Development Branch and Act XI

So, after the debacle that was Act X's multi-pronged timelines, I decided to change things around a little going forward.

Basically, Beta Branch will be the "stable" version, that people can grind on and play safely. I set up a new Development Branch, where I develop events as I go, with the explicit understanding that, yes, savegames can get broken... please don't grind here. Hopefully that'll help prevent problems in the future. Failing that, at least I get to say I told you so. :)

I mentioned last time I did a sequence for Act XI, because I wanted to show it to someone. I know I said that I was going to go play in Elsewhere, but once I started the end of Book 2 sequence wouldn't stop singing to me, and I've spent far more time than is good (or healthy) these last three weeks working on Act XI instead. As a result, the main storyline is now done from beginning to end of Book 2. There's still side events that'll trigger (related to Katie's story), but MC's story is now done until the end of the Book, and ready for playing on Development branch. To enable it, just switch the Steam build from Beta to Development.

I'll do a public post about the little surprise later (once she gets back to me), but if you play the build now it's pretty clear what it is, so I'll talk a little about it now.

Over a year ago I reached out to one of my favorite indie composers and musicians, Karliene. She's got a wonderful, haunting voice and she's a geek at heart, with most of her songs dealing with fantasy, mythology or video games. I had been sketching out the end of book 2 sequence, and one of her songs just stuck me as absolutely perfect. But I couldn't license it.

So I reached out on Patreon mail (I've been a patreon of hers for quite a long time), and asked if I could get permission to use it. After a while she replied and said yes, and I did a little happy dance. But this was back when I'd just launched book 1 on Steam, and I had a long drive ahead of myself before reaching the last cutscene in the game. Still, the scene stuck with me, and I wrote and rewrote it a couple of times, finally sitting down and animating it back in March. 

The song is a Witcher fan-fic song, called All the Magic. You can check it out here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSFlIHh-tmM

It's both haunting and beautiful, and speaks to some of the core themes of Book 2. 

"I gave it all

So I'd be powerful

I learnt to master

My chaos

But all the magic

In the whole, wide world

Is not enough

It's not enough

It can't return

The part I lost"

So pour yourself a glass of something strong, and strap in. Just remember that Love of Magic is fundamentally a hopeful story, and that in the end it'll have a happy ending.