Update 4 - Behind The Scenes (The Seven Realms)

Writing:

As the update opens, Leyala is waiting up late for Atlas as he has been coming and going very late, meaning that he and Ley have not been able to spend much time together over the past two weeks. Breaking Timeo's compulsion has been exhausting for Atlas, so Leyala offers for Atlas to feed on her blood. I added this scene later than the others in the update, and I did so for several reasons. I wanted to establish a few more details of their bond (when Ley describes how she can feel Atlas' emotions). I also wanted to show that it has been two weeks since Atlas started working with Timeo to break his compulsion. The choice for Atlas to feed on Leyala is entirely optional, but for those that are into the vampire theme, I hope that you liked this choice, and it demonstrated how much Ley trusts Atlas at this stage.

The Pool game was a bit of fun. One route is to turn this into a lewd scene. The other allows you to ask questions to get to know the characters better. The end of the Pool game was another occasion to confirm that Mikel is a little shit.

Then Timeo. Poor boy. In my first draft of the story, Timeo died at this part, but I was so upset about it as he's such a kind-natured character. Jay then looked at me like I was a weirdo and reminded me that I am the author, so he doesn't have to die right now in this horrible way. So I've adapted his story, which we will explore later in another character's optional path. But for now, he is in constant excruciating pain, poor guy.

But most excitingly of all, it appears that Kerros' location is finally known! Charles' scouts have found where he will be meeting someone, so Atlas is heading there now! You can choose whether or not Leyala will come with you, and this will have an impact and opens up two varied paths within the next update.

Technical Aspect:

At first, I wanted the game of Pool to be interactive. The game would have involved a mini-game that you could choose to play or skip. Then I thought about my coding skills and available time and decided against it. Even if our programmer Nosochek is great at coding, I code a part of it and then send it to them to clean my mess and add things for it to run smoothly. I didn't want them to spend multiple days trying to make sense of my code.

"Why did I do that?" could be the name of this update. I wanted to work on my animation skills while doing something a little bit hot, so I put in a lot of animations. The assets were heavy as well. In the end, I just wanted to cry. That said, I am happy with the progress I made in animations, thanks to this experience lol.

Did you play through the path of the questions during the Pool game and choose to miss the last shot? If you did, this offers somewhat of a unique question that may impact something much later in the story.

Cheers,

Tae