These two days after the launch of Queens Of The Sea 0.1 have been a wild journey for us. First of all I want to say a HUGE thank you from me and Lady Quill to everyone who decided to download our game! We are already past 300 downloads just in the first 48 hours, which might not sound like much to some, but for us it is probably tenfold the amount we expected to get in the first week. 

We especially want to say a thank you to those who have already followed us on here or joined our budding Discord community. It really warms my heart to see people enjoying the game and wanting to see more. Believe me when I say that we also cannot wait to share more with you.

I suppose that brings us to the question of what’s next?

Setting course for Chapter 3

While it took us almost a year to finish 0.1, our goal is to release Chapter 3 in much, much less time and there are good reasons for us to be optimistic. 

The major difference now going forward is that with our first release we had to basically start from nothing, especially on the graphics side. (I wrote a bit about the process in the first dev log.)  However, the art assets we made while working on Chapters 1 and 2 now give us a solid groundwork to expand on and we can use those same characters and backgrounds for all future updates. The same obviously applies for most of the new art we make for Chapter 3 and onwards. Our game will mostly revolve around the same cast of characters in recurring locations, which means that no work goes wasted. 

Now that’s not to say there isn’t work to do. Obviously I need to actually write the whole thing which will take its own time, as right now I’ve just finished what is a fairly rough outline of the events. What I can already reveal is that for Chapter 3 we still plan on introducing the last romanceable major character. (I won’t reveal who it is yet, but they are briefly mentioned by name in this first release, so some perceptive people might be able to guess.) They will require their own art, which includes their body, layers of clothing and different facial expressions. Quill has just started working on the character's sprite art today and I for one can't wait to see what she'll cook up from the concept I wrote for them.

Some already existing characters might also receive a bit of a makeover for the next Chapter as there will probably be a slight time skip, mainly John and Sarah. We want to slightly evolve their looks throughout the game to reflect the journey of growing they go on.

Other than that, the largest amount of art will be needed for the most exciting part, the sex scenes. I know the first two chapters have been a bit slow on that end, but fear not, Chapter 3 will up the heat considerably. We are going to try out a new approach where after I’ve outlined the major beats of the chapter’s story, I’ll make drafts of the sex scenes before starting to write the rest of the script so that Quill can begin to already sketch them instead of waiting for me. Hopefully that means we get them done faster.

I can also promise that there will overall be more action in Chapter 3, not just the lewd kind, but more drama, stakes and intrigue as well, and just pirates actually being pirates. Chapters 1 and 2 were more of a slow build that introduced Nassau and the main cast, and now it’s time for the crew to set sail again and get into trouble.  

As for the release schedule… We cannot promise an exact date yet as the summer will be a busy time for us both and it is hard to predict how quickly we can get work done on this project at the same time. Our goal is to release it sometime in late Q3 of this year. That may seem like a long time to wait, but as I stated in the 0.1 release notes, unfortunately this project is not our job and we have other obligations in our lives as well. After all, we are not a full-time development team with salaries. We’re just a couple of broke hobbyists trying to make our dream game while dealing with boring “real world” stuff like work, studying and paying bills. However, we are continuing to develop it every chance we get, dedicating much of our free time to the game while also trying to make sure we do not immediately burn ourselves out. 

Plans for further horizons

When it comes to the total scope of the project, we are fully expecting it to take us at least the rest of 2025 and likely a major chunk of 2026 as well before the game is finished. Regardless of how long it takes, our plan is to keep up a fairly consistent release schedule from now on. In a way, Chapter 3 will be a test for us to see how fast we can get these major updates done going forward. After that, we should have a better understanding of our broader roadmap for the rest of the project. What I do know is that we will likely need at least five but more realistically six to seven chapters in total to tell our story in a way that doesn’t feel too rushed. We hope you can be understanding and patient with us while we do our best to deliver you more Queens in a timely fashion.

How you can support us

We do not expect anyone to pay us for promises of future content, especially not this early on. Instead, we hope that if you played 0.1 and enjoyed it, give us your feedback, both negative and positive, either on here, on our Discord or by filling our feedback form. If you want to do more to help us, maybe tell people about it, post something on Reddit or wherever you might find people interested in AVNs. 

As I’ve mentioned already, our Discord is free for everyone and there you can come and chat with us and other cool people, discuss your other favorite games and hobbies, whatever you want. We aim to create an open-minded, positive and inclusive community for all kinds of people who enjoy a little bit of erotic gaming in their life. 

While we do this from a pure love for the craft itself, if you really do really wish to support us monetarily, you can currently donate some coffee money to us here on Itch.io, and we are planning to probably get some sort of Patreon page going at some point. (We'll make sure to post an update if that/when that happens.) Although I must stress that this is completely optional, and we will not gate future game content behind a paywall. Later we might give higher tier Patrons a slightly earlier release for new Chapters along with exclusive sneak peeks, ability to vote on polls for future content or something along those lines. We do not intend on milking people for ludicrous amounts of money for these earlier releases, instead you should only give as much as you want and in a way that is smart for you. Times are tough for a lot of people these days, and we do not intend to take advantage of that. 

With all of that said, we have to get back to work! Thank you again for your interest in your game! 

Best regards,

Mr. Ink