Thrallworks Update #13: The Real Steel

She's in! She's in!

She's not technically *done* to the extent I'd like her to be, but she is done!

Between this and the Drone Exchange Commissions its been a pretty full couple of weeks, but there are a couple of other things worth mentioning that we're getting into.

We've been mapping out the progression of the game somewhat and seeing how much of what I need to make it; assets, background images, sound, CG's, as well as how stuff like thePonygirl minigame/Drone Exchange and all of that content fits into the main product.

I guess the current answer is 'it don't quite', even with some tough decisions on my end, but this' something to be considered more deeply maybe another year into this. Right now though we can start cutting through the most critical content, which to me is the writing/text of it and the character asset art, with a side-venture of ponies.

I guess I shouldn't delay on the biggest good and bad decisions I've had to have made so here it goes.

The Good

Did you see it in the image above?

Yeah, you're going to get to pick your gender now.

I think enough people asked for it, and as Keller seems to appear more in character assets than CG's for the majority of the content, it seems viable. A problem I previously had with them is having to rewrite chunks of dialogue to reflect the gendered changes and how different characters would interact with the different genders, however slight. But y'know, rewriting dialogue and having different expressions isn't all so hard in the grand scheme of things.

The Bad

Given the amount of work I as 1 person can do, I'm pretty much calling it on the Fear and Guilt routes until/unless circumstances change.

To be fair this isn't actually going to change the short-to-medium turn output as I've already said I'll be focusing on the Trust route outcomes, but still it's a kick in the teeth for me as a creator to decide I don't have the years in me to do these justice; what with me wanting it to have a heavy narrative element to this experience.

The scope of the game is still subject to change though. Maybe if it's all wrapped up as a kind of 'Thrallworks: Ty Lee' game then I can put that content back in. Or if the momentum behind TW as a whole changes they could be reinstated. I'm just saying that for now, I ain't worrying about these two routes.

Which of course means I need to get a fresh demo out asap so people can get an updated idea of what the game's going toward.

So right now, though I will still be doing around 1 progress/training scene every 2 weeks, and ideally 1 pony, the majority of the work will be both scripting the introductory content and transferring the demo script over to Unity so we can do that.

Forms

I quite liked doing the Park scripts, and everyone put in great suggestions, which I was very happy about. Other than me finishing up the remaining ones made, I'm currently picking at what else might be fun to do. The opportunities for more 'random' scripts like these might be low, but as more assets are developed and more menu screens/options become available, the more novel the content I can offer you all. At the very least, $10 peoples can expect a poll-or-similar before month's end.

Anyhoo, that's all for this fortnight. Now the commissions are out of the way, expect the speed of things to kick up a notch!

Orientation Demo:

• Same old same old~

Scene Repository

• Nothing new this time...other than a fancier Cerise! :D

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Enjoy!