Quest Failed: Chapter Two - Dev Log #119 (Patreon)

Hiya everyone! How are we all doing today? Hopefully you're enjoying the warmer weather that this time of the year tends to bring, while still keeping safe out there!

I wanted to apologise for the minor delay in this dev log--as I was holding out to maybe post the new MerMay art. But that's going to take a few more days before it's to be posted--so please look forward to that last fishy treat before the end of the month!

So in place of that, I'll be going ahead with the regularly scheduled dev log I had planned!

I'm sure the biggest question you guys all might be wondering when I post these is probably--what have you accomplished in the last week or so in between this and the last dev log? And I'm happy to say that as of a few days ago, I was able to wrap up quite a large story milestone. A very important and dramatic moment in the main scenario, where something quite important is revealed--and plenty of action happens.

I'm really happy to be done with this large part of the story, as it opens the way to quite a few new paths for young Matt to explore--including some nice one-on-one training with Cynthia if you so desire. Rest assured, he'll be put through his paces! As for whether or not he'll actually get better at combat as a result...well...who knows! But at least he'll grow closer to the captain as a result.

I'm sure I teased a bit of the training segments with Cynthia before, but it's always worth posting the nice little CG that accompanies them just in case people might have missed it!

Hi-yahhh~! Even with wooden swords, the Royal Captain certainly isn't going to hold back for Matt's sake. He'll be hobbling out of these training sessions beaten and bruised--but at least he had a nice view while he was getting pummeled in! One has to wonder how anyone can focus while training with Cynthia with those regal assets of hers bouncing around. Maybe it's a purposeful distraction tactic she utilizes to get the jump on lesser-minded men? It's a mystery!

As you'd expect from a training segment--Cynthia's training will last across the course of a good few days. But the end result will be worth it, I promise!

With this large story milestone out of the way--I would say there's just one large milestone to go. With just as dramatic action and reveals. There are of course, lots of smaller segments in between these two, and all the side events that need to be wrapped up with characters still of course. But I feel like I've really come a long way with Chapter Two's GIGANTIC script, with its humble beginnings of having young Matt first step into the enchanting world of Rhan.

The fact that it's taken me this long to get this far still pains me deeply, though--and I feel as though I could have handled a lot of things better. It's been one big learning experience--and I definitely will be more on top of future projects after Chapter Two. I just appreciate everyone's patience as I continue to cobble together this giant thing, and hope it'll all be worth it in the end! Because there's still so many ideas for things that I want to share with you guys, and hope that I'll be able to do so one day!

Also--the attached image to this post showcases a small cut-in CG that I've added to part of the main story scenario, with the cutest little doll of death and destruction, backed up by hordes of maybe...less cute undead.

In this particular case, I think the choice of cut-in worked really well, since you can see the undead looming in the horizon, and then this panel provides sort of a more dramatic zoom-in as the scene progresses!

There's a few of these in this segment, along with some full-screen CG too for the really important moments. Complete with some small little movements and animation. (For example, some clouds of dust in one part gradually roll to the sides with some small animation to really add to the scene)

One thing I want to ask people though, is--and maybe it's a bit late at this point, but maybe it'll help shape how I approach finishing things up, but: how invested are you in the main story?

What I mean is--what do you personally come to Quest Failed for? There's no wrong answers, of course, and I won't judge anyone for what they might say. But I just want to maybe see if I was perhaps misguided in getting too wrapped up in a very flashy, action-packed story with serious moments, or if you feel I should keep to what the series if predominantly known for (i.e lots of cute girls, sexy moments and h-scenes.) Since ultimately I want to make sure I'm on the right path--and wouldn't want to end up disappointing people once they finally booted the game up and found lots of serious stuff getting in the way of their potential fun.

Maybe I've asked something like this before--but as I get quite caught up in the more serious parts of the story, I do sometimes wonder, haha.

Personally I've always found my strengths are writing smaller, character based interactions with lots of cute moments leading up to h-scenes. But for this particular installment I felt it was best I challenged myself, and tried to have quite a large scale plot going on with the main scenario--while you were still able to go for all the cute, fun antics in the side stories if you so desired. Knowing if I should dial back the 'grand' feeling in future games and to focus on my strengths instead will definitely help!

Though I also understand if you'd rather wait until you played the darned thing first before giving a verdict, which would make sense too, so you can see how it all interweaves and meshes together! So if so, don't mind me, haha. These dev logs essentially are just a stream of consciousness at this point, and can get a bit muddled. You don't know the amount of times I've had to delete large blocks of test purely because I don't even know where I was going with them. It's a struggle, I tell ya!

And that about wraps things up for another ramble log--and as I say, I'll hopefully be back before the end of the month with some MerMay related art. It's gonna be really pretty, so look forward to it!

Until next time~