Quest Failed: Chapter Two - Dev Log #40

Hiya there, guys! How are we all doing? It's pretty cold over where I am right now, with potential snow looming in the horizon, but I guess it'd be weird to complain about the cold weather being someone with 'Frost' in my name, huh? I hope you're all keeping snug and warm right now!

In today's dev log (the fortieth one, in fact, wow--when did we reach this many?!) I'll be focusing on two things:

The first of which being the lovely CG art you see at the top of this post--of which I teased in greyscale at the end of the demo but felt it would be nice to show it in all its colourful glory. It seems Anna's taken a bit of a shine to our adventurer-to-be. I question the professionalism of an inkeeper doing this to one of their patrons, but maybe she's just tucking him into bed? Consider it some 'room service'~ And don't be fooled by her age--you can be assured she's a wild one with plenty of experience under her belt!

And secondly, I wanted to talk a bit more about what I'm actively working on in the game right now after cooling down from the demo release and getting back into the swing of things. Namely, expanding on what you can do in a day from the city gates.

From the gates, depending on the time of day, there will be a variety of options presented to you, ranging from: continuing a multi-part quest, visiting an area you've explored previously, and even going back to the camp outside the gate to talk to some old friends!

Naturally these options will hinge largely based on what you've already done before--so you can only continue quests you've actively started, only visit areas you've been to before (by way of quests, and story events, etc.) so the more you do elsewhere, the more options you'll find opening up here.

And as mentioned before--the options will also change depending on the time of day. So at night, for example, you won't be able to finish quests--but you will still be able to visit some areas. You might even be surprised at what kinds of events could unfold depending on the time of day, as each character has their own preference for what time of day they might choose to lurk.

Though at the same time, I'm trying to avoid making unlocking certain events too complicated--and will always try to make sure that it's logical. It won't ever be 'visit this area on this particular day at this particular moment in the day to unlock this h-scene or you miss it forever', though you'll still have to go out of your way to get some of the more special scenes.

That about does it for today's dev log, but let me know what you think of things in the comments--and whether you think this kind of more indepth interaction benefits QF as a whole or if you prefer more linear approaches to progress, as Chapter Three's approach will largely depend on the reactions and feedback to how Chapter Two's more experimental gameplay is received!