The Apothecary: 0.5 and Beyond (Patreon)

The ending of ECA has always been at the back of my mind. It's still quite hazy, but certain parts are starting to take shape. As I'm working on the next update (0.5), I have to keep the idea of the ending up in the air like a beach ball that lazily floats down and reminds me I better not forget it and keep thwapping it back up.

I can't believe 'thwapping' got by the spellcheck.

The 0.5 update is roughly 30 scenes with some sandbox stuff added in. I'm expecting a February timeframe for the patron alpha version. Now that the basic public update is pretty much out of the way, it's time to move onto the 'beyond' part of the post.

Minor spoilers ahead for those that haven't played the game yet. It's also likely to get really wordy.

When I first started writing the outlines for ECA, I wanted to make sure I gave some content to each character in each release. Not only would this keep me focused on where I was at in the overall story, but also because trying to focus on a few characters per update would throw off my connection to them. I had a fear the story would feel more 'choppy' and unclear when played through.

I never thought there would be this many characters. The story just expanded and expanded. I'm reminded of a certain really cool character in a really cool (and cancelled way-too-early) show say something like, "That's your solution for everything. Anytime you run into a little bump, you just want to bring someone else in."

Jericho was a cool show.

So between 0.3 and 0.5, there's been a lot more characters added, but I'm at my limit... kind of. I'm at my limit for those that are going to receive character story content and an 'ending', let's put it that way. It's also looking like each of Artesia, Jasmine, and Gisele will have their stories all be able to be completed in one play-through. Thanks for those of you that have voted on Discord regarding that, by the way.

What am I getting at? It's about what comes after the 0.5. Some of the main love interests (Reece, Cali, Katira, Genny, Lerran) have nearly reached their build-up to the end of their stories. This means they don't have a ton of character story left to be told. There's still more for all of them, don't worry, but remember that beach ball. There are endings coming.

However, for others, a lot more still needs to be added. Those like Iris, Yanwei, and the three at Velvet Desires are going to need more content to reach the end of their stories.

While this is definitely not written in stone, after the 0.5 version, the updates are going to become smaller and a little more focused, mainly on the "minor" characters. Focused... not exclusively. The updates will go through a 0.5.1, 0.5.2, 0.5.3 progression until we are at the point (0.6) to connect everything and unleash the massive 0.7 update.

I'm getting way ahead of myself here. Keep in mind, this is all plan... not for-sure.

What I'm trying to say is that the upcoming releases are going to be more about the non-main-love-interest characters, still have some main-love-interest content, and most importantly, will be adding much more content to the sandboxes.

Most developers will tell you to definitely not make a sandbox for your first game. Hah. Well, this technically isn't my first game... it's my third (ask me sometime and I might tell you about the other two). I wanted ECA to be a full experience. A full world with limited open-world possibilities. It challenged me, and I'm fighting through it. To win, I need to add more content to sandboxes, so that's what I'm gonna do. It isn't going to be all loving content, either. Content to go back and talk to certain characters about certain events will be added slowly.

One example is an idea for a conversation between the main character and Cali regarding Cali's first encounter with Lerran and what her knowledge is regarding the half-elves. Little things like that, while not required for the game to be completed, can really help fill things out more, the way I see it.

The other, and maybe most important, reason to scale back the progress with the main love interests is so I can write/render truly incredible scenes for each of them for their eventual story endings. I've already got a few outlined, but right now I'm needing to let their stories seep into my mind and begin to grow like ginseng in the garden.

This is the point where I will start rambling incoherently and give away too much so I will end it here. I've got two scenes left to write for 0.5 before moving into the rendering and blocking this weekend.

I'm excited.