Big Status Update, getting closer! - 9/17/23 (Patreon)

Ok! I know it's been a hot minute- apparently my last "weekly" update was like, closer to 3 weeks ago. Sorry about that :x I was making progress, but I forgot to keep you all posted here on Patreon. I've got a few visual updates, teasers, and a big goal coming in hot, so take a seat!

First, let's look at these sprites. 

I think I previously said that I'd make Ohm less-endowed than the general Sihai cast, but I realized something very funny while getting a commission of him made up by Hasthund on twitter. I can't actually say what it is that I realized, but basically Ohm is packing again. The reason I had for making him smaller does still exist, but will be expressed in... other manners. I hope you'll look forward to seeing what I mean! (Also with regards to Ohm: because of this, the last of the sprite additions I have yet to make is making a proper horny swimsuit for MC, redoing his bulges, and a few sprite tweaks here and there- nothing very serious!)

The next three are characters that'll be showing up in different characters' stories- additions to the larger ensemble that makes up Sihai's legacy. Maybe I'm just a sucker for making a big cast within a large, inter-connected world. Who knows! Whatever the case may be, these characters were made to be important parts of specific routes. Please look forward to seeing them brought to fruition!

Speaking of specific routes, that's one big goal I've now completed! Though I had to get a tad less overly specific with the later drafts compared to characters like Jehu or Paul, I was able to get the important moments of each route redrafted out! This will be a massive step forward, since it means I can properly fine-tune the dialogue to get rid of certain awkward retcons and unclear foreshadowing and such. It's one of the bigger things I had to get done for this relaunch, so it's great for it to finally be done!

With those plans done and the sprites largely done, it comes down to features, CGs, and the writing of the script itself.

As you can see, I added the tweaked versions of many of the CGs, featuring that drop shadow effect I'm using with all the sprites now. I'm liking how it looks, and I'm sure it'll only look better as I get better at staging and backgrounds and such. Included in those is a new Alan CG, as he'll be getting some more relevance in the first day than he originally had. 

Lastly- and this is something I'm both excited and nervous about- I will be getting help with coding some specific features of the game, optimizing and cleaning up the code. This'll include the revamped music and image galleries and, most daunting of all, a new method of showing sprites than the version I had previously been using. Apparently the way I had been doing it was a little terrifying and very inefficient. I really expected that though, novice as I am :V

Important!

I'll repeat this later, but this will take a lot of tedium to implement properly, apparently. According to the one who'll be helping me with this, many things will be breaking when the sprites are remade. You will have to create new save files! On the plus side, at least it shouldn't be that bad. The start and many of the routes will have plenty of differences from the way they are now, so revisiting that older content could prove very enlightening.

I'm not sure how long this'll take. I still want to get it out before the end of October- however, I will push it to November if I have to, if the whole sprites ordeal winds up taking more time. Thank you for being patient with me, and thank you for waiting just a little bit longer! None of this would be possible without y'all's help and encouragement. Thank you!

Next stop, lots and lots of full-screen art...!