0.4.0 Development Update - Public

Since we are getting close to wrapping up the remaining work on the next update, I thought it would be a good time to post another public update. This is a high level summary of many of the recent Patreon only posts and I will have a version of this for other platforms as well such as Steam, itch.io or GameStoryLog.

Much of the work lately has revolved around the last couple remaining scenes needed to complete the game for the next release. Most of these are part of the Branson path and are tied to a special ending for this next update. Depending on your choices in Castle Helmsworth, there is the chance you will end up in a confrontation. This event plays out similar to the tavern fight from the beginning of the game, where your choices during this altercation will change the following scenes and can even put you on a very different path storywise.

Winning this fight scene ties into a couple of the story paths that were already completed so the recent work has been in creating all the images needed for if you end up losing this fight. I created all new images for both inside and outside Castle Helmsworth to go along with all the dialogue for the story branches where you much instead flee while injured.

In addition to this story path and ending I have also been finishing up all the remaining images that were still needed for the Branson path. In the previous release instead of helping Maggie and Raelynn on their farm you could choose to continue on your journey. This would lead to one of the first campsite scenes, but due to development time it was not added. That has now been completed for both Branson and Damerek paths. The Branson path for this upcoming release has a some scenes with Noella that are not available on any other branches. This longer scene has three potential endings based on your previous choices and after collecting a few specific character assets I was able to finally complete all the work for those images as well since there was one ending I had not been able to finish previously.

The plan is to complete this update and release this summer. There are just a few scenes left to pose and create images for, but they are large with a few possible variations in the story that warrant specific images for each outcome. The current game is sitting at over 7,200 story images and 155,000 word count for just the story dialogue, with more images and story narration being added to complete the remaining scenes. Development speed has been slower, but now that some of the real life hurdles are out of the way, progress has been picking up. I have been tackling the other needed details as well, like music creation, journal pages, character background details and map code updates. I have also been taking on the daunting task of adding translations to the game for many of the requested languages so that not only is the main story translated, but all the menus and custom graphics are as well. Plus this next update will also include an Android version of the game that I have been testing so you have that option if you prefer to play on your phone or tablet. While it has taken longer than I wanted, I want to make sure the product I put out is as good as it can be and I thank you all for your interest.