Quest Failed: Chapter Two - Dev Log #85

Awooooooo! I'm here with another dev log! And apologising profusely for being later than I intended with it--please don't get mad, uwawawa--awoooooooooo!

How are we all doing today on this lazy ol' weekend? I hope you're able to take a break from your hectic lives and take some much needed rest for yourselves--because you all deserve it!

I wanted to take a moment to report on how the writing is doing--and admittedly I had hit a bit of a mental block with a scene in the last few days, but have shattered through it and am making smooth progress! The next alpha build is going to contain some fun interactions with the original gals you've come to love--and if I can help it, a couple of extra h-scenes, too! I can happily say the h-scenes will be with some of the OG girls from chapter 1 who hadn't had a chance to shine again in the second chapter yet--even though they really should have by now! Maybe I ended up getting just a little too distracted by all of the new girls and forgot to give the ones that started this whole thing the attention they deserved! For shame, me. ;~; There's also a unique element I've been planning in the background with a character that hasn't yet been fully revealed (outside of the alpha, anyway) and I don't want to spoil much--but it's a cute little feature that doesn't add much to the overall event scenes or story, but will give you some choice over some adorable visual flairs for someone in particular. So long as you have the gold to pay for them, of course! Adding this helped me give just that little bit of extra value to the gold and make it feel not as limiting, and I really am happy with how all these systems are coming together!

The main focus of this week's dev log, however, as you may have noticed from the cute woof decorating the top of this post--is a closer look at the scrappy ol' wolf girl, Kassandra! I know I've teased art of her before, and even so much as teased a look at her voice from the amazingly talented VA Chovie (of which you can check out here, just in case you hadn't it, awoo: [CLICK] ) but I don't believe I ever dived too into her character like I've done with others in the past. So let's fix that now!

So--Kassandra! Who is she? What is she? Why is she? Where is she?! Which is she?!?! I'm sure many questions might come to mind when you catch a glimpse of this fluffy, fanged being! Most of which are probably concerned with wanting to pet her and scritch her behind the ears, because she's a really good girl (sometimes, at least.)

When initially designing her, I set out to make something that sort of straddled the line (and Matt, huhu) between a more feral monster and something more civilised--sort of adapting the best elements from both into a really playful pup! Meaning she can talk and understand the human language, but still is capable of more animalistic noises, such as growling, barking and of course howling! Ahhh--I really love to write the howling for her, and have her burst into it sporadically to show her excitement for any given moment. It pretty much bubbles away inside of her until she can't contain herself any longer, and a great big AWOOOOOOOO explodes out of her! I don't have many characters like her, so it's a lot of fun to craft her scenes, basically treating her like a big ol' excitable puppy that might slobber all over you if you're not careful.

The name itself, 'Kassandra', might feel a touch too grand for someone as scrappy as her--but I sort of want it to feel like she was once named that by someone that might have originally taken care of her, and given her a home--sort of taught her the basics of the human world before for whatever reason she ended up loose again in the wild. Did she break free of her own accord, or did something happen to the person who looked after her? Will we ever find out? Maybe? I don't know? I can't stop asking questions?!

Unfortunately, I don't have too many design elements for Kassandra before her main design came to fruition--what you see here is really what she always was, and her artist DaphInteresting (the artist of all of the Chapter One sprites, and Marine!) really nailed the cuteness right away! The only thing I potentially regret--and did it completely by accident--was that she DOES have some small resemblance to Nefertari in a few areas, like the long, ragged hair and same sort of general tan skin tone. I guess Tari was just so influential I couldn't help but make her twice, huh? : P All jokes aside--my main points when creating her design were to make sure she had cute, fluffy paws rather than anything that looked too dangerous, along with equally cute ears. I feel the paws help add a 'monstrous' element to what could have easily strayed a little too close to 'cosplay' territory, which is something I wanted to avoid. When designing new monster girls it's always a challenge to balance both the 'monster' and the 'girl' elements without either one feeling like it's overpowering the other. How do you guys feel personally about Kassandra's design?

While I don't have fancy sketch concepts to share--what I DO have to share is a small little peek at her second h-scene--of which I don't believe I've shared before. (Or if I have I'm really losing it 80+ dev logs in, what is time anymore aaaaaaaa)

This one's a bit more unexpected perhaps from someone like her, but I really wanted to put a lot of emphasis on those adorably fluffy paws of hers and I hope you'll enjoy the scene, too! (It's a lot more gentle than a certain infamous CLAWjob from our resident dragon, so don't worry! No nasty scratches!)

Beyond her h-scenes--without spoiling too much, I have a lot of plans for her in regards to regular interactions! Unlike some of the other monster girls--I assure you she isn't going to be a oneshot sort of deal, nor is she going to be as isolated as some of the others. It'll be a challenge to bring it all to life--especially how immense the script is at the moment--but I truly believe it'll be worth it, and adding all these little interactions along the way is what's making Chapter 2 so special in my eyes, far exceeding the linear journey that Chapter 1 was, where the few choices you could make back there only fed into several outcomes. Here, if I can manage it, you'll be surprised by your choices all over the place!

And with all of that fluffy goodness out of the way, I think today's awoo-filled dev log is finally coming to an end! I'll try my best to be on time for the next dev log, and hopefully have more solid information on the next alpha build at that time, too!

Keep being awesome, guys, and thank you for the amazing support as always! 2019 is truly going to be the year of the monsters!