Chapter 12 Status Report (5) (Patreon)

Hi guys, I'm here with another status report on the progress of Chapter 12.

Like I've been doing during the past weeks, I'm alternating between working on the art and the writing. I'd say I have around 50% of the illustrations ready, with another 25% colored and waiting for me to give it the final pass. I also settled on a design for Holly's bikini; I was about to make a poll featuring different colors, but I found a pattern that works for what I had in mind. I think she looks both cute and sexy, relaxing at the beach:

I'm also making progress on the writing: I'm structuring the chapter across 3 in-game days, and I hope to have the first block (which contains the first two days) ready for playtesting soon.

The writing is proving to be very challenging and the process is not straight-forward at all. Each scene takes longer to write that I'd like, but the amount of nuance in character relationships and status is very large, and I want them to be represented adequately. Also, it's hard to structure events and dialogues and I find myself going back and forth scenes and changing and modifying things more often than in previous chapters.

Some of the main challenges when building the script are not imediately obvious, but deciding the scene order and how events flow into each other has become quite complex. t's crucial to coordinate the presentation of information, dialogues, and events in a balanced and functional way for all possible branches, and some are easy to miss, especially when you try to make the conversations and scenes interactive. Sometimes the simple things, like a bridge between two scenes, can become something really complex and cumbersome to craft, and with all the possible variables, writing a scene feels like weaving a tapestry made of words and sentences that have to flow and connect with each other in a coherent manner, while staying choesive with the overarching narratives too.

That said, I'm trying my best and so far I think the chapter is coming together quite nicely! I can't wait for the time you guys get to judge the result. I'll keep reporting the progress, and showing some sneak peeks soon.