Sin Spire - Dev Log 33 (Patreon)

Hello everyone! I started writing this quite late today, but there’s not too much to cover. Unfortunately, as you can tell, this isn’t a release post. My goal was to have the new build ready, but this past week didn’t exactly go as planned. I’ll do my best to break down what’s been going on.

Ophelia’s Quest

I began the week focused on finishing Ophelia’s quest, as mentioned in the last Dev Log. If you’ve played the most recent build, you’ll know it ends with a text box basically saying that the content isn’t complete. The first thing I needed to do before implementing any of Ophelia’s animations was finish that up.

The script for her lines was already written, and the voice acting already recorded, but the in-game dialogue hadn’t been formatted yet. So, I spent time cleaning up the text script, setting it up properly in the dialogue system, and cutting Ophelia’s voice lines to work with it.

Once that was done, I could begin working on her scenes properly… but I got side-tracked before I made much progress there.

Penultimate Boss Fight

On a bit of a whim, I switched gears and worked on the first of the last two boss fights in the game. I focused mostly on the sequences surrounding the fight: the dialogue before and after, the transition to the final fight and even a defeat cutscene (cinematic) for the boss. So far, the only boss that has had any kind of cinematic sequence after defeat has been the tutorial boss.

In regards to the dialogue, I had written this boss’s dialogue ages ago – possibly last year – but reading it again, I realized it was… not great. So, I rewrote it. It isn’t voiced yet, but the new version should fit the mood a lot better.

I’ve always wanted more cutscenes and cinematic moments in the game, but over time, it became clear that wasn’t realistic with my timeframe. So, I made the decision a while ago to keep most sequences in the dialogue system rather than full cutscenes. This boss’s dialogue, however, was originally written with dramatic cinematic cues that no longer worked, so it had to be rewritten to fit the new approach.

Overall, I’m happy with how the sequence is shaping up. The boss fight itself still needs work, but the surrounding elements are in a good place.

Of course, this was the moment I remembered: “Wait, this wasn’t what I was supposed to be working on.”

A Stressful Distraction

When I tried to get back to Ophelia’s sequences, something happened that completely derailed my focus for a few days. If you’ve been keeping up with recent news in the game dev scene, you might know what I’m referring to.

I ended up spending some time talking with other devs and joining a few discussions – good for networking, bad for productivity. On top of that, my last payout from Patreon was stuck in limbo, which added extra stress (due to the processor, not Patreon). Thankfully, that specifically has been resolved now.

So, this week was productive just not in the way I had hoped it would be. I’ll be doing my best to get my brain back on track and push out those distractions so I can finally get this build released.

What’s Left To Do?

So, where’s the build at? I still have a few things to finish before meeting my goals from last week. The main tasks are:

Cutting and setting up voiced sounds for the sex scenes with Savina and Ophelia

Finishing Ophelia’s animations (I might omit one or two to get the build out sooner)

Fixing an interaction bug that causes inputs to stop working during selectable scenes

Once that’s done, I can finally send off the build. I know it’s been a while since 0.0.5 (A couple of months), and I really appreciate everyone’s patience. I won’t give a release date yet as I don’t want to say anything I’ll regret. For now, I just need to get back to work and release it when it’s ready.

I’ll see you all next time – hopefully with the release post!