Introduction
Hey everybody, Corthon here for a special event! Wow, can you believe that it's already been one year since the release of Monika.EXE: OUTDATED's first demo? That's wild! (Oh yeah, uh, it's Valentines Day tomorrow too, I guess. Not as important, though...)
Since it's such an important day (aside from November 26th, which would be MEXE's creation date & in-lore birthday! :3) I've decided to pull the curtain all the way back for you guys - follow me as I show you how the team's been pulling through this past year, as well as some sneak peeks of content we've managed to make during this time!
Development Status
Okay so basically we've done jack shit and this mod is going to be cancelled by the end of this year.
Just kidding! Kind of.
Mod development for the full release started off really strong, actually! We managed to utilize the temporary traction we got from the demo to assemble a new team, and soon enough we quickly got to work. Ambitious plans were made, I got myself a board of co-directors to help me out (consisting of only two other people), and we started making progress. We managed to get a lot of stuff done in the music & coding department, surprisingly! A couple of months into the process, though, and I began to feel overwhelmed by the giant scope the project had managed to develop. In order to keep the mod from bloating immensely in size (much like A Project In Which We Shall Not Name), we cut off some characters, most of which were just shallow fancharacters made by various members on the team for fun. Some of them were pretty darn entertaining, admittedly!, but I think in the end getting rid of them was the better choice.
Unfortunately, the pruning wasn't enough to get my head back in the game, and so I ended up taking several breaks from development, leaving the two co-directors to handle the weight by themselves. While I was gone, I turned my attention to other projects, and...ended up fucking them up a couple of times. Those who are in the know may realize what I'm talking about, but long story short I eventually came to the conclusion that I was not the best director and I had too many projects on my plate for me to juggle them all in succession. I closed down most of the projects I was currently working on and returned to OUTDATED, which had lost its board of co-directors in the meantime (they had let me know they were going to leave before they went, so it's not like I was unaware of this). I am currently trying to pick up where my two co-directors left off, familiarizing myself with what I had missed while I wasn't paying attention to development & figuring out to go next. To add on top of the trouble, most of the team members have been upsettingly unresponsive, so I've had to constantly ping people to do mod work, with only the few remaining active members as company.
I've got my final plan for the mod, though! I'm satisfied with my current pitch for the full release's content, and with any luck I won't need to scrap anything else!
The Plan
I plan for the overall development for FNF OUTDATED to be split into three phases:
PHASE 1: SONGS, UI & MENU/ENGINE?
All of the basic stuff that you're bound to see in your average FNF mod, pretty much.
The mod's full release aims to have 9 new playable songs in total, with some cutscenes potentially planned to be added in-between if we have the time. As of writing, almost all of these songs have been finished, with only one remaining! Yippee!
The main menu is also planned to be expanded upon. Some progress for it has already been made & could be considered functional for the most part, however it's still greatly unfinished, and it'll take a while until to be completed, haha! The UI might change a bit, too, I guess? The only significant thing I plan to have changed about it is the aspect ratio, from 16:9 to 4:3, but that's about it. I'd rather not change what's already flawless in its own right.
A second playable character is also planned to be in the full release. I'd say who it is, but I kind of already have. You just need to look places outside of here :)
PHASE 2: ███████
Unfortunately, there's nothing much I can say about this phase. The only thing I'm willing to elaborate on without spoiling any secrets is that we're going to be pushing the boundaries of this project a little bit. :) It's very much an idea that may be impossible, and that we'll have to end up scrapping this somewhere down the line, but I hope this won't be the case. This phase will be very, very important for the mod.
PHASE 3: SECRETS + LORE
Nothing much I can really explain here either, I suppose. Stuff will be hidden in the files and in-game which will allude to pieces of the mod's backstory. I've always disliked the idea of having lore being handed out on a silver platter without a second thought, so for MEXE I want people to really work for the lore. I'm not going to make it easy to decipher.
Suxxorstatement & Coders
Suxxorstatement, the main coder for FNF OUTDATED, was one of the two co-directors that was keeping the mod going while in my absence. Due to the stress that came with responsibility getting to him (among more private factors that I will not be getting into), he eventually decided that he wanted to step out of the project and resigned. At his request, his name will be removed from the credits in the mod's description, as well as any future builds. His code will still be used (with permission), however, and his name will remain in the in-game credits of Demos 1 & 2 due to the builds no longer being supported.
It's been very hard trying to keep progress going without him, and coding has had close to zero progress made since his departure. Despite these troubles, however, the project shall continue on, and Suxxor's decision will be respected; the rest of the team and I wish him well on his future endeavors.
That being said, however, the two supporting coders that still remain on the team may not be enough to sustain the development team - a Help Wanted post for coders on my Twitter was posted before the publishing of this devlog, so be to take a look at that! (And spread the word, of course.)
Sneak Peeks
What would a devlog be without sneak peeks, after all? If I don't feed the dogs frequently enough they'll start pissing all over the floor.
Take a look at some of the stuff the team has managed to cook in the kitchen since last year! (The stuff that we can show, at least...)
Tweaks
To start off, I've been remaking/tweaking some of the preexisting assets to make sure quality consistency is maintained & the mod doesn't look like a disgusting cesspool of artstyles if it ever releases. A notable asset to to be aware of (that appeared in the Giggle demo) is BG Sayori!
Sayori's sprite in the demo is, admittedly, something that I'm not proud of: it was heavily off-model and very shitty in general, so I decided to go back and redo it to look better!
To make sure that none of you rapscallions decide to snatch the sprite for yourselves & trace them for whatever purposes, I've made sure tWoah! Are those famous SWEET BRO & HELLA JEFF characters, "SWEET BRO" and "HELLA JEFF"?
Sorry, I got distracted for a moment there. What was I talking about again?
...Oh, yeah! Sayori's sprite. The new sprite was made with help from later58, one of our mod's newer artists, who made the concept art for me to use as a reference. God bless him! 
I also went back and redid all of the icons for OUTDATED's full cast! The previous icons that we were making for the mod had a bit of a consistency issue (primarily in size), so since I was able to I went back and remade them mostly from scratch! Here's a little taste on what's to come for them...
Some of you may recognize this screenshot. It's a little bit old, I admit, hahaha! This was posted in the DOKI DOKI FUNKIN' HUB Discord server, which you'll be able to join by digging deeper into the description of this mod's page! 
Now that we're more or less done with going over everything that's been changed for now, how about we make our way towards something new...
MEXE Song 2 Design Reveal (Real)
Earlier fans of the mod may remember this image from one of our previous Help Wanted posts: MEXE's normal form, next to a silhouette of what could very presumably be her second form...
And a second form it certainly is, my dear friends! Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present MEXE's official second design!
...I. Hm.
I certainly remember it looking better than this.
Perhaps I should inform you all on a little secret: This is no longer the final sprite for MEXE's second form!
Let's all agree on this here, it doesn't look good whatsoever. It could be passable if you squinted your eyes hard enough, but it's not exactly what I would call "up to standard" with FNF OUTDATED's current level of quality.
Her second idle sprite was remade a while ago and is currently in the process of being properly finished as we speak. Believe it or not, it was already teased in secret a while ago! You guys have aaaaaaaall of the resources needed to find said teaser...
You just need to go out and piece them together.
Songs
I've decided to let some smaller songs get published casually for the occasion as a taste for what's to come music-wise. I could say some stuff about Giggle V2...
Hm...
...Nah. Maybe at a later date. How about we talk about other songs instead? I know Sweg's got some good stuff to show. 
On the 27th of Feburary will come the anniversary of the first teaser for the full release of FNF OUTDATED, so to commemorate the upcoming past post I've allowed the release of the pause track variant for it. (Surprise! If you all didn't know before, each playable song in the full release will also receive a pause menu variant to boot!)
Sweg also decided to post the primary game over track for this mod: Just MEXE! This track has already been used in-game in the 4/1/2023 release, however it was never given an official release.
And...oh my, whatever could this be???
A game over variant? For a character we don't know about yet??? The plot thickens...
These three tracks will all receive official Youtube mirrors in due time. I'll be sure to update you all when said mirrors release! 
That's all I have to show for teasers/sneak peaks for now, I think. I guess it's time I...
...Hold on. I almost forgot.
System Restart
You guys thought that was all I was going to leave y'all with, huh? On OUTDATED's anniversary, out all days? Hahaha, no way in hell, dude!
Tune on in to Milo008's Youtube channel, where the premiere for MEXE's second song, System Restart, will soon begin.
The fun is only starting.
Conclusion
Wow. One year gone by, huh? I still can't get over it.
I almost forgot to do something for the anniversary, fun fact! If I had realized sooner that this day was coming, I would have taken the time to spice this devlog up a little bit and add some decoration. Alas, all textwalls...
So many things have changed since I drew that little sketch of "creepy fucked up Monika" way back in 2021, both inside & outside. I made friends, I lost friends. I grew up and I had the chance to re-realize myself as a person. I got to become higher in status than ever before, and every once in a while I managed to get knocked back down. It's been a wild ride full of emotions (both positive and negative) and stress...I wish it could've been easier sometimes. But hey, that's just life! Much to my festering disappointment, I can't control everything.
My advice to you all? Directing is hard! It's something that requires a mix of many factors, from skill, to patience, to pure fucking luck. It's easier than it looks, and honestly? It might not be worth it to some.
I've never done a project this high in caliber, and at times I fear that all of this will end up being for naught, much like almost every single other project I've made. I can't bring myself to give up. I've already gone too far.
Everyone, fans & team members alike: Please, lend me your strength. If we can all stick together and truly work as a community, perhaps one day this mod will be able to come out proper, and I will one day be able to stare upon my work with a smile.
Thanks for the long year, everyone. Let's hope the following one will be more in my favor.
With love, Corthon. XOXO
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Go b4ckwards, before /t is too 1ate.
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