Mid-week check in

So this week I've been doing a lot of writing. I got chapter eight of caissa's route done. And have started chapter nine.

A lot of times when writing it feels like I don't have much I can talk about. I can't talk about what I wrote since it's often spoiler heavy. And there's not necessarily interesting stuff to share about the process every single time.

One thing I finally did do was go back through all the chapters and note good possible CG moments. 

I don't actually know for sure how many CGs each route will have. I'm not promising more than 5 per route + 1 introductory CG for every LI. So basically 6 per LI. 

Based on where the KS currently stands, that's a total of 48 CGs right now + Morgan's one intro CG. Planning CGs is actually more involved than it may seem. Sometimes you have several moments you REALLY want to illustrate but they're very close together and you know you need to space out the CGs over 14 chapters. So you really don't want 2 of your limited number of them in the same chapter.

Some routes have 15 great CG moments while others have only 5-6. 

I try to keep track of good moments while I write, but sometimes I'm a bit lax about it and have to go back through to note them.

It would be so great to be able to include more like 8-9 CGs per route but that's a lot of work for one person. I was so burned out by the time I finished Changeling I really didn't even have the energy to do the 1 extra CG per route that I wanted to do. ;o;

I really want to do this image of Caissa's back tattoo while he's in the shower. But there's also another great CG moment in that chapter so I have to think about which one the players will like best and which one I'll like drawing. I also have to avoid having CGs that are too similar to each other. So that plays a part as well! 

So yeah. Lots of thinking and planning. I'm not to the point of seriously working on CGs yet but it's good to think ahead.

I also started working on sprites this week - and specifically, created a side character sprite for Caissa's route. 

A lot of times I know I need an "extra" to appear and carry some dialogue but it can be hard to write around a character that doesn't really exist yet. So I ended up pausing in writing to create the sprite for this creepy old guy that briefly appears in Chapter Eight. It's much easier to write for a character that exists.

Funnily, sometimes having art for these minor characters can really help me write as well. And this character turned out to insert himself in a much bigger way than planned. But I'll get more into that on Friday! 

Anyway, that's my little check in for you guys! Hope you enjoyed it! 

Fun fact: Did you know that people on Altair age a bit more slowly than other humans? When you factor in the difference in year length, that means this guy is probably way older than you'd think!