(The following is (mostly) a copy-paste from our weekly public update post on Patreon! If you like what you see, you can try a free demo of the game on our itch.io by clicking here! If you enjoy the game, please consider supporting us on Patreon! We couldn't make this game without our supporters!)

Hey again everyone! Sorry this post is a few days late, things have continued to be super busy around here and I haven't had the time til now. Don't worry though, it's all good things, so let's get straight into it!

Like last update, work on CPE has continued to be slow, but we've made some good progress with answering the remaining questions for the game's story. Getting all those details ironed out has been very helpful; there's a few points where I wasn't really satisfied with the plot, and I want to add some more stuff early in the game to hint at where the story is going. I can't talk about most of that, since it's related to plot that hasn't been released yet, but one thing I CAN talk about is wanting to improve Kara and Alicia's relationship. At the moment, there's no hint of Kara at all until Alicia runs into her, and that story beat is supposed to be a very impactful thing for Alicia; the weight of the scene doesn't quite hit how I wanted it to, though, despite how amazingly our voice actors handled it, so I want to flesh out their history through dialogue with other characters and whatnot, so there's more of a buildup and more reason for the player to care. In general I want to have more optional dialogue with characters as well, to make the cast and their relationships more interesting. There won't be any MAJOR rewrites or anything, the core of the story is still the same as it's been for years, so don't worry about us spending a ton of time on reworks again, it's just an area I know we can improve in.

So, aside from CPE work, just like last week, things are going well for us overall. The biggest change from last update is that we've finally found a house! More specifically, we've had an offer accepted and are in the middle of the home buying process right now - with no time to spare, too. The deadline for us to get the keys is on June 29th, just a day before our current lease ends. With any luck, the homebuying process will go smoothly and we can move sooner than that, but if not then we're really down to the wire. We can make sure everything is packed and ready to go by then, so we should be okay either way. We've already had a home inspection on the new place, and there weren't any major issues that would make us reconsider the place, so we should be golden from here on out - the only major things left are getting the place appraised to make sure we're not overpaying, negotiations, and securing an actual loan. The good news is I was preapproved for well over the asking price of the home, so I don't expect we'll have any issues getting the loan, so it should be just a matter of time.

I'm pretty nervous about taking out a loan so big, but I also love the house we're moving to, and it has TONS of room, so I'm equal parts excited and nervous, which I think is a good place to be for a decision this large. One of the best parts will be that we're finally settling in long term, here, so this will be the last time that a move impacts the development of CPE. I'll also finally have my own private, isolated office, which will do wonders for my ADHD and ability to focus, along with tons of other benefits.

I don't have much to update on as far as my medications go; the beta blockers have been keeping my heart rate down most of the time, and I still haven't had any side effects from them, so that's good. I still see my heart rate on the high end fairly often, so I might need to try increasing the dosage or something - I have a followup appointment at the end of the month to go over that with my doctor, so we'll figure that out then. I'm also on adderall again like I mentioned in my last update, but I haven't had much opportunity to see how that's affecting my work yet, since so much of my time has been taken up by house hunting and moving stuff. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, though - we're in the buying process for a house, I'll finally have a private office, our personal training and exercise is going great, therapy has been so helpful, my heart rate is down and I'm on ADHD medication again.. things really are looking up.

I've still got a long road left, but I have so many people supporting me along the way, and I couldn't be more grateful - not only to the family and friends I live with, but to all of you for continuing to support us, even though all of the incredibly slow game updates. There's definitely a level of guilt I feel over that, but at my therapist's behest I'm doing my best to not give in to that emotion, and focus on the road ahead instead. It won't be much longer now before all of this extra work is off my plate, and I can really dig back into CPE development, so I can repay all of you for sticking with us!

That's it for this update, big thanks to all of you for reading through it! We'll see you again in the next one, where hopefully there will continue to be nothing but good news!