Ello Otters!

This is going to be a quality-of-life update about the game in general. 

About a month ago, our artist Otter informed us that he wouldn't be able to work on the game anymore because of time commitment. Now, this wasn't ideal. Our team was specifically made up because our writing Otter wasn't very proficient at any sort of art program. We don't and never will blame our artist because life comes first. While he is still on the team in a very limited capacity, almost every responsibility fell onto the shoulders of our writing Otter.

In all honesty, it caused a lot of chaos. We were just about to release v0.2.2, and production of Chapter 3 had already begun. Assets for the game had to all be transferred to one Otter, a process that took an extraordinarily long time, what with how busy our artist was, and any and all art for the game was completely halted.

There were a few options: look for another artist to shift all the work onto (again) or fix the problem of too many Otter paws in the mix. Thus began the quest of our writer becoming the main developer. This in general would not be that big of a problem, but the issue was promises and expectations.

Learning a complicated program like DAZ or Blender isn't an easy thing, especially for someone who hasn't had much experience with these programs. The writing pool is enough of a swim! That's when we added a few extra Otters to the team to assist where needed. It is because of them that the Best Otter in the Galaxy hasn't pulled his fur out...

It wasn't that learning these programs is hard (which it is) and you have to have a machine that can do it all (which you do). The biggest fret was because of one thing: our players.

When Matrix Hearts was conceptualized, it was created with a promise to never give up as long as players enjoyed the game, and that we would always stay true to the game. We, especially our Writing/Programming/Artist/Everything Otter, felt like we were not delivering on that promise, and that's what has really ruffled our fur.

Which brings us to the big reason this post is being published. You have our Otter word that we are going to complete this game for you no matter what! Training on DAZ is going relatively well. Although extra Otters are needed for a little polish and rendering power, all posing and looks are designed by the main Otter to keep the same exact personality that you've been playing for two whole chapters now. Characters are going to sound the same, they are going to act the same, and their mannerisms are going to be identical. Best Otter was already in charge of the story and how each render would look, he is just designing the renders now too.

You might, however, notice a slight change in the art style. Our game had been rendered in a program called Cinema4D because that's what our artist used. Learning one program like DAZ is a task enough, so it didn't make sense to use a program that no one in the VN atmosphere hardly used anyway. We are going to change to rendering in DAZ! We are very nervous because we went from an otter who had years of #D art experience to the writing Otter who only has a month of experience... the first preview image is attached to this blog!

Now, don't let your fur get too out of whack. We know it sounds like the next update won't be out for a while and everything is on hold, but we promise this isn't the case.

All the posing for v0.2.2 is already completed, we just need to render it, so you have an Otter promise the next update is coming out in May.

And while this has been a crazy month, this is going to guarantee one major thing: Chapter 3 production and further Chapter development is going to be much, much faster. There won't have to be anymore waiting between writer and artist to get renders completed. And once we reach certain Patreon goals, better graphics cards are going to guarantee that Best Otter can render as well.

Thank you for being part of the Otter Pool! Because of you, Matrix Hearts has gained a lot of momentum, and this has ingrained in our own little Otter hearts the passion for completing this game. Thank you for your patience, thank you for the support, and thank you for keeping your paws at the keyboard enjoying our story.

The future of Blue Otter is promising!

Splish-splash!

-The Otter Team