Kobold chibi reveal + Devlog #093 + NPC poll #06 is on! (Patreon)

There she is, Kobold!
I'm especially happy with how she turned out. I think she might be the cutest chibi so far! She took quite a bit of work. Not only is her design more complex than most of the other girls, I also had to cram all these details while keeping her small (she's about as short as Goblin). This basically resulted in pixel art in many cases, but it was well worth it. You also get to see the front of her outfit for the first time! ^^

I got very, very busy this month. It was pretty much one thing after the other, both IRL and while working on BEW, but I managed to get a lot done!
The first thing I did was take another look at all the dialogue I wrote a while back. I took some time to update a few things. Mainly, I figured out a better way to format all the text and animation descriptions to make it easier for me to translate into the game.

And then, that's what I did! I now have a bunch of cutscene ready in their final form, and a bunch more to go. I did encounter many issues along the way however. I kept realizing I needed new things as I kept working on the cutscenes. As a result, a bunch of things were updated and improved along the way, and a several more were added, like a "sticker" system that lets me link objects to chibis and update their position relative to them, as well as other values, or a prop system that lets me add special objects that characters interact with during the cutscenes. I also have mid cutscene gameplay in some cases, for tutorial reasons, and more!

At this point, I would say the vast majority of the kinks have been worked out! And all cutscenes up until the first boss are finished. I also have a better idea of how long it will take me to finish them all now, and I currently expect to be done in December. I might actually be done with the easier cutscenes in Novemeber, but there are a few special ones that will take quite a bit more work, so December sounds about right for now. We'll see what happens. Of course, this means that the demo won't be ready in 2022 as I was hoping, but all I can really do is keep working on the game. To be honest, I was very afraid to begin working on the cutscenes because I thought it might take even longer, but things went really well and I have the whole process just about perfected now, which is very reassuring.

Oh, and I forgot to mention this before so I'll just type this here: The cutscenes take place in the same rooms as the overworld exploration. In several cases I was able to simply reuse what I already had, but in a few, and in many more to come, I need to have new rooms specially made for the cutscenes, in particular when props are involved. And so, I did a big update of my room editor! I was planning on doing this later when the time came to make new exploration rooms, not realizing I would need it this early. My room editor is now easier to use than ever so that's another good thing taken care of!

It's also exciting to finally see Vuu and everyone move around, speak and interact, and it's also very motivating to think that this is final content that the player will experience directly.

So yeah! Very happy with all that ^^

As I said, next month will be almost exclusively cutscene work, though I do need to draw some new chibis too if I want to have something to show in the next devlog.

Here is the TODO list:

-̶ ̶D̶r̶a̶w̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶n̶e̶w̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶a̶s̶

-̶ ̶D̶r̶a̶w̶ ̶n̶e̶w̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶r̶a̶c̶t̶e̶r̶s̶

̶-̶ ̶D̶r̶a̶w̶ ̶p̶o̶l̶l̶ ̶N̶P̶C̶s̶

- Draw a few more NPCs (Maybe 2 or 3?)

̶-̶ ̶D̶r̶a̶w̶ ̶ ̶p̶r̶i̶m̶a̶r̶y̶ ̶c̶h̶i̶b̶i̶s̶

- Draw  secondary chibis

- Draw  tertiary chibis

- Draw chibi ranks (might not happen for the demo)

- Draw new items

- Draw new shapes

̶-̶ ̶D̶r̶a̶w̶ ̶a̶d̶d̶i̶t̶i̶o̶n̶a̶l̶ ̶c̶u̶t̶s̶c̶e̶n̶e̶ ̶g̶r̶a̶p̶h̶i̶c̶s̶

̶-̶ ̶G̶e̶n̶e̶r̶a̶l̶ ̶a̶r̶t̶ ̶c̶h̶e̶c̶k̶

̶-̶ ̶E̶x̶p̶o̶r̶t̶ ̶a̶ ̶l̶o̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶s̶p̶r̶i̶t̶e̶s̶

̶-̶ ̶I̶m̶p̶o̶r̶t̶ ̶a̶ ̶l̶o̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶s̶p̶r̶i̶t̶e̶s̶

̶-̶ ̶I̶m̶p̶l̶e̶m̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶r̶y̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶

̶-̶ ̶V̶a̶r̶i̶o̶u̶s̶ ̶s̶m̶a̶l̶l̶e̶r̶ ̶i̶m̶p̶r̶o̶v̶e̶m̶e̶n̶t̶s̶ ̶(̶T̶u̶r̶n̶s̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶b̶u̶n̶c̶h̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶s̶e̶,̶ ̶s̶o̶ ̶I̶'̶m̶ ̶g̶o̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶l̶i̶s̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶s̶e̶ ̶b̶e̶l̶o̶w̶)̶

̶-̶ ̶I̶m̶p̶r̶o̶v̶e̶ ̶a̶m̶p̶l̶i̶f̶i̶c̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶a̶n̶i̶m̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶

̶-̶ ̶T̶u̶t̶o̶r̶i̶a̶l̶ ̶m̶o̶d̶e̶

̶-̶ ̶N̶e̶w̶ ̶s̶e̶c̶r̶e̶t̶ ̶m̶e̶n̶u̶

̶-̶ ̶A̶l̶m̶a̶n̶a̶c̶h̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶r̶t̶c̶u̶t̶s̶

̶-̶ ̶M̶a̶n̶y̶ ̶f̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶r̶e̶l̶a̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶i̶m̶p̶r̶o̶v̶e̶m̶e̶n̶t̶s̶

̶-̶ ̶P̶a̶s̶s̶w̶o̶r̶d̶ ̶s̶y̶s̶t̶e̶m̶

̶-̶ ̶M̶a̶n̶y̶ ̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶s̶m̶a̶l̶l̶e̶r̶ ̶i̶m̶p̶r̶o̶v̶e̶m̶e̶n̶t̶s̶

̶-̶ ̶P̶u̶z̶z̶l̶e̶ ̶m̶e̶c̶h̶a̶n̶i̶c̶s̶

 ̶-̶ ̶U̶p̶d̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶r̶o̶o̶m̶ ̶e̶d̶i̶t̶o̶r̶

- Create the new exploration rooms

̶-̶ ̶D̶i̶a̶l̶o̶g̶u̶e̶ ̶s̶y̶s̶t̶e̶m̶ ̶u̶p̶d̶a̶t̶e̶

 ̶-̶ ̶M̶a̶n̶y̶ ̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶c̶u̶t̶s̶c̶e̶n̶e̶ ̶r̶e̶l̶a̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶u̶p̶d̶a̶t̶e̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶i̶m̶p̶r̶o̶v̶e̶m̶e̶n̶t̶s̶

- Implement the story cutscenes (currently working on this!)

- Create the shape waves and balance everything

̶-̶ ̶F̶i̶n̶a̶l̶i̶z̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶t̶o̶r̶y̶

̶-̶ ̶P̶r̶i̶m̶a̶r̶y̶ ̶d̶i̶a̶l̶o̶g̶u̶e̶

̶-̶ ̶C̶u̶t̶s̶c̶e̶n̶e̶ ̶s̶c̶r̶i̶p̶t̶

̶-̶ ̶C̶h̶i̶b̶i̶ ̶p̶r̶e̶p̶ ̶w̶o̶r̶k̶

- Secondary dialogue

- Tertiary dialogue

- Implement the new music and SFX once they're done

- Probably more stuff I can't think of right now (actually maybe not, I'm getting there)

The next NPC poll has begun! You can now vote for the monstergirl you want to be included in BE Witches in the Discord if you are a 2$+ patron!

The poll will be active until November 15th. A second NPC poll will begin on November 16th.

Monstergirl poll rules

NPC poll submissions

Also, now is a good time to submit a monstergirl and/or modifiers if you haven't already as a patron! If you can't think of anything to submit, here is a list of ideas you can choose from.