Development Update June 26th

Why hello there! A new update post already? How time flies! It feels like only yesterday that I released the first demo, but it’s already been over a month. And what a fulfilling month it’s been, I’m honestly having a lot of fun working on this and reading people’s feedback.

I also want to thank you once again for your continued support! There’s always the worry that patrons only stick around for a month if they aren’t satisfied but I hope you’re happy with the content you’re getting. On that note, I’ve started working on the next short story - this one will be all about Vynn so you can look forward to that.

Let’s get to the progress I’ve made these past two weeks. For one, I’ve completed all the hang-out scenes. I have to admit I’m glad I’m done with those, as writing them feels a bit like you’re stuck in a time loop. I’m not looking forward to having to proofread these scenes later, haha!

In addition to that, I’ve also written the upcoming “meeting” with Maeve. I’ve put it in quotation marks since there’s the option to not listen to what she has to say or even grow hostile towards her, which I imagine a lot of readers will choose. Isn’t it so interesting how these readers will miss out on a lot of information about the fae, thus making them more biased against them? This is my first time writing something with choices and branching paths like this and it’s so cool how it changes the dynamics.

So yeah, the meeting with Maeve is done. It’s a nice way to up the tension for the second half of the chapter. That’s right, we’re pretty much half-way through the chapter already! This doesn’t mean the chapter will be finished in a month - there’s lots of proofreading and bug fixing that comes after the writing, but it’s definitely looking good for a late summer release. At least for you guys, the none-patrons will have to wait longer than that.

In terms of numbers, we’re now at around 28k words for this chapter and I’m aiming for something around 60k, though it could end up being a bit more than that. I know that sounds like a lot, but with coding and branching paths it’s not that massive. Though comparatively, the other chapters are only around 40k each, so it is a step up for sure.

So, what’s up next? You’ve seen the calendar and the map is finished too, though I’ll wait a bit to post it just so you still have more content to tide you over. Next I’ll work on implementing more codex entries, as well as adding an option to change your pronouns and name between chapter 1 and 2 - a commenter on itch.io brought up the idea and I think it’s simple enough to add.

As for the second half of chapter 4, I’ll talk a bit about it below so stop reading here if you don’t want any spoilers at all.

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The second half of chapter 4 will feature our first mission outside of the castle and the city. Something happens, fae are involved, and Az’Lean wants to go check it out. Of course you’ll accompany him, as will Thianne, Vynn and a few other knights. Once you see the situation for yourself, you’ll get to make a judgmental call that will have majorly different outcomes later down the line - so it’s a good idea to think about it carefully.

Let me tell you what the name of the chapter will be: 

Wild Hunt

I’ll let you guess who the hunter and who the hunted will be.

Especially the end of this chapter is really important for the rest of the story, as your alignment to humans, fae, neither, or both will start to be measured from this point on and characters will take note of your choices as well. It will take a few chapters before you really have to commit, but the choices before that matter a lot as well.

I’ve thought about adding a warning at the end of chapter 4 that some choices will have drastic consequences and that some things can’t be undone, but maybe that’s obvious anyways. Maybe a warning like that adds tension and is useful on a meta level, but we’ll see.

So in total, I'm progressing as planned, no major roadblocks yet and I’m hoping it’ll stay this way. I hope you enjoyed this update and that you are all having a wonderful day!