Development Blog 2019-01-23

Heyo, how's everyone doing? Hope ya'll had a great start to the new year! Let's make 2019 a good one, and an especially strong one for Repeat's development!  (ง •̀_•́)ง 

Progress so far: 

My writing progress is actually ahead of my art for once! My focus for January and February will be on Day 1 of Phillip's route. After that, I may jump back to Sissel's route or continue on Phillip's, depending on popular demand. 

The 8 page outline for Phillip's route, Day 1 is complete! 15 pages worth of scripting has been completed so far, and I'll probably release all of it in a short update by the end of next week (Feb 2nd at the latest). There'll be 1 new sprite for Phillip in this one, along with 1 new CG artwork. Oh, and a couple new updated sprites for Phillip's pigeon. Can't forget about the birb.

Even Phillip's capable of being a smug little shit. 

I've already completed 4 composition sketches for the upcoming CG scenes in the update afterwards. Preparation is the key to success! Which is probably why I haven't succeeded much OTL

As a side note, I'm going to try to push out 1 small update monthly like in the good ol' days instead of this huge episodic updates in the last few months. It'd definitely help engage y'all more than these long waits of silence. Hopefully you guys will like this system a little better! I'm making it a new years resolution to stay more engaged with my community. You guys have been putting up with me for so long, I really need to spend more time communicating with y'all ;w;

Thoughts and Feelings:

Just a heads up, scenes later down Phillip's route will explore some much darker and more sensitive subject matter than the other routes in the game. Child abuse, anxiety, trauma, and consent, to name a few. I'm actually really nervous about writing this, but I sincerely think it's a subject worth discussing about in stories. Many scenes in likely make many of you feel uncomfortable, and it's a feeling that I want to fully explore and come to terms with.

That being said, I do not aim to romanticize or fetishize any of these topics in Phillip's route. At its heart, it's a story about trauma and recovery, and I want to treat it with as much respect as possible. If you read something that you feel does the subject a serious injustice, please let me know and I will do my best to address the issue.

Other Projects:

On a completely different note, let's talk about other projects I'm experimenting with in the background! I know a lot of you go into Repeat expecting a really porny story, only to be met with hours upon hours of plot instead. I figured I'd start up something on the side that scratches that porny itch some of you may have instead! Introducing - Project Blues:

Those of you who follow me on Twitter might have seen some of the WIP sprite work floating around. The name and story's still in early development, but it's just a really porn-over-plot Visual Novel about Samurott Daddy (Jesse) dealing with his mundane and depressing life when suddenly his estranged son (Erin) calls him asking for a place to stay while he's studying in college. What will happen next???

You know, I say that it's gonna be porn-over-plot but originally Repeat was going to be like that too. I already went overboard and write a 5 page outline on how the story's going to develop and how the characters will grow for Project Blues. Who knows, it might end up being a short, character-development-driven porno instead. I have no control over my writing ideas ;w;

About the character names - I always found it really interesting when big buff dudes are given really feminine names. Ego and masculinity will probably be a major themes I explore in this new VN? Maybe? Gotta make more plans first, it still sits heavily in the conceptual stage.

 As far as development scope goes, this will be MUCH shorter than Repeat. Repeat will always take priority over Blues, which means Blues will have a rather unpredictable update schedule. The character sprites for Blues are more detailed, but much less expressive than Repeat (as you can probably tell). I will probably releasing builds of it slowly for $10+ Patreon patrons, and after a substantial amount of content has been made, I'll release it to all patrons, and then the general public. My $10+ patrons have been putting up with me for so long, it's about time I give them something more juicy ;w;

Personal Life:

So right now I'm REALLY damn busy with so many projects aaaaaaaAAAAAHHHHH OTL

Some of you probably already heard on Twitter, but I've recently been hired as a part-time illustrator/animator for a small design company! I'm also still a part time student taking college classes though. And I'm doing seperate online classes on Animation Mentor. And I promised a few friends I'd help them on their Capstone degree projects. Aaaaaaand I gotta fit Repeat development in there somewhere. 

Needless to say, my schedule is cramped but it's full of things I love doing so I'm pretty excited for the coming months! I've also worked on my time management system and blocked out every hour of my day on Google Calendar to complete tasks I need to do. Stress has been high (as usual), but I gotta say, I'm pretty satisfied with how life is going. Wish me luck! ;w;