I will start off with the most important news: The 1.0.0 release will be moved back by 1 week to 7th Feb! Before going into the usual weekly devlog post I will explain the reason and my thought process on this.
In the past weeks we have fixed over 80 bugs and with the 1.0.0 release upcoming, I have been feeling a bit uneasy whether the planned 1-week-beta period is going to be sufficient. In particular since we historically had pretty thick bug fix patches up to versions 0.x.2 for past releases, suggesting that 2 weeks after a major release is a better timeframe to get into a stable position. 
Yesterday I got a mail from Steam that I need to make my decision if I want to keep going ahead with the planned release date in which case it would get locked in. Finally, note that our artist is still in the shading process of the Final H-CG and if he gets sick or something we don't exactly have a lot of leeway, so because of all that I decided to let things cook for an additional week to reach a better 1.0.0 release stability. Note that this is effectively just a release renaming, so that essentially new 1.0.0 = old 1.0.2. The release schedule will then look like this:

• 1.0.0-prerelease-2 (this week)
• 1.0.0-prerelease-3 (next week)
• 1.0.0-beta-1 (in two weeks, think of this as the major update of the month)
• 1.0.0-beta-2 (31st Jan, original 1.0.0 release date)
• 1.0.0 (7th Feb)

For Patreon/Subscribestar users there isn't really much of a difference between version number names, for itch.io users the major update will be 1 week sooner than usual and for Steam users it will be 1 week later but with more bugfixes.
This will definitely be the do-or-die date, as we won't have any leeway after that. Now some may think that the week doesn't really matter - but there are a bunch of variables to consider for a game release. Mostly, what events and other releases are coming up. And if you check the release calender on Steam for high profile releases, you will notice that February after 11th is pretty stacked.
4th Feb: Kingdom Come Deliverance II (Imo too niche to monopolize player attention), but then 11th Feb: Civilization VII, 14th: New Assassin's Creed Game, 18th: Avowed. So a bunch of high-profile titles releasing in quick succession and taking over store presence. And THEN after that it goes on with the Steam NEXT Fest 2025. Here I should note that it's currently a common indiedev tactic to delay a game's release after a Steam NEXT Fest so that you can participate to gain wishlists and then use that momentum to release immediately in the month afterward. Which means that after the Steam NEXT Fest, March is filled with a bunch of indie releases and then it's already April for Spring sale. Packed, to say the least.

On the other hand, just before Feb 11th there is a small void. The ideal would be Jan 31st, our original release date, but that then has the problem with the short testing times. And as I said, I don't think KCD:II is an Elden Ring-like popular game that will take over the store, so having just one extra week delay should be possible. However, beyond that things get difficult and if we take all these constraints into consideration, Feb 7h seems to be the best date to balance out the need for 1 more week of betatesting and having a better release window. 
There is one more concern, which is piracy. There being a two week delay between 1.0.0-beta-1 and 1.0.0 means there is a good chance that if the beta release gets pirated, those who do so and would potentially buy the game after pirating it, will most likely have already forgotten about it by the release of 1.0.0 - but that seems to be a risk I will need to take.
Okay! With that out of the way; let's get to this week's update! Reminder: Main goal of this month is to finish the Victory Ending Epilogue. I got started last week with the first scene and continued down this path.

Depending on your choices, some things will go back to normal, others might not. We have consequences for a corrupted Laura, a low-lewdness Aura will finally finish her game while a high-lewdness Aura will be too busy fucking George, and then there is Rose for which I won't be putting out any spoilers. :) In total we have 5 new epilogue scenes, most of them with at least two major variations and then a couple of minor sub-variations. Those scenes cover pretty much all the Earth characters and then transition into Roya. Next week I then plan to focus on the epilogue scenes affecting Roya. 
Besides the epilogue scenes, we also have a couple of other minor additions:

• The Verdeaux Workshop now has a 9th level, allowing to craft a new Artifact: Efficient Bomb Creation Tools. Give them to Alchemist to get another 4 extra Bombs per Pyromantium!
• For Slay the Demon, I added an artifact that increases your starting Class Points by 10, but you need to make a certain trade with an NPC in the Entertainment Den.
• The mechanical wasp enemy mentioned in the Artificer Book has been turned into a proper miniboss + a bunch of other Clockwork Forest balancing passes.

Aaaand that's it for the week! One final announcement: Tomorrow (or the day after that) I will be posting a Roadmap post for post 1.0! It will contain my general post-release strategy, a rough outline for the upcoming content in the next 1-2 years for Star Knightess Aura, as well as some first information on my next potential project!

Changelog 1.0.0-prerelease-2 (11.01.2025)

• Added epilogue scene Victory Ending Epilogue Start 2 
• Added epilogue scene Victory Ending Epilogue Start 3 
• Added epilogue scene variation Victory Ending 3: Corrupted Laura 
• Added epilogue scene Victory Ending Epilogue Start 4 
• Added epilogue scene variation Victory Ending 4: Lewd Aura 
• Added epilogue scene Victory Ending Epilogue Start 5 
• Added epilogue scene variation Victory Ending 5: Corrupt Rose 
• Added epilogue scene Remnants 
• Added epilogue scene variation Remnants: Corrupt Rose 
• Added workshop artifact item level 9: Improved Alchemist Bomb Tools 
• Added artifact Slay the Demon: +CP 
• Improved UI for Teaching Club 
• Replaced Mana Stone in Clockwork Tower F3 with Formula: Delta 
• Iterated Clockwork Forest 
• Replaced gold bars in Clockwork Tower F4 with something more clearly decorative
• Added Light I spell for Final Battle to Rescued Adventurers, Matthias and Lorraine

Balancing

• Raised Unicorn defensive stats to DEF 35, Luck 50 and AGI 42
• Reduced AGI check in Richard Domain 2 from AGI 80 to AGI 70
• Reduced Demon Avatar's in Slay the Demon from 50% of original to 40% of original
• Increased Submission gain from Infiltrating Cheerleaders 6 by 5

Bugfixes

• Fixed typos
• Fixed queued action being lost when a battler receives a target restricting state 
• Fixed Bomb Enhancer+ consuming 10 Pyromantium instead of 5 
• Fixed Programmable Forcefield no longer being available in workshop on the prerelease 
• Fixed compendium crash in steam version 
• Fixed Rose debuff during Demon King Battle in intro applying to Explorer instead of Story mode prolonging the fight
• Fixed dialog for teaching John rank I skills showing rank II descriptions
• Fixed Eyes of Greed marker being present on a choice option when willpower is not 0
• Fixed buy and sell windows in shops having different offsets
• Fixed Artificer Log and Mana Orb quests having the same ID
• Fixed animations not playing on immortal targets if their HP is 0
• Fixed Spirit Fox not getting Enhanced at low HP
• Fixed Specters disappearing from Catacombs when Asmodeus is killed
• Fixed Summon Slime I summoning a Medium Slime in Slay the Demon
• Fixed passability issues in Clockwork Forest
• Fixed Orb Charge check still checking wrong quest ID
• Fixed some traps on Clockwork Tower F3 not correctly disabling when turned off at the console
• Fixed disabling Build Bots costing 60 Security instead of 40
• Fixed passable pillar base in Pride Domain
• Fixed casting Open Domain III to open Lucifer Domain not costing any mana
• Fixed crystal tile priority issue in Goddess Domain
• Fixed missing Programmable Forcefield unlock switch in system json
• Fixed incorrect actor to id mapping for roya party members in Final Battle
• Fixed day end initializing all actors and causing early save bloat
• Fixed crash from experimental achievement code being accidentally added to public release
• Fixed Fleura not having Windup in final battle
• Fixed cost of Smash II and raise costs of Mass Smash II and III