dev diary: treat treat treat treat treat (Patreon)

idk if words can properly express the level of intensity i have felt this past week working on this game, so i drew a self portrait

i went from "oh god how am i going to finish the first part of chapter 8 AND bad end 1 before the end of the year like i promised?!" to "ok face art DONE, i know what should happen in bad end 2 so what if i just start it now? haha oops i scripted so much! gotta get further with bad end 1... HAHA OOPS IT'S DONE NOW"

so...

things are going extremely well. i'm bursting. i haven't felt like this in a long time and i was starting to worry that i wouldn't be able to get back into this state with treat, but if i wait long enough, the frenzy always comes........

the minimal-spoiler section

i talked about how i was adding bad endings to treat in a previous dev diary (oh my god that was january?!?!?!??) but i wanted to explain again now that a lot more progress has been made.

TO SUMMARIZE: i had planned to do bad ends (EXTREMELY OPTIONAL CONTENT) for 4 of the 8 chapters in the story. you have to fulfill extremely specific conditions to trigger them, which you can only find out by getting the anywhere pass into trick's hands and then visiting the netherworld where you'll find a version of BAD END THEATER. RPGmaker doesn't have persistent save data like ren'py does (where i could set a flag that would apply to all save files), so instead i have lilium (the director) tell you to make a save when you return to her in chapter 8 for the bad end instructions. the instructions are some random esoteric things like standing in front of a door for 2 minutes, to make sure that first-time players have basically no chance of stumbling into them.

so far, the bad ends are about the length of a full chapter (there's even a midway save point!). this content is a reward for people who are heavily invested in the game and want to know and see EVERYTHING. the path to even finding out that these endings exist requires you to have done the demon summoning ritual in chapter 2 (unless you crack the safe in chapter 3 by guessing...), so i... tragically.... imagine that not a lot of players are even going to get to see this stuff!!!!!!!! but that's ok because it's only for the true fans........ (and for me..... i'm making them for me..............)

content-wise, i'm trying to be careful with these, because treat is a comfort to many people and i really cherish these characters. i don't want to make it edgy just for the sake of it--i'm only writing paths that let me explore some of the ideas that are otherwise only touched on briefly in the main story. originally i was thinking of putting them in chapters 1, 6, 7, and 8, but i decided to do chapter 3 instead of 7 for moxie, because it spaces them out better AND i thought of something so exciting it completely blew my plan for 7 out of the water. either way you wouldve learned more about moxie's mom, but... wait no sorry this is the minimal spoiler section SORRY SORRY SORRY getting back on track!!!

i posted a new patron-only WIP build since i'm leaving on a trip tomorrow and wanted to share it before then. there's not much new for chapter 8 (mostly finished art and stuff), but ALL of bad end 1 is complete, and you can play the intro to bad end 2 (moxie!!!!!!!!)

the next public update is still planned for december. it might be mid-late december depending on various factors, but i have a lot of momentum right now so i'm confident i can release it before the end of the year! this will FOR SURE include the rest of the first half of chapter 8 (i only have one more area to tile+script). the rest of bad end 2 will probably have to wait for next year... we'll see how far i get with chapter 8!

that's it for the updates!!!!!!! the rest of this post is just me gushing about how excited i am for the new stuff. sorry.

the spoiler section (just gushing)

pictured: the manjuuDIES flag (just kidding!!! or am i!??!?!?!? you'll only know if you play it hahahahhah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

listen listen listen ok so the way i plan these is i think of something like "hey wow wouldn't it be nice if we could meet the other pack of wolves on mount sorbet that we KNOW exist because they chased butterscotch and syrup in SATUS and they've been mentioned by treat in chapter 1 and 4?" it's very very important that they're not JUST EVIL but they do have a leader who does bad things for extremely valid reasons. enter my man TIMBER. i posted his concept art in the previous dev diary linked above, but oh my god!!!!!! he's so good!!!!!!!!!!!! if you asked me my favorite character i would say timber and neither of us would know whether i was joking.

i... listen, ok, so a thing about treat is that i have, all this time, avoided including any swears in the dialogue. but there is a line (and this is so important) that the only way to properly express the sentiment is to drop the f-bomb. timber is so powerful he is rewriting the rules of treat. i had to let timber say fuck. you don't understand. you'll know when you play the build *shaking my fists* he's corrupting treat (the series but i guess also the character), artistically he can only swear here, i can't compromise on my vision, IT'S A BAD END PATH, it's ok to swear in a bad end path!!!!!!!

so the story for this one, i'd had it planned for a long time but the details were fuzzy--i mean generally that's how all story planning goes for me. but it means i'm like SITTING on these IMPORTANT PLOT POINTS in my head that cannot be expressed to anyone until they are made real, which is part of why i'm so driven to finish my games. because it's so exciting in my head, other people have to KNOW about it.

for years and years, players walked up to the cliff by treat's house and went "oh jeez this cliff seems important in a chekhov's gun sort of way" and honestly? when i first made the game, it wasn't. it was just how i drew that bit of the environment, you could walk there so i was like "huh, better make this interactable" ...but now. finally. the payoff. it's all scripted, it's in the game, i'm ready to see people lose their minds over this moment (not that i'm able to watch let's plays of my games anymore but yknow!!!!!!!!!)

i don't mind spoiling that bit either (albeit vaguely) because the details leading up to it are SO GOOD, it's so tragic, how these circumstances aligned perfectly for this to be the only thing that COULD happen.... truly something only lilium could write......... BUT HEY GOOD THING IT'S NOT REAL!!!!!!!!!!! that's what's so great about the bad ends, they are the darkest timeline people want to see, with none of the consequences!!! fuck!!!!!

it feels like a different game--no, it still has the same underlying vibe... the little bits of humor and charm leading up to the tragedies... the gut punches..... oh, it's so good. i'm invigorated. i'm happy i can still get this excited about a story i've been working on for so many years now.

that's all for my unhinged update....... thank u for reading.......... can't wait for everyone to play..........!!!!!!