Hi everyone, and welcome to my 2nd Dev Log for Chapter 2 (22nd in total since I began doing these)!

I’ve officially come back from my trips and taken some time off from development to recharge. And honestly, while I did feel a huge amount of FOMO while away from my PC, it was incredibly necessary. Passion burns strong, but of course anxiety and insecurities arise too. I’ll talk about that later in the post.

Also important: some changes are coming to my Patreon tiers. I’ll talk more about this later, but there’s nothing to worry about. It’s basically me trying to give a bit more to those who have supported me this far.

Now, without further ado, let’s delve into development!

Development

Following is the current progress for Chapter 2 (number of scenes is still not included as I'm still transforming the novel-like written prose into dialogue. I'm still not 100% how many scenes are going to be included, since I might want to remove some, or add them):

• Completed Renders: +123 new renders.

• Total Chapter 2 Stats: 123 renders and 7000 words.

(The numbers are prone to change, especially the word numbers for the dialogue)

I’ve started taking a course on how to write better dialogue, something I felt was very much needed. While I don’t believe the dialogue in TDW is bad, I believe there’s room for improvement. What I don’t want is characters talking in the game without letting their intentions, reasons, and personalities come through. Even worse: robotic-sounding dialogue. So yeah, I hope the time I’m investing in this course will help elevate the story beyond what it currently is!

On another note, I’ve officially started rendering Chapter 2!! We all know the first step is always the toughest, no matter what we do. And I’m incredibly happy to have started again! I’m also trying to implement new techniques into my renders, mostly a new lighting technique where I try not to rely on too many lights, instead using fewer while still creating art I’m happy with!

Also, I received some great advice on posing, which I’m trying to implement as well. As you might have noticed in Chapter 1, some scenes had pose changes quite often, even between one line of dialogue and the next. In theory, or at least in my mind, that would create some sort of “realism”, since the characters would move. Yet somehow, while replaying the game for the gazillionth time, I felt a bit of the opposite happening. So my idea is to keep pose changes happening, but only when there are shifts in emotion. For now, this seems to be working quite well. I’m curious to hear your opinion on this, though, so let me know in the comments or on the Discord Server what you think!

I feel like Chapter 2 will be quite big, but I'm also trying to keep it reasonably sized.

Setting Myself Goals

Having released a first chapter comes with the commitment to keep working on the game and to keep future releases from being too far apart. So I began setting myself goals.

How many days per week do I work on the game?
How many hours per day?
How many renders each session?
When do I want to release Chapter 2?

These are all important questions I had to face, as I’m no longer a wannabe game developer. Yet they also come at the price of anxiety, nervousness, and insecurity. I can’t lie and say I don’t have them, because they’re part of the process too. I’m trying to live by the idea that if what I’m doing doesn’t feel like what I wanted, or feels forced, I won’t add it to the story. Because the last thing I want is for this game to become a dreaded chore. It never started like that. My vision was always to tell a story some might resonate with, while others might find boring. And that’s fine.

Nevertheless, I’m trying to be as consistent as I possibly can with how I work on the game. Like you probably do, I want Chapter 2 to be done fast. But I’ll always prioritize health first. No worries, though: I’ll be very transparent about progress and when things aren’t going so well.

While this probably sounds more pessimistic than it should, I’m trying to be pragmatic. I know progress will fluctuate: some days will be better than others, and some days I’ll feel like my whole game isn’t good. But knowing these things are normal and part of the journey, I feel better able to tackle them with more maturity than if I went in blind.

Patron Tier Changes

Nothing is set in stone yet, but I feel it’s extremely important I talk about this now.

Until now, wallpaper polls were locked behind the Guide Tier, which is limited. I found that unfair, so I decided to talk directly with those in the tier. My perspective is that it shouldn’t be limited. If you can enjoy the wallpapers, it would be even more enjoyable to participate in the polls.

In essence, I’m going to move the wallpaper polls down. I’m not 100% sure yet to which tier, or how, but this has already been decided.

Additionally, I’m considering adding a new tier (if not two), since a few of you have asked me to. One would complement the Guide Tier, without the commissions and without any limit on how many can join. I’m still considering what to add as a reward, though, so this might take a few more days.

If you’re a Patreon subscriber, nothing is truly changing for you! So no worries, hehe!

That’s all for today. Thanks for sticking with me all this way! Thanks again and again to those of you who have financially contributed to the game. I keep repeating myself, but your help, contributions, and belief in the story help me shape it even further, with stronger passion. Thank you!

And as you can see, Dev Logs are now resuming their normal interval: every two weeks from now on!

See you,

— MisheruMaxis