Dev update 27th Jan
Hey folks,
Thanks for the kind messages regarding the storm. Other than my back garden (back yard for American readers) getting trashed, there was no damage to property or persons in Casa Gimp!
Got our power back (briefly) on Saturday, but then lost it again until yesterday, but we're fully back in business now, so all good. To answer a couple of questions that people asked me: No, I didn't lose any WTHI work / files (I back everything up online daily) and no, it didn't really delay anything on episode 25 (other than delayed responses replying to people) as when the power was down, I spent most of the time back in my parents' house (and brought the laptop with me), so overall... nothing lost.
Just a reminder for some of our newer patrons (especially those whose first intro to WTHI was via Steam), please refer to this page for some of our frequently asked questions:
You must be registered to see the links
Especially if you're not sure about Season 1 versus episode 24, original versus re-do, etc.
inserted here for better viewing
I am going to have a very rough stab at a date and go for..... August / September 2025. It is extremely difficult to estimate, but that's what I'm going with for now, and I'll keep you all updated regularly.
The first thing Cell asked when I talked him through these plans was... Is this covering episodes 25-30?

I know... It's a LOT! And will it cover every base and will you get a LOT of time with every one of your favourite females? Probably not, as there are a LOT of females to cover, so getting a huge amount of screen time with each one is just improbable. But there will be adequate time with each girl mentioned above (I hope) to keep 95% of players happy and to resolve all open questions / complications and give a clear path on how MC and the girls will live on after the end of the game. We need to leave some stuff for your imagination

).
The thoughts of trying to fit all of this in and give enough time / detail for each girl / path to keep everyone (aiming for 95%) happy is very daunting. And the sixsome scene alone has a ridiculous amount pf combo / permutations.
Could I take ALL of these plans, plus a few more and stretch out WTHI over another 4 or 5 episodes? Yes. But is it the right thing to do? No. If I wanted to, I could expand on these scenes / ideas a lot more and add some of the extra stuff that I bounced around in my head as I wrote the game... but ...It's time to end the game. (Some might think it's already way overdue) and I honestly think that my current plans will give a worthy ending for every girl / path (other than the minor characters for whom a valid ending / romance was never planned).
The other thing Cell / I discussed was (because of the huge amount of content planned) to at least break episode 25 into a Part 1 and Part 2. That is also something that I want to avoid as it might give me an excuse to squeeze more stuff in, rather than to keep things relatively tight and finish the game.
If, on the other hand, as I write each of these planned scenes, the whole thing just becomes a monster, I may consider releasing episode 25 in two blocks, just so people aren't waiting too long to play anything. But I really, really am hoping / planning on avoiding this. I really want to push ahead with a single release. But ....as always, your thoughts and inputs are welcome, so let me know in the comments or via a Direct message.
So... just to confirm... There will NOT be an episode 26, 27, etc. Episode 25 WILL be finished in 2025. And currently (leaning 80/20), my plan is to release in a single episode, rather than split episode 25 into part 1 and part 2.
I was going to talk about potential release dates in my next update, but after all this, and the fact that this was meant to be last weeks' dev update, I might as well do it now...
I am going to have a very rough stab at a date and go for..... August / September 2025. It is extremely difficult to estimate, but that's what I'm going with for now, and I'll keep you all updated regularly.
Probably enough for now (otherwise some of you will hope I get another electricity outage and stop typing.

).
I'll post some more episode 25 teasers later today for the relevant tiers, but for now, time to get back to work.
Thanks,
CG