Weekly Devlog: 1 - 7 April 2024

Hello Patrons and happy April!

This past week saw me complete Part B of Chapter 9's mini-update. It's currently undergoing beta-testing which should end today (if all goes well). The release dates if testing ends today will be as follows:

• Ishari Tier: 8th April 2024

• Vinia Tier: 11th April 2024

• Cyre Tier: 16th April 2024

• Nomad Tier: 23 April 2024

The next week will be really busy for me at my IRL job so my main focus will be to complete the side stories for March and post them throughout this week. Once the side stories are finished, I'll move on to the last and final part of Chapter 9 which I estimate will be complete by the end of May to early/mid-June depending on how long it takes me to complete the scenes.

Once Chapter 9 is complete, it will conclude the end of Part 3 of the game, meaning there will be a poll going out. Because of the way Chapter 10 is structured, there will essentially be two versions of Chapter 10's main scenes. You will be given a choice on whether or not you're going to travel with Anu and Irus to try to ally with the Nomad Tribes OR you can choose to join Oren and Elora in returning to Vinia to stop the Blood Guard from taking the city of Hadi (and more cities in Vinia).

Even though the game is mostly linear, I want players to be able to make choices that will impact the game and its endings in some way, which lends to the game being replayable. Depending on who you choose to accompany and how you respond, you can both fail and succeed with either the alliance option or the Vinia option and I'm hoping that the stats (which I've dreaded) will play some importance in Chapter 10 onwards. This doesn't necessarily mean that the game is now going to be stat-heavy or that you won't get a good ending if you fail, it just means that certain ending scenarios will differ based on the outcome of what happens in Chapter 10.

For now, Chapter 9 will be finished by the latest in June and there's only a family dinner scene (optional) and the romance/companion dialogues before the end of the chapter where you make your decision. It doesn't sound like a lot but the dinner scene will give you the option to invite a companion/RO of your choice which means different responses based on your companion/RO. Then there's still the dialogue scenes afterwards which is where you can talk to the main gang and discuss the pros/cons of choosing to go to the Nomad Tribe or Vinia before you make your final decision.

So far, my early writing times are working out much better than when I had to write at night, so hopefully I can get this chapter done by the end of May.

Anyway, that's it for today. Thank you for your patience and hopefully we'll have updated demos from tomorrow onwards 💖

Edit: For prevention of leaks/piracy, please find V 1.9 (previous demo) in the side stories pages on itch.io. Nomad Tier Patrons don't need to worry as they can still access the demo as normal.