July Twofold Update from Caps

Hi there! This is my first monthly blog post talking about Twofold and it's development. Since we're starting out fresh here, I figured it'd be appropriate to talk about how Twofold compares and contrasts with First Snow, since that's an easily accessible point of reference for everyone (because it's free and you should download it if you haven't already! This post will be spoiler free, just in case.)

So, I believe the first thing we outta go over is my role in Twofold compared to what I did in First Snow. In First Snow, I was in charge of the UI and helped make sure that the world was stylistically consistent (ie, avoiding real-world brands and references, to align with Twofold's aesthetic direction.) I also helped implement the VO update post-release. Largely though, direction of the story was left to Suriko and I was hands-off outside of a couple specific requests to set up some things in Twofold, such as dedicating time to showing how close Millie and Caprice were.

Twofold, in contrast, is an entirely different beast. I'm continuing my UI work of course, but I've also managed and organized core story elements and even chip in with some writing help here and there. The papercraft aesthetic that was present in First Snow was also something I directly helped cobble together, but since that was in the cards since before First Snow was even a thing, I'm lumping it into the Twofold responsibilities, especially as it's had some additional refinements since First Snow's release. In short, Twofold is my baby and I love it lots.

With that all out of the way, it's time to actually talk about the game itself! First, people may have noticed that our trailer at Élan Festival was a bit more somber and low-key than our more whimsical First Snow trailers. While Twofold definitely isn't a doom and gloom experience, I did want to use the trailer to show that it'd be at least a bit heavier than what people may expect coming from First Snow. While First Snow largely focused on Allison and her budding relationship with Eileen, Twofold has two different focal points: Olive's personal struggles and the ongoing conflict between Caprice and Millie. Both of these issues have several layers to them, some we're keeping intentionally under wraps, and while I sincerely hope everyone walks away from Twofold with a smile on their face I also don't personally believe it's as light of a read as First Snow was.

That isn't just true of the tone, either. When it comes to the total amount of content, Twofold is substantially larger than First Snow. There's two paths to go down, and each has a handful of alternate scenes you can access via choices you can make. While there's only one core story in each path with only one ending (there's a single, solid story we want to tell) you can choose to interact with various club members that'll add some additional context to the goings-ons in the main story. Internally we call these "friendship paths" but I don't know if they'll be given any official name on release.

I think if you see absolutely everything Twofold has to offer, it should amount to roughly 3x as much content as First Snow. I really hope people are interested enough to uncover it all!

I'll end my rambling there for now. While I could talk about Twofold til the end of time, it's best to save some things for the coming months. As I said in the reveal post last month, I’ve poured my everything into this project, and every day I hope against hope that I can do it justice. I really hope that comes through when you’re finally able to get your hands on it. Until next time!

- caps