Southern Great Forest(North East sector)! (Patreon)

Hey guys! Blazeymix here, your favorite sole programmer for Chronicles of Acorn! Well, I would be your favorite, if I got this all done 2 years sooner! Haha. I wanted to drop in and give a nice little "update and plans" letter to ya'll regarding the game, I haven't done that in quite awhile!

Before that, I wanted to talk a little about why it took my two years to get development on episode 3 truly off the ground. When episode two launched, which was right after some very scary heart scares, cardiologist visits, sleep problems, major anxiety issues etc, I was really exhausted all around. Mentally, physically(more on that later), I was just so burnt on life in general! I kept on as best I could, focusing on my health above all else, and while I wanted so badly to work on CoA in October and after, when I tried to get started on this map you see here, Southern Great Forest and continue the story of CoA into episode 3, I just.. couldn't.

Everything I did came up blank, I suddenly.. forgot how to make a map! I tried hard, but everything I kept creating and putting down on the map just came out.. awful looking and uninspired. I felt like I lost my touch, and nothing I did worked on fixing the problem. So development halted immediately, and I then switched gears on trying to find someone willing to help make maps to help solve the problem! Well... I did find people willing to help make maps, but sadly, and I dont blame them, I blame myself, they just couldn't keep interest in the project. They would start, but never finish. I think this was because i myself just... was so unorganized with the group and didn't do any updating myself, so they just did work on their own and sorta fizzled out.

This is generally how development on CoA went for the next two years, I did touch it up from time to time, I changed some things, I worked on episode 2 hard mode and created Fiona's class system and skills. More assets were created here or there. Still, far more was happening in my life! 2018 I discovered the reason I was always so exhausted was due to having Moderate Obstructive Sleep Apnea! Which is really weird, considering I never snore. By this time, Sallyhot was about done with the patreon, and I was struggling to keep you guys rewarded with good content.

Fast forward to December 2019, and not much changed. Except Sallyhot had been working on some new art recently, and wanted to post to the patreon again. After chatting with him, he decided to fully return here! So already things are looking great. Around christmas time, I got a random hello from an old friend, Shelby! Our sprite artist who worked on a few things for us in the past :) (Not to be confused with KetchupWithFries, our spriter who made the placedholder battlers for us for all four girls!)

The message contained brand new sprites for Princess Sally, and since there were so many, it made me want to see them in game! So I went to work on trying to implement them! Which was extremely challenging, as they're not only more detailed and cute and tall, but they have more frames and the engine, RPG Maker, allows for 3 max for battlers. Still, with some plugins, research and a lot of trial and error, I finally got her new sprites working with all 6 beautiful frames. Once I saw them.. I just got super inspired! A fire was lit under me, and I wanted to work on CoA now more than anything! And I did! See, last I tried getting that plugin working was two years ago, and I couldn't figure it out. This time, I did! and when I saw I could do that, it made me feel like I could do anything!

So that's when I tried making a new Southern Great Forest one more time, and wouldn't you know, it's coming along amazingly! What you see up there is what I've been working on for about two-three weeks straight! It's taken so long, because it's just so big and detailed! I figured out the layout and what I want to happen with this section of the map. So that's where I move on to some plans for CoA.

Now, the layout here was designed with a specific story element in mind that will come into play the moment Sally and Bunnie make it out of the cave in Episode 2. in the playable alpha build I recently sent to you guys, you can actually run around this area a little bit, but it's far earlier in development and there's nothing to do there yet. I dont want to go into too much detail on the story events that will happen here, but I will say Fiona is going to make her appearance here and she will become playable after she does! This ENTIRE sector of the zone is just the beginning of episode 3, as the gals will be making their way west and toward the underside of Central Great Forest so they can finally reach Knothole. Which is where episode 3 truly begins. Once they reach Knothole and talk to Rotor, the game will open up, with all the previous zones being accessible and explorable. With a new more open ended goal in mind, you'll be able to explore most of the forest in search of several important key items needed to assemble Rotor's secret weapon... Episode 3 will conclude when you finish finding those items and building the weapon.

While exploring the forest in any order you see fit, there will also be new side quest added, a cool Rotor shop to spend your scraps, and a lot more cool things. Part of why it was so mentally daunting to get started on episode 3 was because.. it's just so huge! Especially compared to ep 1 and 2. Still, this is what I want to do. My ambition is there, my drive is back and I'm working hard on making this happen! So thanks for all your support guys and I hope you look forward to all of this and much more! I will keep you updated and give more info on the game in the upcoming weeks and months. As far as a release date is concerned, episode 3 is so early in development that I really couldn't say. As the sole developer on this project, I'm trying to work on it often but not so much that it will burn me out. It's been going well so far! :)

One thing I did consider was releasing episode 3 in parts, because of how big it is. Idk, I guess we'll see. Anyway, thanks for reading if you made it this far, and I hope you guys stay safe and healthy! Tootles for now :)