Dev Update! 4/17/23 (Patreon)

Hey folks, how's everyone doing this week? First off, a big welcome to all the new folks who have joined the Patreon. Great to have you here!

In case you missed it, the Beta for Chapter Four: Part Two is now available at the $15 level. Early reviews have been very kind, and I've been diligently squashing as many bugs as possible. The $5 update will be available this Friday (4/21) and should have most of the kinks worked out. I'm working on one game-breaking bug that seems to have arisen due to a Ren'py version incompatibility, but it remains to be seen if I can fix it. I've only been able to reproduce the issue on two of my older save files, but I'd still rather fix it if I'm able.

Besides fixing bugs here and there, I also had two little logic/continuity errors that needed to be resolved. So I had to add a few lines of dialogue to the story, which required a handful of extra renders. No biggie, though.

But I'm not just working on polishing the update up for upcoming final release -- I'm also moving ahead! That means planning for the near and distant future. I'm really eager to get the next update out ASAP, with as few delays as possible. In service to that goal, I've been doing early renders just setting up scenes/lighting/props, costumes, getting new character designs dialed in, etc.

I also took a couple hours yesterday to begin writing the new opening to Chapter One. For the new folks here, once the next installment comes out, I'll be shifting my focus to redoing the first chapter. The reasons for this are varied, but it basically comes down to wanting to build out the world a little more with that first chapter, and give players more options. Plus, it gives me the opportunity to correct some missed opportunities and ugly coding in other chapters.

I'm pretty happy with how the Chapter One revamp is going so far. In the not-so-distant future I'd like to put out a little text-only demo showing what it'll look like. But that's probably a couple of weeks away, as my focus will predominantly be on getting the next update done.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with some renders from Viola's upcoming scene, as well as some stuff from the early draft of the revised Chapter One.

As always, please take care of yourselves, and thank you for your support!