BtHr: End of May Update and a bit on Don

The post today featuring none other than Don. Shown above are the (in progress) versions of his sprite for BtHr.

This lad has had quite the journey, becoming the game's most disliked character over the course of two years. For context, I started running a survey with the 0.2 release of the original BEYOND THE HARBOR, and my favorite category to keep track of (after the long-form written criticism!) is the least popular character poll. While the favorite character would change quite often (with Trevor holding favor in BTH, and JC winning hearts in BtHr), the least popular character poll has been trending in one particular direction, Don.

This hyena was likely at his most popular when he was first shown at the end of 0.2.

The survey at the time was probably the most balanced it had ever been.

And then, things changed forever after BTH 0.3 released.

People finally got to spend some time with this guy and learn about him. And they weren't happy.

I got quite a few comments about Don in particular, people complaining about his attitude, how he treated all of the other characters, especially how he treated Ollie. Had Ollie done something to justify being treated this way? Their story continues in BEYOND the HARBOR r.

BtHr chapters one and two didn't include surveys. It was a pretty turbulent time for development, a lot of assets were still in early development, so even if the story had all been planned from the get-go, we still had a lot of work to do fleshing everything out. Don doesn't make an appearance in chapter one (aside from being mentioned by name a few times), though something tells me he still would have ranked the lowest!

We now arrive at BtHr chapter two, and don makes... Some sort of appearance.

If only Ollie knew at that point what had awaited him.

Chapter three didn't feature Don, but it DID feature a survey! (oh, and Trevor was there too, I guess.)

As for the survey (making a triumphant return with the most results yet!), Don scored the lowest he ever had!

Over half of the players who voted in this one said that he was their least favorite character.

Don finally makes his full reappearance in BtHr chapter four, the last member of the main cast to do so.

Something is certainly.. different... about him this time.

Survey results are still early of course, but things still aren't looking up for this guy.

What kind of future does he have? Is this hyena destined to always get the short end of the stick?

Development of chapter five has been going well, so, hopefully soon, you can learn a bit more about this enigmatic fellow.

That's all I have for you now, thank you as always for your support, and I'll see you soon for more news about the development of BEYOND the HARBOR r chapter five!