Chapter 2's theme reveal + more info on the future of IM:SOOF

Hewwo :3

First off, I'd like to reassure you of the fact that, despite the ominous-sounding title, IM:SOOF is doing great, thank you very much! It's doing so great we have just reached 300 downloads and 1000 views on itch.io. Yay, yatta! Seriously, thank you so much for your continued support, this is an amazing milestone I never thought we'd reach (and we haven't even gotten to the juiciest Chapters of the mod yet).

Speaking of juicy Chapters, let us talk about Chapter 2 (Chapter 2.0 for the nerds). The second act of IM:SOOF's trajectory is bound to expand what was done with Chapter 1 with a deeper focus on stories and narratives. Although some details are still not set in stone, what I can safely affirm is that Chapter 2 will be centered around Summer and School Break, featuring a plethora of events, dialogues and, of course, substories, each with branching paths shaped by your decisions (and trust me, I did my best to make sure your decisions will truly matter, adding an extra layer of depth, complexity and replayability to IM:SOOF's content going forward).

It's a fitting theme for this time of the year, dare I say, and even more fitting is the fact that the content added to the mod with Chapter 2 will mostly revolve around your younger idols and their silly antics, as well as uncanny scenarios that could only take place during the hottest season of the year.  All that wrapped in a package filled to the brim with new background music, new event illustrations, new sound effects and a fully customized, original character that will be starring one of this Chapter's main substories (yes, because there's more than one of those c:).

But, naturally, with such sizable and intricate content come great barriers. Some of them are more natural and easier to overcome, while others are more technical and demand more effort not only from me, but also from the amazing individual behind the Idol Manager Editor tool, without which this mod would have never come to life (thanks again Sadambober, you rock!). Due to all of those circumstances, pinpointing a precise release date for IM:SOOF's Chapter 2 becomes basically impossible, and the same goes for the exact number of scenarios that will be included in the update. The foundations for its contents have been laid out, but the project's bulk structure is still in need of a few fixes and additions so the whole thing doesn't fall apart, meaning it might be a while until Chapter 2 sees the light of day.

However, as much as that may sound like bad news, it really isn't. The silver lining is that, with more time to work on IM:SOOF's upcoming chapter, the final product is  going to be more polished, more extensive, and more on par with my original vision for the project. Additional events and dialogues are being worked on to make up for the long period of time between the release of Chapter 1 and Chapter 2's launch, which will be useful to me as I start to get a better understanding of how Idol Manager's Editor works, and inch closer and closer to realizing its full potential, culminating in what will probably be the most ambitious Chapter of the mod (no spoilers, more on that in the future!)

I can't just come here and talk about how Chapter 2 won't be coming out in the foreseeable future, though, nuh-uh! In fact, I'm doing the exact opposite.  With no further ado, here's a basic roadmap of what's to come in 2021 for IM:SOOF. It might not include fancy imagery and impactful marketing words, but it'll hopefully show you guys that Chapter 1 was just the first step towards creating something big, and I only hope you're as excited as I am for the future of IM:SOOF :)

Last, but not least, as a thank you for you sticking with IM:SOOF through the good and the not-so-good times, I'll leave you with a sneak peek of some of the goodies coming to the mod with Chapter 2:

See you in Chapter 2!