Development Update #9: 3rd December 2018

Hi everyone,

Let's begin with the obvious! As you can see above, we've updated the High Life cover art. We love it and we think you will too, which is why we've included three full-size posters that you can use for whatever you'd like. They make great desktop wallpapers! Let us know what you think in the comments.

What's coming in Episode 2? 

Now time for some news. We've had a lot of questions! What's coming in Episode 2? What can we expect in terms of story and setting? We're hard at work on Episode 2, crunching through scenes and continuing to explore plans for future Episodes as ideas emerge. Episode 2 is going to carry on exploring some of the branches established in the first Episode: if Eleanor joined Ignite, her relationship with Aggie and her friends, her relationship with her mother and family, and so on. It will also add new branches and continue to explore the darker paths coming. We'll see parties, drugs, new boys, new girls... 

We're also going to jump around in time more, so whereas Episode 1 spanned one significant day, Episode 2 and future Episodes will cover longer periods - days, maybe weeks of Eleanor's life. No longer following her day-by-day. This also means we'll get to university sooner than originally planned, which is good because it means we can devote more time to exploring the tons of opportunities and events that university opens up.

Paths

Talking about the story in terms of paths is a bit reductive, because we're trying to reflect the reality of life as a real teenage girl: messy and disjointed, no decision black and white or clearly labelled. The 'path' you're on might not become clear until later. However, we're devoting equal attention to all the routes available to the player, whether Eleanor is good and looking for a serious romantic connection with her idealistic boy, or is on a course to something darker and more obscure. 

Almost every decision in Episode 1 is going to re-emerge later in the game. A moment as simple as telling Aggie you think it's a bad idea she opens herself up to being gay, when stacked up with other moments could somewhere down the line be the difference between Aggie suppressing her sexuality for the sake of her friendship, or deciding Eleanor no longer fits in her new life. All of the team have their own opinions about where they want to take Eleanor on their playthroughs, so giving as much weight to each route as possible is helping to keep tempers down! 

We're also looking into opening a Discord server for High Life. We have no experience with it though, so bare with us. If anyone would like to volunteer their knowledge, go ahead!

Finally, we have a few additional surprises in store that we're working hard on, that we'll hopefully be able to reveal more information about soon.

Thank you for your wonderful support, don't forget to download the new cover art!

- Erosion