June Devlog

Hallo! Time for the June wrap-up! How it's the end of June already, I do not know. But that's the way time goes these days. It's hard to believe 2024 is half over already.

But you don't want to hear me mope about the passage of time. What's up with the game, right?

Still editing BUT...making progress for sure. In fact, I'm really really close to being done with the writing. Of course, every writer knows you're never really done with the writing. You just stop writing and then continue to make little edits until someone pries the project out of your hands and shoves you into a closet to rest. Nearly there. Nearly.

Summary

• Finished the Ch 10 Edit
• Finished editing Asher ending sequence
  • Finished formatting these chapters into Renpy
• Finished editing Daaz's ending sequence
  • Finished formatting these chapters into Renpy
• Revamped and fleshed out all the ending scenario outlines for the four remaining characters
• Finished drafting Kav's ending chapters
• Started focusing on Noel's ending chapters
  • About 50% finished drafting Noel's ending chapters
• Several new BGs
• New BG sketches
• LOTS of UI fixes, improvements, changes, and additions
• Finished a CG 💪 (one)

Writing

I finished revising Chapter 10 and finished proofreading and getting it formatted into the game. It is by far the longest chapter.

The coded word count for the chapter is nearly 89,000 words, which is longer than the second longest chapter by nearly 15,000 words. So it is a hefty chapter for sure.

After finishing Chapter 10, I moved into the ending sequences. The ending of each route consists of three chapters (11, 12, and 13) and each route follows a slightly different sequence of events to lead up to and then wrap up the story climax. 

Asher and Daaz were fully drafted but needed revisions. Daaz in particular needed heavy revision. Both of those are now revised, proofread, and formatted into the game engine.

There's currently about 540,000 words of the story formatted in Renpy at the moment.

Now when it comes to Kav, Noel, Raif, and Yren...

If you can remember waaaay back...I never finished drafting the endings for these four characters because I decided that I really needed to revise the story as a whole and revamp some plot points before I wrote these last four ending sequences. 

Those revamped plot points are why Daaz needed such heavy revisions through his ending.

I didn't want to draft the four remaining guys with such heavy revisions pending, which is why I paused the drafting to revise - something I wouldn't normally do.

So now that all the other edits are done it was time to start drafting these ending sequences. The first thing I did was go through and flesh out all the outlines for the four remaining characters. 

They all ended up with about a 2000 - 2500 word story outline to follow. Kav's ending is now drafted but needs a revision to clean it up and flesh out a couple of sections.

I am now working on Noel's ending chapters. 

I am still estimating the final *coded* word count to be around 600,000 words for this game give or take. 

Here is where we are now though in terms of actual coded word count. 

Artwork

As always, I've received a few new BGs and BG sketches from the artists. The BGs are around 70% complete at this point. We are slooooowly getting there.

I also did a CG for chapter two. Just one though (LoL). 

Okay, that's a lie. I technically did two CGs. And then I realised I did one of them completely wrong and in the wrong pose. ┗( T﹏T )┛  My notes were just incomprehensible and I was tired. I don't know.

I could also just be dumb.

Does that CG count? I don't know. I can't use it but I did complete it. So there's that. 🤣

The other CG is usable though. So yay for that!

Other

Okay. I have been working on some re-designs for the game UI for a while now. Some of the changes are minor (at least visually - the code is often more complex ). Meanwhile, other changes are much more significant or are convenience/QoL additions.

So in some cases I just changed up the borders of different UI components and things like that but I've also started adding in some of the additional areas and screens and buttons and functions. Bit by bit.

I still have a fair amount to do for the UI but I have definitely made progress in that regard, including adding a feature that has been PERCOLATING for a while now.

So I have:

• Made minor updates to the visuals on the customisation screen
• Updated to various things like the skip indicator and confirmation screen
• Updated the dialogue box and name box
• Updated the quick menu including changing where the buttons are and what buttons are included.
• Added a new 'extras' screen to access various extras
• Changed the little translator box that pops up when someone uses a word in their native language.

A lot of these are fairly minor and purely aesthetic changes.

Those are just the changes I've made in-game. I have a lot of screens that are not yet added to the game or else were only partially implemented (like the glossary).

These screens have been redesigned with new graphics but not yet implemented.

• Slightly new glossary design. Including a new glossary feature that I want to implement
• New design for the existing music room
• New design for the gallery that isn't implemented yet
• Designed a new screen for a new feature I'm planning to include
• Re-designed the look of a couple of other screens that had not yet been implemented.

Even though these things aren't implemented yet, I still had to go back and redo the graphics and mock ups so they can be implemented with new designs.Overall it was actually a fair amount of work all together.

Upcoming month(s)

This upcoming month I should hopefully finish the remaining ending drafts for Noel, Raif, and Yren. These are fully planned out, outlined, and ready to be fast drafted. Noel's is about half complete.

So I am nearly there with the writing.

I will probably also continue to work on UI and feature related things - there are still some screens and stuff that aren't coded yet (like a CG gallery). Some of them are really basic and other things like the flowcharts are ready to be implemented but not implemented yet.

I still do not really have an ETA on the first episode release. After the draft is done and I can start focusing on other aspects of development like CGs, sprite assets (there is one minor supporting character on the crew that does not yet have a sprite and she does appear in Chapter Two so that is a "must complete", for example) I can also start thinking about alpha testing and beta testing and Patreon releases. 

Maybe that will be stuff I can finally start talking about in more solid terms in my next update.  

Until then, I will be writing like crazy to finally get this thing complete. See you next update! Thanks for sticking around through this process.
(´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)