Hello everyone!

It's finally time to announce the dates of the 0.5 release. And we also need to talk a little more seriously than usual after that.

So without further ado, here are the dates:
______________________________________________________

Beta release for patrons: (to speed up the release, the first beta revisions will not be proofread)

Omni, Seraphim, and Archangel tiers (60$, 40$, 20$) - May 28th

Guardian Angel and Angel tiers (10$, 5$) - May 31st

Human tier (1$) - June 4th
______________________________________________________

Full public release - June 7th
______________________________________________________

CHANGELOG

I decided to compile more proper detailed changelogs from now on, so here is all the new stuff you will see in this update:

v0.5

- New content: story continuation, animated events with Liz, Sophie, and Shinigami

- 0.4 content was slightly reworked for the harem-only route, possibility of solo routes after 0.4 was removed. (Solo routes will probably appear only after the game is done)

- To continue the game, the player needs to accept every girl. Those who denied some girls in the 0.4 will see the message right at the start of 0.5 with the possibility to replay reworked paths.

- Save menu: scrollable numbers of pages (up to 30 scrollable pages for all your saving needs)

- Unavailable choices are now visible to the player

- Added a choice in Sophie's cosplay date in the shop to stop (love +1) or continue lewding her if you got all questions right (corruption +1)

- By popular demand, Sophie's "Meow." changed to "Nya~"

- Added Hide interface button for Android

- New info update notification for all info and kink changes of the girls

- Updated portraits for the "Love menu"

- A lot of small fixes

Now that the most important things are written above let's have a talk.

PATREON AND MONEY

First of all, I want to talk about how my Patreon works. Not everyone understands that, but it should be clear that:

It's absolutely voluntary for you to pledge your money on my patreon to support my game. If you feel like you aren't satisfied with what I do, are low on income, or any other reason that stops you from doing so, then DON'T PLEDGE TO ME. I can't fully guarantee the dates of releases, how much content will be in the update, etc. But that doesn't mean I'm not trying to bring you as much as I can. However, I can guarantee you that I'm continuing to work on my project, and putting my best into it. And If it ever changes, I will inform you first. But I don't see anything like that in the future. 

Of course, I feel contradictory when I say "don't pledge" because this is my only income. If there is not enough of it to sustain my needs. Well, the worst I can think of is reworking the whole game to be unlike it is now: when almost every line means new render. But to be similar to other games with a single render for a couple dozen lines of text. That would be disappointing if anything.

And don't get me wrong, I appreciate every positive support I can get, even if you're just active around my game without paying anything for it. I understand that not everyone has funds or is ready to spend money on that. And it's normal and fine. So spend your money on me or my game if you're really sure of it. Not to feel disappointed after. And hopefully, I can continue to bring more good content to you.

UPDATE TIMES

Now that we have this out of the way, let's talk about why I had to say that.

After finishing the 0.4 update and seeing how its alpha (half of the update) was leaked, I decided not to divide the update into halves like before. That proven to be a foolish idea. 

If you compare my work on 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3 to my work on 0.4 or 0.5, then the whole first three updates together are almost equal in content to 0.4 or 0.5. Besides, the quality of new ones is higher. I'm putting more time into animations, lighting, writing, well, everything. That's why work on them is correspondingly longer. But as I said, it was a bad idea not to half the 0.5. And now we have waited for half of the year without the update. Honestly, it sucks. Not only as a player, but as a developer too. My income on patreon also could be higher if I decided to release 0.5 in two parts. You live, and you learn.

That long delay between updates caused a little backlash which I can't say I didn't start to expect with time, and I have to write all of this to justify myself. I understand this is only my fault. But it still sad that it got to this point.

PLANS

That brings us to what should be done for the next updates. 

I will start to make updates in two parts again. Releasing first half as Alpha for patrons and then second part as Beta for patrons at first, with a week or a bit more before full public release. This should force releases to come out every three months or so. I hope that I can speed up the process overall, but I can't promise anything. 

In previous posts, I talked about how I wish I could have a co-writer to work with me. And while working on 0.5, I had a chance to work with one writer for one scene of 0.6, so now I can say that I can't afford that luxury for the time being. A full update worth of writing with proofreading will cost me about 4 months of my patreon income. And I'll still need to fully rewrite those scripts myself, to match all characters and plans on them. Not an option, at least for now.

With all of this talk behind us, I want to say that I'm still excited about what comes next. 0.5 update is a big starting point for what will happen in the next updates. And I hope you all will like the direction I'm taking Murmur to. That direction is making writing for me easier and more fun than it was for 0.4. Now I don't need to fill out unnecessary "bad" options for when the player didn't choose someone. So the script that I write can be more wholesome and touching. With that scene written by another writer for 0.6, I have a little boost to continue my work. And I can assure you that it was a good work of him, and I will still make it look like it was written by me in the end. 

OFFTOPIC

These months of work on the project were full of sad and happy moments, and not only for me. I know that I could've been better somewhere than I was. Sometimes it's hard to stay positive. But I'm here thanks to all of the people who support this project and me. So, thank you to all of my supporters, you make Murmur possible. Thank you. With more people appearing around this game, I'm less and less able to keep up with everyone. I'm meeting all kinds of people while I'm here, and I'm still getting used to that. Connection with others never was my strongest side. But if you want to talk with me personally, to ask something, or just to talk like a human being with another human being, you can always do that through my DMs on patreon or on Discord. I welcome honest personal talks with others. As I like to say, dialogue is the key. 

Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your support. I can't thank you enough.

Your DD