22/11 Patreon Devlog (Patreon)

Hey Everyone! 

Here is this week's Patreon devlog - brought to you by...Esh! Let us begin.

Writing:

Very little writing done this week. As I said, my focus will be on other things for the time being. I did crack open the Crimson interlude and have started somewhat working on that.

The "interludes" are what I'm referring to as a really short portion of the story where the player's faction has been determined, but their love interest has not. It's technically still just part of the common route. And based on the Endgame interlude, it looks like they'll be about 2500-3000 words long. 

Crimson's has a full, detailed outline because at one point I was going to try to do really detailed outlines for every route. I eventually realised making highly detailed outlines doesn't really work well with my writing style and I decided to do more of a scene-by-scene synopsis instead.

But The start of Caissa's route is heavily outlined - including this little interlude. So...yay!

Art:

Aaaaaaaaart! 

Okay, so confession time. Until this week, I've been working on a surface pro 3 - not a bad machine by any means, but not a great machine for doing artwork. When I first started working on it, it was able to handle Photoshop okay but would get laggy if the files were really, really big. At some point I had to get a new tablet because my old one started having issues.

I think it may have been the new tablet that really made Photoshop unusable on my surface. Basically, it couldn't really handle even small files anymore. It was very laggy. I'd ctrl +z and have to wait 3-4 seconds for anything to happen. Switching to the eraser, trying to erase...it was all the same. Draw two lines, pause for three seconds for it to catch up.

It was frustrating and while I could do art like that, it made me not want to. 

So I finally decided to get a better machine to work on. I ordered it and received it this week.

And like I was telling Sprocket - you don't realise how much your tech difficulties are holding you back until you no longer have to deal with them.

I had been working on an intro CG for Lance to use in a Kickstarter reward and I'd worked on it a bit for a few days and set it aside until the new laptop came in. When I opened it to test how PS was working on this laptop, I finished doing the lineart in about five minutes. It was so amazing to work without having to constantly pause. (Funny story though - I'm so used to having to stop and wait for lag when I change tools or undo something that I find myself still pausing briefly before realising "Oh wait, it's not lagging. I don't have to pause.)

So the great news is that I can now work on art so much more easily. 

I was able to finish Lance's intro CG. Now - I don't know that I'll actually be able to use it. I obviously hope so, but as his intro scene isn't written yet, I can't really promise it won't be edited. But I needed something for use in a set of wallpapers I'm creating for the Kickstarter so I looked at his synopsis and kind of approximated what I think I'm going to have happen there. 

(One thing that will definitely change is that this scene does not take place in Morgan's flat. I just don't have Lance's backgrounds yet.)

I also was able to work on the YCH wallpapers. As I've said, this time around I really want to have the bases completed before the Kickstarter even launches. Last time, they were only partially complete - still in sketch phase I think? And this really slowed me down when it came to delivering them. So I don't want to repeat that.

I got the female base in both compositions fully shaded. The current shading method I'm using is easily recolourable so this will make it so the only artwork I need to do is the figure's details (hair, clothes, etc).

I got all the LI bases done in YCH(A) and will be working on YCH(B) in the upcoming weeks.

I also did a lot of the graphics needed for the KS - headers, cover art, etc. It's obviously months before we need this stuff, but I want to get it all done ahead of time.

I also randomly made some fixes/changes to Sasaki's sprite (in the leg area so his general appearance is the same.

It is just so nice to be able to work on art properly. To be able to even voice chat while doing art. It's such a relief to be able to enjoy drawing again.

Upcoming Week:

This upcoming week, I plan to focus on finishing up the base artwork for the remaining YCH wallpaper/art designs for the Kickstarter. 

It probably will only take a day or two - I might be finished over the weekend. I'm not sure. After that, I will probably start working on the special set of wallpapers or maybe the special V-day artwork I plan to release.

There is a basic set that uses existing game art (with the exception of Lance, who I had to make a CG for). 

But there will be an additional set for higher tiers that have exclusive artwork. 

Basically, I still have a ton of artwork to do for the KS.:

• The remaining header/cover art.
• Preview images for CGs, backgrounds, etc.
• Special wallpaper set
• V-day artwork
• Mobile wallpapers
• Probably some stuff I'm forgetting

So this is where my focus is going to be for the next few weeks! 

Anyway, see you guys next time!

~Esh