Status of Quest Failed: Chapter Two - Public Dev Log #1 [Free]

Hi there, everyone! And when I say 'everyone', I MEAN everyone--as I'm doing something a little different with today's post! Because as it turns out, I apparently have quite a lot of people that follow the FrostWorks Patreon on a 'free' tier. Something I wasn't even aware was a thing up until recently--but figured I should reach out and say hello so you don't feel left out!

This is also a great way for me to give a more public overview of Chapter Two's status, as I realise that I've really only been keeping people informed via scattered dev logs and small tweets through the months that not everyone may have access to on both sides. Especially with how unfriendly Twitter is to people without an account these days.

As such, this is both a dev log, and something a little broader too, intended to better inform a wider audience of where I'm currently at with Chapter Two. So I apologise if anything feels a touch redundant for those that may have regularly followed along with the previous dev logs, or if it feels like I'm repeating myself. Because gosh knows I do that enough on the actual dev logs themselves!

Oh, and before I go any further--I wanted to share a cute little April Fools video I did on the day, starring a fully voiced, Vtuber style Ren playing a game starring herself:

[Click here for Super Ultra Gaming, whooosh~]

It didn't feel right making it is own post here on the day when I'm still working on Chapter Two and people would understandably want updates on that more than silly videos, so I kept it low-key. It was a very fun learning experience to put together, though, and I think it will help me to make a proper trailer for Chapter Two when the time is right. Because video editing is a lot of fun as I've learned!

So, where to begin with this dev log, properly? There's a lot of ground to cover!

I suppose I'll start with where Quest Failed: Chapter Two is currently at. As of the most recent playable 'alpha' build, 0.15, the main story is 100% finished. This means you can play Chapter Two from beginning, all the way to the credits without any kind of interruptions or 'to be continued in the next build' messages. Which in itself is quite a lengthy endeavour and elaborates on a lot of important plot points I've been holding close to my chest ever since I first began with Chapter One! And of course, sets the stage for Chapter Three to come--something I've been in the stages of amassing resources for in the background in a sort of pre-pre-preproduction kind of way.

The next logical question to answer I imagine is, 'if the main story is done and you can play all the way through--why isn't the game done and out yet, FrostBarelyWorks?!' Something I scream at myself in the mirror every day before I punch it, I can assure you.

The answer to that is side events; optional moments you can spend with the characters on a day-to-day basis in an almost 'social link' sort of way, if you're familiar with the Persona series and the like! But instead of getting combat perks, you're just awarded by the girls jumping poor Matt's bones instead in a series of h-scenes. Terrible, I know. When will his suffering end?!

Chapter Two has a lot of these side events with the many characters present in the game. Probably more than there should be. More than you can ever see in a single playthrough. Or a second one. Or even a third! The amount of writing in them definitely dwarves that of the main story--but I consider the side moments just as integral to the experience as you're free to choose which characters you spend time with in between the waits for the main story to continue along and they offer a nice change of pace from how intense the main scenario gets at times.

At a minimum, I've tried to ensure that each character has at least 2 h-scenes. Some ended up with more due to importance in the story, or just plain favouritism on my side. (We don't talk about how many scenes Ren or Anna, or even Lucille got.) And thus, I've now been steadily working away on wrapping up each character's little mini arc they get across these events which is where the bulk of my time is currently spent now that the main story is done with!

Last month I previewed some of the work that had been put into Claire's events--which come with a unique little mini shopkeeping minigame as Matt tends to the store whilst our favourite, neurotic fluffy-headed merchant can go and do...whatever it is she needs to do. She seems to be reluctant to share any more information on that.

[VIDEO LINK]

Here is a secret video that was made last month showcasing said minigame! Well, I call it a 'game'--but it's more like, people will take turns coming into the store, having some dialogue with Matt, and then he can decide how to charge them based on what he thinks they'll be most receptive to, with a range of fun reactions.

The people that can show up will differ depending on if it's currently day or night--and on a range of other variables at play, up to a total of 5 people being able to visit. So you might get surprised at who shows up on multiple playthroughs depending on where you're at in the story and who you've spoken to prior!

At first, I was going to keep the dialogue fairly sparse in it with just some quick hellos before getting to the transaction--but then I realised I could use this as a chance to expand on several city dwellers backgrounds, so really got carried away in fleshing stuff out! Not everyone that visits the shop has a huge monologue of a story to tell, but I just couldn't help myself with some characters. Don't ask if one of those characters was Ren. It was.

So, that whole shop event was wrapped up last month--and then it leads into Claire trusting you more, to the point she asks you for help on an even more important task. One thing leads to another, and ah...

Huh. Not sure how this happened. Or what's ABOUT to happen. But there's never a dull moment when you go out on a trip with Claire--that much is for certain!

So, along with the shop minigame, I wrapped up this scene with Claire and concluded her arc. There's still a lot to learn about her, of course, and you'll be seeing a lot more of her in Chapter Three! And with her stuff done, I immediately jumped into the last scene of another character who hasn't appeared publicly much so I won't spoil them too much--but they have some super cute moments with Matt.

Once I wrap up this scene with this mystery character, I intend to go to Lucille next--who has two pending h-scenes left. Making it 4 h-scenes she gets in total, not counting a couple of flirty cg scenes of Matt face-planting in her chest, etc.

After that, it's bouncing back to the city's library for another long-neglected character's final h-scene! From there, I'll probably cap things to that and send that out as a new alpha build where you'll get 5 new h-scenes to delve into--and then see whose arcs I should wrap up next.

Because in most cases, I've done so much writing for so many characters already, wrapping each one up is as simple as giving them their final pending h-scene or two--so I hope to really power through these!

I will admit at some point or another I had grander plans to stagger some character's h-scenes out between smaller scenes of just visiting them and chatting--but the game's current day limit before the main story is done just doesn't facilitate that without an absurd amount of playthroughs. And I think condensing things down in places will probably benefit everyone.

Because with a word count fast approaching 900,000 words, and probably going to be over a million when I'm fully done, I don't think I'm exactly skimping on content, haha. So, hopefully, it doesn't feel too awkward to only have to visit a character a couple of times to see everything, while others may be a few more visits than that. I still fully intend to have a lot more to each character in coming chapters beyond what you learn of them here--so am trying not to reveal everything all at once!

I think that's one of the important elements of game development--or writing; knowing when to condense or edit things down and put your scope to a more manageable level or you'll be battling feature creep forever. Something that is probably rich coming from ME, but I think I'm finally learning to accept that. This won't end up being some perfect magnum opus. And it never would, no matter how much I stressed about every single word I typed. At the end of the day, a finished product will be infinitely more enjoyable than something that never came out due to some misguided sense of pride or perfectionism.

Granted, this doesn't mean I'm just going to start taking an axe to things. All the h-scenes I planned and had drawn are still going in--the meat of the game, as it were. I'm just trimming a bit of the superficial fluff around them so there's a TINY bit less waffling between said scenes. But if you've scrolled down this far in this dev log thingy--and set up base camp several times along the way to survive the journey--you can probably already tell that being long-winded and verbose is just part of my natural writing style. So it's more like, I'm trying to wrestle my urges to having everything be some sprawling epic like my favourite VNs that inspire me and more get them down to a still fairly verbose, but more manageable style.

Alongside writing, I'm getting new--and pending scenes that were yet to received voices--voiced at a steady rate. One character I struggled to recast for the longest time after their old VA stepped away from adult work has now been recast, with old and new scenes voiced and I'm sure people will enjoy them!

Several scenes that will be in the next alpha build also had the benefit of already being voiced ahead of time, too, which will work out nicely! (3 of 5 new scenes should be voiced!)

My hope right now is that it will be maybe two alpha builds left--and then I should have everything in the game. And after that, it's just a final round of polishing, adding sound effects into earlier moments that don't have them yet, before the grand ol' release.

I still don't have a timeframe for that--but assuming I can get on top of these coming alpha builds spaced across a few months each, it'd be nice to have Chapter Two released in time for Chapter One's NINTH anniversary in late October, if not earlier. Goodness me, can you believe the years have flown by so fast?

Granted, I've avoided giving estimates for a very long time as to avoid backing myself into a corner--so please don't take this estimation as gospel. I don't rock the habit nearly as well as Sister June for that. But I understand that having no news at all can also be just as disheartening. So maybe this can be a little light at the end of the long tunnel we've all been trekking through?

I hope as a public post that this was informative and gave a bit more insight as to where I'm at with Chapter Two, and what I'm currently working towards. But of course, if there's anything I've glossed over, or you had any questions pertaining to things you'd like me to answer, please don't hesitate to comment!

Above all else, my desire has always been to be as transparent as possible! Which I think has sort of diminished over the years as my once weekly dev logs became far more sporadic the more I did and had less to say beyond 'yup, did some more writing, guys!'. But, hey, maybe that is good to know in its own right just so you know I'm still around, chipping away at things?

Let me know what you might want to see in future dev logs, and public posts. Because I won't spam everyone with these too much--but this is a fun experiment on my part I suppose to see how well they're received!

Because I have often wondered if I should make a habit of making some posts public after a certain amount of time--like the art/short story ones, etc. so as many people can read them as possible. But I dunno if there's any interest.

Either way, thank you for reading this all the way to the end. Or just ignoring everything and scrolling down whilst shaking your head at how much I ramble. I still love you, too. <3

I'll see you in the next...whatever post I might make. Even I don't know! Whoooosh~