First of all,
sorry for the silence! Let's not call these monthly anymore, haha! I was recently in Steam Next Fest, we didn't have great traction but for what we went in with it was pretty good!
Since then, I've been nose-to-keyboard for weeks! To be so real, I find these updates really difficult! I don't know what it is about chronicling the work, as I work, that become hard to track.
I suppose it feels somewhat like backtracking as my to-do list is written in only ways I understand. Things as small as making the phone ring or as large as setting up a whole new animation, all take time but not everything is "worthy" progress.
And so much of this kind of work is fighting your own mentality, I realized. It's so easy to get lost in the numbers, to track validity of effort with engagement.
At the same time, there's something so gratifying about the process. Seeing the vision build up into reality and overcoming the knowledge gaps that try to prevent it.
So, what's gotten done?
Writing
Added a ton of fluidity between chapters and fixed a big plot hole. I also completely re-wrote half of one of the chapters.
I want to add some conversations to the mini game(s) that lets you explore some things a bit deeper, these are To Be Written.
Art
ALL THE REQUIRED ART IS DONE.* All 14+ CGs! All the drinks! All the backgrounds! All the busts! I can now focus on stretch goals and polishing anything out of place.
(You might have noticed the new screen shot!)
* Weeeeelll, I think it's time to bite the bullet and update the cover art, more on this in the future.
UI
I gave all the UI a fresh coat of paint, it felt unfinished and disjointed. There are also a lot more features such as loading from the pause menu, disabling text sounds, auto play and more. These and all other system changes won't be patched to the demo until the game is closer to release.
Coding
All the chapters run and can be loaded into! The saving works even if there are patches to the game! The history button works! (Sorry demo players) Steam Cloud Saving and achievements are fully functional!
What's left is making sure the game is fully playable with just keyboard and or controller and any unforeseen bugs found in play testing.
And speaking of...
I'm happy to say I'm currently running a play test for a FULL run of the game!! I would like to say I'm ahead of schedule but ahaha... my original goal was September.
There's still a lot of work to do, bugs to fix, accessibility and functionality to implement, but now I have release date in mind. Stay tuned for that announcement :)