Development Log: July 30th (Patreon)

Build: PreAlpha Stage 2

Hey guys, hope you’re having a great summer so far!

Going to give you some updates on the current project. Did a bit more writing and editing to the prologue, it’s coming along well, I won’t need to 100% complete the prologue yet since the demo will only have a few scenes, maybe about 20-40 minutes of content, but I will expand that out more since I would like the official demo do delve a bit further. My plans are to get something out there sooner rather than later, and hopefully having a good first impression!

After doing some writing, I designed another character to be in the Manor, she won’t appear right away but there will be references of her. She's a homunculus maid who has been helping around the Manor. She mysteriously vanished but you’ll be able to find her a bit later on. 

I also have been hounding away at the coding for the Dialog System, including some revamps on the UI design and also a lot of the functionality for the Sprites transitioning and animations. This probably is one of the most complex systems so far, which normally you wouldn’t think would be that hard, but with all the polish and finesse with placing contingencies and all the different types of transitions, it starts to take a lot of time. Although it isn’t extraordinarily difficult, it definitely takes a decent chunk of time to complete, but it’s 100% worth going so far to make a major system like this work really smoothly and nice.

And I keep mentioning about the Demo, and I’m sure people are wondering, well, when will the Demo come out?

I believe it is pretty likely that the Demo will be coming out relatively soon, potentially the end of August would be the earliest it would come out, being the least polished. Realistically,  I would also estimate around Mid Sept - Early Oct would be a more reasonable time frame, as long as nothing drastic happens or changes. Content is king, so with due time, things will continue to get added, as long as I am able to keep working on the project.

I’m proud to say that after many many months of planning, drawing, and now piecing everything together, the game will finally move out of PreAlpha and enter in a playable state!

See you next update!

- Miz

Changelog and Updates:

- 10k additional words for the Main Story Dialog + Revisions

- Completed Sprite Art for Origami the Homunculus Maid (90% complete - missing bonus facial expressions)

- Programming Dialog System (45% complete)

     - CSV reader implemented

     - Functions and Animations 

     - Multiple Character Transitions

     - Auto-display for text

- Programming for Save/Load Functionality (basic framework implemented)

- UI design for Dialog (95% complete)

- Sprite Animations for the Dialog System (80% complete)

Current Progress:

- Writing the Narrative and Dialog for the Prologue (15-20% complete)

- Dialog System Completion (40% complete)

      - Choice Functionality

      - Auto-Text Mode

      - Log

      - CG Scenes and CG Mechanics

       - Cut Ins

       - SFX for text and Animations

- Working on Completing Pandora’s and Luna’s Sprite Art (90% complete)

- Designing two new characters, Maid Servants (50% complete)

- Fixing Camera with Player Character Controller (may not need to fix)

- Polishing Character jumping motion (May remove jumping altogether)

- Designing the remainder of the Inner Manor (50% Complete)

- Replacing Placeholder textures with semi-final/final textures

- Finishing 2D Assets (CGs / Character Designs)

- UI Systems and Assets (30% complete)

Project Milestones:

- 3D Models for furniture objects inside the Manor (50% Progress)

- Functioning Doors

- Scene Lighting

- More Textures for other rooms

- Menu System

- Save Point System

- Chibi Sprite Designs and Animations

- Dialog System Additional Features

- Animated Sprites and CGs

- Events and Sequencing

- New Manor Areas (The Manor's Garden and Outdoors)

- Scene Changing Mechanic

- Multithreading for faster load times

- Texture adjustments for faster loading times

- Main Gameplay Mechanics

     - Player Abilities

     - Potential Minigames/Combat

- Ravenwood Forest (Zone)

- New Characters

Also some in-game and editor screenshots of how the UI and characters will be placed around.

Note: The Background art is a placeholder for now.