Hey my friends, just a quick update on how things are going with 1.0 development. I recently posted a devlog for patrons with some preview images from Day 10. Now I am showing a few of them to everyone.

As I've said in past devlogs, days 10, 11, and 12 will mainly focus on quality time with 2 girls on each day, as voted on in a public poll a little while back. Kat and Morgan were the top two girls from that poll. I've just completed the date with Kat and now moving on to some other scenes. Our time with Morgan will happen also. But also we'll factor in some plot-important content to move the story along, albeit at a slower pace. Day 13 (lucky 13) will begin some dramatic new events in Serenity leading up to the real battle. It should be an emotional roller coaster for a few days beyond that. During this time, there will be some moments we get to spend with other girls that weren't in the poll. But those moments will be brief (you'll understand once we reach that point). Nothing is really spoiled here so don't start judging or putting much stock into my words here today folks. As I develop Serenity, I constantly make small changes to my original story and sometimes my plans change as I notice things I don't like or see an opportunity for something else to happen instead.

Everyone knows I've had my buddy Cryoxxx doing some animations for me. I have been very happy with his work and will probably continue to use his talents for a while longer. But I have also been practicing and working on my own animations as much as possible - as I eventually want to be able to do them myself. I am already doing much of my own animating work as we speak. If you've played the special 0.9sp update, then you've seen some of my animations already. No, they aren't perfect yet, but definitely much better than those horrible ones I did in the beginning.

Finally, I want to address a few questions I've been asked. I thought it would be nice to post that here as well.
(Please note that below may contain minor spoilers)

When is 1.0 coming out? Well, the current plan is to release 1.0 to patrons no later than May 31st. Ideally though, I would like to have it ready for the Friday before that (for the weekend of May 28th). I hate releasing on Mondays. So, 5/31 is the 'tentative' release date for now. It goes without saying that this could change because I won't release anything until I've accomplished everything I want to see in this release. One week after the initial release date, it will be released to $5 patrons, then free to public one week later.

Will other girls have a special ability like Rin's 'Fury'? I get this question a lot. (Spoiler ahead>>) - So, as we saw back in Day 8, Rin's anger fueled her into a rage strong enough that she unlocked a deeper power. Fury. She becomes larger in size, her fists emanate dark energy and she develops large dragon wings. This form will be essential in the big battle that is to come. As for other girls... Only the 3 main Nekos will have a special ability like this (Rin, Jas, and Lena). And each will have an SA fitting to their current abilities.

Did you copy Lena's pain ability from the movie Twilight? The quick answer here is NO. I am guilty of sometimes using a movie quote here or there, I think we as devs all do that sometimes. But I only do that for fun and as a sort of "easter egg". But I do not blatantly copy anyone else's material. In the movie Twilight, Jane causes the illusion of pain, a burning sensation. In Lena's case, she can see and control the nervous system of her target. She can give out pain as well as pleasure. She can also heal wounds. But there is far more to Lena than what has been revealed so far. And I won't say anymore than that for now. ;)

Will we see Melody again? Other characters from other games? In truth, having a character from another game was going to be a one-off. I didn't want to push this because it can be taken completely out of context. What I mean by that is people will say or think that I am doing that to get Serenity more attention, which would be completely false. I wrote Serenity a LONG time ago as a fan of quite a few other games. I am close friends with most of the devs of those other games, MrDots, HearszAM (Melody), Killer7, and Glacerose to name a few. I recreated Melody in AI myself from scratch. She doesn't look exactly like her, but she isn't supposed to. But lets understand something: Serenity is its own story with or without those characters. I wanted to bring them in for a visit because I love game crossovers and I love paying homage to those other games. But to answer the question: Yes, we will definitely see more of Melody, and we just might see some other characters that may surprise you. And yes, I did gain permission from each dev before doing so. It's all lighthearted fun so if you don't like that, all I can say is click on through it.

Why can't we have fun with Camilla? I love her! Of course, I get this question a LOT. And not just Camilla, but also Karen. I've made it pretty clear that there won't be any content in Serenity that goes against Patreon's policies. (Spoiler ahead>>) However, I do have plans that should quench that thirst for you guys later. There will be more on this soon. Just know that when certain things happen on day 13, don't get pissed at me because it will mean that I decided to move forward with this idea I have. So keep yer pantyhose on, everything will be fine in the end. :)

Rin called MC a God, so any battle should be fairly boring, right? What gives? (Some Spoilers ahead>>) A similar question came up in an F95 thread recently. In hindsight, I probably could have done a better job writing certain things. I left a lot of the backstory to the reader to ponder and consider based on the information provided. But I may have gone a bit too far in that (something I started to realize back in Day 7). So, in day 9 when training with Rin, she says to him "No! Focus! You're a God here... See my moves. Slow your vision and avoid my hits!". I really intended for her to say "You're supposed to be a God here..."; but it was one of those moments where both ways didn't sound right to me. Anyway, what did she mean by that? It is true, MC is basically a God presiding over Dream Writers. So what's to stop him from just wiping out anything that bugs him with a simple thought? Himself. Back in the beginning, Karen told him "you just have to believe" so that he could "see" the places around the island and go to them. During his first confrontation with Morgan, she told him that he had not yet "realized his power". In other words, MC was a God the moment he arrived in Serenity (surprised no one caught on to this but like I said, I could have written that better). He was fully capable of finding Kat and doing anything he wanted from the moment of his arrival. But before that day, he didn't even know magic existed, much less how to use it... or even believe in it. Little by little, he is starting to get the picture. And it will all "flood in" at a certain moment much later.

I think we'll stop here, as this post has gotten pretty big LOL. Anyway, hopefully I've answered something above that you were wondering about. I'll try to cover more questions like this in future devlogs. If you have a question, please feel free to message me on Patreon, Gamejolt, itch.io, or join us in Discord. :)

Now I must get my ass back to work. I love you guys,
...Fire