16/01 Patreon Devlog

Hello everyone, and Happy New Year.

Welcome to this week's dev log. Let's jump in!

This Week's Summary:

• W R I T I N G
• Maggie's route is about 78% complete
• One completed BG
• One completed BG Sketch
• Wallpaper art was worked on

The Ramble:

So this was another productive week!

We received one more completed BG this week, which is the Endgame Lounge - a place where a lot of the Endgame HQ scenes take place. There is only one more BG left, and that is the new training room BG.

We had one done for us so we technically have it, but I wanted to have it re-done because I felt the quality just wasn't there. We received the sketch for the new one yesterday.

Aside from that, I've been writing. A lot.

So far I've been hitting my daily goals and am (currently) on track to finish Magnus' route by the end of the month - or get really close to it. Of course, that relies on me continuing at this pace of about 1700 words per day.

Initially, I set my minimum goal at getting to 75% by the end of the month. I hit that earlier this week. So now my minimum goal is to get to 90% complete. Obviously my "aggressive" goal is to get the route finished but I'm aware that goal is aggressive. Even so, that's what I'm working toward right now.

I am currently working on Chapter 10. I have the "potato" draft done but am going back to flesh out the scenes and connect all the little bits together. I'd say overall it's about half done. This is about where I expected to be writing wise (maybe slightly further along) by now so yeah. I've made a lot of progress writing in the last few weeks, difficult as it has been.

Things are ramping up plot-wise. There's a major development in the next chapter. Maggie's pretty close to going off the deep end, but now Morgan is helping him hang on (though she isn't aware of it. LoL). In the next chapter, the council will do something that finally pushes him toward the plan he's been toying with almost this entire route.

He's been pretty willing to let them be jerks for years but now they're messing with Morgan and that is not something he is going to sit by and allow. >=3

Finally, I've been working on a random wallpaper that will probably be released to patrons (this one is of Morgan) when it's complete. I'm mostly writing at night but don't want to get myself stuck in coding or anything else that is likely to take over my focus and keep me from writing.

I could technically code in the BGs for Ari's route but I'm worried I'll get sucked into coding and end up coding instead of writing when I do have the chance to write. I tend to get very, very focused on whatever I'm doing at the moment so it can be difficult to divide my time up between writing and coding - which is why I haven't done this yet...

So I've mostly been working on this wallpaper or poking at sprites when I can't write due to Loud People that I live with. LoL

Sneak Peeks and Previews:

So as mentioned, this is the Endgame lounge - it serves as both a cafe and a spot to just relax and hang out.

And it has a lovely view of the city of Braesil and sprawling Endgame complex below.

New Training room! OWO

Out of context snippet for the week:

"Magnus stood abruptly."

Magnus: "I'm...sorry."

Magnus: "That was a poorly thought out idea. I'm not sure I should have..."

Magnus: "Excuse me."

"He strode to the door and left me there without another word."

Morgan: "..."

"Wait. He kissed {i}me{/i} - why was he running away now acting all embarrassed?!"

"I stared at the closed door, stunned and still a little breathless remembering that kiss."

"Yeah, there was no way in hell that was his first kiss, so he had no reason to be flustered enough to run away..."

"(Why is my taste in men so weird?)"

"Seconds later, the door opened and Magnus was standing there was a funny look on his face."

Magnus: "This...um...this is my office."

Morgan: "..."

"I get out a dry laugh, pressing my palm to my forehead."

"(Seriously. This man. I swear...)"

Morgan: "Yes. I know that, Magnus."

Upcoming Week:

Basically I have to write around 10,000 words for the remaining two weeks of January if I want to hit the final word count goal. Of course, that doesn't mean Magnus' route will be complete. The goal is just a general marker - but some routes have gone above the 110,000 word mark.

Anyway, that's neither here nor there.

The point is that this is doable for me though it's a push to hit that upper word count goal every day. And of course, we're getting into chapters that are a little more difficult to write as I have to frequently stop and do a beat sheet of the scene beats to help myself get through the fight sequences, the arguments, characters plotting, foreshadowing, etc.

This also slows me down and makes it more difficult to hit the actual goals.

I may work on coding the BGs for Ari next week during the daylight hours when spouse is working and I'm not really able to write. We have all the necessary BGs for Ari now, which is what I've been waiting on all this time.

Even if I do this, it doesn't mean his route will be immediately ready for alpha testing. I will need to double check and adjust the stat scoring (if I've even coded any of it) as well as label all the choices because I'm certain I haven't done that. And then I'll need to give it a play through to not only refresh myself on everything but just to do last minute edits and continuity fixes.

There are already a few edits I know I need to make. And that definitely will *not* be happening this week. So we're still a ways out from this route being available to testers, regardless.

Anyway, yeah, that's kind of what we're looking at this upcoming week! See you next time!