Update Breakdown and Future Plans

Hi again friends. To start: the android version of the newest build has been added to the folder. It's a little embarrassing to admit, but due to the long delay between builds, I had forgotten what adjustments need to be made to the script to account for the new UI. I made sure to make detailed notes this time so it won't be an issue in the future. D:

So, onto the build itself. There were a couple scenes here that I had been looking forward to writing for a while now, especially the last part with Copycat. Her perspective is quite a bit different from most of her peers, and she's overall a pretty important character, especially on Fang's route, which means I wanted to nail her introduction. I'm pretty happy with the results myself, but of course the final judgment is up to the readers.

I'm also quite happy with the way the beach scenes turned out. I know some people might wonder why there was so little flirting in a context where it would be expected, but, well... essentially, I wanted to keep the focus of the events on what matters more narratively. Now that we've fairly deep into it, I've had a chance to really consider whether explicit content would be fitting for my plans, and decided that it wouldn't be. That doesn't mean there will be no romance, or even sex, for that matter. The latter just won't be depicted explicitly on screen (perhaps a fade to black scene instead). I want to avoid frustrating readers by having the characters flirt constantly and then do nothing about it. Plus, again, I think those kinds of interactions tend to draw excessive attention, and the things Nick and Vince talk about have quite a lot of importance that I didn't want to be overshadowed.

The fight scene was a ton of fun to write! There wasn't much danger like there had been in the previous update, since Nick wasn't effectively solo this time, but hopefully the diminished stakes didn't take away from the fun of it.

Now, this segues into our future plans. As you guys know, the Baron update is coming next. After that, however, I've decided to focus on Superfang's route until a certain turning point in the narrative. There are a bunch of reasons for this decision, and I'll try to lay them out for you here. First, I've realized that, even without my dayjob and other real life stuff getting in the way, switching between three fairly distinct narratives can be a little draining, since I have to effectively reconstruct my headspace for one particular route whenever the update cycle returns there. And that can take some time and effort. Focusing on one route means that I won't have to try recalling what I had even been thinking last time I was writing this route. This will hopefully make the writing process a bit smoother for me.

Second, switching between routes can lead to some bad writing habits. By this I mean that when the visual novel is finally complete, the readers will likely finish one route before (hopefully) starting another one. At this stage, however, in the middle of development, readers switch between routes because that's how they're being written. And that makes it far too tempting to effectively include interplay between routes that won't work at all once they're being read from start to finish. Brief asides or even entire conversations that are certainly important for that route, but also contextualize things that will happen in your next update. I don't think this is a good thing, and while I can certainly try to avoid doing that, it'll be much easier if I'm focusing on writing one route for a longer period of time.

Thirdly, it makes things easier logistically. We can focus on completing sprites needed for one route, and then, while I am writing new updates, Swaggy can start preparing assets for other routes that will be developed later on.

I know the fans of Mnesis and Baron-in-Black will be a little disappointed by this development, but I assure you that those two won't be completely out of focus. They're still very important characters, even if this is "Superfang's" route. And there's a good chance that there will be occasional Mnesis and Baron builds interspersed with the Superfang ones, so I can take a break if the creative juices are starting to dry up. So we might get three Fang updates, then a Mnesis build, another two Fang updates, Baron, etc.

Another thing I want to briefly address is that, for the time being, I'm choosing to skip having any CGs and focus our art budget on sprites. CGs are great, and I would've loved to have one of Nick and Vince building a sandcastle together in this update, but the utility of sprites is far greater, and since our budget (and time) is limited, we will focus on those. I do hope to include CGs for older scenes later on. Maybe we can vote from time to time on which scenes should be illustrated.

Finally, I am planning to revisit the introductory parts of Super-Nova and make some edits that will improve the story and make the visual novel more attractive to new readers. Nothing substantial will change narratively, and the events will play out more or less the same, but I'm planning to cut a lot of the beginning fluff and start the novel at a point where Nick and Lucas are already at the construction yard, which will get us more quickly to the arrival of Templar and Jacob. I also plan on slightly rewriting the scene where Nick first summons the armor - it feels a little too mundane to me right now, and I think it will be helped with a change of setting. The updated version of the scene might even feature a new CG (yes, I know this sounds funny after the previous paragraph, but I do think the scene really needs an illustration asap).

I hope I managed to convey my thoughts clearly. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to me. 

For those of you who haven't had a chance to play the new build yet - enjoy! And if you've already read it, we'd love to hear your thoughts on our discord server. :) 

Expect some new previews soon. See ya!