Friday Devlog

Helloooo everyone! 

So this week I'm going to start doing something that's been kind of percolating for a while in my brain. And that is a more detailed Friday update for patrons.

I don't know if it's going to be worth it to do a ramble session at you guys every Friday but we'll try for a while and see how it goes. The idea is that I would put these out prior to the blog update and they'll go into more depth about what I've been doing this week.

So let's jump in!

Writing:

So I've really been very writing focused the last few weeks as I try to just get as much writing done pre-Kickstarter as possible. I was hoping to have two routes done by February but I'm just not sure it's going to happen even though I feel I've been making good progress. At the same time, the branching is really slowing me down a lot.

It's not difficult to work it in but it definitely requires a lot more thinking and planning and going back to change stuff up as I write.

In Changeling, I wrote Corvin's route first and it went really fast. I think I finished the rough draft in like...a month. But it's definitely not going that way this time - I think because I have to do a lot more world building in GS and Ari's route is actually helping set some of the world building in stone. I may find some of the other routes go faster as I have to deal with world building less and less. 

Anyway, Ari's route is now around 74% toward the target word count - which is currently 100k. So that means it's around 74k. I think that, realistically, we're looking at a final word count of around 120k give or take.

And I'm trying to not really think about what that means for the overall word count. (What it means is an additional 20k per route. Which means an additional 120k for the whole game. Which means we may be looking at a 770k total word count. And that's if no additional character stretch goals are met.)

Currently, we are at about 23% toward the overall word count goal of 650k.

(I AM GOING TO RAMBLE FOR A MINUTE.

So, the word count thing is a bit dodgy because word count is figured differently depending on the program that you use. For instance, take this bit:

menu:
"Grab your things before they fall on the ground.":
$ crim_score += 1
"Ask the man if he's okay.":
$ eg_score += 1
$ magnus_points += 1

label com_grab_things:
Morgan: "No!"

Scrivener, Word, or anything else is going to count that as being 30ish words. But in Ren'py, I'm pretty sure the only word that gets counted is the "No!" because the rest of it is a menu, label, and variables.

I think in Changeling, for the *entire* script, we lost around 20,000 words due to this difference. In Word, Changeling was actually over 700,000 words (just). But in Ren'py it's only 686,000. 

This really has nothing to do with anything. I just thought I'd share!)

The other thing I did this week was work on Caissa's intro scene. I didn't work on his CG but I do know what it's going to look like...I think. I'm going through to edit both his and Magnus' scenarios so I can start coding them.

Over all, the common route is now around 45k (not including the two interludes which I'm assuming will be 2.5k each).

Art:

We haven't gotten (as of writing this) any more completed BGs. I did see the sketches for the three remaining demo backgrounds last week. I don't know if I'll get a finished one tonight or not. It's very, very rare that I get anything over the weekend so if I don't see anything by around 7-8 PM my time tonight, it'll probably be next week.

I still need one BG for the next part of the demo. It is Ari and Caleb's car - which we see the inside of very briefly before they drive it into a wall and explode it.

I also worked on (as you know) the YCH wallpapers for the Kickstarter. Last time they took me way longer than I wanted. So I'm trying to get them mostly completed so I can deliver on those much faster than I did for Changeling.

There are going to be two just like in our last KS but one of them is only available at a higher tier. Currently, Ari is the only character I've fully rendered for both of them. The guys all use the same base but I do make changes to the facial features (and hairstyle) to reflect the different guys. I think this time I may also make some more obvious alterations to the expressions as well.

But yeah - I wasn't going to actually work on these for a while yet but just kind of felt...like I needed a break from writing, I guess.

The other art related thing that happened this week was that I spoke to someone about commissioning Chibi artwork for the KS stickers and promo stuff. Last time I did the chibis myself and I do like how they turned out but I am really trying to delegate things this time and not overwork myself. Last time I just did so much myself. And I'm trying to be better about it this time. 

So I did get one chibi sketch and it's adorable! \

Coding: 

Not really anything. LoL. I just have not been touching the coding. But I probably will in the upcoming week because I'll start working on coding chapter two - which is actually already started. I have the entire script imported (Except Magnus and Caissa's scenes - those need to be added) and I have Reuben's sprite coded. I think I have Morgan's sprite at least half coded. I don't know if I went all the way to the end of the chapter with her. I think I have to do Ari and Caleb's sprites. I now have a sketch I can use as the car placeholder BG so that'll help with choreographing the sprites through that scene. 

So yeah. I'll start doing that this week most likely. 

Then, of course, you guys will get it for testing. I don't think I'll release chapter two until closer to the KS though. I really want to time it well so it can help build hype for the Kickstarter.

This time around, I'm a little less worried about funding because we do have a bigger audience now, the art style seems to be more popular, and everything. But I also don't want to just assume it'll all be fine.

Upcoming Week:

So this week I have a lot of things I'm going to try to do. We'll see how many actually happen.

I'm going to try to:

• import Caissa and Magnus' scenarios and get the sprites coded for them
• finish Caissa's CG 
• finish Ari, Chapter Ten
• perhaps do some additional coding in Common Chapter Three
• Maybe do some more YCH artwork 

Whether I find the time to actually do all that is anyone's guess! LoL

So yeah. *throws confetti*

This is the first patreon dev log. Everyone who follows on tumblr will find that our updates there will just reiterate a lot of this (with less detail). But we still appreciate the reblogs and such! 

See you guys later!