Status Update on 0.1.6a

Hello, everyone. I'd like to apologize for being out of touch for a while and for the delays in development. I haven't been as forthcoming and communicative as I should be, and I feel like I should talk about what's been happening, though it's difficult for me to talk about. Last month, not long after I pushed the last update out, I learned that my aunt in Toronto caught COVID and was in a mandatory quarantine hotel by herself. At some point in the middle of March, she collapsed and no one was around to help her or find her until it was too late. She was put into the ICU at the Etobicoke General Hospital unconscious and unresponsive. The doctors said she had a subdural hematoma and it was too severe to risk surgery. The next day she was declared brain dead. My aunt and her family were the only extended family I had growing up, since the rest of them lived on the other side of the world, so we were very close. Whenever my parents were too busy or unable to take care of me, or when I was too sick to go to school, she was the one who took care of me. Family gatherings for holidays and major events were always small affairs, but I was used to always being able to see her there. Now she's gone. Thanks to my cousin, I was able to see her one last time through a video call, but her family urged me not to try to visit because the last thing my aunt would have wanted was for any of us to get sick (Toronto is a big COVID hotspot) and they wouldn't be able to handle it if there was another tragedy in the family. It's taken me some time to come to terms with it, and even longer for me to even be able to put myself in the right state of mind to work on the VN. I'm sorry for not saying anything sooner.

I started development again in the past couple of weeks hoping that I could get something out for you guys before the month is out, but it's been slow going. At the very least, however, I'm very happy with some of the assets I've been making for this build, and the story content is something that I've been looking forward to sharing with you all for a long time now, similar to the Emil campfire scene from last year, so I can't wait to show you. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, a build is still probably at least a few days away. I can show you guys a couple of things in the meantime, however.

Here's a new musical track that will be in the upcoming build. You could consider it Noah's theme:

Drowning on Dry Land 

Here's a CG from the build as well. It's a flashback to a time when Colby and Noah were still in high school.

I'd also like to apologize for not keeping up with the patron rewards lately. 2021's been a pretty stressful mess for me so far, (and somehow worse than 2020, if that can be believed) but I really want to try and get back on track (though I feel kind of like a broken record saying that again.) In particular, I feel really bad about not having a in-progress script preview up for the more generous patrons in quite a while now, but I'll have one up for this upcoming build shortly, then after 0.1.6a is out, I'll try to resume with all of the rewards properly as before. Thank you for your patience with me while I try to get my life back to normal. I hope you guys are looking forward to seeing what I have in store.