Thanks For 500 Downloads and What's to Come

Hello everyone! Happy holidays for those coming up/still going on, and I hope you had a wonderful one to those that have past!

I've been with my family for the holidays, so please forgive me for being a little late! There's a few things I'd like to go over today, but if you just want the TLDR look at the bolded portions.

We hit 500 downloads!

This is such a cool milestone! Here's a quick drawing of our festive little love interest I threw together. Too much glitter? No such thing in Grayson's world. 

I hope you've had fun with Grayson. The fanart, fanfics, and kind words have been making my days! I never expected to get this much traction on my first game, and I appreciate everyone who looked at it and decided to play! Genuinely the kindness is killing me. You're so sweet! Since people have asked in the past; No you don't have to ask to write fanfiction, or draw fanart, or anything like that. All I ask is that you send it to me so I can see it. If you're okay with it I'd even like to share it on my bluesky so others can see it too! Speaking of Bluesky- you can follow me there (@corvidscauldron.bsky.social) for updates on Lost and Found, as well as new projects I'm working on! Wait- Updates for Lost and Found? Yes!

More pronouns are being added to Lost and Found! 

Currently it only has three options; they/them, he/him, and she/her. As someone who uses they/them pronouns I know how good it feels when a game lets you choose the right pronouns for you! That's why I want to give more folks that same feeling. If there's a specific set of neo pronouns you'd like to see just let me know! I've already coded in xe/xem, but I want to add even more!

Now for a little behind the curtain info: when I participated in these jams it was actually the busiest month of the year for my job! Around triple the normal workload. Originally I planned for Lost and Found to have three love interests, which is why you can find the phone in three different locations. Each location was going to be a different phone belonging to one of the love interests. These boys! Knox, Arturo, and the lovely person you've met already- Grayson! The sketches were made at different times but I think they make a cute group!

Arturo's route had already been started, but after a bit of writers block I've been writing a sort of prequel story for these three. You see, the three of them were always planned to be childhood friends! With Knox and Grayson being neighbors, and Arturo being an online friend of theirs. I may or may not release it at some point, I don't know if there'd even be interest in something like that, but writing out their chats as they grow up and grow into themselves has been great character work!! Back on topic though-

Arturo's route is in the making!

Arturo is the man in the middle in the last pic. He's a workaholic with a coffee addiction and a very polite business attitude- until you get close that is. Then his teasing side comes out in droves and the customer service voice goes away. Ideally I'll eventually release all three LIs, but we're starting with Arturo. Don't worry- it will still be pay what you want, even with the two completely new routes! 

Playable Epilogues!

For those who have already played the last update you might remember the epilogues I put in! When I finished writing work had picked up before I had a chance to code it in, or make the art for it. Ideally I wanted an ending CG, at least for three of the endings, but it was pretty clear I just wouldn't have the time for that. I'm a writer, not an artist, so those things take a lot of time for me! Rather than hold on to what I wrote for who knows how long I decided to just release the epilogues as they were alongside the pronoun update. It got the job done, but I'm not really happy with it. So! I'm working on making the epilogues playable- more like a traditional visual novel rather than just a wall of text. While I would love to hire an artist to make the CGs I want, which would drastically cut down on the time it will take for this update, I don't have the money for that. I have a bit of medical debt I'm working through, and while it's almost all gone I can't justify hiring someone when I need to spend that money elsewhere. It's alright though! It'll get done eventually, just not as quickly as we'd like. Once I get the CGs done I'll have this finished fairly soon since the writing is done. I'll be releasing this update with the added pronouns, and I'm debating throwing in the first day or two with Arturo as a demo of sorts for his route. I think that could be fun!

Thank you all again for playing Lost and Found! Knowing you enjoyed it has been the best holiday gift I could have received. I'll be working on another project for the Sealed With A Kiss game jam as a voice actor this coming month, but other than that my main focus is on Lost and Found. I tried working on my next game but these boys just kept pulling me back in. With that being said, thank you again so very much! Enjoy some random doodles I made. Happy holidays and have a lovely new year!