Santa Lucia Build 38 (Patreon) - January 2023 (Patreon)

Happy New Year everyone!

As those of you familiar with our other project know, we managed to push out the biggest update for Homecoming ever this month. Unfortunately I overextended myself in the process, so instead of trying to cram in a lengthy update for Santa Lucia in the same month (alongside assorted holiday shenanigans), I decided to switch gears and do something that’s been on my mind for several months now.

This month I’m introducing a fourth route into Santa Lucia. No, it’s not for any of the stretch goal husbandos, they’ll have their time in the sun very soon believe me! Instead, this fourth route is what I’m calling the “neutral” route where Ben doesn’t get romantically involved with any of the husbandos and focuses his efforts on maintaining his friendships with everyone equally. Functionally, it reads almost like a “greatest hits” compilation from the other three routes sans the romance element. For example, Ben will end up joining the fraternity like in Bryan’s route, working with Carlos and Sierra in their group project for Drawing class like in Carlos’s route, and writing his Journalism article on Nate’s play like in Nate’s route.

The reason I’ve been wanting to do this is because I’ve seen a lot of comments from straight, asexual, and story-focused players who would prefer a more straightforward visual novel experience without the gay romance element. I don’t take any offense to this notion at all! In fact, to me it’s quite reassuring because it means that the story we’re telling has a much wider appeal than just the furry niche. I’m willing to make an accommodation like the neutral route if it helps make Santa Lucia the best product it can be!

It also gives me an avenue to explore slightly different themes and topics that weren’t being covered in the main romance routes. For example, I hope the additional content I wrote for the neutral route helps illustrate a bit better Ben’s whole mentality about not letting his nightmares take over his life. I’ve noticed a lot of players have difficulty putting themselves in Ben’s shoes concerning this topic (not talking to others when there’s a murderer on the loose, doing his best to pretend everything is alright when things are most definitely not alright), so I made an effort to show why he behaves the way he does in the neutral route. Ideally this will help build an understanding between the reader and the character, but that’s something I’ll have to judge for myself depending on the route’s reception.

Anyway, I hope this month’s update isn’t such a disappointment to our Bryan fans who were no doubt anticipating the next part of his route. Rest assured, now that I’ve had a moment to breathe and recharge, Bryan’s route continuation is next in line for February’s build drop!

Here’s to a fantastic 2023!

~Dzahn

Build 38 Notes:

+ Neutral Route introduced!

+ Content complete through Act 2

+ 1 new CG variation added

+ New option in the Preferences menu to turn off romance content

+ (this is mainly meant for our straight, asexual, and story-focused players)

+ (playthroughs with this setting on will default to the Neutral Route after the route split)

Downloads:

https://mega.nz/folder/7AMknS6T#bVGakV4qZGfMqSZLOmqsAg