12/06 Patreon Devlog (Patreon)

Hi Everyone!

Esh here with this week's patreon devlog

Writing:

Ugh. Guys. ;~;

Why is this the year of distractions? If it's not global pandemics, it's going to be something closer to home, I guess.

This was another week of distractions where I made progress but not as much as I wanted.

Chapter Eight is about mid-way through, but not complete. To that end, Caleb's route did move forward. Just not as much as I wanted. It is now at 64% complete.

I am looking forward to writing the last bit of this chapter since it includes a sweet moment between Morgan and Caleb - one I wrote a while ago but wasn't sure I would end up being able to include.

One of the drawbacks of writing out of order is when you create a scene you really like but end up not being able to use. This happens to me all the time because little scenes and snippets of conversation sort of flit through my head as I work on art so I end up jotting them down and saving them…

Sometimes I get ideas for moments that seem really cute and adorable but that I know just won't...work, so I have to scrap them. OnO It always makes me sad.

Another thing I did this week was brainstorm for other potential routes. 

We had someone take over the top Kickstarter tier but she's unsure which love interest she wants to choose. She knows it's not really going to be Kauri as she's never been terribly interested in him as a character or in his route. 

As such, it's down to Quill, Edan, and Roan. (You can see full sprites below for Quill and Roan.)

Quill is an android who is sort of the leader of a group of them that live in an abandoned area. All androids are supposed to live in a place called Erebos, which is a sort of island they were exiled to. But there are plenty who either escape or managed to avoid relocation. For the most part they're ignored and left to live wherever they are. They're just not allowed in the populated domes - though plenty of them sneak inside. I have some vague ideas for his route. But nothing solid yet. Quill will probably still appear in Reuben's route.

Roan is essentially the leader/president/representative of the people who live in the lower decks of New Terra. They're all people who have been expelled from the upper levels for some reason. They're essentially second class citizens who have their own society down in the lower levels. Again, I have some vague ideas and notes but need to bring them together into a more cohesive plot. Roan will probably still appear in Yuu's route. I have some fun ideas I want to solidify as part of Roan's plot

Edan's plot is also still vague. I would say it's probably the least developed now because I have several different ways I can go with it and I just need to settle on one. I'd say that I just have the most ideas for him and I can't do them all, but I'm struggling to decide which is more interesting. 

So yeah, worked a bit on that as well. I didn't do anything too organised - just sort of writing down quick ideas to start organising my thoughts about these routes.

Art:

I finished out Roan's sprite and Quill's sprite since the last update here. These guys are explained in more detail about. (I say finished - but none of these new sprites have outfit changes or expressions, so they're not FINISHED finished. They just have the bare minimum done.)

We got a bunch of new BG sketches as well as some finished backgrounds for The Court. I'm *loving* the artwork for the court *so much.*

So. So. Much. Omg. @_@ They look amazing! 

Coding: 

The only coding I did this week was actually on….Changeling. LoL

Definitely didn't see that coming, but there was something that needed a bit of attention and I had to work on that.

Music:

I think I may have mentioned that Tobi hired a cellist to make some alternate versions of some of our tracks and I got to hear one that was utterly amazing. I love cello music so it was just incredibly lovely to hear it. 

I think we have one more coming. I'm really looking forward to getting that, to having the album complete, and to really getting the soundtrack squared away.

It was "done" and then Tobi decided to do some more work so it's not quite done. 

But it is always nice when you hit that first 100% completion on part of the game development.

The cellist works with an orchestra so he doesn't have a lot of free time to work on our tracks - I believe Tobi said he should have the other track recorded by the end of next week. OwO

Upcoming Week:

Writing. I'm hoping to finally have a week where I can just *write* without distraction. The last few weeks have really had a lot of turmoil going on with backers shifting around, the itchio bundle which has been awesome - but a distraction.

And just some real life craziness going on too. I really want to just get back to writing.

I wanted to be done with Caleb by now and it's frustrating that he's only a little over ⅔ of the way complete instead of being completely finished.

So yeah, I think that's all for now.

We have a lot of BGs in the works - a training room, a lab, a destroyed cafe, a rooftop...

I'm looking forward to hopefully showing you guys some of those next week! 

See you then! 

~Esh