Dev Update #56 (Patreon)

Quick reminder that, for awhile more now, the progress graphic will contain images not from Chapter 8. I'm pulling a lot of test images I did from all those environment redos the past few weeks.

My thanks to the enormous number of new patrons who joined last month. Many even stuck around for June. Welcome and thank you very much for your support!

Progress is good, as you can see. I'm estimating close to 50% of the script is written for Chapter 8, and I feel much better about this one as I took lessons from the writing hell that was Chapter 7. I started with an outline, expanded that outline into detailed notes, and then read through that entire document multiple times. Scenes got moved, deleted, and, as you'll see with this most recent progress graphic, scenes got added. All the while I'm trying to balance content also. With as many love interests as we have and all the story yet to cover, it's all a matter now of making sure that I don't create a barren wasteland of content for some love interests over multiple chapters.

With that work done, I also did something else new. I wrote the outline for Chapter 9. Then I wrote it out in a bit more detail. My goal with that is to make sure I'm not leaving out something I wished I had put in a previous chapter, and that I'm not wishing I would have changed up scene order or moved love interest content around. Hopefully this helps provide a better playing experience for you all, as that is the goal. Not practicing my outlining skills.

All my fixes, new environments and characters, etc., are all done for at least the next couple of chapters. I am sure I'll have minor things to tweak once I get into renders for Chapter 8, but I'm hoping the big stuff is behind me. At this stage, I'm trying to lock in as much as possible and just move forward with it. New tricks I learn that require overhauls will get included in future games or special content. To Be A King has had enough changes in its couple of years of existence. Speaking of two years, To Be A King had its two year anniversary a little over a week ago, and I missed it. Whoopsie. Take a look at this post for my two year retrospective. Mistakes were made.

Wrapping up the script is my goal for the next week. Then it will be polishing that for a few days, finishing up most of the code, and starting renders. We aren't too far off from those, I hope. It is shaping up to be another large chapter, but I've got some ideas on trimming it, if things get out of control. I'll be back soon with another dev update as I should get back to writing the actual game. Have a fantastic weekend and a great start to summer (I'll be melting under intense summer heat and render rigs cranking out renders)!