The public demo for Our Life: Now & Forever has officially been updated. The main change is that there's a whole second Moment to play in Step 1. Other than that, there's been some small additions, fixes, and improvements.
Scenes Included: -Step 1 Full Prologue -Step 1 Moment "Walks" -Step 1 Moment "Wheels" (NEW!) -Step 2 Prologue Sneak Peek
Wheels is definitely one of the most variable events. There's a ton of antics you can get into at the local park. If you give it a try, I hope you'll have fun ✨
Our Life N&F: 2024 Intentions
[Adorable guest art by dreamtydraw on Tumblr]
Welcome to 2024, everybody 🥳️
This is the year of Our Life: Now & Forever (and 2025 will be too, but let's not get ahead of ourselves that much). After a good five odd years of making Our Life: Beginnings & Always content, it's amazing to look ahead and see only the progress that will be done on this new game. Qiu and Tamarack are the center of the GB Patch Games universe now. But even though I'm not creating any new OL1 scenes, there may still be some exciting developments for the existing stuff. Cove hasn't been forgotten.
💚❤️️💙
Honestly, 2024 is gonna be the most basic year in a very long time, haha. There's not gonna be major launches of new DLCs, or a full game going live, or any bonus Moments. It's simply making progress on OL: N&F. That's pretty normal for game development. It's just not something we've had to go through since 2019. But we're hunkering down for the long haul on this one.
Specifically, Step 1 will be fully completed in 2024 and I'll make as much headway into Step 2 as possible. There will be two updates to the public demo, one probably in May and another sometime in Fall/Third Quarter 2024. Those will focus on Step 1 scenes still. I can't guarantee we'll be able to rework the Step 2 part of the demo with new content this year. As it is, the content was made to be a demo preview. A lot is gonna change for the complete version.
And that's about it for our main game.
Every year I'm amazed I can continue to do this as my fulltime job. I'm always wondering when that will end, but I'd be lying if I said I could see that point. The support GB Patch Games has gotten, and still gets each day, is more than enough to for it to continue for the rest of OL2's development.
I'm pretty confident in assuming that when that game does launch it's going to be successful enough for Project W to go into full production. It's a truly wonderful thing. Thank you so much for being here. We'll do our best with the time and attention you've given us.
Happy New Year 🥰️
Our Life: Now & Forever Demo Expansion & Trailer Reveal!
The new demo has launched 🎉. It's more than twice as large as the original with a lot of very fun additions. Plus, we've got a super snazzy trailer that even has a special opening theme song.
New Demo Features:
-The completed Step 1 prologue -The first full Step 1 "Moment" Walks -A short preview of the Step 2 prologue so you can see the growing up aspect of the story -Even more customization options and choices -New music tracks to hear and locations to visit
I hope everyone who gives it a try has a good time. Thank you for following our project 💕
Our Life Now & Forever: Polyamorous Relationship Feature Announcement!
So, I’ve changed my own mind! You will be able to end up in a relationship with both Qiu and Tamarack if you want to when Our Life: Now & Forever is fully released. I originally didn't guarantee a polyamorous relationship option because I didn’t know for sure if it'd be possible to add it without pushing the game back, however this story would simply feel incomplete without that. It was very obvious when writing the Step 2 preview for the soon-to-release demo update. Qiu, Tamarack, and the MC are as important as a group as they are in individual pairings. It has to be done. Besides, tons of choice and having relationships be whatever makes you most comfortable is why people wait years for GB Patch to finish these games in the first place, haha.
Now, the way the optional poly relationship will work is that Qiu and Tamarack would be in a committed platonic relationship with each other and can be in a committed platonic or romantic relationship with the MC. Qiu and Tamarack won’t be romantically involved with each other regardless of the choices the MC makes.
This relationship dynamic will only be available in Step 4: Adulthood. It won’t be something you can get together during the bulk of the story because Qiu and Tamarack do need time to sort things with each other over the years before taking that kind of step.
Nothing is going to change with our plans so far. Our Life: Now & Forever will have a Kickstarter that's launching less than two weeks. If everything goes well, the goal will be to release the first three Steps and most of the DLCs in late 2025. The Step 4 Epilogue with the poly relationship option and any bonus DLCs that get funded by the Kickstarter would come out later on.
I’ll be updating the game’s information to reflect this new element as a basic part of the project ✨.
Thank you to everyone who’s loved both Tamarack and Qiu already! I hope this will make the story that much happier to experience.
Our Life: Now & Forever Demo Update Coming Fall 2023!
Hey everybody!
Our Life: Now & Forever is fully in development now that we’ve finished the final DLC for Our Life: Beginnings & Always. Step 1 is coming along well, and we’ll be able to release another demo expansion before the end of the year.
In late September or early October, we’ll be updating the current demo build with various improvements and even more scenes to play. The plan is to have the entire Step 1 prologue, one Step 1 Moment, plus a small preview into Step 2.
The way Our Life: Now & Forever works is that it’s divided into four time periods, what we call “Steps”. Step 1 is childhood, Step 2 is adolescence, Step 3 is young adulthood, and Step 4 is adulthood. Steps 1, 2, and 3 have a prologue, five free Moments, five optional DLC Moments, and a conclusion. “Moments” are individual stories that can be played in any order you want or skipped entirely. Step 4 is an epilogue and isn’t broken up into different Moments. It’s one long story.
We’d like the demo to give a fuller picture of the game experience by including a complete prologue, a full Moment, and letting players see what the changing of the Step is like. Currently, the demo only includes a partial look into the Step 1 prologue. So, this upcoming expansion will make a big difference to the experience.
We’ve also created new bio images for the two leads for Step 1 and Step 2. They’re quite pretty!
Thank you for following along with this project. I hope you’ll look forward to more adventures in Golden Grove soon 🍂
Our Life: Now & Forever Demo Expansion & Store Page Update ✨
The Our Life Now & Forever Demo has been updated!
Thank you to everyone who has been looking forward to this. If you've played the demo before, here's a quick rundown of what's new; 25,000 more words, new MC doll accessories, the 'create your own MC bio' feature, sound effects through all scenes, plus other small tweaks and improvements.
Besides the build itself, the store page was remade to feature new promotional art, screenshots, and an improved description. Progress and polish for the game are coming along very well 💕.
Game Premise:
Fall settles over the charming mountain town of Golden Grove as the story begins. But it isn't only glittering leaves that are changing. You and your mom leave behind everything you knew before when you move to a new home nestled right in the middle of a tight knit cul-de-sac. It’s there where a paper airplane lands at your feet and brings you to unanticipated crossroads.
Make your own path through life as you grow from childhood to adulthood with your two closest neighbors. Even in the chilly autumn weather, it’ll be a truly heartwarming time.
Demo Features:
-A 75,000-word script and dozens of choices to make -Design your own MC in terms of appearance, identity, personality, and preferences -Make a personalized bio image for your MC that can be saved and shared -Develop your own custom dynamic with the two leads -Customize the font style and textbox arrangement to suit your preferences -Enjoy a music room to listen to the OST at your leisure
Thanks again for waiting for the update. It's been great seeing how excited people are to spend more time in the town of Golden Grove. I hope you have a wonderful afternoon there in these new scenes!
Our Life N&F: Step 3 Qiu and Tamarack! ✨
We're almost finished with that update/expansion to the Step 1 prologue demo, but we've got this good news to share first- Tamarack's and Qiu's Step 3 designs and personalities are finished! You can check out their official character bios for the details.
Image Text:
So. Turns out they were right the first time! Things were hard for Qiu during their formative years, but they weren’t cut out for being out for themselves. As they grew even more, Qiu gradually became the magnanimous top dog of Golden Grove once again. Being a charmer is like riding a bike, you never really forget.
At this age, Autumn no longer considers themselves undefined: they know with certainty that they are genderfluid. And they’re surrounded by people who support them as much as Qiu has been there for them. That can include a particularly precious neighbor.
————————————————-
Yeah, in Step 3 Autumn is no longer an angsty fourteen-year-old. Instead, they’re an amusingly smug eighteen-year-old, as they deserve to be 😌. This darling punk is Mx. Popularity in the game’s universe and in real life, haha.
Qiu’s pronouns are they/them and he/him. Their preferred terms at the time are expressed through nail polish. If wearing polish, they/them is appropriate. If not, he/him pronouns are used. If there’s no way to check, they/them is the default.
[There are three potential hairstyles Qiu can have at this age]
Image Text:
As the years have gone by, Ms. Tamarack Baumann has battled with her sense of identity. After struggling to choose a path she’d hope would lead to self-acceptance, Tamarack has come to appreciate herself first and let the rest follow. She’s found happiness that way.
Rather than the “mom-friend”, Tamarack is semi-jokingly the “grandma-friend” of her circle. Her hobbies and attitude give the impression of a little old lady. Including being concerned and involved with seemingly the entire populous. But while everybody matters, it’s possible a certain neighbor is extra-special to this miss.
————————————————
And here’s our girl 💖! At this age, she’s not quite the shy young lady she was in Step 2 or the wild child from Step 1. Her development is all about growth and discovery of self, which is certainly fitting for her. Tamarack has flourished like the beautiful forests she loves so much.
[There are three potential hairstyles Tamarack can have at this age]
It's amazing seeing these two growing up already. Though, there's still a long way to go until Our Life: Now & Forever is finished. Thank you for following along with the game's development so far!
Our Life: Now & Forever - Progress Plans
Hello!
It's been a while since there was an update on the project, so I'm here to talk about how it's going. Right now, the company's main focus is the final DLC expansion for Our Life: Beginnings & Always. Some work for Our Life: Now & Forever is still happening, though. The plan is to update the demo with more MC doll clothes/accessories and new scenes before the end of the year. It should be late November or in December, but there is a new demo on the horizon!
In the meanwhile, I give regular sneak peeks and insights into progress for both our projects on the GB Patch Twitter account. You're welcome to check there for more frequent news.
Thank you so much for all of the excitement for this game. It's wonderful to see people enjoying it even in such an early stage 💞
Our Life: Now & Forever Demo Update! 🎊
We're finally ready to release an expanded version of the demo. It's got twice as much content all around and gives a much better idea of what it'll be like to play the finished version!
Demo Features:
-50,000 words and dozens of choices to make (twice as long as the prior demo) -Design your own MC (with even more options than before) -Customize your mom to match your character (with more options than before) -Choose a cute sticker to tell different playthroughs apart (with more options than before) -Develop your own custom dynamic with the two leads (and in this demo you can start seeing the impacts of those decisions) -A music room to listen to the OST at your leisure (a new feature in this updated version)
It's been great seeing things shape up more and more. I really hope you'll enjoy the demo if you give it a try!
Our Life N&F: Step 2 Qiu and Tamarack!
These are the bios for 14-year-old Qiu Lin and Tamarack Baumann!
It's tough times growing up and trying to figure yourself out. At least there will still be plenty of warm moments along the way with the people they care about 💞.
When it comes to Tamarack's and Qiu's designs, they've both got two possible hairstyles and some optional accessories they can end up having, depending on how they develop. Step 3 and Step 4 bios will come along much later in development.
