Progress log #19 - last one before next episode release

Hey everyone,

just a small update to let you know that the release date of the next episode is growing closer. Right now, I'm fleshing out the final details of the dialogue, adding music and working on some last minute artwork. The early patron release will be ready in a few days. That's the big, important news - below you'll find some extra rambling about the development process.

On the topic of artwork, I managed to draw a lot less than I would have hoped for but between the approaching deadline of my master's thesis and the need to release the episode ASAP, it will have to make do. I might throw in some last minute sketches where it is desperately needed the most, but that being said, after a minor drawing epiphany, I am pretty optimistic about the future of Elvensang's art; using a new little drawing method, I made 7 unique CGs in just about five days - all of them for the first "real" sex scene. A minor one, admittedly... but I am pretty happy with how it turned out, and I am very hyped to finally draw this kind of stuff after practicing for it for ages.

Another thing related to artwork I'd mention is sprites. With the little time left, I settled for just a minor rework of Anasteya's proportions (and the extra outfit I showed in an earlier progress log) and save a complete overhaul of every sprite (every major character sprite at least) for next releases. It does feel like I am constantly reworking the sprites, but as with everything else - it's a learning process, and sprites in particular are something I should not overlook as my drawing ability improves. Sure, I can get away with a rubbish drawing in an episode from a year ago that you'll see for all of 10 seconds, but I want to keep sprites updated whenever there's significant strides - after all, you'll be staring at them all the time. When the public release of episode 4 comes out, I'll post a roadmap here and discuss my plans in more detail but for now - I want to make sprites more expressive and dynamic, not just in terms of facial features but in terms of poses as well. It will be a longterm plan that I'll hammer out gradually over a few episodes, but I am really confident that I can make the sprites shine.

Anyway, a couple of days at most for the Patron early release. I don't have the time to put the episode through rigorous playtesting, so there might be a few bugs and glitches, especially since I've made some changes to the script from earlier episodes - it shouldn't be anything destructive, but just keep it in mind. I'll post a full list of changes with the release.

And that's all for now.

Love you all,

Worlaix