Game Update #15 (Patreon)

September has arrived! This month marks one year since I began creating this game in earnest. It's pretty exciting to see how far we've come since then!

Today I've got status updates for you, but first I'd like to remind our Freshmen patrons that the next public game release is only a few days away! It's a fun one, so keep an eye on your inbox for when I announce it's available to download.

Let's see where we're at as of today!

Script

I noted in the past few updates that the bulk of work as I head towards a dev build is the script. To give you an idea of how much writing this is, consider the length of the Matt storyline in the most recent early access release. Now multiply that by five to account for the four full character storylines and two half storylines going into the frat party!

I've been steadily working away, and I've got a large portion of the frat party script finished at this point. Currently I'm focused solely on wrapping up all the storylines while also doing passes to make sure everything makes sense in relation to how you play the game.

I essentially have each relationship path divided into Acquaintance, Friend, Good Friend, and/or Potential Sex Partner. (We're too early in the game to tip "good friend" over to "romantic interest," but this is the first step!) What I've been doing as I write is go over the script multiple times to make sure each relationship status is accounted for and will trigger correctly with the choice flags I've set. 

The type of relationship you have with a character adds and alters dialogue in what I hope feels truly reactive to the storyline you're constructing as you play. This is a lot of work for sure, which is why this part takes so long, but I think it's absolutely worth it in the end.

Beyond the dev build (which will go up through the end of the party), I've also got two hookup scenes to write that will wrap up the full early access release. I've previously shared the flowchart for one of these sequences, and now I can share the second:

You can see this one is much more linear than the purple hookup scene. Which is for a variety of reasons that are too spoilery to go into. I'll just say that this sequence goes in some unexpected directions that I think will prove to be very revealing about certain characters. I'm looking forward to writing it, and I'm especially looking forward to creating all the CGs that go along with it.

Art

Art-wise, I spent a good amount of time last month creating the character models and base sprites for a number of new minor characters that will appear in this release. There are 14 new characters in total, and frankly, creating them took much more time than I expected. I didn't want these characters to just be thrown together, so despite their limited screen time, I made sure to give them as much attention to detail as I've done with the main characters.

With that said, the dev build I'm working towards doesn't have nearly as many CGs as will be in the hookup sequences, so this round of character creation didn't put me terribly far behind. I've actually added more CGs to the frat party sequence to account for some scenes that came about organically as I wrote. In fact, I just rendered one that I think you Riley fans will really enjoy ;)

Looking Ahead

So when can we expect a dev build for Seniors & Graduates and the final early access release? Right now my goal is to have a dev build done within the next few weeks with the caveat that this really depends on the remaining writing going well. This is also so much content that coding it will take a lot of time. So that's the goal, but I can't 100% guarantee a delivery date.

Beyond the dev build, I would love to have the full early access release done by the end of the month. I have an ambitious art creation plan to reach that goal. But again, I can't guarantee anything since my ambition doesn't always match the reality of how much time the creation of so many new CGs can take! I'll have a better idea of how feasible this is by the mid-month status update.

I'm very much in the thick of creating this frat party update, so thinking beyond it is currently mostly on the backburner. For example, I know all the storylines for the subsequent club update, but I don't have flowcharts yet. Before I can make those charts, I'll need to purge the current storylines from my head so I can fill it up with the storylines of the folks who'll be clubbing. Juggling all these stories is tricky for sure, but I'm dedicated to making sure each main character has a full story as the game progresses.

However, just because I'm not actively outlining future content doesn't mean my brain will stay focused just on the current scenes I'm writing. I've been getting a lot of inspiration for future scenes, primarily when it comes to sexual encounters. The scenarios the dirty part of my brain is conjuring up are super hot. Stick with me and we'll get there before long! :)

That's all for this time. As always, thank you for supporting the game. I've got a lot of fun stuff coming up, and I can't wait to share it with you!