And we're back!

My dear readers, thank you for your patience, support and understanding. I am happy to inform you that the previous month allowed us to put together a plan. We have much to share today — but before we get to the news, I'd like to offer some context and a recap of our previous DevLog, as that informs today's news.

A romance visual novel like Minotaur Hotel hinges on the bond between reader and characters. Writing and art work together to shape and maintain that relation, that affection, and preserving it is one of our highest priorities. That said, Minotaur Hotel is far from done, and a lot of new art will be necessary to finish its last act, as a large number of new plot-relevant characters are essential to conclude the story. Cutting out this aspect of the game would be a tragedy and would leave its narrative in a very unsatisfying state, which is not something we are willing to do.

Not only that,  we have blurry assets, old sprites and CGs we had meant to update. A considerable amount of in-game assets had been internally considered as placeholders and would be redone at a later date so that the entire game would feel consistent.

In our previous DevLog we said that we want to "conclude Minotaur Hotel without compromising our vision, and we want to preserve the art direction so that characters retain their identity, and we want the game's art to feel consistent from start to finish." Today we are ready to present our way forward.

Art Direction & Visual Update

We are happy to announce that dilukha is taking the role of Minotaur Hotel's Art Director. Much thought and discussion went into this decision; it was not only a matter of artistic talent, but also one of attitude, soft skills, intimately understanding the source material, its characters and creative direction.

To go into some detail, we had already commissioned dilukha previously. He was responsible for the absolute masterpiece that was The Feathered Line's promotional art...

...as well as the promotional image for Khenbish's update.

In both instances his professionalism left an impression, along with his passion for the literature that inspired Minotaur Hotel.

In our talks, we were very much in synch, including but not limited to the importance of preserving the "feel" of each character. Asterion has to feel like Asterion, the reader's connections that were formed over dozens if not hundred of hours of play has to be maintained and cherished. Then, after a long night of discussing more minute details about the narrative and our plans, dilukha went on to surprise me with the first piece posted in this DevLog, with Asterion, Argos, Pedro and Oscar. As soon as I laid eyes on it I felt certain that he can do it, that we are in good hands, that everything will be alright.

And that leads to what we are calling Minotaur Hotel's Visual Update. For the reasons I outlined above, we agreed that the best way forward for the project would be to redo the game's art. That includes sprites and user interface, but we are taking this as an opportunity to improve other aspects of the game. We will replace some old royalty-free images with original backgrounds — something we had been meaning to do for years. Later down the road we also would like to insert new CGs into some particularly noteworthy and pivotal points of the story.

Crucially, we are taking this chance to increase the game's resolution to 1920p x 1080p. This decision did not come from some spontaneous whim or blind chasing of higher numbers. When we did our initial tests in-engine with a sample of updated assets, we realized that the extra quality really would make a massive difference with the new art direction. That said, we do hope this will future-proof Minotaur Hotel, in a sense.

These improvements will not be strictly limited to the visuals, mind you. In select scenes we will most likely tinker with the writing as well, and in true game development fashion there were minor features we wanted to implement earlier but did not have the resources to — those are back on the table now.

In a sense, this rework of some assets was bound to happen, in one way or another and to a certain capacity. We have written and published Minotaur Hotel more like a book, but we cannot forget that this is a game, and we are subjected to the realities of game development. It is normal for games to improve and rework assets as things evolve. In our case, the issue is that we planned on doing this after the main story was written, but circumstances have pushed us to anticipate this process and execute it in a very different manner than we initially planned.

This will be a gradual process. We all want to get this right, so a lot of care will go into every step of the way to make sure the creative direction is intact, each character's individual feel is preserved, and that there is consistency with all other aspects of the game. For a while there will be old assets coexisting with new ones, and we will be monitoring readers' reactions to see what we can improve as we go. As I said before, preserving the bond and familiarity readers have with the characters is a priority.

Now, another concern was the scheduling, the timeline of things. Even before our talks with dilukha, I had become aware that the workload involved in updating the game's art might be too big for a single person. After assessing the game's scope, the number of assets and estimated timelines, we agreed that it indeed was the case. The most prudent way to push forward was to form a team of artists, so we could spread out the work and play to each one's particular strengths.

This is why dilukha is specifically taking the role of Art Director. On top of understanding the game and his artistic talents, he has the leadership and management skills to bring a team together for the job and execute the Visual Update, all while keeping everyone's art consistent with each other.

Of course I will still be supervising this process as the game's Director, but the nitty-gritty of it will be on dilukha's hands. That is to say, I'll be able to focus on the writing. And that is another point I must highlight; I really would not be able to juggle both the writing and the Visual Update myself. This division of labor will, I hope, allow me to achieve and maintain a good writing rhythm.

We will announce the exact composition of the Art Team, as well as the timeline for the Visual Update, at a later date. Now, let's talk about...

Chapter 20

As we discussed in our previous DevLog, pushing Chapter 20 forward was our #1 priority. To that end we assembled a team of trustworthy, reliable and very talented artists to help us with the very significant work load that Chapter 20 demanded. Just to be clear, this team is different from the the one being organized by dilukha, but they are all working together now since he has taken the role of Art Director.

I am, again, happy to inform that progress has been swift, and that we are ready to announce Chapter 20's CG art team:

• GigaSaddle, who for years now has helped us with beautiful backgrounds;
• Alpha0, with whom I've worked alongside in Devil's Gambit;
• Captain Nikko, writer and artist of Burrows, who's drawn Asterion in a short comic exploring his past;
• ToraGoru, whose fan art of Asterion is absolutely iconic and has so many times inspired us, and
• Jax, the Blue Prussian, who's demonstrated an exquisite understanding of minute details about the characters and how they feel.

As with dilukha, a lot of work into making sure everyone was capturing Asterion's essence in each CG. Everyone's done an amazing job and we are confident it will all come together nicely. But there's still a lot of work to do, and coupled with other tasks yet to be done it is far too soon to speak of a release date. Rest assured that we are sparing no efforts.

That said, I think that a little peek at what we have in store is deserved.

This is just one of Captain Nikko's CGs for the update. It is part of a sequence of illustrations which, I think, our readers will enjoy. Generally speaking, Chapter 20 is a very ambitious piece of writing that, I hope, will leave a lasting impression.

Now, to bring some levity to this long DevLog, Nikko himself referred to Chapter 20 as Minotaur Hotel's "blue period". Blue really is a very central color for what's coming next.

Patreon

Last but not least, it's time we talk about our Patreon.

We've had people talking for years now that we should set one up, to which we always responded by reminding them of the game's non-commercial nature. But circumstances have changed. Minotaur Hotel has gone from a small operation of 5 core members with a small network of collaborators to what is essentially an indie game development studio.

As I've said before, the game's immediate future is secured; I have taken money from my savings and, despite the scope of the effort we are embarking on, we are being extremely prudent with budgeting. That said, it would be a world of difference if we could reach a point of financial sustainability. We'd be able to truly develop Minotaur Hotel as a work of utterly uncompromising art.

So, it is time. The Minotaur Hotel Patreon is live.

And, before anyone asks, yes, we will have a SubscribeStar too.

Now, an important clarification: the money coming from this Patreon will be used to develop Minotaur Hotel. That includes art for upcoming content, the Visual Update, promotional art when appropriate, programming, music, software... But we, the writers, are not planning to take this money for our personal expenses.

On a financial level, the priority is finishing the game. Considering the costs we are anticipating, I do not find it likely that there will ever be profits, and if we ever get to recoup the initial investment I will consider myself lucky.

That is what you will contribute to if you pledge to our Patreon: you will be financing the game's development.

I was told that a number of readers wanted to help with the game's development regardless of rewards, but even then we cannot exactly run away from that topic. Offering something in return is worth considering, and our current circumstances pushed us to rethink our approach. In more concrete terms, we want to express our gratitude to all who rally around us in this moment. I, personally, feel privileged in having such a respectful and dedicated readership, and that is a sentiment worth expressing.

Minotaur Hotel does not lend itself to the tried-and-true structure of monthly updates, so we had to get creative. For now, here are the main benefits we are offering across the Patreon tiers:

• Official Discord Server: Yes, it's true, Minotaur Hotel has a Discord server now with all the cute bells and whistles such as a MINO server tag, the ability to pick your favorite character to show up beside your name, and an assortment of stickers! Also, people.
• Community events: We plan on doing an in-character "Ask the Minotaur Anything" event on the Discord server, along with DevTalk streams where we discuss cool things about development. We'll probably do these in alternating months.
• Behind the scenes stuff: We'll host streams, and we'll post bits and pieces of what we are working on. To an extent people will be able to offer input.
• Unpublished prototypes: You read that right! We are offering two unpublished prototypes for the higher tiers! Io and His Panoptes is a short erotic story starring Oscar and Pedro, while King of Longing is an original dark fantasy story.
• Cut content: We're publishing Pedro's Spellbook, a still-canonical document expanding on the Latin tradition of rites, and Selections from Asterion's Chapbook, a series of erotic poems from Asterion which had to be cut from the game.
• Non-canonical adult stories: Over the years I've written a few horny stories with the Mino Hotel characters as warm-ups. We'll be posting them over the next few months, and hopefully people will enjoy them.

There are other rewards we'd like to offer, but we're trying to not overextend ourselves. Chances are we will tinker with the format, maybe add a thing or two when we feel secure.

It is also possible that we might offer some kind of timed exclusive access to new builds. That is not something I wanted to do at first, but it's an idea we have had to consider. If we do it, it would probably take the form of publishing Chapter 20 to patrons of all tiers one month before it goes public. That said, I'm not thinking much about this, as our focus is on finishing the update.

That's it for now! Hope you guys enjoy the rewards we cooked, and see you next time!