Progress Report: February I (Patreon)

Woohoo! We made it to February! I can't wait to release what I have written soon!

After this upcoming update, BOOM! It'll be time for our "upbringing routes"!

I recently found out that cogdemos does not save exactly where we leave off, and forces people to pretty much start a chapter over. I'd like to know what exactly that means. I need to know where cogdemos makes you restart from, is it from the very start or is it random??

Cause I'd hate to create a chapter save system. But will if I have to, and dedicate a weekend to it.

Now, picking off from where we left off last in the previous Progress Report:

The above 2k words were scrapped.

It was too choppy, too meh. Instead I found a way to progress through the story easily and without slowing things down.

Now, we meet Philiel and Cariel, the older squires that Uriel is teaching who guard the room where Master Feren and Aurelian are meeting in.

In each route (Prince, Princess, and Squire) you will have at least two adults (teachers), and two older seniors. These adults and seniors will be the ones who teach you and accompany you alot for the first 20k words of each route. Then the seniors of each route will either become proper Lords, Ladies, and Knights, marry, or die; giving more room to the younger cast (who are your close friends/rivals) to shine and develop more in the other 30k of each upbringing route.

Hence, why the seniors will be a focal point in the exploration routes alongside Amina and Zera.

For now, just remember that Cariel is from House Zane (Siriel Duchy), and Philiel is from House Parsec (Bellsy Duchy): Two Great Houses that are politically opposed to the Royal Faction.

Right now though, tensions aren't high, and are in fact cool enough to send children to the Crown without issue. For now.

Anyways, you go through a choice tree with them as you can choose how to introduce yourself.

Cariel likes the Champion more if they're Friendly or Carefree, while Philiel likes a Champion who is Stoic/Imperious. So this is the first time the opinion modifier already gets use!

After some more back and forth, we finally open the door to find Aurelian and Master Feren at last!

But, we have to tell Aurelian that pointing at people is rude.

 As you can see in the above, the meeting goes well, and in time, our mother and Queen Khari return with Amina, Zera, William, Ronnel, Triel, and Lady Valerie. Here, there'll be a minor change if you went with Adelina or not as youll have already met Amina, who greets you like a friend. Or not of course.

At which point, the adults leave the room, besides Master Feren, William, Ronnel, Triel, and Lady Valerie (plus Amina's guard). Whereas in the previous exploration route in the Alpha version it was only you, now you're accompanied by the remaining adults plus Amina, Zera, and Aurelian who will comment and react to your decisions and actions in the two exploration branches you choose to participate. This also serves to help Master Feren to see the type of person you are.

So far, i've completed North and South, and only need East and West left; plus the conclusion of this episode.

I'm employing more scope creep control, hence the need to delete the other 2k words. Thankfully though, I simply just altered alot of it and moved it to the South portion of the exploration tree where it can be optional to witness. There, you can see what your parents are talking about in regards to the coming execution, what happened between your parents, and Queen Khari and Count Rageon's comments on the matter. This is 100% the least interactive, but it'll also be interesting to see (at least i hope so). If you don't decide to go here, the game will still have Adelina and Uriel patch things up. Cause the world moves on with or without the Champion.

The other three are somewhat similar to what we had in the alpha build, just with the new characters added. I really hope you guys have fun with it once it's out!

Anyways, that's all for now, or at least that's all im willing to show before approaching actual spoiler territory lol.

As for other things planned for this month, at the very least, I want to take a solid week working on Patreon-content once the new update is out; both free and paid. Like I said before on both Discord and the Patreon community chat, i have many dozens of drafts that I want to polish up and get ready.

My realistic goal is to have at least half of them ready for release to use as bonus content for the months of February and March. (im aiming for all of them though!!!)

I'm hoping this level of transparency and you guys knowing what my use of time is being focused in what efforts, help reassure you guys. And keeps me organized lol, as doing extras while working on the main game just feels cluttered.

Thank you for your time and support!!!