The infamous "tech update" poll! (Patreon)

The current 0.20.8 update is doing well and once it is released, we have to think of what is next!

For those who watch the daily stream, you've most likely heard me talk about a potential "tech update" that would convert Summertime Saga into widescreen, expand the map a bit and solve a lot of gameplay issues. 

The game needs this, but it requires a bit of time to implement and the sooner we do it, the better. However, that would obviously mean that we push back the Rhonda update.

So, which update would you rather see be done first?

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Before you cast your vote, please read what the tech update includes:

Visual and art improvements:

• Widescreen conversion - adding more space for dialogue, backgrounds, interface and the entire game
• Widescreen will also fit on mobile devices (no more black bars)
• Widescreen will also expand the map to allow more locations
• Multiple sex scenes and animations to existing stories (5 to 8 new ones)

Build system improvements which will help:

• Speed up build times - allowing for more frequent testing.
• Reduce WIP game size - another win for tighter test cycles.
• Reduce duplication of assets - by calculating processing metadata in advance.
• Increase asset flexibility - due to more uniform exporting and processing.
• Clear versioning - adopting semantic versioning to make clear what is, and is not, a hotfix
• Game icon behaviour on Android - by conforming more closely to platform guidelines.

Code base improvements which will help:

• Save compatibility to be prioritised during dev cycles - rather than relying on a solely manual best-effort approach.
• Dynamic assembly of game assets - reducing the time taken to build new and edit existing locations.
• Dynamic environment construction - ensuring that dialogue backgrounds more reliably match the zoomed out ones.
• Character tracking and scheduling - to help ensure characters don't clone themselves or teleport around.
• Expand transition opportunities - allowing more complex visual transitions.
• Conflict avoidance - allowing conflicts to be pre-empted and reshuffled to provide a smoother narrative.
• Support the new widescreen format - need to ensure everything keeps lining up!
• Quest/route prioritisation - allowing more "urgent" world events to take place over "random" ones.
• QA - providing more and updating support for those testing the game (and those abusing it!)
• Future updates - by improving how the gameplay loop is built to avoid "large stack" issues.
• Accessibility - improving access to text-size and dyslexic font controls.
• Performance - various tweaks, bells, and whistles to avoid destroying your phone battery.

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Before you cast your vote, please read what the Rhonda update includes:

• Rhonda's full story surrounding her life at home, school and athletic training
• All her quests, minigames and dialogues leading up to her final sex scenes
• Sex scenes and pregnancy for Rhonda
• Sex scenes and pregnancy for Rhonda's Mom (Jackie)
• Sex scenes and pregnancy for Cassie (Lifeguard + gloryhole)

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Both update choice will take roughly the same amount of time (3 to 4 months) to complete. 

The benefit of the tech update is that it solves issues now, instead of more to fix later (but also adds some sex scenes to existing characters). The benefit of Rhonda's update, is a lot of new story content.

Make sure you read all the content for both updates and cast your vote!

Thanks for your input ^-^ <3

-DC