Patreon Devlog 03/10

 Hey guys! Welcome to this weeks devlog! We are jumping straight in this week. (Also, how is it October?????)

Summary:

• Completed Chapter 5
• Started Chapter 6
• Received new BGs

The Ramble:

It's another one of those weeks where it feels like I have a lot less to say than usual because I really just spent the week writing.

Updates like these always make me feel weird because I'm so used to rambling but after seven days of writing, I feel like there's not much to say beyond "Yup. I wrote stuff."

So….I mean, that's it. I wrote stuff.

LoL.

I also did some beta reading for a friend this week and it was so refreshing to set aside my own project for a while.

It occurred to me this week that I have written a lot since our Kickstarter back in February. I think at that time, Ari's route was the only one complete. That means I've written over 250,000 words since February.

That's the equivalent of 3 (THREE!) young adult novels. 

And I'm dissatisfied. I wish that, by this point, I was on Jack chapter 8 or 9. 

This kind of gave me a pause as I realise just how much work I'm expecting from myself here. In that time, I've also done feature coding, some artwork, maintained social media, etc.

There's a lot of pressure on indie game writers to produce an astronomical amount of content in a really short amount of time compared to other industries. And I think sometimes we forget that. I'm not complaining at all. I really only do what I can manage doing. But sometimes it's good to remind myself what I've accomplished in this amount of time.

Putting myself in someone else's project for a few hours was really great. A lot of times I think we don't put enough emphasis on taking in new content and the importance it plays in the creative process.

Sometimes we just create, create, create and pour out content and it can just kind of empty out your reservoir. And if you're not taking anything in you bleed yourself dry. Playing other otome games really inspires me to work on my own - it's not like I get ideas from other people - it's motivation that I get from playing other games. The desire to create my own thing so I can put it up there alongside other projects.

I need to give myself more space to play other games going forward. I forget how important this is and beta reading for this friend helped me to remember.

So...yeah.

That is my ramble for this week. And it's not really even about work - it's about not working. LoL.

PLOT TWIST

Sneak Peeks and Previews:

This week's sneak peeks are just a couple of backgrounds we've gotten in from two of our artists.

First, is a little courtyard outside Quill's apartment. I may also use it for Reuben since their places have a similar aesthetic and I should be able to re-use it.

I really like how it turned out. I want to be sure that I work plants into every part of the world I can...except the Court. I think it provides a really nice contrast and plays into some of the plot elements.

Also, there is a hallway for the Endgame Infirmary. I kept thinking we still needed one background for the interludes (aside from this hallway) because somehow I was conflating the first part of Caleb's route with the interludes. In the initial chapters of Caleb's route, Morgan makes it all the way down to a nearby lounge area at one point, and is retrieved by other characters.

Somehow I kept thinking this scene was part of the interludes and that we needed the lounge image before we could update the demo.

But this is actually the last one we needed. =O 

However, I kind of have to decide if I want to extend Yuu and Quill's introductory scenes and give them CGs. I cannot extend their scenes to the same level as the introductory scenes for the other LIs, but I could probably make them a little longer, anyway. 

I just haven't made up my mind whether it's worth it or whether I should just reserve their introductory CGs for the start of their respective routes.

Anyway, that's more of a ramble than a sneak peek, though. Here is the hallway! 

Upcoming Week:

Finish Chapter Six. Start Chapter Seven.

I will probably try to work on the Caleb wallpaper reward - I have a sketch in mind, I just didn't want to devote time to it this week. LoL.

I may try to properly code in the assets for the rest of the common route. As of now, there are backgrounds (or placeholders) coded, but most sprites are not. And there's no music or SFX.

Consider Morgan spends a lot of time throwing things, I probably need a few new sound effects. LoL

I did want to let everyone know that I think I'll be moving update days back to my Saturday. I think I just want to allow myself a full work week to work on things without having to update on Friday. 

A lot of times I find I'm expecting BGs to come through by the end of Friday or maybe I expect to finish up a chapter by the end of Friday. And it makes me want to put the update off to Saturday so I can include them.

I also usually have more free time on Saturday to actually write updates vs Friday, when I'm usually busy until the afternoon.

So hopefully this just fits my schedule better.

That's all for now. I'll see you next week!

~Esh