Quest Failed: Chapter Two - Dev Log #106

Hiya, guys! I'm back~ I hope you've all been doing well!

Dev logs have been spread out a little this month admittedly while I've been forging away on the alpha build and avoiding getting distracted too much--but I thank you for your patience! I still strive to update you all at least once a week, and do get quite nervous once I reach that point each time, as I start fearing worst case scenarios after going so long without an update, like people may think I've stopped communicating, or development on the title has slowed, or something like that. I know it sounds silly, but these are the things that keep me up at night! Needless to say, if you ever want an update on the game at any time, or have any questions pertaining to the development, don't hesitate to reach out to me, either here, on Discord, or even by email. I'll always do my best to answer any questions or concerns you may have!

The bonus art may also be pushing to the end of the month due to artist scheduling, but I'll do my best to ensure there's something for the $15 tier! It's just been a little hectic as all.

But monthly panic aside, let's get to the actual dev log part of things where I explain what the heck I've been doing over the last week!

One of the most recent things I've done (but not the only thing) is taken the time to update Bella's old introduction scene after putting it off for quite a while. You may recognise the scene up above from previous teasers, but here she's been given quite the royal makeover, complete with bodypaint, lipstick and even her cute thorny crown! This really enhances her from the old version of the scene that was made in accordance to her older sprite, and now she looks quite striking! The lipstick especially really makes her facial features pop out nicely.

And as I say, re-implementing this into the game was no easy task--hence why I was such a sloth and put off adding it in for so long. Since when the newer makeover version of the scene was done, the additions were drawn onto the original .psd of the image (which was at a 2500 x 2500 resolution or so) rather than the downscaled 720p assets that were chopped up and inserted into the game. This effectively meant I had to reimport every layer from scratch, resizing and repositioning to make sure it was accurate to the old version of the scene, and then ensuring all of the layer names were accurate to how they were in the old scene. It was a bit of a slog to go through, since Bella's first scene has 60+ layers due to all the expressions, arm movements and flower variations--but I set aside an afternoon a few days ago and powered through it, since a Queen of the Forest really does deserve to look her best, wouldn't you agree? Ohohoho~ And working on her first scene like this really makes me want to start implementing all of her additional scenes, too, since I just can't get enough of that wonderful laugh of hers!

Alongside this, I've been writing as usual, slowly building up a variety of events between a bunch of fun characters. Some will have dedicated CG scenes, some are h-scenes--and some are just chill dialogue exchanges that help strengthen Matt's bond between him and the character he may be talking to. I've tried to strike a balance between when these events pop up when you choose a character to talk to, so that you never feel like you're getting too many non-CG events at any given time. At some points, I may have even thrown too many CG events at the player--so I'm trying to avoid it feeling too daunting to read through, with small little narrative breaks here and there. Pacing is something I feel maybe I've struggled with in past games, but I'm doing my best to make Chapter Two feel like the most professionally produced title I've created thus far, and hope that care shows in the final product! This also extends to how I tackle general scenes, trying to strike a balance between character dialogue and narration. I'm unsure if I've talked about this point before, but this is always something that tortures me--where I feel like I'm not being descriptive enough in some scenes, and don't want to simply go in only halfway trying. With the visual novel medium I feel there's a certain 'flow' to aim for, between what characters are saying, intermingled with the main character's own personal thoughts and narration to really give an insight into their own mind, and why they're doing what they do--and slowly falling for each character in the process. This sort of loose flow between dialogue and narrative is really what drew me to attempting my hand at this medium, and I feel I have a lot to learn moving forward, but hopefully I'll have something that can be considered a halfway decent visual novel when all is said and done!

Once I get ahead in the writing, I want to also start properly implementing the rest of the UI features unique to Chapter Two. This includes a proper inventory/status screen that updates correctly as you get items, and to finally polish up the relationship meter too--since that's been in a state of limbo for a long time. You can tell because half the portraits there still have their old art, aaaaaaaaa

But writing comes first before the fancy technical things--since I already know I'll lost myself for hours in the nuts and bolts of the scripting, and I don't want to get a headache just yet, haha.

So to recap--several scenes such as Bella's old one have been enhanced, writing on a variety of events forges onward with a number of fun h-scenes with characters new and old, and I'm starting the preliminary planning to get the game as polished and shiny as I can for the eventual early access release of all of the content created thus far. It's been a heck of a journey, but things are moving forward. Progress is being made! And poor Matt's suffering continues forevermore. It's a living!

The next post will possibly be a bonus art feature--or a tease of an unseen CG. It depends on if the art is ready in time! Thanks again for your immense support. I love you all!

Until next time~