Happy October! This monthly devlog is coming a week later than I'd hoped, but I'm trying out a new system this cycle that sidetracked me for a little while that I'll yap about below. As this is the first fully Ch. 7-focused devlog (rather than 6.5/UI-focused), I've reset the count to #1. Read on below if you're interested in what we've been working on and the general focus of the update, but, long story short:

1. My goal is to release the update around Christmastime. The game actually has a script this time.

2. Preview #1: A Frankie render from the beginning of the update with a really cool hoodie!

3. We'll be releasing a minor game update featuring a Chinese translation and some QoL updates

4. There's a new poll up for subs to vote on one of this month's Sun-tier commissions

5. LbtW stickers coming soon?

Development:

If you've been reading these devlogs for a while, you might know a little about my writing process, which is to say that it's really scatterbrained and practically non-existent. When I first started working on this game, I had a rough outline of the story and then a really detailed script for the first chapter, with a plan to write another detailed script at the beginning of each new chapter. I learned really quickly, though, that I was almost never able to recreate what I wrote in my scripts. Due to a severe lack of resources (and knowledge), I never had access to the kind of locations/objects/clothes I'd planned for, or even just the sort of visuals I was imagining. Each scene forced me to almost entirely scrap what I had written and improvise something else with what I had. I quickly realized the weeks I'd spent writing were a complete waste of time. As I went on, I developed a system where I outlined the purpose/goal of a scene in curt bullet points and only actually wrote the scene once the renders were done and I was coding it all together, like writing lyrics once the music's recorded. It was tricky sometimes, but I found this served to actually emphasize character development and scene purpose as, often times, they were all I had before I began rendering. Bits of writing that I think are highlights of Love by the Water—like the conversation between Wake and Bodhi near the end of Chapter 2 or Kai and Desmond's conversation at the beach in Chapter 4—were completely improvised and written, kind of, in real time. I knew what I wanted these guys to learn about each other and bond over, but I only found the actual words once I put all of the images together and I actually saw them having the conversations. This is also a big reason why LbtW has so much going on in the backgrounds of scenes. Not having a strict plan for a scene allows me to see what I find once I get there and have fun with it; I'm not attached to any one specific idea and get to throw proverbial shit at a wall.

Anyway, this worked for a while, but I've learned a lot since I started. Even more importantly, HS2 is a fundamentally different thing than when I started. Whereas I was mostly locked into the same handful of maps you've all seen a million times at the beginning, there are so many plugins and mod creators now, I don't find myself having to settle for less as often as I used to. With these plugins and Pickle and the experience of other devs, I'm mostly able to achieve what I picture in my head. I don't find myself having to scramble to pivot entire plotlines or character arcs or locations anymore when I'm now able to take the time to build it myself. For this reason, I decided to take a more focused and mapped-out approach to the development of Chapter 7, similar to how I did at the beginning. Long story short, I took a few weeks this month to write the full scripts and shot lists for Chapter 7 based on an outline Pickle and I developed together. Whereas, before, I couldn't even give you an educated guess of how many scenes or renders an update would be before it was done, I'm now not only able to tell you exactly how many scenes it'll be (probably), but I even have a rough estimate of how many renders and animations it'll be. Like a normal developer! Crazy.

So I'm sure that was really uninteresting for most of you, but it's been a huge rejuvenating jolt for me. I know you can't tell from actually playing the game, but I'm kind of a perfectionist for things no one cares about, so when I've had to scrap scripts and pivot in the past, it was always really difficult. That system I developed was kind of a way of protecting myself from disappointment, but it definitely made rendering take longer than it needed to and obscured the bigger picture for me sometimes. By taking everything I've learned over the years (and all of the AI-coded plugins HS2 is flooded with now), I think I've been able to build a more focused system for scripting with Pickle that will let me deliver a more clear vision for development progress going forward.

Chapter 7 is currently locked in to consist of 30 scenes spread over something around 1,600 renders and around 30 animations. We're hoping to have it finished by Christmastime, and I look forward to showing you all more of it soon. Some vague things to look forward to: Wake and Sasha sharing a single idiot braincell; Bodhi being super chill and optimistic; MILFs; healthcare; spotlights on characters we haven't seen in a little while.

Thanks for reading this. :)

Preview #1:

I don't want to spoil too much about the preview render, but hey, it's Frankie, and it's spooky! It's from the opening scene of the game and features my single favorite piece of clothing I've ever used in HS2. Of course, it was ported and textured by Pickle, my favorite big assed sweet baby angel.

Chinese translation (v0.6.75) coming soon!

I talked about it a little in my last post, but I'm really excited for LbtW to have its first official translation! A full Chinese translation by Tinki, the developer of Trace, is now built into the game and easily toggleable from the main menu settings. It features a full translation of the game's text, all of the menu buttons, the character biographies, unlock hints, and even includes subtitles for on-screen text. Altogether, Tinki translated over 150,000 words and hundreds of photos for us, so please show him some love. It's such an insane, kind thing he did, and I couldn't be more grateful and excited to get the update tested and sent out.

This version will also ship with some minor updates and fixes, such as an additional setting to have the game mute itself when you minimize it/tab out and some updated display code. I also fixed an issue where the drawer quick menu would close when using the back button, as well as some typos and visual errors (thanks in particular to Doot, Kway, and RD).

Patreon recap:

1) A new poll is up for subs to vote on this month's Sun tier commission. To recap, Sun tier patrons are able to submit anonymous render requests/ideas for us to fulfill on a rolling basis. Alongside each monthly dev log, there'll also be a poll where folks can vote on which idea will definitely get fulfilled that month (the rest, we'll pick and choose ourselves).

2) Additionally, Pickle's Patreon is celebrating the month of Lily this October. If you follow her over there, you know she's been posting some really awesome mods, and with this month having a spooky/Halloween-focus, Lily has been her model this month. Make sure to stop by to see all of the fun renders she's been making to promote her new item (beware, though, Lily has hair!).

Would anyone be interested in stickers/buttons?

If you've played the game recently and seen all of the cute chibis of the characters popping up during the game intro, then you already know that our friend Jeff over in the Discord server is a super talented artist who has helped us out a ton. Recently, he's been tinkering with designing Love by the Water sticker sheets/buttons to potentially sell in his Etsy shop on our behalf! The template below is subject to change, but it gives you a good idea of what it could potentially look like!

I know Pickle and I would really love to put some of our favorite sprites of Frankie and Emma and others on our kindles and water thermoses and stuff, but we're obviously biased. If this is something you think you could be interested in, too, please let us know! I wouldn't want to make Jeff do all of this work if there wasn't at least a little interest. Are there any characters/sprites you'd be particularly interested in sticking somewhere? :) I think it could be a lot of fun!

And in case you haven't had a chance to see the updated game intro with all of the character chibis Jeff drew, I composited most of them together below! Aren't they the cutest? I cried putting this together!!

That's all for this devlog! Thank you so much for reading and for all of the support.