Weekly Progress Report #5

Good morning! If it's morning in your area. It's time for another weekly report. I have a lot to say today.

First things first, let's talk about actual measurable progress. This week I've finished two more days to v0.3, and those days are pretty much the backbone of the entire update. Not only they are massive (each contains more than 4000 lines of dialogue: just for the comparison's sake, the entire v0.1 was just 3500 lines), but they will eventually decide your future relationships with Melinda, Samuel, Vanessa, and several other characters that I won't mention for now. Sounds good, right? As for the renders, those are still somewhat behind the schedule, but I think I'll be able to finish last images for the fourth today and our total amount of pictures for v0.3 will reach 50. That, of course, doesn't include almost a hundred of characters' sprites (and that number will grow), and the renders from days five and six, which are still yet to be made. I think it's fair to say that v0.3 is 75–80% ready. I have two more days to finish but those are mostly for dialogues, exposition, cliffhangers and some optional content for your chosen routes. If nothing terrible happens, I will release the test version around Thursday or Friday.

Now let's talk about the plans. The first week of February will see our first story poll. Won't tease you too much: it's gonna be about Vanessa. Even if you're not pursuing her route, she will have a significant effect on the story, so this poll won't be centred around anything specifically sexual, but rather determine something from her past, her present and her future. You'll see after the v0.3. But I can give you a hint: can you think of another character in the game that resembles Vanessa somehow? There is one. We're also getting some event polls along with that. Rebecca's role got slightly changed, so now she presents in both straight and gay routes (the reason is that our gay route seems kinda vanilla now. Samuel can't play Melinda's role for obvious reasons, so his storyline doesn't have that sadistic punch. I don't like that, Blake shouldn't get too comfortable), and that's what our poll will be about. Basically if your Blake is straight, Rebecca is going to take him to her girls. If he's gay — to her boys. I'll give you several options to decide the rest. I plan v0.4 to be preparative in a way, because v0.5 will twist a story in a very unpredictable way. Don't worry, no route will be reset, but some things are going to change drastically. I want Blake to spend more time in the city with other characters rather then repeat the old shtick «oh, I've ran into Melinda when she was in a bad mood, now she'll bust my ass», especially since Blake grows more and more tolerant to that. We need more variety. We're gonna get it.

Anyway, I'm pleased with my current progress and hope you like what you read as well. Have a nice weekend!