Dev Diary, December 15th, 2023 (Patreon)

I finally finished the 'hotel free-roam' this week, and I'm extremely happy with how it turned out.

One of the reasons it took so much work and time, is that I will re-use it in episode 4, and thus save some time when I get to that part. Because of this, I had to think ahead on most I did, so that later on I can start or end the free-roam on any floor, fill in navigation info for future events, and introduce more random events.

I've made quite a few random events already, and when I get to chapter 4, I will introduce more. So at a later point when you replay the full season (all 4 episodes), you can run into a newly introduced random event already in episode 2.

Another reason it took so much time, was that it consists of more than 20 unique scenes with variations (by the way, by scenes, I don't mean 20 lewd scenes, but yes, some of those too). So there should be plenty enough for everyone to explore. And with the new navigation panel, you can easily see where people are, and go spend time with who you want. It also introduces a lot of new people that you might want to meet.

So, when the free-roam was done, I sped ahead with normal scenes, finishing up three major ones. I also finished a tiny free-roam that helps you build your character. If you don't like free-roams, you can skip that one.

For this week, I'll probably finish everything except the last beach scene, which I suspect is about 1/3 of the chapter, and also needs a lot of rendering. But unless I'm introducing new lewd scenes (could be), I'm done with the animations.

Even though I'm throwing around 'free-roams' a lot, u4ia is still a story-based visual novel, and every episode will lead toward the event which is the season finale. So I'm building towards that, so that it will feel like a proper season finale, and not some added images.

Finally, I want to thank you for the response to my last update's promotion for RenpyTom. It seems a lot of you went and gave your support to him which shows on this graph when it starts going up abruptly. It's fully deserved, and thank you.

It's almost Christmas now, and I hope life treats you well. I'll be back next week with a bit more festive update from the girls.

Enjoy yourself, and stay safe out there.

// Drifty