SLARPG: General update January 2022 (Patreon)

Hey everyone! It's time for the first monthly progress update of Super Lesbian Animal RPG's release year. (If that's news to you, surprise! You can read the announcement from New Year's here.) I'm pleased to report that we've made good progress this January!

On my end, I started the month with the last of my "miscellaneous polish tasks" that I began chipping away at in December. This includes the last of the NPC portraits that I wanted to get done for now (a majority of the NPCs in the game now have their art! this was not true at the start of December!). I also set aside some time for a series of six illustrations for a very important expository cutscene that desperately needed to be more than a wall of text. I'm really proud of how those turned out, but they're pretty much all HUGE spoilers, so uh... just take my word for it for now. (I realize that I'm a broken record regarding spoilers, but I think y'all will get it when you play the game later this year. The actual story is better experienced as a game than as a series of social media updates.)

With my list of misc. tasks sufficiently whittled down and the busy holidays no longer distracting me, it was then time to return to what I started on in late November: that "biggest chunk of optional content in the game." Well, guess what? After only a few weeks, I'm already close to wrapping that up! It is, in fact, a whole area of the game that's totally optional, although I think it adds a lot in terms of story and gameplay for those who choose to seek it out. And, actually, I realized something recently. This optional area I'm almost done with is the last full area that needed to be made other than the final dungeon. The rest of my to do list for Act IV revolves around adding the last bits of optional content to areas that already exist.

Moving into February, I'll be finishing up this current area, and then it's on to the four major side quests that currently stand between me and Act V, the final act of the game. (These will all require some bespoke assets, but none of them are anywhere near as involved as the whole optional area I'm finishing right now.) I know it's been years in the making, but we're so, so close now, y'all. I can't wait.

Meanwhile, many miles away, composer Beatrix Quinn has been wrapping up some of the last songs that the game can't ship without. I've mentioned previously that Bee sent me the final version of the final boss theme on New Year's Eve, and yes, it's an absolute banger. After that she kept the ball rolling by finishing two more tracks: one for a story scene in Act V, and another to serve as the battle theme for the final dungeon. Both are, predictably, great. This soundtrack rules. We can now count the number of mandatory tracks remaining on one hand (compared to the ~70 that are already done), which will hopefully leave Bee plenty of time to mix and master everything to her heart's content before launch.

And that's it for this month! We're still making great progress, and the game is still on track to be done sometime this year. It's only a matter of months now... But until then, take care, everyone!