Devblog #91 (Patreon)

Hey Wizards! Shady Character One here!

I think I have found a flaw in my not completely, but relatively recent approach. A bit over half a year ago, I started making a poll about which of the girls’ stories the fans wanted to see written first. On paper it was a good idea. I can see clear feedback on which of the girls is more popular, and I can channel my creative resources in that direction. But I think that this approach had an unforeseen adverse effect too. Now, having a girl that we promised to focus on gave me that feeling that whenever I am working on content other than hers, I am breaking that promise. Also, when I had some parts of the game that I didn’t really want to do right now but those were really necessary, I had that excuse at the back of my mind: “Well, it isn’t what we promised to make, so I really shouldn’t anyway.” And there was always that idea in my head that I really needed to work on one particular girl, even when I didn’t really have inspiration for her story.

At least that definitely was a contributing factor, even if not the only one or the main one. So I decided to revisit my approach to the whole prioritizing-girls thing. Actually, not really revisit my approach, but rather go closer to the initial promise that we were making when we put up the first poll. I will now work on the things that I feel need working on to move the game forward, but when all things are equal, I will prioritize the direction that the community has voted on. This way, I feel, we can have the best of both worlds more or less. Especially because this one was also hitting Shady Two, since working on the artworks is very taxing work, and one really needs to follow one’s inspiration.

And since for me right now this whole thing was mainly stopping me from working on other girls’ storylines, I started by sitting down and writing another event for Mitsuki. She is the one who has far fewer events than any other girl, and I really feel like I need to bring her to her fifth event at least, to put her on equal footing with the rest of the main cast.

I also moved forward with plotting out the Third Trial and fleshing out its main mechanic. As with the rest of the Trials, this one will be different from both the normal gameplay and previous Trials. I really wanted it to not only be a test of decision making, but also of speed. So I had to think of a way of implementing both of these elements. In the Trial of Mobility, which some of you have already deduced to be the third Trial, you will not simply try to finish the Trial as fast as you can, similarly to the Trial of Mind, but you will also be able to make more risky decisions that would allow you to go faster. Some of those would use different stats, allowing you to find better solutions for the course, while some will just allow you to push yourself a bit further, bringing higher risk but also higher reward. I have written and coded one of the simpler sections of the Trial, and so far I am happy with the result. This was not the case for the Trial of Might, so I am hopeful about the future progress.

Shady Two got her own source of inspiration. Seeing the gallery that we implemented in the previous update and noticing that some of the girls have three artworks while others have only one, she got a sudden spurt of motivation to fix this imbalance. Mitsuki will probably not get any new artworks, since she has very few events as is, but Ciara, Elizabeth, and Katelyn are in line to get some additions to the gallery soon.

With this, I bid you all adieu until the next week.

Shady Character One, out!