Weekly Update - 4 December 2023

Hello everyone!

I hope you're all doing well as we round out the year. 

As some of you have seen, I have a fifteen-item 'editing list' that I want to get through before submitting the game for publication. Having completed steps one and two for now, I'm now hard at work on step three: making a proper character creator. This covers both traits (the way I'm redoing the skill system so no one has to worry about checking math or percentages, which I think will be an improvement), and physical appearance. There's also a shortened version for people who don't care about appearance customization, where the player can pick between three preset options for that after establishing their traits. 

I'm mostly done save for the more detailed version of the appearance customizer, though some of the parts I've passed still need filling in with text. I think the creator itself will only take me another day or two, but integrating it into the rest of the game will be quite a long process that I won't be getting to just yet. 

Still, I hope the gender and pronoun options will prove to be a little more organic than they were in the previous version of the game, as the whole section gives a bit of the PC's backstory, and I think talking about things like potential transition in that context is a lot more natural than in the process of signing a contract! Gender and pronouns are now properly separate from the beginning, which I think is also a major improvement. And of course, there is always the option to tweak things in the custom pronouns menu in the stat screen if some things don't quite fit as the game sets them (e.g., if you want to be called "my lord" even if you use they/them pronouns exclusively.

I'm hoping this way of doing things will achieve several goals: 

1. Give those who like character customization a chance to establish things about their character right off the bat.

2. Give a touch more backstory on the PC, Demeter, and how the PC's life has been up until the events of the game begin.

3. Feel much more natural and inclusive for trans players, and help everyone get the pronoun and gender combination that's right for their PC.

4. Provide a simple and effective setup for the new trait system that can carry forward into the rest of the game. 

I'll have a bonus content this week that talks about the trait system in more detail, for anyone who's curious about how that might turn out to be different from the stats system the game previously used. 

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy your week, and I'll be back in this spot next week with more news and updates. Cheers!