Hi everyone! Time for this month's wrap up and devlog. I can't believe May is over already. That's a bit bonkers. 

Let's jump into the update. I'm not going to cover the release of Chapter 6 as that just happened and is hopefully still fresh in everyone's mind but this is talking about everything else I've been up to!

Summary:

• Released the beta for Chapter 6/Episode 4
• Released the EA for Chapter 6/Episode 4
• Released the public build for Chapter6/Episode 4.
• Started working on Chapter 7 sprite expressions
  • Finished coding expressions in all menu branches
  • Finished expressions in the common route
  • Started expressions in Asher's path
• Wrote about 1500 words of new scene content
• Revised a couple of scenes to slightly change the flow of events and add more variation between characters.
• Completed 2 new (relatively simple) BGs
• Completed a new minor character sprite
• Started planning out CG locations and composition

Art

So this month I did actually do a bit of art. I don't often do BGs any more because I don't enjoy it or have time for it. I tend to contract out that step to people who are better, faster, and who don't (presumably) hate it.

But sometimes I do still do some background art whether it's doing cut ins like the standing stone from Chapter 5 or even some simple BGs.

So yeah, I did a couple that were relatively easy and I knew I could quickly do myself instead of having to commission them.

I also started working on the sprites for the extras/minor characters in Chapter 7. There are going to be around 4 minor character sprites appearing in Chapter 7. I want to re-use bases like I did in Gilded Shadows.

This allows me to avoid using silhouettes (which I don't mind in other games but don't, I feel, suit my game or style for characters that have speaking lines). I typically only use them as a background element in environments that need crowds or characters visible in the background). Having a re-used base where I can alter hair or clothes gives the impression of varied minor characters while minimising work. But I think I'll have at least 3 bases to work from this time instead of just the one like I did in GS.

Coding and Other

I started working on coding the sprite expressions for Chapter 7. This is a long chapter. It is over 80,000 words coded. That is pure story text and narration. That word count does not include any expression calls, jump labels, etc. 

So it's big.

Every aspect of this chapter is going to take a really long time so I'm just trying to get a head start as much as possible. As of now, sprite expressions are about 40% complete for Chapter 7.

Writing

As I mentioned I ended up adding about 1500 words of new content to Chapter 7 because it wasn't long enough already. (It was long enough - I just can't help myself)

Seriously though. I basically decided that I wanted to have some scenarios focused on the "Blue Eyes" and "Silver Eyes" characters. It's something I have known for a while that I probably wanted to add so I finally just bit the bullet, as it were, and added those scenarios to try to flesh out the interactions with them before the major "off ramping" begins.

The first actual ending in this game *can* occur in Chapter 8. So I'm just prepping for that a bit.

I've also been editing some of the character variations in Chapter 7 - one scene in particular because while none of the content was copied/pasted, there are definitely sections in the upcoming chapters where the variations aren't quite as varied as I want them to be. But having to write a 2000 word scene 6 times while ensuring plot compatibility and continuity...gets exhausting. So there are places where the scenes are quite similar and I've always felt like maybe I wanted to edit those.

Chapter 7 has one of those moments. Chapter 10 has one of those moments as well...

So yeah. Just adding in a little more variation here and there. Which slows down the sprite expressions but is still a necessary improvement.

Upcoming Month

In the upcoming month I will definitely be continuing sprite expressions. I am trying to get those done as soon as possible because quite frankly...it's always the worst part. By far.

And obviously beyond that, I'm working on the full episode check-list which means making note of or adding things like glossary articles, or translation articles, and so on.

There's a fair amount of art for Chapter 7 and just a fair amount of everything. It'll be a slow trek to the Chapter 7 update so the upcoming month is just work on the expressions + whatever else.

We'll get there eventually.

Anyway, that is all for this month here on Itch. 

And I will see you guys at the end of July.