Preview: revamped introduction (Patreon)

Hi everyone! Today I want to show off another aspect to the upcoming v0.60 update I've been working on.

I've been making YU for nearly three years now. I feel like I've gradually improved in many aspects, including my visuals. Seeing my early work makes me appreciate how far I've come.

I can understand now the temptation I've seen many other devs go to: the desire to redo your early scenes, and bring them up to your new standard. I don't want to fall down that rabbit hole: by the time I've brought all the older scenes up to my new desired standard, I probably could have finished the game!

However, there are a few small parts where I'm willing to make an exception, and one of them I'm working on for this update: the introduction. This is obviously a new player's first impression of the game, and I want it to be as good as possible.

I won't be redoing the entire thing, just a few parts that I feel need it the most. With that in mind, let me show you how it's going!

First, the initial scene of MC filling in her uni application. This is what it currently looks like...

And this is how it looks now:

I've simply adjusted the lighting and added some background to the windows.

Next, the first day at uni. The initial meeting in the courtyard is the scene I wanted to improve the most. Here's how it currently looks:

And here's the improved version:

Again, I've worked on the lighting and background, to make the scene a little more interesting.

Then, there's meeting Ezri. Old:

New:

I'm also hoping to improve the overall flow by spacing out tutorial information throughout the prologue, instead of in a big info dump at the end. For that reason, I'm working on a simple popup screen that can present relevant information to the player, and disappears when you click anywhere.

Lastly, there's also an entirely new section at the very beginning, that adds a bit more of a narrative framework to the game. It's very short, less than 10 images, so I won't show it off yet.

As I mentioned, I don't want to fall into the trap of spending a lot of time redoing huge swaths of the game, but ocassionally I may polish up a few parts I feel need it the most. I hope that this new intro will help hook new players in, and maybe even give some of you a reason to try a new run through the game!

Thanks all <3