Hey, everyone! Fae here with the last of the organized Void Dreaming blog posts... at least for now!

It’s been an exciting week since Void Dreaming has launched. A lot’s happened, what with bugfix builds and seeing all your feedback and reviews, checking in on the Discord and greeting new readers whenever I can… it’s been so, so much in the best possible way. Hopefully by now the scale and scope of this project is apparent enough that you can see why I might need the support of a Patreon!

Today though, we're going to look toward the future. We're going to confirm the release trajectory for the next few updates for you, point out some potential roadblocks, and give you all an idea of exactly what it is that I hope I'll be able to do to help make Void Dreaming even better moving forward. We’ve also got a new build available now with some bugfixes, typo corrections, and some new functionality for mobile users. Let's get into it!

V0.01.02 Update Notes

Let’s start with the obvious update notes before we get started on the rest of the entry! This isn’t a particularly big update for the Day 1 build, but there’s some more corrections and updates for the Day 2 build that’s available, exclusively for the moment, on the Patreon. More information on the scheduling for it hitting Itch is coming up soon, but first! Notes!

 - Gesture Support: The headline feature today is something suggested by Birchleloup on the Void Dreaming Discord channel: Android readers now have additional controls! Swiping up or down will hide and restore the interface. If you’re on mobile and you’d like to see the sprites and backgrounds without anything getting in the way, this is your chance! Swiping left to right will roll you back a page, while swiping right to left will roll you forward a page again. Still struggling to find a place to inform readers of those controls just for Android without making a whole new Android-specific branch of the VN, but I’ll figure something out!

 - Typos: A few typos lingering in the Day 1 build have been squashed! Please, if you’re on the Discord and you see any, let me know! I’m very happy to push updated builds to get these corrections out to you as soon as I’m able.

 - Inconsistency Fix: Rael’s sense of hearing will now match up with the reader’s with regards to doors he seems to think are silent.

Facts and Figures

Next up, I thought it might be a nice, fun thing to put some details out for where we’re at! I’d like Void Dreaming to be a pretty open and transparent project, so that you can see exactly what I’m working on and how I intend to use the money raised from Patreon to better the VN. For this first little update though, let’s look at some fun details!

 - Since the initial release, Void Dreaming has been downloaded from Itch.io over 1700 times! 559 of those were just on the first full day of it being available!

 - There’s been so many reviews on Itch that have had enthusiastic messages attached to them! So far there’s been 88 reviews left on Itch for Void Dreaming, the vast majority of them as 5-star ratings! There’s also been one 1-star rating; I wish I knew why, but oh well!

 - While the Patreon was a bit scuffed what with some initial weirdness with the approval process, since it went live two and a half days later, we’ve had 64 subscribers join up and get access to the Day 2 build! 9 of them have joined at the higher tier to better support the project; my gratitude knows no bounds!

 - The Discord is keeping busy! We now have over 130 members chattering away over there since it’s gone live! There’s even been some polls going on, and let me tell you what; Zuberi is a clear frontrunner for your favourite character to enjoy… and lust after. I don’t blame you!

- The Void Dreaming Bluesky page managed to hit 500 followers just before the launch itself, but since then it’s rocketed straight up almost a hundred more this last week to 591 followers! I’ve been reskeeting your testimonials about your experiences with Void Dreaming as soon as I see them!

It’s all been too much, honestly. I keep saying I’m grateful and overwhelmed, but the honest truth is that all I feel is tired. It’s been exhausting in the best way to go through this process with all of you, and the level of feedback I’ve been receiving has just been far, far more than I could possibly have imagined. Thank you, all of you; so much for giving me the energy and impetus to work all the harder to make Void Dreaming the best that it can possibly be.

Of course, that’s going to take time and money, so let’s get on with the rest of the post!

Step By Step

As much as I would love to have Void Dreaming release just as soon as I finish writing a section, release scheduling isn't just up to me. I have two amazing artists that I work with, and who I intend to continue to give enough freedom to do their own things and not be tied down just to what I want from them. As a result, and much as I've mentioned in the art and release blog posts, that's led me to a split release schedule between the public Itch page and the Patreon subscriber page, with breaks every three months to give the artists time to get their work in order as long as I have the funds to source it well enough in advance. At the moment and including the original release, this is what we're looking at for the rest of 2025, if all goes according to plan:

Apr 5th: Day 1 - Departure (Public Release), Day 2 - Complications (Patreon Release)

May 3rd: Day 3 - Wraiths Part 1 (Patreon Release)

Jun 7th: Day 2 - Complications (Public Release), Day 3 Part 2 (Patreon Release)

Jul 5th:  Short Story Integrity (Patreon Release)

Aug 2nd: Day 4 - Initiative Part 1 (Patreon Release)

Sep 6th: Day 3 - Wraiths (Public Release), Day 4 Part 2 (Patreon Release)

Oct 4th: Short Story Skipracer (Patreon Release)

Nov 1st: Day 5 - Mendacity Part 1 (Patreon Release)

Dec 6th: Day 4 - Initiative (Public Release), Day 5 Part 2 (Patreon Release)

So basically, what we’re looking at is every three months, a whole new day for both Patrons and public build enjoyers! Our initial cadence is a little backwards because of the initial release being a month later than I was planning, but it means that going forward we’ll be trying to follow a very simple pattern every quarter:

Month 1: Patreon Day X+1 Part 1 Release

Month 2: Public Day X Release, Patreon Day X+1 Part 2 Release

Month 3: Patreon Side Project

This means that every quarter of the year is going to see a whole lot of story added to Void Dreaming. The Patreon supporters will always be ahead of the public release enjoyers, and they’ll also get the benefit of some Patreon-exclusive short story content written just for them in the interim. We’ll touch more on those in a moment, so just file that away for now! And yes, when talking about the cadence I hope to maintain starting next year, I do mean “side project”. We’ll get to that soon, too!

Of course, that "if all goes according to plan" up there is doing a lot of heavy lifting, isn't it? There's a few things that could cause delays here, but I'm glad to say that it won't be a writing issue. Writing for Void Dreaming is complete up to well into Days 6 and 7 at the moment (with a current wordcount as of last night at just under 1.2m words total so far), and there's plenty of time in the following nine months for me to get further ahead still. Which I desperately need, given the amount of choices you're already experiencing makes typo-hunting and bug-squashing an absolute nightmare. Trust me, the writing being so far ahead is necessary for all the testing that’s required. Ultimately, I’d like to stay a full year ahead of the Patreon releases, at the very least.

The goal of this plan is twofold. It's designed to maintain a good pace of releases of the story for people to enjoy, while giving me enough time to stay ahead of the releases sufficiently to make sure the quality of each release is there. After all, I need the Patreon support to keep funding this project. VNs are so expensive! And they take so long!

… And they’re so expensive!

Getting Your Money's Worth

I've already spent so much money on this VN by now (over AUD$25k, as I’ve previously mentioned, and worth every cent as far as I'm concerned), and there's a lot more cost to come as we move forward. There's new characters that need sprites, there's additional sprites and outfits for the main cast, and that says nothing of the additional splash screens and CGs I need. As it stands, I'm fully expecting to put a lot more money into this, both mine and that of the people supporting the project. Feels only fair that I explain where I intend that money to go, doesn't it? Well… explain in better detail than I did back in the art post, anyway.

So to that end, transparency! My intention is to use the funds that I raise through the Patreon's ongoing income to improve things in a variety of ways, and below you're going to see my priorities for what I would like to do moving forward:

1) More CGs - Each day in Void Dreaming opens up new opportunities to get to know the crew of the Dreamer. Each day needs a new splash screen. At the moment, the splash screens are ready up to Day 5 inclusive, and the CGs are all sorted (for those that can be found or unlocked at their earliest) up to Day 3 inclusive. My immediate goal is to make sure that the CGs that can be unlocked at their earliest on Days 4 and 5 can be achieved by the time their Patreon releases happen; this would be for the August and December releases respectively. As they’re coming up first, they’re easily the funding priority.

2) More Main Cast Sprites - As the story continues, new outfit variations for the character sprites will be necessary. Adding new sprite variety for the characters would also be a nice thing to have, and I've planned out two additional sprite batches over the course of the story that will give the main cast more diverse reactions, and different outfits that will account for new circumstances that you'll find out about as the story progresses. The hope is that these can be sorted in time for their schedule releases as I’ll be talking briefly about below, but they will require a lot of support from readers that I can’t be sure will eventuate. That’s why this is right near the top; this is going to be very pricy, and this will all need to be in place come the new year. In the event that I can’t afford these more diverse sprite options, focus will be on the minimum number I need to advance the plot; this will still require outfit options for anything new, and the existing sprites.

3) Updated UI - Now we’re in less-urgent territory. The user interface of Void Dreaming is pure, straight out-of-the-box Ren'py material, and I recognize that it's... uh... functional. Very, very functional. I mean, have you seen my stats screen? Ugh. As much as I would like it to be better than it is, I'm so far content to funnel my own resources to more important matters. Updating the VN's interface to actually reflect something that looks good and fits the setting? That's absolutely something that I would love to see done, but not at the cost of the improvements listed above. This will also come with some other features that I plan to eventually add to Void Dreaming, which we’ll talk about more when the time comes.

4) Bespoke Music - So far, all of the music in Void Dreaming is a mismatch of various different royalty free tracks I've been steadily accruing over the last nearly two years. I think a number of them have served better than others, but I would like very much to replace all of it, from the character themes (as a priority) to the general ambiances to more action-oriented scenes, with bespoke music composed with the project and the characters and the circumstances specifically in mind. I've got some ideas, and I can't wait until I have the resources to actually see the audioscape of Void Dreaming better match the setting and the characters. The fact that some of you have said you really dig the music so far is great to know, but I’d like to do better!

5) More Side Sprites - While they won't be necessary until well after Day 5, I will need to have new side characters sprited for future releases. There are at least five more side characters who will need comprehensive spritework done up, and as many as eight potential characters that I'd like to get sprites done for, specifically for a very fun event that takes place on Day 4. These are less important to have, but I think they'll really fill out the scenes that take place there; I can't wait for you all to see what's in store there!

6) Additional Additional CGs - Getting the spicy scenes and the splash screens sorted out is important, yes, but I'd also like to be able to put CGs in place for key story beats as well. Being able to liven up important moments with detailed artwork would be a lovely thing to have, but only once I have the rest of my proverbial ducks in a row. This is really the last of the nice-to-have items on this list; once all of the above is sorted out, we start getting into the truly exciting territory.

7) Side VN - Void Dreaming is a massive project for me to be doing effectively by myself, and that’s a lot for anyone. I’m convinced it’s too much for anyone, but that’s never stopped me before. Consequently, and in order to provide a little extra pep to the Patreon, I have a smaller, more simple VN concept that I have actually started the very, very early writing for because I’m a psychopath who doesn’t know when to stop. Should there be enough funding in place for Void Dreaming to be well and truly ahead of schedule in the art department, I plan to utilize some of the income from the project in order to secure the art and resources necessary to set up this side VN. This would be released only on the Patreon in place of the regularly-scheduled short story updates, as part of its own tier. Supporters would thus be getting a whole extra VN update every quarter, and this one will just be for them. Ideally, this means that I’ll be able to use the extra money coming in from it to not only fund it, but also bigger things for Void Dreaming, and prep for…

8) The Future! - I'm not going to make any bones about it; if by some absolute cosmic fluke Void Dreaming actually becomes popular enough to supplant my day job as a source of income, then once the above matters are all taken care of, I have every intention of dropping said day job. This would give me more time, more focus, and more freedom to not just work on Void Dreaming, but to do a lot more with other projects I'd like to take up at the same time. More side stories for this VN could be explored, that small, side VN project could be made even better, and even if I don’t drop the day job right away I could start early prepwork on something new once Void Dreaming is complete (and yes, I already have the concept nailed down for another, even bigger project than Void Dreaming… because I’m crazy). It's my lowest priority because it’s a practical impossibility requiring insane amounts of support to pull off, but if I can reach it? I'll be able to do a lot more moving forward beyond just Void Dreaming. I always try to plan for the future, and this would be a big way to do that. If people have enough faith in me to fiscally support my work to that degree, there'll be more of that work out there for them. I want to be able to make cool things, and I want to have the money to pay artists what they deserve to help me make those cool things. The way the world is today though, I sure don’t expect it!

So those are my intentions. Everything from additional art assets to UI updates to side projects to me buying groceries. I thought briefly about ditching the last point there; it's a hard ask to say, "Hey, I want to quit my job so give me your money!" even when it’s a pie-in-the-sky goal for any author, and especially given the nature of the world at this current moment in time.

To me though, it's far more important that I be honest and clear about all my intentions with this project, especially for those who want to see it succeed. I live a pretty modest life and I don't really have expensive tastes or needs outside these sorts of projects; that's how I've been able to save for and buy the resources that I need for these initial releases. Whether or not my work is worthy of enough support to ensure Void Dreaming can be made feature complete at a good clip (let alone if I get to focus on it with all of my effort) is up to you, dear readers, and everything including supporting myself with my work is designed to help me make this a better project for everyone.

And finally, sorry to those who advised me not to add the full truth to that last point. I refuse to have people fund my work if they don’t know exactly, in full, what my intentions are. I appreciate you were looking out for me!

Please Hold

In the continued interest in transparency, a note on the schedule above. As I mentioned, I have all the resources in place for several months of updates after this initial launch. I fully intend to secure more still, however the rate of art production may prove to be a bottleneck just as surely as money itself is. Neither Rico nor Vallhound are doing their work for the project for income from said project; their art is contracted and I pay for it all in full, up-front and prior to it being started, and both have their own lives and things they want and need to focus on. I’m doing it this way to ensure that regardless of the success or failure of this project, my artists are paid what they’re worth right from the start. There’s no gambling on success here. I’m not a gambler and they deserve their pay.

In order to prevent any art-based delays and give them time to get everything in order to meet the release schedule, I’ve opted to put some extra work in on my part (as though I didn’t have enough already!) and give the Patreon supporters a new short story set in the Void Dreaming world every third month. In place of a narrative update for the project, these short stories will flesh out the universe and timeline of Void Dreaming, giving you the chance to get to see different sides of the galaxy from different perspectives than just Rael’s.

It also ensures that Patreon subscribers are still getting their money’s worth every month. If I’m going to ask for people to support the project each month and there’s no update, there has to be something there to justify it. Hopefully these stories will provide enough incentive and reward for people supporting the project to continue to do so.

As mentioned above however, if by some chance Void Dreaming has enticed enough people to support it on the Patreon that I can afford to do so, the higher tier of support for the Patreon will become host to what will be that side VN project I mentioned in the plan for the project finances. This way, I can provide some serious justification for people to get access to the Patreon at that higher tier. Everything I want to do is all about justifying your support for my work; I never want money for nothing. I always want to have something to offer you.

This doesn’t mean however that there won’t be updates to Void Dreaming itself during these months where I put out short stories, or ideally updates to the side VN. If new art assets are secured in time, then they may be added in updates to the existing builds. New backgrounds, new sprites, or even new CGs depending on what’s going on in the development side of things might all be put in place during these quieter months. And, of course, bugfix builds will be pushed as they’re needed.

This is, I must stress, not a means of stretching out Patreon support. All the money from the Patreon is reinvested completely into more cool stuff for the project until there’s no more cool stuff to get. At that point, it’s going to go toward cool stuff for other projects, if we’re doing that well!

This is merely a schedule that allows the artists to have their freedom from me and from the project, as well as accounting for the immense amount of bug-fixing and typo-squashing that a story with this many variable elements requires. It’s all about trying to give my readers the best possible experience, and I hope you agree that this is a good solution. If you’ve got a better one, by all means! I’m all ears!

Oh! A final note quickly on the Patreon supporters being added to the credits. Lists of supporters will be compiled on the night of the day before the new update will go live, and incorporated then into the credits scroll. As time goes on and if Void Dreaming earns the support of lots more people I may need to take more time to organize that, but that’s the plan for at least the immediate moment. So if you’re a current supporter the day before a major update build goes live, you’ll be in the credits for it!

Your Questions, Answered

However, as complex as this all is, I do want to stress that I’m not a separate entity from you all with this. I’m not out of reach, and I’m not going to be deaf to your thoughts and feelings on matters! To that end, I’d like to also announce a livestream I intend to do two weeks after every public build release, just so I can touch base with everyone and answer your questions about the project.

That’s not to say that I won’t be answering questions on the Discord, or in your comments on Patreon and Itch, of course. That’ll absolutely happen! But if you’d like to get some time to ask your questions to me in real time and have me actually respond to them immediately, I’d actually rather like to make myself available for that.

To that end, I’m pleased to announce the first Void Dreaming Live Q&A stream will take place exactly two weeks to the hour from our initial launch! That’s the 19th of April, at 10am AEST (GMT +10), and exactly a week from when this blog goes live, on my channel on Twitch. Please don't sub to the Twitch, by the way; Bezos needs no more money, and your support would be more valuable over at the Patreon if you're so inclined!

I’ll share some more details about what to expect and what we’re going to be doing for the stream when it comes, but this is all just designed to be another way where I keep myself squarely in your field of view, so you can tell me what’s working, what’s not, suggest improvements, ask after my intentions, maybe get some sneaky insider info (as long as you keep it just between you and me, of course!), and hopefully have a good time for an hour or two as we talk about what possessed me to actually undertake such an insane project in the first place.

I have very, very big plans with Void Dreaming. I've taken on a truly mammoth task; a bigger project by orders of magnitude than anything I've ever done before. It requires unprecedented commitment on my part, an overwhelming workload, and the investment of far more money than I originally planned (how much I could have paid off my mortgage instead is a thought that never fails to bring a tear to my eye).

It's my fervent hope that Void Dreaming is something that you're excited about as well, and I feel it's only fair to be as honest and forthright and transparent as possible with it moving forward. I'm always happy to answer questions when asked, and I'll be doing my best to keep the releases rolling along (and side stories coming when the releases are languishing a bit. It's my intention to never let my readers wonder what's going on, and to always keep you informed of where we are, and where we're going. I want this to do well, because if it does? Where we're going can be to something even bigger than this, and I would love to take that challenge on.

And with that, the regular prerelease blog posts are done with! Thank you to everyone who's been following along with these; I hope they've been enjoyable! Release notes will still come on the regular, along with any notifications in advance of any extra updates, delayed updates, or anything else that you might need to know about the nature of the project. Updates from now on will all be on the Itch page rather than my various site journals, and you’ll also be able to catch them fresh and tasty as they come along on the Discord and the Bluesky page. We’ll definitely have a few more blog posts coming along in the weeks ahead, some exclusively for the Patreon and most specifically for the Itch page, so stay tuned for those. This ride’s just getting started!

I fervently hope that you enjoy that ride; I've been on it for almost two years now, and my enthusiasm for Void Dreaming hasn't even begun to flag yet. It's going to be a wild one, and I hope at the end of the line we can sit back, look to this glorious point at the start of the story's release, and marvel at how far we've come. And, perhaps with enough support, we'll also look forward to what comes next.

Until then, stars guide you.

 - Faora