Development Update June 12th

Why hello there! It is time for our next regularly scheduled update post, it seems. Time really flies, doesn’t it? I hope you’re all having a good June so far. 

Speaking of June, I assume you’ve all seen the first short story I posted. It took me a bit to figure out how much to write, and where exactly to stop before getting into spoiler territory. I want the short stories to be companion pieces to the main story, and as such they can’t give any crucial info that non-patrons would miss out on. But I also don’t want them to be boring, so it’s a fine line to walk on. I decided to include Queen Leanna in this story for that reason - she is a really interesting character that we can never actually meet in the main story.

In terms of the main story, I’ve been making good progress. In addition to Vynn’s hang-out scenes, I’ve now also finished Az’Lean’s and Thianne’s. It’s a lot of fun writing those since they’re all the same story beat but in completely different ways. Just getting to explore the characters and their dynamic with the MC is great. I bet you’ll have a lot of fun reading them as well. I’ve also been sneaking some world building into the hang-out scenes, so even if you’re not vibing with a particular character, it wouldn’t be a waste to spend time with them.

One problem I’ve been encountering because of that though is deciding when to add new codex entries. Would it be weird to get a codex entry for a term you haven’t encountered because you chose to hang out with Az’Lean instead of Thianne? Probably. But it’s a lot of work to add variables that track which codex entry you’ve unlocked and which you haven’t. I honestly don’t think most people care about them enough to be bothered by it. The idea behind adding a codex in the first place is offering a refresher on what's what. The wait between chapters might be long enough to forget certain details.

So yeah, I’ve written a bunch of new codex entries but haven’t decided how to add them yet. In the same vein, I’ve also been working on a calendar and a map. I think having something to look at makes the information easier to digest. We’ll travel to different places throughout the story and time will pass, so having some sort of reference to draw from would be good. I think immersion is really important for a choice based game, since I want you to care about what’s happening and feel like those choices actually matter. That's why I really want to flesh out the world and add those types of details.

I promise I won’t get too distracted with what could be considered non-essential. It actually helps having something else to work on to refresh my creativity between writing sessions. I’ll post the map and the calendar here on patreon once they’re finished, so you’ll get to see them soon.

Another problem I’ve encountered is a bug someone told me about this morning. Sometimes bugs are really easy to fix, like adding a missing bracket to the code, and sometimes I have absolutely no idea what’s wrong. This is that type of bug. It can also just be a problem with itch.io or their browser settings and I have no way of knowing, it’s really frustrating. I don’t know if it’s even worth it to spend hours combing through code if they are the only person who encountered this bug. We’ll see how it goes.

So yeah, that’s where I’m at right now. Next up I’m writing Lester’s hang-out scene, and then we’ll move on to the meeting with Lady Maeve and her hang-out scene. I’ll be a bit more busy these next few weeks since I have a couple of exams, but it shouldn’t affect my progress too much.

I hope enjoyed this post and that you are having a wonderful day!