02/09/2023 Patreon Devlog (WSC)

Summary

• Finished Kav Ch 4 scenes
• Finished Kav Ch 5 scenes
• Started on Kav Ch 6 scenes
• Received another completed BG

Ramble

So this was a writing focused week for sure. I will jump into the details...below.

Writing

As I mentioned in my last post, my goal this week was to work on catching Kav up to the other routes writing wise.

My other goal was to somewhat shrink the inevitable gap between Kav's word count and everyone else due to Kav having no presence in the prologue, chapter one or chapter two.

I said that I probably would not have him fully caught up to the others based on the sheer amount of content needed to catch him up. And I was correct on that, but I did shrink that 6000 word gap a little.

I wrote Kav's Chapter 4 scenes. Those scenes are fairly short (comparatively) but Kav's are longer than everyone else's specifically because I have some ground to make up. 

I also finished Kav's Ch 5 scenes in both the "common route" and his actual solo scenes. Now, Ch 5 has one of the biggest solo scenes you get with the love interests in the early chapters. For all the other characters the "potato" (rough draft) version of the scene is 4000 words.

Note: For those who are new here - I tend to flesh things out a lot when I edit so I imagine those scenes will be longer in the final draft. They always are. But for now, they are 4000.

Kav's scene is a fair bit longer at 6400 words. Again, he has less content earlier in the game so he's actually still behind word-count wise in spite of this scene being longer.

I was worried it would be hard to manage the word count but I am having to lay the relationship foundation down that all the others already have by this point in the story. And that's what is helping me shrink that word count gap.

I have to still establish a rapport between Kav and Wil. I can't place them at the same spot all the other relationships are at when they reach this point because Kav and Wil don't have that foundation. I actually don't consider it a bad thing that Kav's route is flowing different because I think it allows for more variety for the player.

Pacing of the romance is always tricky in a visual novel where you have a limited time frame to establish a romance within a larger plot line of events. But I feel like it's a bit trickier in WSC than in my previous games.

Attraction is easy to establish - and shallow in a way. Bonds, however, are a bit deeper and need more time to be established properly.

Anyway, in terms of overall writing and milestones. The game is now about 337000 words. My next big milestone is reaching 75% or ¾ towards the total word count. I'm not quite there yet but have reached 72% this week. So...getting close.

Originally I set the deadline for this goal to be reached by the end of October. At my current pace, there is no way it will take that long but the problem is that starting next week my progress will probably slow again. So I'm leaving that as my deadline for 75% for now.

Art

I didn't personally work on any art this week as I was just focusing on writing.

I did receive a new completed background with its variations. It's the ship corridor which isn't terribly exciting but still necessary as there are, frankly, quite a few "walking down the hall together" transition scenes.

Other

Nothing for this category this week I don't think.

Upcoming

I will be doing some writing in the upcoming week but I'm not sure I'll be blowing past my aggressive writing goals like I did this week and last week. I may be just hitting that minimum goal.

That means I'll still be making progress. Just not as much.

Starting next week, I'll be pulling back to focus on making corrections to Yuu's route in Gilded Shadows based on beta tester feedback. I've only made a few so far and have largely not even looked at the google docs, so there is probably a lot of stuff to go through.

And with that as my main focus next week, I expect to not focus as much on WSC.

But we'll see when next Saturday arrives!