Weekly update #6 - Sprint retrospective, planning for next release & new artwork sneak peek

Hey all,

Being still in the post-release phase and not having validating the final scope for the next update, I'll fit the retrospective in this weekly blogspot, then talk a bit about next update and what will be featured in it.

But first off, I'm still working on the artwork remasters (specifically for day 2 pictures) and I figured I'd give you another sneak peek of the new remastered pics, so enjoy :

For the 0.15 retrospective, I will - for now - stick with the usual scrum retrospective format : what went wrong/what went right/what to improve going forwards. Obviously, I'd like to make it more fun and interactive at some point but for the time being we'll stick to the point !

It's my personal feedback on the sprint but you guys are welcome to chime in to give yours.

What went wrong :

• Let's first adress the most obvious one, this release has been delayed a lot because of a number of issues. I've been struggling with creative blocks and personal issues, which made the development stagnate until I took some measures to move forwards.

• I wasn't happy with how the update was shaping up at first, and I didn't know how to address that issue.

• I didn't communicate enough on all of this and that made the release schedule confusing for the community.

What went right :

• Thankfully, I managed to pull out the development block by deciding to rewrite everything. It's something I might not have wanted to do at first because of the sunk cost fallacy, but I think it was the right call in the end, even though I had to rush some things out to fit the new schedule.

• Implementing the weekly blogspot is, I believe, a step in the right direction in the communication department. It fits the transparency goals I have on the development, and it forces me to be more involved on that side of the project management, which is equally as important (more on that later)

• Despite the delays, starting from the update rewrite and remake, I was able to meet the new deadlines I set

What to improve :

• I think communication is still my main area of improvement, as it is one of the main engines growing the community bigger. This year will likely be crucial for the future of the project, meaning that if I don't manage to muster enough support, I will have to reconsider my options.

• I'll keep posting weekly blogspots and will try to implement some more : could be posting stuff on other networks, giving away more stuff to my patrons (PSD files, art streams, all options are open, feel free to share your thoughts)

• To improve on both communication and fostering creativity, I still want to occasionally participate in some artwork challenges (stuff like lewdtober) or post some unrelated sketches I might work on.

Regarding the next update, I will validate the scope during next week. However, with how things are going, I can already tell that the artwork revamp will be a strong focus : I've been working on that a lot, as I believe it can draw some new users to the community. I also just like how the new artstyle comes out !

However, I've always said that I want to include new content on each updates so I do want to fit in some new artwork and a continuation to the story, not sure to what extent just yet.

I'm also unsure if I want to restrict the artwork overhaul to day 2 pictures for now or if I allow myself to go ahead and rework the colored day 1 artworks (should be less work as the lineart is already cleaned up and everything but still)

We'll expand on that later in the week, with most likely some polls to settle things up.

As usual, thank you dearly for the support, and stay tuned !