[PUBLIC RELEASE] 1.4.0.1 Goes Live, Plus Future Plans for WCA

Hey, all! You know what time it is. 

First, new public build download link: https://victorseven.itch.io/wca

Season 2 Episode 4 post play survey: https://forms.gle/WCEgmLRoUgzAtVwf7

1.4.0.1 adds a whole new Main Story episode. Season 2 Episode 4, the full episode, all in one update. This is a really weird episode, and we get to explore a bit of Aurum's past and what made him who he is today. Should hopefully help explain why he made so many judgement errors in the first season. There are a lot of things he's doing wrong, and this episode acknowledges that and the fact that he has lessons to learn if he's not going to repeat his mistakes.

I will say, some of this is based on my own life. I wasn't sure whether or not to reveal that, but I decided to just come out with it, as real experiences make a character more believable. That, and it's nice to get some of this stuff I've been sitting on out. Specifically, the scenes that are black-and-white flashbacks are not scenes that were made up. Those are things that really happened. I was on the fence about including them at first, but I figure, fuggit. Just go for it. This is the story I wanna tell. 

On a lighter note, this is probably the most code-intensive episode I've ever released. There's a lot more "game" in this update, and though I don't think I'll be doing it again, I came out of this with a LOT more knowledge than I went in with. 

Onto the news! We've ironed out the future of WCA and our next project, Goblin Roommates. To be blunt, WCA was the worst, most difficult way I could have ever designed a game, with each scene being meticulously shot image by image. Goblin Roommates, on the other hand, will be using a hybrid of sprites and shot renders like WCA. This will make the conversational bits go MUCH faster, as I only have to make the sprites once and can reuse them forever. But I'm still going to shoot full renders for really key moments and for H-scenes.

And that brings me to the future of WCA. Don't worry, I promised it'll never be abandoned, and it won't be. But doing the game the way we've been doing it is EXTREMELY taxing. So I made a decision and sort of planned out the last few episodes to bring the Main Story to a close. I dunno if I should spill ALL the details or not, but we believe the main story should wrap up by Season 2 Episode 8. After the main story is complete, every patch will focus on adding more Side Story scenes to the girls until all 21 Core girls and all 7 Secret girls have full, 20+ scene Side Stories. We'll also be working on the DLC love interests, as well as holding giveaways of DLCs in the Discord so those who can't afford to support can still enjoy them. Once all 49 characters have full 20+ scene Side Stories, WCA will be a completed game.

While we're working on Side Stories and DLC for WCA, we'll put the time we would have used on WCA's Main Story into Goblin Roommates instead to get some good practice with the sprite system and solving that rendering bottleneck that keeps our updates so slow. Once we've gotten the hang of that and put out a few updates, we'll likely do a poll on whether or not people want more main story content for WCA. If so, we'll do Season 3, the Counselor Arc, as an expansion you can just drop in the original WCA's folder to play, or skip that idea and go straight for the Ambassador Arc, which would involve individual world expansions with new love interests. But as of now, the plan is to close the main story with solving Ms. Clements' problem and finally taking down Willy. WCA has a ton of content already and a ton of love interests, so I'm not sure we really NEED more. Also, finishing the main story will allow us to go back and reshoot a lot of those old renders with the bad lighting so that all of the game really matches well instead of having that jarring transition between two lighting styles. 

ANYWAYS I've droned on long enough. June will be 4 years that WCA has been available to the public, and knowing we're nearing completion feels really good for a game this massive. We still have a ways to go, but it's been an incredible journey so far and we thank all of you for coming with us on it. We have a lot of ideas for new projects and we're ready to create something that's easier to work on. But for now, enjoy the new episode, and don't forget to fill out the survey when you're done! It's got a popularity vote in it and we could really use your input on who the best girl is!

- Vic