The Hotwife [v0.30d] [NSN]

TL:DR:  Chapter 3 is done!

This is a smaller bridge chapter but I think an important one, it rambles at times and that is partially intentional. There is a lot to unpack after a night like our couple had in Chapter 2 and especially with the warp speed that they went at (assuming, you the player tried to cram as much fun in as you could). 

Going forward I would like chapters to be a little more this size as it allows a little more frequent release schedule. If you have been around since I first release you have been VERY patient with me. I started work on this project in Feb 2020. I had to both learn Renpy from scratch (not too difficult) and figure out Honey Select and all it’s unique quirks. I released the prologue in Jan 2021 with 225ish images and 2100 lines of code (plus tinkering with screens and GUI). Chapter 1 came out at the end of May 2021 with another couple hundred images and 3500 lines this time. I have said elsewhere Chapter 2 was almost the project killer. Too much, too soon, and too ambitious. In the end I am fairly happy with how it turned out (and it seems players are also) but there are things that I did fail on. Not reflecting all the choices made in Chapter 1 feels like a let down to me, you the MC, made choices that you were then allowed to break in Chapter 2. In the real world this doesn’t really happen, and shouldn’t! Saying to your partner, “this is off the table” and then going ahead and doing it at a party or club is not a recipe for longterm, lifestyle success. So Chapter 2 is a little handwavy in places unfortunately . In the end the chapter was about 500 images with 4500 lines and finally released  in Nov 2023. Too long! I got to points where I wanted to just walk away from the game but stayed due to a few kind words from strangers and myself wanting  to tell the story. I kept coming back. Once Chapter 2 was released it was a giant relief and I was able to start writing Chapter 3 almost right away. This release has still has taken longer than I wanted but I think keeping my expectations reasonable is something I need to continue to work on. 

Chapter 3 has about 190 images and 1800 lines. But in that time I released 2 bonus scenarios to “Into the Lifestyle” level Patrons, added a new cell phone system  (https://nighten.itch.io/yet-another-phone-renpy), added the ability to name your saves (thank you Reddit for the suggestion and https://badmustard.itch.io/renpy-save-game-names) and most importantly for the project, found a  partner who has been helping with creating the images. With the bonus content since November we there is another 100 images and another 425 lines of code. So 290 images and 2200 lines over the last 4ish months makes me pretty happy.

My roadmap for the next few months is Chapter 4, as well as 2 bonus scenes. My hope is to have Bonus #1 done by the end of this month, Bonus #2 by the end of April and Chapter 4 for mid-June. I may not be able to implement any visuals the next few weeks due to spring break but I am able to still write and code the basics while my partner works on the images.

One thing I would love to ask of you is give me a review if you can, from what I understand, more reviews and engagement means higher up on the itch pages. More visibility can lead to more money for development, I would love to put extra money into having help providing proper sound design for the game, editing, and other little improvements that would improve the project.