Devblog #85 (Patreon)

Hey Wizards! Shady Character One here!

So, another week, right? Some things have been done this week. Yep. First of all, I did finish writing Aisling's "date" event. Well, more or less, I will need to take another pass at it, but it is 95% done writing-wise. And I keep putting the word "date" in quotes with her, because Aisling is difficult. Not only is she a difficult person in-universe, but she is also difficult to write for. She doesn't really talk much. She doesn't show active interest in our main hero (aside from dragging us along constantly). And that leads to many of her events not really being about us and her. It is about her trying to find adventure and trouble, and trouble finding her (or us in some cases).

And even in this "date" event, which turned out to be one of the longest events I've written so far, I feel like there isn't enough Aisling. But I cannot really see another way of writing events for her. She's trouble all around all day long. Her events also turn out to be the most complex and varied events, compared to other girls. Honestly, I am not playing favorites here, but her events being more action-oriented and unpredictable do lend themselves to more branching narrative.

She is also one of the more complicated characters to write, because she doesn't actually show her emotions much. At least emotions aside from dissatisfaction and frustration. Which makes me turn to more roundabout ways of her showing her growing affection towards our main hero. Which is never easy and I am not always sure it lands.

Well, anywho, with the "date" written for now, I'll leave it to ferment for a bit, before giving it another pass and, hopefully, be satisfied with it that time.

This puts another "to do" onto Shady Two's workdesk, which makes her juggle the evergrowing list of new artworks even more chaotic and difficult to manage. Sorry, Shady Two... But she did finish the artwork (technically several artworks) for the repeatable event in the library which will be coming in the next update, so I am super excited to finally release it into the wild after such a long time. Here's a sneak peek of the worst version you can get for all of you there.

Well, here's to this piece stirring your imagination just as it would our MC's.

I'll see you all next week.

Shady Character One, out!