Hey everyone!
I have an insane amount of exciting news today, but I'll try to be normal.

First things first, I did some spring cleaning and made changes to the membership structure on my Ko-fi:

The most notable change is that from now on, all Insiders get to play the latest Beta. No more 1-month delay!

Starting today, you can read the complete Effera route for just $5!

I made this change because the "Insider" tier wasn't getting much love and everyone directly went for the "Cooler Insider" tier anyway. Now, I normally wouldn't complain about extra income, but it has always been a bit of a hassle to maintain two separate versions — one of which almost nobody uses. That's why I decided they should just be the same thing!

This also means the exclusive channels on Discord are no longer divided into "current Beta" and "Beta -1 month". You all signed up for the spoiler zone, so now there is no longer any need to hold back for anyone! (Of course, please still tag them though!!!)

I expect that this means some people will want to downgrade from the $10 tier to the $5 tier, since they'll still get to access the latest state of the game, but for a lower price. I fully understand that and respect this decision! On top of that, if you signed up to be a cooler Insider within the past week (or your membership got renewed), I'm happy to give you a refund so you don't have to pay those extra $5 anymore — just DM me on Ko-fi!

For those who want to stay Cooler Insiders, though, I still have many fun things in store: I do development and drawing streams on Discord every week, and with the dawn of the upcoming Loye route, there are a bunch of things I'll want your opinions on!

Put simply, I recommend Insider for anyone who wants to play and discuss the game, and Cooler Insider to anyone who wants to provide their input and follow the creative process!

Regarding Early Access

I've kept quiet about it for a while, and unfortunately I still can't say much more... As you might know, Effera's route has been years in the making, and I know very well that each new route taking additional years is not an option, considering that there are still 12 more routes to go................

I want to make sure I have an air-tight, reliable workflow before I start officially selling the game. For that reason, I will treat Loye's route as a bit of an experiment that lets me measure how much I can write how quickly, from scratch.

As always, I'm very grateful for your patience, and that's exactly why I want to be transparent with you and not give you a random deadline I'll inevitably have to postpone.

Artificial Fashionista

In case you missed it, I released a new game jam project last week. Artificial Fashionista is a spinoff featuring Foris as our lovely main character!

I've been busy adding some things that didn't quite make the cut during March. For example, I released another update today, adding 2 new outfits:

Extremely hard question: Can you guess who they're inspired by?

In the future, as indicated in the tier descriptions above, I'll be adding 1 new exclusive outfit for members every month! Working on something more light-hearted with the whole cast was a welcome change of pace, so I want to keep coming back to it every now and then.

Also, rumor has it someone is working on a Steam page, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled so you can wishlist it...

The Pins are here!

Last but not least, the newest merch arrived today, and just look at how tiny and adorable they are! I'm super happy with how they turned out, and will be shipping them out next week!

And of course, you can still get your own in case you missed the preorders. As of writing this, there are still at least 5 left of each pin!

Thank you

To close things off, I just want to say another big thank you for all the support you've given me over the years. These characters have followed me for almost half my life by now, and I can't wait to share each of their stories with you. The fact that you're interested in them means the world to me!

I'll spend this month mapping out Loye's route in detail so I have a solid foundation to work with, as well as adding a bunch of new quality of life features to Artificial Selection. This means next month's (May) update will be more on the technical side, while the first part of Loye's route will be coming in June. I hope you look forward to it!