10/02/2021 Patreon Devlog

Hi everyone! 

Time for this week's update. 

The time dilation has continued. We are suddenly in October somehow. Not sure how that happened. Not sure where time has gone. 

Lockdown is just seriously killing my sense of...everything really. 

This Week's Summary:

• Finished Caissa's expressions
• Coded expressions part of the way through Jack Ch 4
• MORE updates to Rory's sprite (LoL)
  • Added in some more Bobs
  • Added in a side character in Jack's route
• Sprite expressions are nearly 90% complete @_@

The Ramble:

I feel like this will be another relatively short ramble but ultimately because the entire week can be summed up as "SPRITE EXPRESSION PURGATORY."

I did finish Caissa's route in terms of sprite expressions.

As usual, chapters 12 and 13 were the worst ones. But his sprites are now complete and I've done a single pass as a playthrough. It took a little longer than intended. The last few weeks have been a little rough and this week was also pretty bad. 

I also ended up needing to just make some story and wording edits to Caissa's route.

Coding expressions really forces me to do yet another read through of the content because I have to read it line by line to know where to put the expressions and what expressions to use. So I do tend to do at least some editing as I go.

Sometimes I cut out small variations or branches or change how they work but there's also a lot of minor fleshing out. I think when I started coding sprites, the overall word count was around 711k but it's nearly 715k now. So I guess that shows how much I've randomly added as I go along.

Anyway. Regardless - done with Caissa's route now. And I've moved on to Jack's route.

Jack's early chapters are going fairly quickly. Morgan is either spending time alone or else she's with Jack (or occasionally, it will be one other character she is with instead - Celeste, Jun, Rowan, etc.)

This will continue for a while in his route but, as usual, the group scenes will increase as the route continues. And 12/13 will be the most annoying chapters to set up.

Over all there is a light at the end of the sprite expression tunnel and I'm really looking forward to being done with this. I think I have all the side characters Jack needs. So I don't think I'll need to stop to make any more Bobs at this point.

It's just a matter of going through the route and adding in the expressions. It's a tedious time sink unfortunately.

In terms of where we stand:

Ari's Route - needs CGs and, I think, some SFX

Caleb's Route - needs CGS and SFX

Magnus' Route - needs flowcharts, beta testing, a guide written, CGs and SFX

Lance's Route - needs flowcharts, beta testing, a guide written, CGs and SFX

Caissa's Route - needs flowcharts, beta testing, a guide written, CGs and SFX

Jack's Route - needs sprite expressions finished, flowcharts, beta testing, a guide written, CGs and SFX

Sneak Peeks and Previews:

Here are some screen caps from the middle section of Caissa's route and the beginning of Jack's route (where we temporarily see the return of the blue hair).

Upcoming Week:

Obviously focusing on Jack's sprites. Trying to get through the sprite journey. LoL

I don't know for sure that I can get Jack's route finished in the next week. It kind of depends on real life circumstances I guess but I'm going to be trying to get through as quickly as possible.

I was thinking I would pause and do Maggie's flowcharts. I'm not sure about that now. I kind of want to push through the sprites but we'll see how it goes.