Hi Steam gamers! I'm Cisco, developer of Private Dick: Lipstick & Lies. The store page has been open for a few months now so I figured it's about time I introduced myself (and the game). [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42879931/41ea4474e54003ea268b40088065ff7fbf90c00f.png[/img] [h1]About the Game[/h1] Private Dick is an erotic, story-focused, noir-styled Visual Novel. My aim is to marry a mysterious, twisting and mature storyline with creative, exciting, explicit sex. I want to build anticipation and tell a good story at the same time. I want to deliver knee-trembling erotica alongside thoughtful themes, hilarious interactions, and even some fleeting moments of pathos. A sweeping saga is all planned out, with a good chunk of it already written. I don't want to give much away. I will say that there's a sweeping corporate conspiracy, an exploration and perhaps even fixation with social media, a study of exploitation, and more than one tortured romance (although this is absolutely not a love story). It's also loaded with erotic fantasies of all sorts of flavours. This saga is told as a series of interconnected short stories: each one self-contained and satisfying in its own right, most with an erotic finish (sometimes an erotic beginning and middle as well). This title, Lipstick and Lies, is the first entry of that saga. It has a collection of stories which serve to introduce and establish the world and some of the key players. It starts off storylines which won't be concluded for a long time. But in the meantime, it also delivers several satisfying short stories! There's a high-stakes poker game, an abducted dog, a paranoid client, a rebellious secretary and a naive gamer girl. There are twists, there are turns, and there are mysteries. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42879931/19f29d8827ffbac50c29708fe606dfbdc14d53a3.png[/img] [h1]A Short history[/h1] I think it's worth taking a moment to tell you where the game came from. The idea came to me around December 2021. In January 2022 I found myself out of work with some savings behind me (long gone, by the way), and decided to press forward with full-time development for a while. See where it would lead, you know? Things went fairly well. Content was developed quickly, even while learning the Ren'Py game engine and trying to establish an art style. I launched the first alpha demo in March, and then a Kickstarter in June. The Kickstarter would fail. It sucked up resources through May, June and July as I prepared, promoted and ran the campaign. And although it wouldn't meet its funding target and enable me to continue development full-time, I did make a lot of friends and pick up a lot of learnings along the way. A bit of a dark period followed in August. I almost out of money and needed to find work. But I was convinced the game had something unique, something special. I couldn't drop it. I've been very lucky in being able to pick up some contract work which has just about kept me afloat while funding ongoing artwork. The difficulty through the latter half of 2022 has been time. I have 1-2 working days a week on the project, and most of that is taken up with project management, art direction and marketing. Development has been slow. Really slow. But not static, and at the time of writing I've almost managed to claw together an Early Access build which gets us ¾ through the main storylines. But I don't want to rush it: I want to make sure the EA build brings something new for people who saw the Kickstarter demo, and I want to be sure that I can continue development at a decent pace while EA is live. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42879931/09357bbb3f3b2c5904e172d3aec65b78cdf19801.png[/img] [h1]Coming Up[/h1] Of course, all you really want to know is: when I can play the darned game?! The answer is soon. In a spirit of openness I want to tell you what I'm planning, but please bear in mind this could easily change, depending on how things go and how much time I get to focus on development. I am pretty much a solo developer, working with artists on a per-contract basis. Everything - from the writing and coding, to art and music direction, to marketing and promotion, goes through me. I am a liability. So the plan is to launch the early access release exclusively to Steam, in early March. I'll also put out a brand new demo with all-new content. The first EA build will contain several improvements to the original Kickstarter demo. There are three new CGs which may or may not make it (the main scenes are done, but some of the story around them may not be ready). I hope it will contain music, I do not know yet whether to hold back the release if the soundtrack isn't ready. There will be new art work, better writing, more interactivity. I intend to put out at least one update a month after that. The better the EA launch the more time I can devote to the game and the quicker it'll all get finished. I will release a spoiler-free roadmap with all the planned content for the game and try to keep you up to date on the progress as we go. I'll continue to develop in Early Access until this arc of the story is done, with sufficient side-content and a full voice track. [h1]Signing off[/h1] That's all from me today. I'll be working hard to post an update with more news and a roadmap in February. Until then, I'd just like to wish everyone a very happy new year! [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42879931/9f7955ce89abaf56764ede8803147ce789e69480.png[/img]