrude, I felt like, had a lot of things to deal with and I just couldn't see her leaving her husband and immediately getting into a long-term thing with the MC. I could have wrote it, but it wouldn't have felt right. I'm looking forward to exploring her further in Happy Trails though. [/p][p]How long does it take to complete a screen, on average? [/p][p]It really depends. If I have to set up a location or costumes or add several characters, they can take hours. If I just have to change an expression, it can take minutes. On average… I'd say like 20 minutes or so, but it varies wildly.  [/p][p]Any plans for explicitly consensual BDSM content (beyond a little spanky-spanky) in a future project?  [/p][p]No plans currently, but who knows what kind of stuff I'll explore. I'm not hugely into the kink though, and I tend to stick with writing what I know.

Given infinite time, what are some other game genres you'd like to create in?[/p][p]I have ideas for a metroid-vania, a survival horror, a tower defense, a dungeon crawler, an idle game, a detective mystery game, and a racing game. Honestly, I'd love to explore everything. I love most genres and will probably [/p][h2]Game Development Questions[/h2][p]The whole payment processor mess and Steam/Itch banning NSFW games[/p][p]I had a lot of questions about how I feel about this. The short answer is that I feel like payment processors should not have the ability to censor art. If it's legal to make and it's legal to buy, a payment processor should not be able to say that you cannot spend your money to buy it. [/p][p]I've been making this game for five years now. I've seen several scares like this over those years. It's always a worry that one day I'm going to wake up and find out that I've been kicked off Patreon for some reason or that my game has been taken down from Steam. That's a constant worry, I think, for most developers who this is their main source of income.[/p][p]Right now, Steam and Itch have given no indication that they are planning on banning ALL NSFW games though and I don't believe they are going to do so. I don't think they should have banned the ones they banned. I don't like censorship of this kind in any way. But, Come Home does not break any of the rules that they have instated, and I don't plan on making any games that would break those rules. [/p][p]I'm glad that this particular scare has attracted so much attention from outside the porn game realm. I've never seen so many people talking about this issue and it's nice to see that people are upset about it. However, I also feel like there's a lot of harmful misinformation being spread by both news articles and people who have minimal understanding about what is happening. [/p][p]Some people are saying that ALL NSFW games are being banned, which is simply not true and is a harmful thing to say. If people think that all NSFW games are being banned, they're less likely to buy those games. Like, who is going to spend money to buy a game on Steam if they think the game is going to be removed in a week? So, we need to be clear about the facts - Steam and Itch are banning games that contain specific things - incest, non-consensual sex, underage-appearing characters, and vomit/scat. [/p][p]Do I think that those things should be banned? No. Could Steam decide to ban all NSFW games in the future? Absolutely. I think that people need to continue to push back against this, because it's definitely a threat to free speech and creativity. [/p][p]But I don't think things are as dire as some people have made them out to be.[/p][p]What perception of the player base changed the most from before you began your project until now?[/p][p]Hm, I don't know if my perception has changed all that much. I will say that the player base has changed over time, based on the platform. Patreon tends to attract an older, more mature audience. Steam tends to attract a younger, more outspoken audience. I feel like the game (woke as fuck) attracts a player base that tends to be like-minded and just generally good people. I like my players. [/p][p]I want to learn Daz3D, can you lead me to mind-blowing resources that will turbo-charge my learning experience? [/p][p]Honestly, the best way to learn is just to get in there and start playing with it and keep making stuff. However, I really like Rauko's Youtube channel and have learned a lot there. There's some other good resources on Youtube as well, but Rauko has been the best for me: [/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p][/p][p]What got you into making a game? Was there formal training, or did you just figure it out on your own?[/p][p]I started off as a writer and I learned some game development as a hobby. I started in Unity, then moved to Ren'Py. I've always been kind of interested in coding, but it was really just a hobby at first. No formal training. Watched a lot of YouTube videos and learned by doing. Come Home was all a learning experience. Everything is a learning experience. [/p][p]What first steps are involved from transitioning from a novella creator to a video-game creator? The transition seems to be a daunting challenge. [/p][p]I think the first thing to do is to determine how you're going to make the art, or if you are going to make the art. That was the hardest part of the transition for me. Coding with Ren'Py, or things like Twine, is very simple and easy if you're just doing a basic branching story. [/p][p]Is there specific software that you can suggest? Software that doesn't require a writer to know any coding? Perhaps a text-only video game. No images.[/p][p]Yeah, Twine is perfect for this. There's not really any coding to it, just basic formatting stuff. [/p][h2]Questions about RJ[/h2][p]What's your favorite color?[/p][p]Green. [/p][p]How have you been lately?[/p][p]Really good! Thanks for asking![/p][p]Who is your favorite comic book character? [/p][p]Spider-man. [/p][p]If Grimtown was a pokemon, which one  do you see him as? which pokemon are you? [/p][p]Grimtown is a Chansey. He's just this big friendly guy who is always trying to help people. I'm a Jigglypuff - constantly performing and getting mad at people. [/p][p]What is your preferred taco build/toppings?[/p][p]Street tacos - double corn tortilla, fajita steak, onions, cilantro, queso fresco, green salsa, lime.

Who is your favorite Star Trek Captain?[/p][p]I'm not a big Trekkie. I've only watched the original series and some next generation. And the new Star Trek trilogy. And like two episodes of Discovery. [/p][p]Anyways, Shatner. [/p][p]Why are you so cool?[/p][p]Practice![/p][p]How has your day been?[/p][p]Busy![/p][p]We have seen your incredible talent in writing and art are there any other talents we don't know about?[/p][p]I'm actually really good at video games. I used to speedrun games and set a couple of world records at the time. I think I'm a pretty good cook as well. Any other talents will have to remain a secret. [/p][p]What are some of your favorite games or movies?[/p][p]Games - Bioshock, Megaman 2, Super Metroid, Castlevania Symphony of the Night, Resident Evil (the whole damn series), Dark Souls, The Binding of Isaac, Breath of the Wild. [/p][p]Movies - Alien, Blade Runner, Terminator, Princess Bride, Blue Velvet, The Thing, Suspiria.[/p][p]What is a story that you've always wanted to tell? [/p][p]I don't really save stories. If I have a story to tell, I tell it. I have some stories in my head that I haven't had the opportunity to tell yet, but they're coming. [/p][p]Have you played House Party? If so, do you find it something more, less, or just different than VNs?[/p][p]I have, some! It's just something different. It focuses on different things than a VN typically will. It's more about the feeling of being in a party and getting to know people and investigating. It's more of an adventure game than a visual novel. Just different priorities for different games. [/p][p]Favorite word?[/p][p]Chihuahua[/p][p]Who are three characters from TV/movies/books that have made strong impressions on you, and what were the impressions?[/p][p]Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Probably my favorite TV show ever, solely because of the characters. Buffy herself I think has made a huge impact on my mind and the way that I tell stories. I love the character. I love the swap of the tropes - girl who originally appears as a cheerleader, bubble-headed, damsel in destress is actually a badass superhero. I love the heavy themes being placed on the shoulders of a person who is not mature enough to handle them yet. And I love watching the characters grow over a long time. I've always wanted to be able to do that - tell a story over a long period of time where we can see characters grow and change. I could talk about Buffy for days. [/p][p]I don't think I'll go into them as much, but I'll throw out Ripley from Alien, for just being a badass, smart, confident chick. And pretty much all the characters from Harry Potter. I hate what Rowling has become and I don't support her or the Harry Potter franchise anymore, but I'd be lying if I said they didn't have an impact on me. They were a huge part of my life growing up and they probably inform a lot of my writing. [/p][p]Does Mango ever tease you (in a positive way) about your game?[/p][p]Not really! She's always been supportive of me and my game. And she's played most of it and loves it as well. [/p][p]Do you get your inspiration for characters/scenes/stories mostly from real life or TV shows/movies or even other (adult or non adult) games or your own fantasy?[/p][p]I feel like I get inspiration from everywhere. All of those things. Most of my characters are inspired by various things compiled together. I don't think any of them are directly inspired by any one thing or even mostly one thing. I've definitely been inspired by porn, comics, movies, games for all my stuff, but a lot of it came from personal experiences as well. [/p][p]Is there a scene or story in other visual novels that had a profound impact on you? If yes, which 3 had the biggest?[/p][p]I'll be honest, I don't play visual novels all that much and don't remember 3 things in others that had an influence on me. But I will throw out a mention of Eve's story in Summertime Saga. Summertime Saga was the game that convinced me to make a game myself and Eve's story was a big part of that and a huge influence on Adrian. [/p][h2]Silly Questions[/h2][p]Does pineapple belong on pizza?[/p][p]For me, it does! Hawaiian is my second favorite type of pizza, behind sausage/peppers/onions.[/p][p]How do you convince a loved one to watch a movie you love, but they do not want to watch with you?[/p][p]I wouldn't. If you make somebody watch something that you love, but they don't want to watch it, they probably won't like it and you'll just be disappointed. I'll never forget the time I talked my wife into watching Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog for the first time and she was in a bad mood. I thought it would cheer her up, but like five minutes into it she turns to me and says "Is this supposed to be funny?" We turned it off and did something else. Came back and watched it a few years later and she loved it. Can't force things or you're not going to like the results. [/p][p]Have you ever coughed, farted and peed yourself all at the same time?[/p][p]No. [/p][p]What do you think of Brennan Lee Mulligan as the new DM for Critical Role Campaign 4? [/p][p]I think it'll be great. Critical Role has been going for 10 years and things have to change at some point. It's the end of an era and it's not going to feel like the same game anymore, but that's okay. I just want all of them to be happy and successful, honestly. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Alright, that's it! Hope you were at least mildly entertained! Lots of things to look forward to and I will be keeping myself very busy. Thanks to everybody who supports me! Love ya![/p]

[p]Update 19 has now been released after 9 months or so of work on it. It's the biggest update I've ever done, it was the most difficult update I've ever done, and it took the longest of any update I've ever done. I have a lot of thoughts about it and I want to share them.[/p][p]This is going to be a long post. If you hate the update, I don't expect this to change your mind, but for those who are interested in why I made the decisions that I made and how I feel about those decisions and about the Update in general, I hope that this will answer some of those questions. [/p][p]If you haven't played Update 19 yet, I HIGHLY suggest you play it before reading this. I'm going to spoil everything, so please play it first.[/p][h3]A Week of Patches[/h3][p]If you played the Update when I first released it and hit a bunch of bugs, it's highly likely that those bugs have been fixed by now. [/p][p]We knew there was going to be bugs on this one. There's bugs in all of them, honestly. I test as much as I'm able to, I have a small team of alpha testers who work really hard testing the game. But there's still only like five of them and one of me. When it goes to Beta testers, that's like maybe 50-100 more people that play the game. But when it goes out on Premium Edition, very quickly it's being played by thousands of people. [/p][p]So there are bugs that get through and when an update is as complicated as what this one was, there was no doubt there would be bugs. [/p][p]I've fixed all the bugs that I could find and that have been reported over the past week. I also added in an end-game gallery since so many were asking for it, but you have to replay the update from the beginning to unlock it, since I didn't have the variables in the original script, sorry about that. [/p][h3]The Origins of Come Home[/h3][p]I want to start talking about this Update from the very beginning. Over five years ago now, Come Home started as kind of a mix of ideas that were all in my head at the same time. I had been playing Persona 5 and loved the social simulation in it. I had been writing erotica and had a bunch of stories I planned to publish as novellas. And I had been dipping my toes into adult games with stuff like Summertime Saga and Harem Hotel. That's where the idea of Come Home was born. [/p][p]Originally, the idea was something closer to Persona 5. During the day, you had this big dating simulator with a lot of different characters. At night, you venture into the other world and dungeon crawl with alternate versions of those characters, looking for your father. This is what my original gameplan was and my original script reflected that. [/p][p]As I got started on the game, things quickly changed. I listened to a lot of feedback - people don't like minigames, people don't like RPG combat, people don't want a grindy game system in their porn games. I understand that too - a lot of people just want to come and read a story and jerk off and that's it. They want something that is focused on the characters, not the gameplay. I completely understand that. Adult Visual Novels are not intended to appeal to an audience that is interested in gameplay. [/p][p]I also learned that my coding and gamemaking capabilities were not quite up to snuff and I had no idea how to actually code a dungeon crawl and a combat system and all of that. It was a lot more work than I was capable of doing, especially when I'm just starting off and learning everything all at once and I have no money to hire people or buy software or assets. [/p][p][/p][p]This is from a document that I wrote in 2000.[/p][p]So I took all of this into account and took a step back on Come Home. Instead, I would just focus on the characters and the dating simulator and have a single chapter of the game where you go through the portal and find your father. [/p][p]The outline at this point was that there would be two semesters of college and the player would go through the portal and find his father around Update 12, in the middle of the two semesters. Then he'd come back, finish school and finish up all the characters' stories. [/p][p][/p][p]The investigation timeline written in 2000.[/p][p][/p][p]This is just a little snippet of the planned second semester, with art, math, and computer science class. Some other characters, like Adrian weren't going to be introduced until this second semester as well.[/p][p]As I continued making the game, I felt like this wouldn't really work well. For one, I already had so many characters in the game. Adding a second semester, (with three more planned teacher characters) just wasn't feasible. Plus, I felt like going through the portal and finding his father is more of a climax of the story and shouldn't happen in the middle. [/p][p]So the outline was rewritten again and the "through the portal" chapter was moved to Update 19. This was a little over three years ago. This update has been agonizing me almost since I started making the game. [/p][h3]The Agonies of Update 19[/h3][p][/p][p]I struggled so hard with this update from the very beginning. The plan was always that the MC goes to a fantasy world, meets alternate versions of the characters that he loves, reconciles with his father, and has to fight to get back to his real world. That's pretty much what was written in the outline from the beginning. [/p][p]As it grew closer and closer, I became more and more scared of actually making it. I talked to several people about this over several years. I knew that some players would be annoyed by this update. Some players would hate the tonal shift. Some players would hate the fantasy world. Some players would hate RPG combat. I'll get more into those subjects later. [/p][p][/p][p]About two years ago, I sat down and looked over my outline again and was like, "Do I really want to make this chapter this way?" [/p][p]I did a couple of rewrites [/p][p]- Maybe the MC never goes through the portal at all? Maybe he's just happy where he is and lets his father go? [/p][p]- Maybe the MC goes through the portal and it's just another world like his own. More of a Back to the Future style thing, where he sneaks in, finds his father, talks to him, and then gets back to his world and that's it? [/p][p]- Maybe the MC doesn't ever go through the portal and instead just pulls his father back? [/p][p]I spent a while writing a few other ideas and planning them out, just to see how I liked them. Every time though, I came back to the original idea - Fantasy world, alternate versions of characters, father is happy where he is. [/p][p]Eventually, I had to just commit to doing it. Even though I knew that some fans would not like it. Even though I knew that some people would be genuinely upset about it. [/p][p]It was hard, because even though I've been doing this for so long and even though most people are supportive, the vocal minority still get to me when they harshly criticize the game. I knew that committing to making the update this way was going to be asking for a lot of that vocal criticism. I talked with people close to me for a long time about this and about how I was going to deal with it. Even though I was prepared for it, it's still been tough to see the reaction be basically exactly as I predicted. [/p][h3]Fantasy World with RPG Combat[/h3][p][/p][p]So, why a fantasy world with RPG combat? Why not just do anything else? [/p][p]Because I thought fantasy alternates of all of these characters sounded really fun. I had ideas in my head for a long time of alternate versions of these characters that I wanted to create and I thought this was a fun opportunity to do that. [/p][p]Once I decided that the MC had to go through the portal, that meant that we had to see an alternate world. I wanted the other world to feel like something completely different. Originally, I had thought about doing a completely different art style for this update. Maybe switching to 2d hand drawn art or making all the characters in Blender or something. I ended up not really being able to do that, because of the time it would take to commission all the 2d art required. It's not something I could do on my own. [/p][p]The whole point of doing an alternate world though was to see alternate characters. I don't want to see alternate characters in another mundane world - I want to see freaky weird versions of them, you know? [/p][p]To me, a fantasy world like this was the most fun. [/p][p]Okay, but why RPG combat? [/p][p][/p][p]This was one of those things that I just wanted to do. I thought about cutting it a couple of times and just making it be all visual novel stuff. It would have been much faster to do it that way and people probably would have still liked it / liked it more. [/p][p]But the combat was something that I wanted. I wanted to try my hand at coding it. I wanted to see these characters in a combat situation and what they would do. I thought it sounded fun.[/p][p]It went through a few different iterations. At first I was thinking something like Wizardry, where you don't see your characters, or you see the back of their heads. This felt very boring to me and not fun, so I scrapped it. Then I had a sort of Final Fantasy style, where you see both teams on different sides of the screen, they'd run over and attack. This was a mess to code though, and I didn't like how small the characters were on the screen. I want to be able to see them. That's how I ended up on the final results of the combat screen.

[/p][p]Like all the other elements of the game that I WANTED, but I knew some fans would not, I tried to minimize the annoyance, by making combat fast, easy, and completely skippable. If you don't like it, you literally don't have to do it. Doesn't matter - people are still going to complain about it. [/p][p]Some people have guessed that maybe I'm using this as a way of designing RPG combat in my next games or something. That's not the case. I have no intention of using this combat system for any future games at the moment. It was just something I wanted to do here. [/p][p]The point is that I wanted the shift. I wanted going through the portal to feel like a completely different game. Maybe that's not a decision that some players would have preferred, but it's exactly what I wanted it to be. [/p][p][/p][h3]The Theme[/h3][p]I think it was when I got to about Update 8 or 9 that I realized that Come Home had a bit of a theme that I didn't intend to put in it, but it snuck in anyway. This theme of loss and how people deal with it. [/p][p]For those who don't know, my father died a couple years before I started writing Come Home. When he died, it completely flipped my life upside down. I got a divorce. I came out as bi. I quit my job. I was a mess. [/p][p]I didn't intend to write so much of myself into these characters, but as I was looking at it later, I realized that nearly every single one of my characters had lost something and they were dealing with it in different ways. And the entire story is about how the MC's father could not deal with that loss and so he ran away from the entire world. [/p][p]At this point, I knew that Update 19 was going to have a fantasy world with alternate characters and I knew that the final boss was this Ice Queen that was harassing the land and wouldn't let the MC leave. At that point however, I had penciled in that the Ice Queen was going to be Mrs. Mills. [/p][p]Once I realized the theme of loss though, I felt that Lisa would be a better fit for the villain. In our world, Lisa has lost a lot. Suzy is everything to her. What if she lost Suzy? How would she handle that? Not very well, I'm guessing.[/p][h3]Alternate Versions of the Characters[/h3][p][/p][p]This was a ton of fun for me. Once we set up that there are alternate worlds out there, I think most people want to see alternate versions of the characters. That's the entire point of this sort of thing! [/p][p]I just want to talk about some of my ideas that didn't quite make it or changed over time. [/p][p]I looked for my original outline, where I marked down what I planned for alternate versions of each character, but I couldn't find it, so some of this is just working off memory.[/p][p]Originally, as I said, Mrs. Mills was going to be the Ice Queen and I had Lisa in a smaller role somewhere and Suzy as a party member. When it came time to make the update, I knew I had to structure it in a way that limited the number of combinations of party members. The best way to do this, for me, was to group them - have a limited number of choices per group. Then I could layer images based on the group that the character was in. This cut down on the amount of work significantly, but that meant that I only wanted 12 characters to be party members, and picking those was pretty hard. [/p][p]Since Lisa was the Ice Queen and Suzy was dead, that took those out of the picture. Originally, I had wanted Tammy as a sort of hand-to-hand fighter in the group, but I decided that I had Bai already in that role and it made sense for Tammy to be with Lisa, so I made Tammy the guard. [/p][p][/p][p]Reba I originally had as an Engineer - somebody who would create drones to attack the enemies, or maybe hit them with a wrench. I decided to go with a Barbarian though, mostly for the jokes. It was just more fun to write her like that. [/p][p]I originally had Nora, Mrs. McGee, and Gertrude as a coven of witches that you meet, who help you, and maybe have an orgy. I ended up going in a different direction when I had the idea of Nora being a mermaid. I just really wanted to make an underwater mermaid scene. Once I took Nora out to do that, it didn't make sense to have Gertrude as a witch anymore either, so I switched her to a ghost. I felt like it was a little thematic that the MC gives Gertrude what she needs to let go of this world, like he helped her let go and start a new life in the real world. That left Mrs. McGee, who I still thought would make a great witch, with Pete as her thrall. [/p][p][/p][p]Dana was always intended on being a "sexy warrior". I saw her as a sort of valkyrie. Not a whole lot of hidden meaning there - she just looks hot in armor. [/p][p]Adrian I originally had as an archer (for some reason), but then I thought that she should be a sort of real-life version of her Souls of War character. I pictured this Adrian as the version of herself that our Adrian wants to be. [/p][p]Juliana didn't really change much. She was always intended to be a wizard, obsessed with books and learning. [/p][p]Kendra I originally had as an elven princess for some reason, but the idea of her being a short-lived, frustrated fairy popped into my head and I loved it so much, plus it opened the door for so many good moments. Most of my favorite moments in the Update were from Kendra. [/p][p][/p][p]Mari was always going to be a druid/shapechanger. There was no other choice for her. Originally I planned on her being in a sort of hybrid form more often, along with maybe a furry sex scene, but I couldn't ever get the model to look the way I wanted it to, so I scrapped the idea. [/p][p]Mi-Cha was always going to be a dancer. I imagined her sort of like Yuna from Final Fantasy X (who I know was a summoner and not a dancer), but that was a definite inspiration with her dancing on the water. [/p][p]Jez I originally had imagined as sort of a town guard, but later I decided to flip that and have her be instead more of an outlaw. I toyed with the idea of having her do archery or something instead of guns. Wasn't sure I wanted any guns in the game. But I just picture Jez with guns and it looks right in my head, so I went with it. [/p][p]Bai was always going to be a monk. No other ideas there. [/p][p]Jamie was always going to be a cleric of some sort, but she was the last one that I added to the party lineup. For a while, I was planning on having Tammy as a party member and Jamie as somebody you just meet along the way. [/p][p]Izzy was the one I struggled with for a long time. I wanted Izzy as a gorgon / medusa SO badly. It was one of the scenes that I had in my head from the start and one of the reasons I wanted to do alternate characters and a fantasy world in the first place. I really wanted a sex scene with Izzy as a gorgon and little snake hairs kissing his dick and everything. It's so hot in my brain. There were also a lot of little jokes bumping around in my head about "getting stoned" and stuff. Anyways, the limitations of Daz and my abilities with Daz ended up preventing me from doing this. I did some tests and the posing was SO time consuming and I never really liked how anything looked. Animation would have been a complete nightmare. So "getting stoned" got changed to "blaze it" and I made her a sort of pyromancer instead. I'm still happy with it. Still love Izzy. But I wish I could have done that gorgon scene. [/p][p][/p][p]Mrs. Mills, since I wasn't going to make her the Ice Queen, I almost immediately came up with her actually just being the devil. It's fitting and it's fun. I loved her scene as well. [/p][p]Brandi was originally going to be a Pirate Chef, but I took away the Pirate, since I didn't really have any scenes near the sea or anything. I toyed with the idea of her being a party member, but didn't really get anywhere with that. Then I liked the idea of her just being somebody your group runs into. It also gives her the opportunity to do some threesomes, since she has none with any of the main characters in the real world of the game. [/p][p]Whitney, I originally had as something else… I can't remember what it was now. But the idea of her being a centaur was just fun for me and a fun challenge to make in Daz and I wanted to try it. Originally her scene was bigger, but I kind of had to cut it down due to the complexity of having all the other characters there as well. It was just a logistical coding nightmare. [/p][p]This is an early version of Whitney:[/p][p][/p][p]There were a few side characters that show up too. Some townsfolk that the MC sees. Some of the enemies are alternate versions of antagonists in the real world. There's Mickey, Reba's brother, which I thought was a fun scene. There's Claire cameoing as a scorpion woman. [/p][p][/p][p]And there's another scene with the "Big-Tittied HotTub MILF. That's intended as a bonus Patreon-only scene (so is the sex scene with Joan, which I'll get to in a bit). I didn't want to cut off too much content for Free players, but I wanted at least two scenes for Premium players, so the BTHTMILF scene was a late addition. When I started working on the scene, I toyed with the idea of it being another Connie appearance instead and actually put it up for a vote on Discord, but in the end went with the BTHTMILF. [/p][p][/p][h3]MC and his Family[/h3][p][/p][p]Let's talk a bit about MC finally discovering what happened with his father, getting a bit of reconciliation with his mother as well, and meeting Joan. [/p][p]This meeting with MC's father is something that I've thought about since I first started writing the game. It's one of those things that you know has to happen at some point, but I wasn't sure how it was going to happen until we got closer. Until after I began exploring that theme of how people deal with loss. [/p][p]MC has all these love interests who have dealt with their own loss. Particularly Mari, who lost her whole family and still goes to work with a smile on her face. Or Reba, who lost her father and still takes care of her mother. Or Kendra, who knows she's going to die, but still gets up and tries her best to enjoy the life she has. There's all these characters who have lost so much, but still fight to enjoy their lives and help the people around them. [/p][p]Then there's Dad, who instead of dealing with his loss, abandoned his family and ran away from the world to chase after his dead wife. [/p][p]It's sad. It's pitiful. [/p][p]So that's how I pictured the MC's dad, when we finally meet him. He is a sad old man with a lot of regrets. He's not the strong, supportive, father that the MC knew. [/p][p]It's kind of rough to write a scene like that. I don't know that I accomplished it completely. I can understand people seeing it as a bit of an anticlimax. But I also think that's kind of the point. The MC's goal when he started was to get his father back, but those goals have changed over time. He doesn't need his dad anymore. He has other people who love him who didn't abandon him. [/p][p]Anyways, there's a little bit of my personal demons in all of this stuff. I hope some of it clicked with people. I don't think it's a perfectly written story, by any means, but it's what I felt. [/p][p]The MC also gets to spend some time with his mother (who is not really his mother, but still kind of is). I felt like I did pretty well on that scene. I think it conveyed the emotion I was trying to convey. I wish I could have a final talk with my dad like that. I wish I could tell him all the things that I feel.  I wrote some of them out in that scene and I felt like it worked. [/p][p]Finally, there's Joan. Joan is a bit of a joke, I guess, but I just thought the idea of an alternate version of our MC was just too fun. And what if she's a girl and she fucks everybody in town, just like our MC does? The concept was funny to me, so I went with it. I put her in that blue top and khaki pants and tried to make her look close to the MC. Then I went through the same thought process as the MC does when he's trying to figure out how weird it is. I'm like "is this okay for Patreon?" In the end, I came to the same conclusion as he did. She's not related to him. She's not him. It's just some woman. Since this scene was just a little bonus thing, I decided to make it a Premium-only scene, but I think it's fun. [/p][h3]Voices[/h3][p]Up until this point, I'd been hiring voice actresses and including voicework in the game as I could. I didn't include any new voicework in Update 19 and there's a few reasons for that. [/p][p]Firstly, some of the voice actresses that I have used up until this point are either not doing voicework anymore or I did not have a good experience using them and do not want to hire them again. It's unfortunate, but it's not possible for me to add new voicework for some of these characters without recasting them. [/p][p]Some of the characters though I could have added more voicework for. There are several of the actresses that I really love and would want to work with again and probably will work with in the future. I didn't add more voicework from those actresses though, because I felt like it would be odd to have the update partially voiced, but obviously missing certain characters. [/p][p]But, the main game is also partially voiced and missing certain characters too, right? Yeah, I there's still some characters I haven't cast, but I'm hoping to. I just didn't have time this update. Sending out casting calls, listening to auditions, directing the actors, editing the audio, and putting all of that into the game is a lot of work and this Update was already taking so long, I decided not to attempt to add the voice acting for the update at all. [/p][p]I know some people are going to be disappointed by that. Some people don't care about the voice acting and won't care at all. [/p][p]I think I made a mistake by adding voice acting before the game was finished. It means that now I have to go back to those actresses and get more voicework to finish the game with. There's some of the actors that I'm just not going to be able to do that with, leaving me to either recast and redo the whole thing, or have new actresses come in and take over, causing a voice switch in the middle. [/p][p]Or just not finishing the voicework, which is obviously the easiest way, but also the most disappointing. [/p][p]I probably should have stuck to my guns and told everybody asking for voicework to wait until the game was finished, then done it all at the end, before the full-game release. This game is still early access after all. It's not really meant to be played update by update. I should have planned for its final form a little better. [/p][p]At the moment, I do not know if I'm going to add more voices to the game. I would like to have voices for every character, even if it's only partial voices, but it will depend on if I find the right voice for the role. It would also be nice to have some actresses come back and do more voicework for endgame stuff, but it wouldn't be all of them.[/p][p]I don't know how I'm going to handle it yet. [/p][p][/p][h3]Previews and The Trailer[/h3][p]I knew that this was going to be tough, but I wanted the update to be a complete surprise for people. I wanted it to come out of left field and make people go, "What the fuck? Who put this fantasy stuff in my college porn game?" That's absolutely what I wanted to happen. I knew some people wouldn't like it, but I hoped that most people would give it a chance and have fun with it. [/p][p]In order to keep it a secret for as long as possible, I didn't do many previews throughout the development cycle. This was hard, and I lost a lot of patrons over the last 9 months or so, because I haven't been sharing as much as normal. It's all expected and understandable, but I did what I had to do to get the result that I wanted, which was a genuine surprise for the audience. [/p][p]Some people don't like being surprised. Sorry, but that's the way it is. It's not like you were surprised by a roof falling on you or surprised by a bear in your toilet. It's just a silly porn game getting a little sillier. You'll be okay. [/p][p]The trailer was fun for me as well. I wanted to convey the emotion that we are sort of saying goodbye here. Once again, dealing with loss. The MC has gone through the portal, leaving all the other characters behind. That stuff doesn't actually happen in the Update, but we can imagine it and the emotions are real. It's the first time I've ever made renders exclusively for a trailer. I thought it turned out wonderful though. I really loved the trailer and I think that most of the audience did as well. [/p][h3]Update 19's Reception[/h3][p][/p][p]So, I have established that I knew a long time ago that this was going to be a hard update. I knew that the reception was probably going to be polarizing. I knew that I was going to lose fans and maybe even lose money and maybe piss a lot of people off. Hell maybe everybody would hate this Update and think that the game was trash and this game would forever be known as that one game that was good up until the stupid twist at the end. [/p][p]Maybe it'll still be known as that. But I wrote what I wrote for a reason and I hope that I've explained that reasoning sufficiently. [/p][p]I am not a perfect writer. I know that I did not craft the most perfect story. It's not going to be the best story ever told about loss. It's not going to be the best porn game story ever made. I'm not the best writer in the world and I don't think that anything I make is ever going to be perfect. When somebody compares me to other writers like Drifty (Leap of Faith) or Dr. PinkCake (Acting Lessons) or whoever else, saying that they told their stories better, I'm just like "Okay, what do you want me to do about that?" [/p][p]If I'm not as good a writer as those people, should I just stop? Go home? Never write again, until I can craft the most perfect narrative? [/p][p]I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to keep writing the best that I can with all the heart that I can give it and hope that it'll connect with some people. What the hell else am I supposed to do? [/p][p]So, I sent the first version of this to alpha testers several months ago. It didn't have the full update yet, but did have a more rudimentary version of the combat included. I wanted to test the waters with them a bit to see how they felt about the combat. At this point, I was considering removing the combat completely and just having it be normal visual novel stuff. [/p][p]But, for the most part, the alpha testers actually thought the combat was fun and enjoyed the change of pace. There were a couple who were more iffy and a couple others who had suggestions to make the combat more fun. [/p][p]One of my alphas at this point flat out told me that they hated it and that they don't play games with combat and if they would have known that the game was going to have combat, they wouldn't have played it in the first place. This is a sentiment that I expected and knew I was going to have to deal with. [/p][p]I hear this sentiment all the time though, for different things. [/p]

• [p]"I hate sandboxes and will never play a sandbox!" [/p]
• [p]"I don't have any interest in femdom!" [/p]
• [p]"More than five love interests is too many!" [/p]
• [p]"I don't care about any characters with a penis!" [/p]
• [p]"I hate furries!" [/p]

[p]But for some people those things have changed to…[/p]

• [p]"I hate sandboxes, but Come Home implements the sandbox system in a really fun, non-grindy way." [/p]
• [p]"I don't have any interest in femdom, but Mrs. Mills is pretty fun." [/p]
• [p]"More than five love interests is too many, but here are my top 10 favorite love interests in Come Home." [/p]
• [p]"I didn't care about any characters with a penis, but I'm completely in love with Adrian." [/p]
• [p]"I hate furries, but Mari is adorable and I want to marry her!" [/p]

[p]My point is that from the very beginning, my whole thing with Come Home has been a sort of sampling of all kinds of different concepts that people can come and take what they want and enjoy what they want and maybe try some things that they wouldn't normally try and maybe find some things that they like that they didn't know they would like. I cannot tell you how many reviews I've gotten from people who hate sandboxes, but really love the way that I've implemented it. I cannot tell you how many people have messaged me saying that they didn't know they were into transwomen until they met Adrian. It makes me feel good every time. [/p][p]People need to be a little more open to ideas. If you cannot enjoy a game because it's a sandbox or you cannot enjoy a game because it has a little combat minigame, or you cannot enjoy a game because it has a dragon or a sword in it or something, you are just going to be stuck playing the same stuff over and over again forever. Expand your horizons. Take a breath and try something new. It's fun and you might find something that you didn't know you would like. [/p][p]Later, when he played the final version, that Alpha tester who told me that he hated that I was implementing combat, said that I had done a good job and that he was convinced. He enjoyed the combat. It was fun.[/p][p]It made me feel amazing, just like it does every time somebody says that I showed them something that they didn't know they would enjoy. [/p][p]I know that not everybody is going to be like that. Some people are going to hate it no matter what. Some people are going to be upset and feel betrayed and think I'm an idiot for implementing this stuff. I've read all the reviews and the feedback, and it's about what I expected. Most people enjoyed it. A vocal minority hate it and want everybody to know how much they hated it. [/p][p]To them, I am sorry, but I'm always going to do what I feel is the best for the game and for myself. I am not making the game for a single person and I'm not making the game based on what I think that the majority of my players want. I'm making the game based on what I want, with a little bit of input from the community. [/p][p]That's what makes it art. It's not made by a community or a robot. You don't just get to type into a prompt and it spits out exactly what you want. It's made by a single person's brain and that brain might not always align with what you think is the best. [/p][p]But in the end, it's what I think is the best. [/p][h3]Would I Change Anything? [/h3][p]As of now, no I don't think so. If I had an infinite amount of time, I might have made it a little longer. Added some more scenes at the beginning with MC's dad. Stretched the journey out a bit more. But the Update already took around 9 months to make and I just didn't have the time to add more content in there. I also did not want this update to overstay its welcome. It's a big departure from the main game and I wanted it to be quick and enclosed. [/p][p]I'd make Izzy a gorgon, haha. If I could do that scene justice, I would have done it. Maybe some future game, who knows? [/p][p]I'd have a little more Tammy in the update. Maybe even a sex scene. I had an idea that the MC would be imprisoned for a bit or something and maybe they'd fuck in his cell. I don't know. One of those things that got cut for time and pacing. [/p][p]So no, even though people are yelling at me and telling me that I'm a horrible writer and that I ruined the game, I wouldn't change the update. It was always going to be this. It's the story that I wanted to tell. [/p][h3]What's Next? Q&A![/h3][p]Firstly, I want to do a Q&A. So if you have any questions about anything regarding the game or me, put them in the comments below and I'll get to them. I'll probably post the answers to the Q&A in a couple of weeks. [/p][p]Along with the Q&A, I'll be doing a sort of "State of the RJ" or whatever, talking about where the development is at and what is going to happen in the future. I'm planning on revealing some things about what is coming after Come Home in that post. [/p][p]Come Home Update 20 is my highest priority now. Update 20 will be the end of the game. I believe I will have it released before the end of the year, but I'm not 100% on that. It will be close though. It won't be as long of a wait as Update 19 was. [/p][h3]Final Thoughts[/h3][p]Update 19 was a monster that I've been grappling with for years and it's nice to finally have it out there. I've been pleased with the amount of people who seem to get it and love it. I knew that there were going to be people upset about it, but I feel like that's going to happen no matter what version of the story I tell. It's probably going to happen with Update 20 as well - there's always going to be some people who aren't happy with endings. That's just the way it is. [/p][p]Overall, I'm happy with the update though. I thought it was a lot of fun. It had some emotion in it that I wanted to convey. It had a lot of funny moments. The combat is quick, easy, (and skippable if you hate it). It closes up the father storyline and it sets us up for our ending. [/p][p]If you were happy with the update, shout it out in the comments. I need to hear it sometimes. The loud negatives always stick in my head more than the positives and the last week has been hard. [/p][p]It's hard to work on something for nearly a year and then have people tell you that it's trash, or that I took the lazy way, or that I maliciously tricked everybody. I'm not sure what these negative comments are trying to achieve, aside from just making a solo developer who works very hard feel bad. Mission accomplished there. Good job! [/p][p]I interact with my community a lot and I read most of the comments and reviews that most people make, and maybe that's something that I shouldn't do. I know that a lot of other creators eventually get to the point that they stop interacting, because the negativity is hard to deal with over time. I haven't hit that point yet and I don't want to. [/p][p]Thank you to the people who have been supportive. Especially on my Discord and over on Patreon. You guys are amazing and make all this bearable. I love you all so much. [/p][p]And I love this game. It's my baby and I wouldn't ever abandon it or rush through it or do anything that I thought was harmful to it. It's what I wanted from beginning to end and it always will be. [/p][p]Thanks for reading all this mess (or at least skimming through it). Hope this explains my mindset a bit with this crazy Update. Hope you'll stick around for the finale. [/p][p]Remember to ask any questions here in the comment and I'll try to get to them in the Q&A![/p]

[p]Hello everybody! Update 19 is now available for all the Premium Edition players. [/p][p]It's a much different update than everything that has come previously, but I hope you give it a try and that you love it and have a lot of fun. [/p][p]As this is all endgame content, the changelog doesn't have much info about what is in the update. I've done my best to keep spoilers under wraps so that you can experience this the way I intended. I hope that you enjoy all the surprises in the update.[/p][p]Please let me know what you think when you're finished, here or in the message boards, or on Discord. [/p][p]As always, if you hit any bugs or find typos or any of that, feel  free to report those in the bugs thread, or go onto the Discord and report  in the help & bugs channel. There will usually be somebody there who can help. [/p][p]As always, thank you so much for your support on this game! Love ya![/p]

[p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]Hey everybody! The Update 19 trailer is here. It's available on Youtube and it's in the Steam store, if you'd rather watch it that way. [/p][p][/p][p]It's a very different kind of trailer for a very different kind of update. Let me know what you think. [/p][p][/p][p]I finished all the content for Update 19 earlier this week. Now I'm in playtest and polish mode, trying to make sure everything is working well for the release next month. [/p][p][/p][p]So close! Hope you're excited! Thanks for supporting![/p]

Hey everybody! It's been a long road on this update! I've had some comments of "Oh this game is dead" -- no no no. I've been working on it non-stop. This update is just enormous!

I think this is going to be a love-it or hate-it update. You're going to be like "RJ is a genius!" or you're going to be like "RJ has jumped the shark!" Either way, I'm excited for you to play it and I think there will be something in it for you to enjoy.

I'm about 95% done with the content at this point, so there's just a little bit left for me to make, then it's all testing and polishing and making sure everything is good for release.

So, with that said, I think I can announce the release dates:

• Beta - July 4th (This is for high level patrons, who always get access a week before everybody else to give me feedback and help try to iron out any bugs.)
  
• PREMIUM RELEASE DATE - July 11th
  
• FREE RELEASE DATE - August 8th
  

If you are currently a Free player, the Steam Summer Sale is coming up right before the release date - the Premium Edition will be on sale. It's the perfect time to upgrade, so you don't have to wait that month for the Free version.

The premium version of Update 19 will have three sexy bonus scenes in it as well that won't be in the free version.

I'm expecting to finish the content over the next couple of weeks. I'll have a trailer out sometime in June. Then release is very soon. It's almost there, just hold on a little longer.

I'm really excited (and a little scared) to finally get this Update out. Over on my Patreon and in Discord I've been talking for literally years about this Update and how nervous I was about it. I knew a long time ago that this was going to be a big one and was going to be difficult in a lot of ways, and it has been. I really hope you all love it.

Thanks for sticking with me. Love ya!