Dev Log #2

Today I want to share some exciting news! Chapter 1 of SotD will most likely be releasing by the end of the month! I only have a minor fight scene, three smaller scenes, and one bigger scene left to do. I'll be set the release date for a few days after everything is written and rendered. So as soon as it's done the date will be revealed! That way I have a little bit of time to go through it all and bug test/polish things up before making it available to the world.

Development Progress

Since my last post I have finished up another lewd scene with 3 custom animations! This brings the total amount of lewd scenes to 4. 2 animated and 2 not. (The 2 that aren't, don't have sexual interaction, just nudity.) The total animation count is up to 5 now.

I finished a big scene having to do with the MC and Layla's shared history, and part of the MCs trauma that he is learning to move past. A somewhat short filler to bring a bit of humor and sexiness to de-stress from the aforementioned scene.

I spent days reworking the UI quite a bit to add some flashy new effects and animations to almost all screens. Don't worry, they still follow the Ren'Py default so players don't get too confused. Except for the preferences/options screen. That thing looked messy by default so I cleaned it up a lot and players will have to adjust. (It's a nice change from the default imo.) With all the UI done now, I won't have to touch it ever again (hopefully), as I've spent a total of literal weeks on building screens and functionality, which slowed things down a lot. Now, I can focus 100% of my attention on just progressing the story, which should be happening a lot faster from here on.

Speaking of focusing on the story, I have also stripped back a few features to bring it more into a manageable scope for me, being a solo dev. I removed the milestones feature which would've updated the profiles screen with a kind of history for each character and help track what has happened with them. It was a really handy feature, but it was a little redundant since bios will update dynamically at certain points when you learn more about characters. I also felt that not many players would actually utilize or care for it at all.

I tweaked a ton of visual settings to get the graphics to a point that I am really happy with and also spent quite a bit of time learning more about photography and lighting, to make the renders super clean and visually appealing. Which sparked me to go back and re-render the worst of the beginning scenes before release.

About Chapter 1

Chapter 1 is essentially going to set the stage. This means that it focuses less on the plot and more on introducing and letting you get to know the world, main character and his new powers, the six LIs, and a few of the important side characters. This isn't to say that there's not any plot in the chapter, it's just not the focus here. There'll also be less choices in chapter 1, with none that will majorly affect the story. They'll mostly only affect characters stats and what scenes you want to see or skip.

What's Next?

Going forward into chapter 2 and beyond there'll be more in-depth character development, a higher focus on the overall plot, and quite a bit more choices to affect it all. I expect Chapter 1 to be the smallest chapter in the entire story, even though it's going to be right around 2 hours long for the average person.

With the ending of chapter 1, the plot is going to be full sail, and man, it's going to be quite the voyage. The future holds epic fights, sensual and passionate love, mysteries to unravel, and so much more!

I included a few images with this post to show off some of the renders with magic effects and fights that you'll see in the game.

Anyways, that's everything for this Dev Log! Thank you to everyone and I hope you all have a wonderful time!