Couldn't pick which character to put on the forefront of the announcement, so I picked them both ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

So yes, here it is! The previously announced announcement is here to announce the release dates for the next major update for A Home In The Desert! There is a lot to cover on this announcement and I want to make sure I get everything across (although I'm about 90% sure I'll forget something, in which case I'll edit this post) so here it is, in several bullet points!

UPDATE HIGHLIGHTS

New main quest - Larry's special deliveries

Larry (Stanley's friend) hears about your difficulties in finding the money for the bedroom renovations you need to make. He decides to come up with a plan, and makes you a (job) offer you just can't refuse! 
Meet the stunning MILF Sheila, and get to know her further and further as you take her on romantic dates... Or maybe she'll take you instead, who knows!

New main quest - Eve's retirement plan

Eve surprises you by asking for a small favor: she asks that you buy her a video camera. Eve tries to do something with herself now that her boxing career is over... But is that really everything that is going on? Provide assistance to your beloved aunt, uncover her deepest secrets, and form a new special bond with your favorite tomboy auntie!

Additional schedule events for Eve

Eve's schedule events will evolve along with your relationship with her! Isn't that neat? Well, I may be biased, but I think it is. One thing I can say is: some of them include content you certainly don't wanna miss (˵ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°˵)

New horniness system

A simple bar at the bottom left of your screen, displaying how horny Alice is. Fills up when she gets horny, empties when she gets... Emptied. Designed to be permissive and a source of *extra* fun, rather than a condition to get scenes. It's also at its humble beginnings, and it will be expanded in the future :)

New Pop-events system

A new system that triggers very small scenes (no more than a couple dialogue lines) whenever the people around you react to Alice, or when Alice reacts to the people around her. Comes with a slider in the options to customize how often those show up. Will work along the horniness system, as you can see per the following example (͡ ° ͜ʖ ͡ °)

New HUD

In case you haven't tried the new tech demo that was released in November (0.4.5), the HUD and main menu were improved. The kitchen, corridor and living room locations were also re-rendered, offering a better visual and gameplay experience overall. 

And much more...

A whole bunch of other things were improved in this update. It's not necessary to run errands anymore as Eve will automatically do it for you (the very first quest where you run errands with her has been adapted in consequence), the dialogue box was redone and is now much less invasive...

Anyway. It's a big update. The amount of content the game has as of 0.4.5 has literally been doubled in terms of renders. 100 pages of dialogue have been added... I know it took some time to make, but I hope it'll be worth it for you. 

RELEASE SCHEDULE

As you can see on the promo images, the earliest release will happen on June 20! Like for the 0.4 update the release will be staggered, with the investor tier getting the update first, and the other, lower tiers getting it one after the other. You've probably noticed the versions aren't exactly the same though, so a little more information about that.
The very first version to come out will be the ALPHA version of 0.5, and it will be available to the investor-tier subscribers right away. The testers and I have been hard at work catching bugs and making sure everything works right, but as often in game developpment, a few bugs always slip through the net. The purpose of the alpha is to get preliminary feedback that would be impossible to get with just a small amount of testers (and one dev) and provide fixes accordingly. So be warned if you're an investor-tier sub (or planning to become one), the initial release might include a few minor bugs here and there.
A week after that will see the release of the BETA version, with all bugs fixed. It will be available to the manager-tier subs one week after the ALPHA version gets released, and then 2 weeks after that, the BETA version will become available to the employee-tier subs.
The public, or FULL version will be available to everyone, but its release date is uncertain. This release is the equivalent of the 0.X.1 versions I used to do, where I take around a month to fix larger-scale issues the players report, like the lack of scenes here and there, change some systems to make them easier/clearer, and things like that. This will constitute the public, FULL release. August is a very conservative release date, and it may very well come out in July, depending on what kind of feedback I get.

Last important note: The ALPHA version will be sent in Subscribestar DMs (and Discord DMs, if you have linked your account) to prevent leaks. So be warned if you're planning on becoming an Investor-tier sub, the link won't be published here as a post, but in your DMs. You should receive an e-mail from Subscribestar whenever you get a message from me, as an additional warning.

DISCLOSURE

Some elements that were supposed to be in the update didn't make it, some because of time constraints, some for other reasons. The biggest example would be save compatibility, which I decided against implementing as it didn't make sense due to the timeline of events the new content happens at. The 0.4 versions ends as the bedrooms are renovated, but all the new content in 0.5 happens before that. I hope you understand.
I'll look into implementing it for the sub-versions of 0.5 (ALPHA, BETA...) and all the major versions afterwards, so hang tight.

AFTERWORD

It's really something to finally be releasing that. It's been months and months in the making, a ton of work, and it's a special update in many regards. Never have I implemented so much content in one go (and it's not even close...) and this update contains the first several canon sex-scenes in the game. Making several hundred renders in one sitting was definitely a learning experience too, and some of the best renders I've ever made are included in this update.

So yeah. I really hope you'll enjoy it. Please look forward for June 20th, and I'll see you there.

Thank you very much :)