Development Sneak Peek: CH 9 Opening Scene & Şahmaran (Patreon)

Hi everyone, hope your week is going well!

This is the first Dev Sneak Peek I'm posting, so I want to start it off by cautioning that there will be mild spoilers for future chapters in these posts - mainly in terms of coding, future characters, and lore. If you're a person who absolutely hates spoilers, though, proceed with caution!

Chapter Nine: Opening Scene
To kick it off, my development focus for this week is the opening scene for Chapter Nine which will feature the most important and complex variation in the story so far!

I've already seen players on the Discord server notice that the last line of Chapter Eight seems to differ based on a certain choice made in previous chapters, but here are some extra tidbits I can give away while I'm working on the coding for the scene:

• While the "main" variation is based on a single choice, there is a hidden, cumulative stat in the game that has been tracked since all the plot-related choices you've made starting from Chapter 5 up to Chapter 8
• This hidden stat will determine the outcome of the opening scene
• The outcome will then affect all the reputation points your Crown has built so far with the nobles, the public, and Kham
• Based on this, Chapter Nine might look wildly different between two playthroughs!

Here's a little preview of what one part of the coding looks like so far:

So, in short, make sure you have your plot choices in order by the time Chapter Nine comes out ;)

Character Design
I've also already been working on the design of certain characters your Crown will encounter in the (near) future. Most of these are minor characters, and others are much more important, but I'll tell you about the most recent one I'm working on!

I've been thinking about the character design of Şahmaran. I want her to look as close to her original depictions in mythology as possible, while still making sense as a character in-universe. This is what she's typically depicted as in Kurdish folklore:

I like the idea of her snake-half going up past her chest, but I think I'd like to give her arms and shoulders as well so she can lounge around and pose more naturally - and also not have to drag her face/hair over the ground when she's slithering around lmao. Would also explain how she put her jewelry on. How did she do that if she doesn't have hands??? 

Folklore art is not always realistic, to put it mildly. 

To build on that, there's no functional reason for her to have a chest or breasts outside of looking "sexy" or - let's be honest - "fuckable", which isn't something I'm interested in catering to. So, no belly-button, no breasts, she's really going to just be a snake up to her armpits!

Aside from that, the little snake-feet she has are really just, cute? So I don't think I'll incorporate that, I want her to have a really regal and powerful aura when she's eventually introduced, but I'm definitely keeping the sentient snake as her tail. That's just an incredibly sick character detail.

I haven't fully decided on what her human part looks like yet, but I'm thinking of giving her an unnatural green-tinged skin color to fit with her snakeskin, and she'll definitely have snake-like pupils as well. I'll also keep the long black hair and the glittering jewelry the same. 

Aaaaand that's it for this month's sneak peek! I hope you had fun with these previews 💖