SLARPG: General update February 2021 (Patreon)

Hello again! Time for the monthly Super Lesbian Animal RPG progress report.

Last month we began proper work on Act III, the middle act of the game's five acts. (As a reminder, SLARPG will not be releasing episodically, this is just a story structure thing that gives us our major milestones for development.) While Act III is shorter than Act II (which we got to internal alpha back in December), it represents a major turning point in the story. The biggest turning point, even! Words can barely express how exciting it is to be here after planning all this out for years.

So how's that going? Well, I'm pleased to report that we're already making excellent progress in Act III! I'm keeping things vague to avoid spoilers here, but the bulk of Act III consists of three new areas. And here's how we're doing on those three areas:

• ACT III AREA #1 - Done! No, really. While not insignificant in size, this one required the least work, so I plowed through it in a week and change. I might go back and add an additional enemy type or two down the line, but other than that it's done.
• ACT III AREA #2 - Mostly done! The area has its tileset and its layout, and is properly explorable. The enemy roster still needs to be decided on, but that never takes too long compared to other tasks. All of the major story scenes have been implemented, although I still need to do some additional sprite work for a few of them. Bee is also still working on the music. But a majority of the work is done!
• ACT III AREA #3 - Work began on this one last week! First up was the tileset. The basic tiles are already done, although I'll need to make some more decorations and landmarks and things like that. The massive, pivotal story scene here that serves as the climax of Act III was written ages ago, but it's not in the game just yet, and there are still some gaps in the script that need to be filled in. Before that, though, I'm figuring out the map layout. And on Bee's end, she recently finished the music for this area! I know this goes without saying at this point, but man, Bee's really pulling out all the stops with this soundtrack.

So yes! As you can see, we've already got a lot done for Act III. With the rate I've been working these last few months, my current goal is to have a rough internal alpha version of Act III playable for my collaborators done this spring--ideally around the end of March.

After that, there will only be two acts of the story remaining (which we've already done some work for, although they aren't playable), followed by a bunch of polish work for the finishing touches! Wow!!! Because of all this steady progress, we now have a rough idea of when we'd like to get the full game done by. I won't be making any announcements regarding a release date anytime soon because things could still change and I don't wanna jinx myself, but the finish line doesn't feel infinitely far away anymore. We're getting there, slowly but surely.

As always, thank you for your continued support, and stay safe out there!