Hi :)
It’s been a little while. We missed you.
We said in the last patch notes that there was going to likely be a pretty big pause between updates, and that remains true, but we thought it was about time to reach out just to give you all some more information on what we have in the works, and why we’re going to be working for a good while longer before the next update can come out.
As hinted at in the roadmap we shared earlier, we’re currently in what we view as ‘phase 1’ towards the completion of IN HEAT, and this involves work on the third gameplay mode: the Arcade.
This is going to be an entirely new way to play IN HEAT, similar to how Nightclub changed things up from Security Office, but the core mechanic of sitting in a room with two doors on either side of you is going nowhere, don’t worry about that.
Arcade is by far our most ambitious level, featuring more characters, mechanics, and rooms than any other. Without spoiling too much, you can expect some neat visuals that depart from our more grounded presentation up to this point, and plenty of new animations, voice lines, and gameplay features with your favorite girls.
Unfortunately, the cost of ambition is time and effort, and we’re not satisfied with rushing out a product that none of us would want to play, so you’ll have to bear with us.
In the time since the Romancing the Rabbit update, we’ve gone through a couple of iterations of the map until we landed on one we’re pretty happy with, and we’re now working on modeling out the interiors while we test characters and make sure that the mechanics all gel into a cohesive, interesting gameplay loop. The core gameplay loop is a tricky one, as we have to balance enjoyment with variety and challenge, and that’s proving to be, in itself, enjoyable, variable, and challenging.
Right now, we’re at the stage where we’ve got the map roughly where we want it, with a few rooms modeled out, and most of the pre-planning for the designs done. We’ve got characters implemented and playing as they should (some even with their animations), and a whole laundry list of additional characters to add. We have the narrative structure plotted out, some lines written, and it’s all just a matter of painting by numbers until we have the full picture.
We’ll likely be putting out another one or two of these logs before the Arcade is ready for shipping, so stay tuned for those. We appreciate your patience and understanding while we work, as we’re just as anxious as you are to have more content out there for you all to enjoy.
XOXO MonsterBox