An update on development and other stuff

It's been a bit since I last wrote an update, and perhaps left it at a bit of a cliffhanger so to speak, so it's about time we remedy that.

I'll start out with development first, and I'll briefly touch on the personal stuff after that.

How is development going?

Looking at the infographic (from last Wednesday), the demo for The Velan Reach (which is basically just a good part of chapter 1) is coming together nicely.

With the penultimate scene for it in the works, and just one more scene to go after that, the content part of it is getting close to completion. That last scene wasn't really planned originally by the way, even though you didn't really see the infographic change because I mistakenly lumped two scenes into one bar a little earlier and so had a bar to spare. But I'll happily take it and add one more scene to introduce a third important character.

What's still left to do after that final scene?

You will notice a few open faces still at the top of that infographic.

For one, there's a bit of retooling yet to do. An overly complicated system for keeping track of how people regard each other in relation to the mc and a similarly complex system of automating formal and informal modes of address both have to go to be replaced with something simpler because they don't work well.

And then there's the character cards I want to create this time 'round, that'll give players one spot to go to look at a character's background, see their statistics, have a little log of pertinent events and relationship modifiers, and to customize your experience with them. I'm not sure how much of that I'll be able to showcase in the demo, but I'm looking forward to implementing as much as I can.

And then finally, there's relationship statistics and attributes still left to implement, as well as a myriad of other things like icons for the executable, different platform builds, User Interface stuff, a few more achievements, etc.

What is still missing from the infographic is all the usual release stuff like testing, beta, creating an android build, and releasing. I'll add that later. For that part there's quite a bit of first-time stuff like copy and assets for the presentation, pages on different platforms, etc. to take care of, but I'm planning to keep that as simple as possible.

So, long short, well on the way, fair bit of work still to do, but getting closer every day. Of course I'll let you know when I have a release date I'm more or less confident with.

What's been the biggest challenge so far?

There's been two challenges that make it different from creating a chapter for Light of my Life. One is that there's a lot of first times compared to where Light of my Life is now. First time creating a character, their wardrobes, getting them in front of a camera to see how they hold up, or if they need more tweaking and fixing, or finding out they do after a first scene and having to go back and redo a bunch of stuff. First times creating sets and props. First times for importing them in the game, deciding on their theme music, fonts, etc.

So far about a dozen character have been created (not counting a few throwaway background characters).

The second challenge is that a lot of stuff needs a little (or a lot) of customization to fit to the setting. That includes sets, wardrobes, and props. With a setting like Light of my Life that takes place in contemporary times, there's a lot of ready to use assets available. With this setting, it takes a bit more time and effort, and a good deal of that actually falls under "first time stuff" as well, so as work progresses that part will become easier too.

If people are interested, I'll do a few "behind the scenes" posts when the demo is out to talk about what was customized and how it was done.

What can I expect from the demo?

Like I said, it'll be a good part of chapter 1, and it'll introduce you to the world of The Velan Reach. It'll contain one lewd scene, and introduce some important characters and possible love interests. It may not be quite feature complete yet when the demo comes out, especially when it comes to the customization options around the character cards, but it should be polished enough to pass muster.

As usual, I'll have a round of beta testing first, that is open to the top tier backers. The feedback I get from that is quite important for the next step. I may decide not to put it out there for all to get but take it back to the drawing board to rework it for a bit, or I may decide to first complete chapter 1 before putting it out there for all to get, or I may just make the demo available for all. My strong preference is to just get it out there for all, but it very much depends on the feedback I get during the beta.

What can I expect from the game?

To give you more of an idea of where I'm going with this, I'm opening up this earlier post - that was meant to test the concept with a small group of supporters first and refine my plans - to all but the ground tier.. Note that some of what's in there has since changed, but overall, it'll give you a good idea of what's coming. And it's got some wallpapers too. Go check it out.

What about Light of my Life?

I've said before that after doing a first release for The Velan Reach, I'd go back and do another chapter for Light of my Life, and that is still the plan.

Any wallpaper plans for Macy and Denise?

Yeah, I should really do one one of these days. It's been a while, and I've missed working with the girls.

Personal stuff

The next section is about the personal developments in my life following my last post on the subject, feel free to skip if you're not here for that.

As you may have read in my previous post, there were some unfortunate developments in my personal life, with receiving news that my mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and my wife falling ill at around the same time in addition to finding out she's a diabetic among other things.

My mother has since passed away as expected, and was able to do so peacefully and on her own terms, which is the best anyone can hope for in such a situation. I'm grateful we got to have a proper goodbye.

My wife is still undergoing tests and receiving treatment but to our relief what's ailing her appears not to be life-threatening at this time and seems related to an infection. While she's not exactly well yet, she is doing better and we have good hope a next round of tests and treatment will see her on a path to full recovery.

I want to say thank you to everyone who commented or reached out for your kind words and concern, it means a lot to us that you did.

What's next?

Well, back to finishing up this demo I guess, and I hope to be able to give you some more information about how that progresses soon. Either that, or getting a new wallpaper done.