За Завесой / Beyond the Veil [Ep. 1 Rus / Ep. 2 Full Eng] (2023) (Rus/Eng) [Ren'Py] [Linux] [Demo] [Gateway Games]

Ep. 2 Full - 2024-02-17
Changelog:
~860 Renders (See Notes)
2 Test Animations (See Notes)
Game's Stats Through Episode 2 (Rough Estimations):
More than 6,300 blocks of dialogue
More than 71,000 words
Almost 1,400 total Renders
Important Notes:
There are 3 very important notes about the release, 2 of which were decisions I appreciate feedback on:
Size:
I decided literally 10 minutes before uploading the files to remove 4(!) story non-NSFW scenes and 1 NSFW scene from this release. These scenes are completely written and coded and contain more than 200 renders so you're probably wondering why I did that. My idea is that I would have 5 completed scenes ready to put into Episode 3, which should substantially shorten the window of release. I want to try and make up for all the delays and get a head start, so this was my way of doing that. It also helps significantly with the future of Animation in BTV, which I touch on below. But if enough people want the additional content, I can always do a patch-only release whenever with the scenes added. So, the good news: E3 has a chunk of over 200 renders ready and only 1 NSFW is removed from E2, with a placeholder put in through a bit of Bianca content. The bad news: If you played the beta, this release may feel a relative bit shorter than expected.
Animations:
I have struggled horrendously with creating animations with a quality I like. I playtested and found the current animations to be such a quality fall-off, that they do more harm than good. I spent the last couple of nights into tonight creating 2 animations for Cassie's scene that are slightly better and reflective of the quality I'd like. They took a crap ton of time to render and the 2nd is a bit weaker than the 1st, however, I think they are much better than E1's. Feedback is heavily appreciated, as these are what I'm gonna try to create for E3, there just won't be too many because they take so long. The other bad news, again, is that there are supposed to be some animations in scenes and it may feel like something's 'missing'.
The game will also be uploaded elsewhere later this week and the walkthrough will be available tomorrow night.
FINAL NOTE: Billing is being paused for the next 30 days as E2 has been an utter mess and I don't want any support for the crap heap it's been. I'll update the status in 30 days if it will remain paused or be resumed, and make anyone who's a current supporter aware that they will begin getting billed again if I resume it. Thank you to anyone who has supported me thus far, but I'm fortunate enough to not be in dire need of financial aid, don't currently feel comfortable taking any support, and want to complete a month of work to make up for Episode 2.
Thanks for hanging out and I hope you get some enjoyment from the Episode. Coming soon: pinned post of progress later this week, the walkthrough, and I may create a discord server so it's easier to contact me as I know a lot of devs have done that, but I haven't decided yet. That might wait a few weeks until after I get some progress done.

2023-10-22:
Episode 1 Initial Release