Quest Failed: Chapter Two - Dev Log #81

Hiya there, guys! We're on the cusp of a new month--but I figured I could juuuust about manage to squeeze one last dev log in before the month is over, because I feel like I've been falling behind on them somewhat throughout the month.

First of all, so we have some pretty eye candy up in here--if you hadn't seen it on twitter already, I've attached some adorable artwork of the hooded girl up above for you to all marvel at, done by the super talented Monstralgam who does all sorts of neat monster girl art and is open for commissions right now. I recommend giving their stuff a look! You'd almost forget just what a little doll of death and destruction she is from that adorable head tilt there~ How could you not want to hug her?

Cute art aside, let's move on to what I've been doing these last couple of weeks! (I promise it's at least something, honest)

As I say, with the large majority of art assets complete for the game now--the bulk of the work now lies solely on finishing the script and getting all of the voice acting down. This is continuing in a smooth manner and I'm so glad that all of the voice actresses have stayed on board for the duration of the project. I really can't thank them enough for all of their hard work and being so patient as I slowly bring all of the scripts together! Truthfully one of my biggest fears is that a VA may be no longer able to continue doing the work due to a variety of reasons, with adult work being something that they may no longer want to pursue. But everyone has really been so awesome and they really do seem to love their roles, which makes me happy to see!

Regarding logging progress for you all to keep track of and make sure I'm working hard enough--I realised upon going over the various scenes present in the game that cataloguing all of the existing ones could be pretty time consuming to do, and wonder if it's better to just start from the new scenes as they come to life and give estimates as to progress with them? Or I could try to do it in groups such as events/h-scenes per character, main story segments and so on. Or would that perhaps ruin a bit of the mystery around the game by laying flat out everything that's going to happen? I suppose I'd have to get sneaky with codewords or something, haha. (Mystery Character A - H-Scene 1, and so on for an example)

Finally--I have something special to show regarding one of the events coming to life as we speak...drum roll please!

It's a net! Yes! What you've all been waiting for! How...exciting? Whoo! Well, I guess the icon alone probably won't inspire much hype--but it's part of a small side interaction that will open the way to something you might not otherwise get to see in the game. Any guesses as to what? (And no it's not to snag the hooded girl and run away with her--even if that would be adorable and solve all of our problems)

This also represents how much of an 'adventure game' I'm trying to make Chapter Two, where certain events may need certain items to progress--but without getting too complex. Most of the time the solutions will be obvious and heavily hinted at what you might need. (And in most cases you can't buy the item until Matt decides he needs it, to avoid shop bloat and confusion) Though at the same time, I'm trying to strike a balance between events that can happen naturally and more 'puzzle' based style encounters--where I won't shove a million unnecessary items into the game, but want to at least have a few here and there so it doesn't feel like it could have just been scrapped altogether. It's been a lot of fun to think on, and sometimes these item style scenarios just come to me out of nowhere!

What do you guys think of this sort of thing--or do you maybe feel it's mutating beyond a simple VN experience you might have otherwise wanted? Chapter Two's non-linear reception will definitely affect how I go about Chapter Three's structure (which is well in its planning stages with characters and all sorts and aaaaaa I wish I could show all the awesome stuff for that, too!)

Thanks again for your immense patience as I power through the remaining work left on Chapter Two and I can't wait to share more with you!