Quest Failed: Chapter Two - Dev Log #112 (Patreon)

Heya, everybody! How are we doing throughout this lovey-dovey month? I'm back with the first dev log of the month and forging on ahead with what I hope to be the biggest alpha update in a long time, so I'm pretty excited--but nervous at the same time. There's still a lot of work I need to put in between writing and scripting, but I feel like I work best under pressure--so it's for the best!

The dev logs might also be a little more delayed through the month than usual due to this--but I'll still try to keep you all informed of progress as best I can without overwhelming myself! Though I deeply appreciate your support and patience throughout all of this.

So--what has been done in the last couple of weeks since the last dev log? Let's get down to it!

As per the attached screenshot, I've been putting the finishes touches on a very lengthy exchange with everyone's favourite (citation needed) fishy gal, Marine! Given her rather extreme, almost prankster-like nature, I tend to make her exchanges with Matt quite enduring on his soul, as he struggles to keep his composure in the face of her rather brazen attitude. The choice listed above is a chain of choices that will get increasingly more bizarre if you keep resisting her blatant attempts at luring you towards the sea. Will you resist her charms, or will you walk blindly towards your demise? Who can say! (Though, let's be real--who can resist someone like Marine?!)

Writing the h-scene that comes after here was something of a challenge admittedly, as for reasons I won't spoil, Matt's sight is obscured--making it so that he doesn't have a clear view of the action, so to speak. So I had to infer a lot of things by touch and sense, and use the idea that he's picturing a lot of it in his head as a vivid image, just to be able to still get some detailed descriptions in there. Since you, the reader, still clearly see the CG scene of course! I hope it gives a unique feeling to the scene however and helps it stand out against the countless others in the game. I'm not COMPLETELY happy with the scene, but will consider it finished for now just so I'm not stuck on it for days. Maybe I can even shape it up after the alpha feedback comes in!

So, this scene has been completely and scripted and sent to Venus LeMay for voicing--alongside two other scripts for two separate characters for her to voice, for a couple, more minor scenes. She'll be knocking all of these out in a single recording session that we've scheduled, so I should be getting back tons of voice audio for the game quite soon. I'm really excited to hear it all as it comes together!

And with this one major scene done, I have another two h-scenes that are partially written and hope to finalise them in the coming days! After that, it'll be the main story's time to shine, where I've written out a significant chunk of its continuation, and still have some dramatic battle stuff to go!

Writing the main story part has been quite a change of pace from the more lighthearted antics of the side quests and h-scenes--and has come with its own slew of challenges! Namely in how I write the military side of things. This isn't my strength by any means, and I can only hope I can write it in a believable enough manner to not make people shake their heads, haha. Armies will clash, fights will happen, and people will get hurt! You won't want to miss it. This is also the point where several story revelations will begin to unfold--and I've been holding onto some of these things since 2016/2017--so the fact that I'll finally be able to unveil some of them in the new build is quite a relief. I was beginning to think I might never have the chance to do so!

So with 3 new h-scenes, several bonus CG scenes, and the main story continuing (with its own CG scenes too) there's going to be quite a lot of meat in the newest build, and I feel like this will really put it a good few steps closer to release.

It's truly my hope that when Chapter Two does release, that it will have enough content to have warranted this development cycle and feel like at least 2 or 3 games packed into one!

Ah, right--and it's not just the dev logs and alpha builds you can look forward to this month. As per usual, there'll be a special Valentines' illustration coming up! It's gonna be an adorable one, so please look forward to it!

Until next time~