Update 1 - Chapter 1 (Part 2) (Patreon)

Hello again, everyone,

First off, the Game update post below is now unlocked for our $2 Octavus members. We hope you enjoy it! If you do, we’d really appreciate it if you could leave a like on the post. Things have been fairly quiet lately, which is totally fine, but a like helps let us know you’re happy with the content and that there aren’t any glaring issues that need attention.

If you aren’t happy with the content, feedback is just as valuable, a comment here or a post on Discord in the feedback channel letting us know what you think could be improved would be greatly appreciated.

LucidVice

To start, I’ll go over what I’ve been working on and where we currently are in the development cycle.

As mentioned in the last post, my focus has been on the design and preparation of the characters and scenes that will appear in the upcoming update. I completed this phase on Saturday and began rendering the shots for the first scene, which wrapped up on Tuesday. These still need to go through post-processing.

I was on a bit of a roll, so instead of stopping there, I jumped straight into the next scene. At the moment, that scene is about halfway complete. Once all the poses are finished, I’ll do a bulk render and then run both scenes through post-processing together. This should give me some solid images to share with the next update.

For now, I do have a few renders that were created while testing the designs, and I’d like to share those with you today and give a brief overview of who/what they are.

Above is Cassandra or Cassie, an old family friend and long-time local of the town. She’s an avid animal lover and is currently taking photography courses, with the goal of becoming a wildlife photographer. Cassie is back in town for the summer during her break.

the Enforcers are the local law enforcement. I wont go into to much detail about them just yet.

Jackson is the Chief enforcer of the town.

These are the daughters of the Enforcers. The blonde sitting on MC’s car is Sierra, Jackson’s daughter. They’re a somewhat rebellious bunch, not exactly thrilled about being stuck in a small town with very limited opportunities for excitement.

Lastly, we have the Kaerune. a pack of these apex predators have taken up residence near MC’s holiday house.

And, of course, there’s also the S.E.B. Team, which has been featured as the header for the last few posts. They only appear right at the end of one of the planned resolution paths, but I started with them simply because I’m a sucker for sci-fi body Armor and plasma weapons. Even if your choices don’t lead to their arrival at this stage, you’ll still encounter the team members later on.

I hope you like the designs. I spent a significant amount of time on custom texturing, UV map modifications, and other adjustments to make them feel a bit more unique and better aligned with the overall story world.

So that’s where things stand at the moment on my end. I’m aiming to complete Scene 2 within the next couple of days, after which I’ll finish finessing some of the later story beats. That should give me a much clearer idea of where we are, percentage-wise, in the overall production.

Once I have that, the progress percentage counter that’s been at the top of each update will return, making it easier for you to track overall progress moving forward.

NoctisVex

I’ve been working on the combat mini-game, which will be retroactively added to Chapter 1 and used throughout future chapters. A basic functional version of the system is already in place, and I’m now focused on balancing, polishing, and bug-fixing to ensure it feels solid and consistent.

This will be my primary focus for now, as getting the foundation right at this stage will save time and prevent larger issues later in development. The UI and audio improvements mentioned in the previous quick update are still planned and are scheduled for the second half of the production cycle.

Over the next couple of weeks, most of my time will be spent stabilizing the code and refining the system. Once this work is complete, we’ll be able to easily plug in characters and their stats, allowing the combat mechanics to dynamically scale difficulty based on your version of MC.

Until next time, take care, and thank you for the continued support. We’ll see you again in two weeks with the next update.

-SinisterSlick Team