🔧 Devlog 11 – A new patch already done

Hey everyone, Zak here!

Last week I was technically on vacation... but instead of resting 100%, I kinda dedicated myself entirely to working on the game. 😅
The result? I already have over 15,000 words of new content written which is about the same as what went into Patch 0.4.
Yep, just two weeks after the last version dropped, and a whole new patch is basically ready.

So… how did I manage to get so much done?

Well, first off, having less day job work definitely helped. But more than that… Patch 0.3 took a huge amount of time, especially on things you don’t directly see while playing. Things like collecting a massive library of sound effects, music, creating new animations, designing several locations… All of that took a ton of work.

But now? It’s done. And it means I can reuse a lot of what I built, which really speeds up the creative process going forward.

Alex has also been helping me a lot with the characters, fixing sprites, creating new expressions, and even designing a completely new character that you’ll get to meet in Version 0.4!

Finally, I think something else that helped this time is that the new content is a bit more linear, which means I didn’t need to keep track of so many branching variables while writing. That helped me write faster without hitting creative exhaustion.

But maybe the most important question is...
What does this mean for the size of future patches?

For now? Nothing changes.

I want to use these 4 weeks of head start to review and polish what I’ve already written, go back to some older content and improve it.
For example: I want to update the Matt combat scene so it uses the new system, apply the updated Decision Echo system to older content, and add tutorials for the different gameplay systems. These tutorials should help clarify mechanics without making them too heavy and you’ll be able to turn them off completely if you’ve already played through the game multiple times.

There’s also a lot of implementation work ahead.
Now that Marc is back and able to work with us full-time, we have tons of GUI improvements planned.
There are new animations to implement for the Matt vs Diego fight, new backgrounds for the stadium and its different locations, and so much more.
All of this takes a lot of time,  which means I probably won’t be able to write as much story content in the short term, since I’ll be investing my energy in these areas as well.

That said… I did make a promise to myself:
If I manage to reach double the word count before the next patch goes out (let’s say 30k words total), I’ll start making future patches larger as long as you’re okay with me not keeping that pace forever. It's not feasible as I already have a job taking a significant amount of my time 😛
Life happens and some development phases just produce more content than others. 😅

🧩 The content itself for v0.4

Right now, the content I’ve written for 0.4 is focused on a few specific characters.

Diego:
First off, there’s a bigger focus on Diego.
I already talked a bit about this before, but let’s just say up until now, he was one of the top 3 most voted characters with the least content.
It was a real pleasure to write for him, and honestly, I’m personally excited to see where this storyline might take us next.

Matt:
Matt is for now the most voted character in v0.3.
But I can’t fully develop his romance path just yet. There are some moments that might hint at deeper feelings, but pushing the romance too fast right now would feel forced and unnatural.
To be honest, what I have planned for him romantically is more tied to what happens in Chapter 2 - The Beach or Camping, where several new characters are introduced and shake things up a bit for him.

That said, I’m still trying to give him screen time in different moments.
In v0.4, for example, there’s a scene where you go talk to Mafalda, and Matt joins you.
Some of the available options there can reveal more about how he thinks and how he deals with certain topics.
You can also expect some… slightly awkward moments. <.<

Joel:
This guy has gotten a lot more attention ever since the latest polls started 😅
So I decided to give you the opportunity to talk to him before the night ends, without interfering with who you go home with. Think of it as an extra optional scene.

There’s plenty of info you can uncover about him and depending on your dialogue choices, things may shift slightly.
Either way, you’ll get to know him a bit better :P

New character:
Yup. A new character has been introduced.
She has some content in this patch and beta testers seemed to love her.
She’s… kind of her own thing xDDD
You’ll see what I mean.

Harry:
Unfortunately, out of the four, Harry received the least new content this time.
Sorry, Harry fans but sometimes writing takes you in certain directions and leaves others a little less explored.

That said, he does have a couple of special scenes, depending on the choices you made the night before and even a new CG.
His content is just a bit shorter compared to the others tho.

🛠️ What I’m working on right now?

Right now, I’m preparing things for Version 0.5.
That includes descriptions and ambient design for the stadium, editing images so they match the visual look I have in my head, and doing some layout planning to bring the space to life. Here’s a quick preview of how it looks on the outside. 

Last question for you:

Would you like that the devlogs showed more images and content even if it would be spoilery? Or do you prefer them being as they currently are?