Dev Update #55 (Patreon)

Before anyone gets too excited, the render used for the progress graphic is just one I needed for testing lighting. There are no Chapter 8 renders to share yet (and likely won't be for a few more weeks).

I hope everyone is enjoying the latest release. While it was a bear to get out, I'm very happy with the result. The speculation about certain big events in the Discord has been fun, and I don't mean that sarcastically. Some folks are very close to being exactly right about some future events. Also, uh, I think the Estrid fan club might have lost a few members.

The past few weeks since Chapter 7's release have been spent fixing things. The reality of this as a hobby is that you always find things that you need to fix. There were two major issues that needed to be addressed after Chapter 7: Updating the environments I had not used in Chapter 7 with my new materials, lighting, etc., and overhauling some things in all environments to make setup & postwork much easier. I'm nearly done with both of those, but it has been almost 3 solid weeks of work to get all that completed. The payoff will be good, but it has been a grind to get all these fixes done. 34 environments to update, most with different setups for different times of day, makes for a lot of work. My next game should be like the movie Saw and just take place in a single room or two. Maybe I should just keep the MC in Caudium and not let him leave to visit far off lands.

The bright spot in all of this work is that I've had some time waiting for things to render out. I've spent that time on the script for Chapter 8. It isn't quite done, but there is a full and detailed outline, along with a handful of scenes written. As long as it doesn't turn into the writing disaster that Chapter 7 did, I should have a decent amount of work already completed. I'll spend the next few days, once these long list of fixes are done, going back over my outline to ensure I like the flow and elements of the story I've included for this next chapter. Long gone are the days where I could easily cover every love interest in a release.

It will likely be a few more weeks before there are any previews of Chapter 8. That is especially true since I plan to start work on the Steam release, concurrently with Chapter 8's development. Since this is my first release on Steam, I expect that to take some time, and I want to give myself plenty of lead time. Maybe it comes together much more quickly, but I never like to count on that.

After Chapter 7, there are a lot of questions to answer. Maybe some things get answered in Chapter 8, but I wouldn't count on it. There is still so much to figure out. At least there will be lewd scenes, though you're going to find some new love interests playing a bit hard to get. Not everyone can be Kaylan, I guess.

For those in the United States, enjoy your long holiday weekend! I'll be back soon with another dev update.