Sunny Day Jack Report 06/21/2023 (Patreon)

Howdy all, today's report is a bit later than we'd like but it's better now than never, right? This time around we're focusing on Something's Wrong With Sunny Day Jack!

Narrative Design & Writing

As we mentioned in yesterday's general Games Report, our team is close to finishing the reworked Narrative Design documents to ensure that we have all the information laid out in order to avoid retcons in the future. We've been conferring with our sensitivity reader MysteryCorgi and touching base with Biscuwuit and Gil Finnegan (he/him), who we're borrowing from the DachaBo team.

Again, a lot of this is spoiler territory but here's the basic gist of what we can share at this time:

• The common route has been completed, and besides having to detail most of the second act, everything is mostly set in stone apart from one Jack scene that I want to detail more before the end of Act 2.
• 4 routes/Love Interests that have been very well established and shouldn’t be changing in number. Sorry Barry stans, there's no dedicated route for the man but there might be something else in store for you.
• A point system that will decide if a player gets a certain interaction or ending.
• Conditionals and True/False statements that give players entirely different scenes in certain situations.

The themes in the game have been set from the very start by Sauce themself, so the team is conducting research and talking to MysteryCorgi for feedback on certain plot points, how to adjust them to be more considerate to those communities, and reworking things so SDJ can be a game you all can feel excited to replay multiple times to get a wider picture of what's going on.

Put simply, every decision/consequence or difference in route should show the player a different face of a character’s personality or struggle.

Biscuwuit has split the routes down the middle with Gil so they'll both be handling 2 routes each. This means that Biscuwuit is handling Ian and Shaun, while Gil gets Jack and Nick. Here's a bit of commentary from Gil on that:

Hello, hello, hello! I'm Gil, and I'm super-honoured to be taking on the task of assisting with Jack and Nick's routes! This month, I decided the best way to start was to tackle my vegetables first ... In other words, the daunting task of writing Jack himself. He's the centrepiece of the whole game, so it's really important to all of us that his route is surprising, scary and sexy! Fortunately, I've got some experience with mystery stories, so that made it a little easier.

The hardest part for Jack's route so far is that, while he acts as the main "rival" for every other route, he's also his own rival on his route. This provides me with a lot of areas to play as a writer, but it also means I don't have a natural NPC to play off as a Watson. Even so, with the help of Sauce and Biscuwuit, I've come up with a first draft that I think will be a really solid foundation. The next step will be to go through and plot out every single branch and variation, threading through all sorts of little changes based on your choices. It's hard work, but it's also the most satisfying part of my job! If I can make you say "wait, was that because I...?" then I'll consider it a job well done.

I can't wait for you all to see what kind of trouble I have cooked up for our favourite ghost~ 'Til next time!

Unity Demo

We know a lot of you have been asking about when the new demo will drop, and we've been working on it! Switching assets from TyranoBuilder to Unity has been a bit of a challenge, but only because it's difficult to adjust to a more optimized method of exporting these assets for use after becoming familiar with TyranoBuilder for so long. Terra is working through it however, and a 7 minute convention demo for Norwich Anime & Gaming Con is now available to download!

Patrons pledging a minimum amount of $12/mo can gain access to the Early Access Builds on this page. At this time, only Windows is available.

FAQ

Q: My OS isn't uploaded yet, can I play the game?
A:  Due to the sheer size of the game, our programmer is prioritizing Windows and Macintosh builds. For players on Linux or Steamdeck, you may be able to use Proton to force compatibility of the Windows version to work on your machine. Let us know if you encounter any issues in the Bug  Reports thread!

Q: Will there be an Android build for SDJ?
A:  Despite optimizations in Naninovel, we don't anticipate the game files  fitting on most mobile devices due to the large amount of voice files.

Q: When will the full game be out?
A: We are still anticipating the October 2024 release date, and will communicate if there are any delays in delivery.

Q: Can I post screenshots of this demo on social media?
A:  You may post screenshots of the game up till the end of the original  Kickstarter demo, as long as you are not sharing the game with minors.

Q: Can I stream the demo on places like Twitch or Youtube?
A:  We highly recommend not streaming the demo or finished game on Twitch due to the fact that all SnaccPop Studios series are Adult in nature, and streaming them on that site may result in your account getting a  strike or ban according to their Community Guidelines. SnaccPop Studios cannot assist you in recovering your Twitch account in  the event that happens.Steaming on sites such as Picarto, Youtube, or even on Discord should be safer alternatives.

As a note, this page is only accessible to those who own a game key (either as a KS backer or a Patron pledging $12/mo or more), as SnaccPop Studios can get in trouble if people continue to purchase copies of the private beta test pages. We've been asking you all NOT to buy access to bypass the paywall as these pages are only meant for distributing Early Access copies, but due to multiple persons doing so anyway, we are liable to have our itch account suspended if we attempt to delete these pages that people have bought. The result ends up being that we'll have multiple pages in our Dashboard that we cannot delete, which results in clutter on the backend. We're currently asking itchio staff what to do about this dilemma, and if it'd be possible for us to reuse and rename the same page for the final public release.

For the time being, if you have mistakenly purchased beta access to games such as The Groom of Gallagher Manor, we'd like you to request a refund so we can avoid our account being hit with fraud alerts from the payment processors. We would like to do our best to cooperate with itchio staff concerning this matter. Thank you for your understanding, and enjoy!