WVM S2 Ch. 1 Ep. 13 B5 + DITLO Harper Rus/Eng (2020) (Rus/Eng) [Ren'Py] [Linux] [Android] [Braindrop]

I hope you've all had a pleasant few weeks. I'm back again today to give you an update on what to expect this month.

Braindrop and I spent a large portion of August preparing and planning to release a steady and consistent amount of content for the foreseeable future.
While the exact details of our plan will not be shared publicly, we do want to share that we expect to have our first release before the next Mind Drop. (So sometime before September 21st)

Furthermore, we'd also like to share that the first bit of side content that will be brought up to date is the Birthday Renders. Things were left off with the month of June and we plan to catch up by releasing 2 months at a time. So this first batch of Birthday Renders will be for the girls with birthdays in June and July. (Margaret, Harper, Natalie, Rachael, Penelope, Valerie, Millie, and Stacy)
We expect to release these renders shortly after the next update.
With the major news out of the way, let's talk some more.
I was asked quite a few things, so let me answer some of them.


Q: What size of updates can we expect? What size will this first update be?
This first update will be around 300 renders long.
Future updates will vary in scale, some will be much larger but Braindrop and I have agreed that we do not want any update to be smaller than 200 renders.
The goal is to finish a scene in every release and to not interrupt one by stopping in the middle of it.
Q: 300? After all this time? That's all?
For the moment, yes.
There's obviously more that has been made already but after much discussion we've decided that to achieve our goal of consistent and steady releases we need to start with achievable goals and work our way up.
We both understand that this isn't the ideal way of doing things and it isn't our end goal but we do prefer having steady releases even if they are smaller compared to the results of this last year.

We have to start somewhere and luckily we can only really go up from here.


Q: So when would the update after this one be?
Not long after.
Our preferred result would be to have both of these upcoming ones out in September and that's what we're aiming for but we're not ready to lock that in.
Q: What about client polls? Any news on other side content?
Client polls will be resuming on September 19th. We do not currently plan on having weekly polls for them. More so every 2-3 weeks, but all polls will be held on Mondays.

Braindrop is really against putting out too many posts a week so we don't want to be spammy with side content and we intend to release things together when we can.
There's some silly renders as well as additional teasers that are ready to go that we intend to post sometime soon.

As far as things like DITLO and newer things we have planned, we're not ready to discuss further yet.


Q: How has Braindrop been?
He's been well. He's still trying to find the balance between family life and his work life but I think he's happy with how things have been going.
He has been staying away from all of the socials and just the internet in general.
He says his mental health has improved tremendously and that he feels "In tune" with the game again.
And he's excited for the things to come.
Q: How can we be sure that things are different this time?
Simply put, you can't and we're not asking you to be.

It's spooky, we're being vague with our plans and all of our good will was spent a long time ago.
If you feel shaky about things then we urge you to pause your pledge until things have improved.
We're doing everything we can to make things right but it's all been planning and talking about those plans... results haven't happened yet so only time can tell.

We obviously feel good about where things are headed but we're not going to pretend like this past year didn't happen. We have to earn that trust back and we do not expect it to be given to us for nothing.
Q: Mackenzie, in your opinion: What was the cause of the past year and why is it different now?

(I'll be leaving all of the happenings of his personal life out of this answer. Though they obviously play a huge role in this past year, it isn't my place to speak on it.)
I've learned a lot about Braindrop. He's a wonderful person that cares very much about the people around him and is as loyal as they come.
But, he's a dreamer.
He has a million ideas in his mind that he can organize on his own and plan out fully and he's the kind of person that can throw his head at a problem for hours and hours until he finds a solution.

He can recall the most miniscule details from WVM almost instantaneously. Whether it be from the original or the rework.
He has storyboarded out all of WVM but only the large events. He has plans for everything in between but it's all in his head.
And I'll admit he is great at remembering them... but it's obviously not ideal.

Braindrop has had a lot happen in his personal life these past few years. A lot of it has effected him mentally and on top of being prescribed with ADHD and new medications he has had a rough time organizing all of those thoughts.
He's taken steps to alleviate those issues like writing down everything and story boarding the smaller things but that isn't his strong suit.
Since he was having a hard time sorting through everything he no longer felt like he could come up with good ideas or even how to make a scene that fit appropriately. He no longer felt in tune with the game he loved to make and it was very difficult for him.

He's told me it's the main reason he abruptly switched to the new timeline, since he was having a hard time working between the two and keeping them separated.

On top of that, there's decisions that have to be made on where to take the story next and he did not feel he was in the right head space to make those big decisions.
There's also the emotional attachment he has to certain scenes that he had input on from people that have since passed.

Essentially, Braindrop is human. He has shortcomings that sadly were exposed in a very rough way to him and WVM means so much to him that he just didn't know what steps to take or how to move forward until he handled his mental health issues.
It's never fun to battle your own mind.

I think things are different because he realized he doesn't have to do this alone. He originally only reached out to me to help with socials but after discussing further my role expanded into helping him organize all of the things he's been struggling with.
It's still a work in progress and we're not here to say everything is fixed and everything will be perfect here on out.
We're trying though, and we're not going to stop trying.
Braindrop has said he's finding it much easier to work on things now so, we're feeling good about where things are headed.


Closing out

Apologies for this coming out so late in the day! We were discussing about what all to include and it took longer than we thought it might.

We originally planned to showcase some of what went into making the crowd in the upcoming basketball game but we wanted this small Q&A to come out now. The showcase will be in the next mind drop!

Also thank you guys very much for the warm welcome to the team! I'm very happy to be here and be a part of this game.

That's all we have to share for now, but we'll talk again very soon!

Have a good one everybody!
Bye!

Hello all!

There has been a lot happening behind the scenes and I'm here to tell you about some of it.
First off, let me introduce myself.

I'm Mackenzie. (Actually, that's my real name.)

Braindrop has hired me to be his community manager and it's nice to meet all of you.

I will be the one making all of the posts as well as answering any questions that I can. Additionally, I have some other roles that we'll get into later in this post.

Let us start with explaining our plan for these Mind Drops going forward.

Mind Drops

With Braindrop stepping away from his public role to focus on the game, you may be left wondering how we plan on keeping you all informed on the progress of his development.

Our current plan is to have bi-weekly Mind Drops. (So the next one will be on September 7th)
In these posts I will relay the information I have received from Braindrop about how much he has accomplished as well as any relevant info that needs to be shared.

We intend to share the usual as far as render counts and such but we also plan to add additional things like detailing a lot of the work that can go unnoticed.

We want to keep this first Mind Drop relatively short so we can focus on the necessary information but in the following one we plan on showing a lot of the work that went into making the background characters for the upcoming basketball game.

Updates

So, let me be blunt.
One huge thing that Braindrop made clear to me when offering me this role was that he did not want a PR person to hand wave away all of the mistakes that have been made and all future mistakes.

His words were that he wanted someone to "Keep it real".

A big fear of his was that if he stepped away he would lose a lot of "pressure" or "sense of accountability".

So, a big part of my job is holding him accountable to the things we've discussed and planned out behind the scenes.

Let's be honest. As far as the update schedule has gone... it's been awful. I know it, you know it, Braindrop knows it.
That goes for game updates as well as side content.

We have both sat down and planned out the next few months.
Another role of mine is helping organize out the files and what not for the updates. I've been given access to all of the files for Days 32-38.

Our plans change mostly everything that had been stated before. So forget everything that was said previously. We feel it is best to start fresh.

We will share that our plan is to start small but consistent to build up some momentum.

We will not be sharing any release dates yet... but be on the lookout for something very soon.

Side Content

Our plan is to get start releasing side content again sooner rather than later.
Birthday renders and client polls will be starting back very soon.

We also plan on adding a few different things that won't take much time away from development. Things such as "Additional teasers" posts as well as more silly things like hair swap renders.

There are a few other side things in the works but our focus is on getting the main game back up and running before delving any further into side things.

One final note on side content is that the Character Sheets will be updated after Days 32-38 are finished and released. They will be updated to the end of Day 38 and the intention is to update them after every in-game week.

Thanks for reading

That's all we have to share for this first Mind Drop.

We do apologize for how long this took to get out, there were plenty of issues with granting me access to the patreon and SS accounts. Things won't take as long moving forward.

We understand the situation we are in and how we're perceived right now. Our goal right now is just to get back on track however we can. Braindrop and I are forever grateful for all of the support through some of his worst times.

It's a new day and we want to fix things.

More soon.

Thank you guys and it's nice to meet you all. I will do my best to answer any questions you may have.

client turned lover and the new basketball assistant coach. Always a joy to see and looking forwards to doing more "workout" sessions with Keyana (+ Brittany too) :devilish:.

Happy Birthday Keyana!