Hello everyone! First update of 2024. What have I been getting up to in the last month?

Let's find out.

Spoiler alert though - suffering in many ways. 🤣🤣

Ramble

So first of all, I've been dealing with increasingly severe chronic pain issues over the last few weeks and it's somewhat impacted my ability to work. So progress has been a bit up and down because the pain has been fluctuating. Some days I can't do much typing because my hands hurt or I spend hours in a horizontal position because that's the only position my spine has decided is acceptable.

So that's a thing.

Writing

The current script word count is 485,000 words. 

I have mostly been focused on editing and organisation and things of that sort. I mentioned last time that I wanted to get one full route completely edited so I could get a feel for where the overall project is going to land.

I can learn a lot about the game and how it's going to be structured when I have one complete path to look at. Because in the structure of this game, the routes are all very similar.

Asher's route ended up at 76,000 words. (This is the pre-coded word count so it'll be shorter when coded) but that is about where I expect the other routes will end up when they are drafted and edited fully. So yeah.

Now have a clearer final target.

I'm kind of expecting around 610k+ for the final product. Of course, that's uncoded. It will probably be closer to 550k once it's coded, so that will be the actual word count that you all see.

So. You know. Keeping it below 600k 💪

At this point I'm just working my way through editing and final chapter drafting. We are getting there. <3

Artwork

Honestly I do not remember. I know at least 3 new BGs. Maybe 4. It is hard to keep track of when BGs come in. Which is just something I should track better.

Also one new BG sketch.

Backgrounds are almost 45% complete.

I don't think I've done any other major game art though I've been planning CGs for chapter two and starting to hunt for references and the like.

Other

Feniks has been making some great progress on the flowchart code and I'm honestly REALLY excited for how flexible and cool it's going to be. Mind you, a lot of the coolness and flexibility is about how it works and not so much what it looks like. So players may not find it AS cool because it'll just look like a normal flowchart for you. But anything that makes the flowcharts easier and more intuitive to set up is a win for me.

I've also been thinking of a slight redesign for the glossary to make it a little less disruptive  while playing. That is still in the works.

And finally I did actually code chapter 2 after I finished completing the edit. It doesn't have many sprite expressions yet but the script is in the game.

I've been doing a "David run"* and making corrections and fixes as I go. Due to the amount of shoulder, arm and hand pain I've been having, things that require minimal typing have sort of been my focus because I can do that without suffering.

And taking the raw script and putting it into Renpy is really just a lot of copying and pasting. So I don't have to spend hours typing or drawing or something.

*for those who are new, a "David Run" is when I play the game with the auto-voice feature on so it is read aloud to me. This helps me catch a lot of continuity errors, typos, and other issues that kind of hide when you're reading through the script. 

Hearing the script just makes some of those things stand out a lot more.

I call it a "David" run because the default Windows voice for auto-voicing is named David.

Upcoming month(s)

In the upcoming month, writing and editing purgatory will continue. 

But I will also be working on getting chapter 2 coded. Although we're still a ways from any sort of new releases, it's useful to at least get the script coding out of the way so it's ready to go when everything else is.

I still need some assets and features to be finalised before I can even start to think of release so we're a ways away from that.

But the script for the first official release is ready. So I may as well get the sprite expressions and everything done bit by bit as well.

That is all for this month.

And remember that I do weekly developer updates on Patreon. 

I also post character art and wallpapers, as well as some additional character lore and world building stuff there for some tiers. So please check it out if you're interested in supporting me over there. And, of course, once this game starts releasing, Patrons will get beta and early access.