Special dev tactics: make second build and test it!

In the 2025 wrap-up post, we mentioned we were working on a special build. A separate build. One might say a build meant to DEMOnstrate what's coming NEXT. In a... umm... FESTive way? I don't really have a good ending for that. It was either that or describing development as "FESTering" and that sounds awful. The point is we're signed up for the upcoming Steam Next Fest, a returning event where games get to release special demo builds to show what's cooking, try to reach a new audience and get player feedback. I don't know if we're allowed to say exactly when it starts, but there's a reason we're mentioning it at the end of January. When the Next Fest begins, we'll also post a short message reminding you all to check out the DommeBreaker demo.



As for January itself, our main artist took the month off for personal reasons, but the background artist finished their work, so the reworked backgrounds made it into the demo build. There was small progress on Shizuru, but nothing big, because we've been focused on the Durak NTR dlc that came out earlier this month and getting the DommeBreaker demo build ready and tested; along with processing feedback from external testers. February will be spent working on Shizuru full steam again, as the demo build is complete now and just waiting for the Next Fest.

Those of you who have been following us since the early and more naive days of these DommeBreaker updates may recall we once didn't see any point to making a demo. The base game will be free, so we figured we don't need to convince people with a demo. After having our testers play through the combat build last year, we realized a demo is not just a marketing tool, but a great way to collect feedback. Based on their feedback, we reworded some of the tutorial, added a Hints screen for combat strategy and slightly tweaked the balance of most fights.

We're hoping a larger number of players will give us even more useful feedback while we still have the time to make small changes. Completing the demo build will lead to a Google form, which our testers also filled in as part of the testing. We hope you're all looking forward to the demo and will share your thoughts and opinions with us after playing it. In the February community update, we'll go over what we've learned from the feedback and what potential changes might get made as a result.

COMPLETED:

• Reworked backgrounds
  
• Next Fest Demo build unique texts
  
• Next Fest Demo build and testing
  
• Feedback form and testing

CURRENT:

• Shizuru Stage 2 design and combat art