Visual Novel: Progress Report - 9/3/24

Another month, and we've got quite a bit to talk about this time! Let's get to it!!

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Rough Assets: We spent time on Friday and Saturday making some better sketches of the key characters (Seen above in still-images). They're still somewhat subject to change, but I'm glad to see them in a closer-to-finished look. Every little bit goes a long way towards seeing the final product, especially next to the already-complete Mistress Quintessa ;)

You can also see that one of the first images of the game is a custom cutscene not from the players POV. I like the idea of fully rendered cutscenes to add importance to certain scenes, but - given how much work there is to do on rendering out characters and backgrounds, I think scenes like these will have to come much later, after the mechanical parts of the game are in final working order.

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Coding: We now have the first "chapter" of the game mapped out, code-wise. Everything interactable within the keep updates as intended, depending on how far you are in the story (i.e. doors being locked until they're meant to be accessible.) I've only done a first-pass of the script, and I'll likely do another 2-3 passes before I'm okay with sending it out for folks to test.

We've largely tabled the day-tracker for now. Finishing the first chapter has become a priority for now, as I realize the biggest hurdle towards making this game a reality is having finished assets. This first chapter will help out tons, as nearly every asset from this point on will be reused and recycled in the full game. Having that many finished pieces will make all future development that much easier, and besides...I know everyone's chomping at the bit for more playable content!

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That's probably enough update for now. Since we've got Chapter 1 laid out, I think the next big hurdle will be getting finalized assets for the game. I'll probably take it in phases, which is to say, we'll do final sketches for the backgrounds, so they better match up with the final sketches of the characters, before eventually moving into finished renders. Thanks for your continued support, I can't wait to have this game in your hands!!

--SA