12/20 Devlog

Hey Everyone! 

Esh here with another patreon devlog.

As some of you know, the last few weeks have been incredibly difficult for me. It's sort of been one thing after another, with the "things" getting progressively worse.

I feel like my productivity has been pretty low due to, frankly, extreme exhaustion. As well as just trying to come to terms with some severe emotional upheaval.

But, of course, I've continued to work on this project. But I do feel that these updates may be shorter than previous updates and I haven't really adhered closely to my goals because I found I just didn't have the energy or mental fortitude to take on some of the tasks I intended to take on. So I opted for things that required less thought and energy instead.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know why that was.

Writing:

Very little, this week.

I did make some small edits - mostly based on whether the player chooses silver hair or not. There was a small edit when she meets Ari and another when she and Reuben (potentially) discuss her hair colour.

Originally the hair colour wasn't going to be such a big deal but as silver hair became more relevant in the plot as an indication of overuse of psychic ability, it started to become necessary to explain Morgan's silver hair if the player chooses that colour (which I suspect many people will).

So the idea of "fade" has become a little more prominent than I intended (or it will be for people who choose silver hair). 

And as that part of the world building has become more solidified, there are also just more characters for whom it makes sense to have silver hair or hair that is fading to silver. 

So now it's just a THING.

 Art

I ended up finishing Trina's sprite (Trina being the character who attacks Morgan and the others at the end of chapter two, and who makes her first visual appearance in chapter three. 

She is the one who attacks the characters at the end of chapter two and while her physical appearance is actually fairly short lived, I felt it was important to get a sprite for her done.

Incidentally, Trina was originally a major antagonist in the original project but now that the story is divided into individual routes that deal with a wide variety of story lines, I'm not sure how much she'll actually appear in the game.

I hope I still have time to deal with her backstory, but it's hard to say at this point. At any rate…

I really only got the bare basics done for her sprite since her face is concealed and there was no need to do more than a single expression for her at this time.

One thing I think she helps establish early on is the idea of silver hair being a more plot relevant issue rather than a purely design based choice. OwO

I played around a little with Rory's hairstyle, trying out something new for his style when he potentially returns much later in the story.

Worked on some variations for some of the existing sprites - such as (finally) adding in the cut on Ari's cheek, adding some bruises and what not to his sprite for this chapter, and so on.

Coding: 

I have been working on getting chapter three coded. I finished all the sprite expressions and scene choreography. 

I coded in the music and am now working on sound effects. 

So...basically...I'm nearly done. 

All of this coding is fairly straightforward and is mostly just tedious as opposed to difficult.

There is a bit of twisty branching that happens in one part of the chapter and I am not totally sure I have it set up right. I think I do but I've been so tired lately that I feel like I'm perpetually at like 50% capacity. 

I also ran into a really weird sprite glitch that I was never able to really figure out. It seems to be fixed now, but I never actually worked out what was causing it and it just sort of went away…

So hopefully that madness doesn't resurface.

Demo:

I am hoping to have the demo out to beta testers within the next couple of days (or maybe even later today) so I can release it to patrons within a couple of weeks. I want to release it publicly toward the end of January - just before the KS.

This is the last part of the common route that I am *definitely* releasing publicly, though I intend to make chapter four available to patrons. Possibly the "interludes" as well.

There's a chance I'll release chapter four publicly as well - but not for a long time. If I do, it'll be significantly down the line just to get people talking about the project again.

Chapter four is, of course, already written and I'll probably start coding it as soon as chapter three is released regardless.

So yeah, that's kind of the timeline we're looking at. 

Next week:

Next week is Christmas week, of course. I'm sure I'll continue working some through most of it - as I do. But I don't think I'll have any specific plans to work on beyond just continuing to try to get the demo to testers for, well, testing.

And that will mean making any necessary corrections and fixes. 

So yeah, that's it.

Sorry if the most recent updates have been lacking - it's hard to stress just how tired I am and how difficult it's been to put together coherent updates at all. 

I hope you all still find them interesting and informative.

Thank you for sticking with us through all the weirdness! 

~Esh