Status Report

Hi again!

Thought I'd give you guys a little more info on the state of things. I've been working on all three main components of the game; maps, renders and script.

Maps & game assets:

All new map sections and character assets (images and sprites) are now done. Luckily this didn't require as much work this time around since the update only requires a few new floorplans and there are only a couple new characters. They are all done now and working in game.

Renders (images and animations):

This is usually the bulk of the work for any new update. I usually spend about 60% of dev time working on images and/or animations. This update probably has an even higher percentage of work on renders, because I went a bit overboard on the amount of variations for scenes and the number of animations. My poor PC has been rendering every night for the last 2 or 3 weeks and will probably have to do so for another week. The pregnant scenes required a bit more modification than hoped (due to some big bulges) but I'm in the process of making those changes. Frida's animations (3 view angles and pregnant/non -pregnant version) are also done. But I won't be adding anymore characters this month, since there is just so much else left to complete.

Scripting

I'm adding some new features to the game. One is cheap child labor. You can now use Rosy's children to tend your fields. They will grow, sell and replant the crops on the fields you rent from the farmer. This should be up and running, but I've yet to test it.

I'm adding a small notification whenever you receive a new quest. This is just a minor animation centered on your character sprite, so fairly simple stuff. Working this in with all the existing quests is going to be a pain, though. I'll have to sift through a LOT of script to add in the new lines. So for now I'm just adding it to the new quests to see how well it's received before adding it to the older quests.

I've also been working on the events for Jenny, things are well under way here, but there is still a lot to be done.

Release date

I guess this is the part you are actually interested in...I hope to have completed my script within another week. Then I'll spend one more week testing and polishing the build. Around the 21st of February I'll release a test build for the Nergalites. This build will likely still be missing some cutscenes and minor features. It's mainly intended to bring to light any bugs that were missed within my normal test rounds. Unless the build turns out to be a complete disaster the official release will be around the 28th of February. 

Take care!

Tinkerer