Dev Update #34 (Patreon)

Twas a good week. I turned off a ton of notifications, deleted some time-waster apps, unsubscribed from god knows how many email lists, and tried to channel a competent writer. Rough drafts of all but a handful of scenes for Chapter 7 are done. A bit over 20 scenes were written in the past week. All that is left is to finish writing those last scenes, hopefully on Sunday, and re-read and edit the scenes for Chapter 7. Likely a few more days of work, but it is nice that things flowed again when writing the initial drafts. Because of a ton of changes in my plans for Chapter 7, you'll see a new progress graphic where it looks I lost progress. Fear not, because this is only due to this massive restructuring.

To Be A King has been a bear to get the final chapters outlined. I kept coming back and redoing things regularly, as nothing felt right. Tossing it all out for what feels like the 10th time, and then stepping back through it with new ideas and a new perspective seems to have made me feel that I have a workable story on which to end that should satisfy most players. I say most only because there are always going to be a handful that are displeased with the choices I make here. As much as I would love to give you a story with 100 different possible ending combinations, I am only one man, and I want to finish To Be A King before I die. Turning into George R.R. Martin with my release schedule isn't ideal. Will I end up tossing all this out when I start on Chapter 8? Stay tuned.

Oh, and did I mention that about 3/4 of the scenes I had written for Chapter 7 got tossed? Good times, but better to just kill it than live with something terrible and release that. And yes, if I could have reworked those, (which nearly every scene I did leave in got reworked in some form), I would have. Starting "fresh" is usually the best method. Just ask the many Fiona models that I worked on for Thunderline Studios' Last Call visual novel.

With the focus on writing, I haven't touched Daz this week. Mercifully, all but 3 of the renders, besides customs, are setup and just need to be rendered out and put through post. Because of the re-org of Chapter 7, I will have no new models that are needed and no new environments for that chapter. Simply marvelous. However, with the re-work of the final chapters, I will have a few more environments and models that are needed than I originally planned. We are going do some traveling in the final chapters of To Be A King. Should be fun!

Ideas continue to run through my head as far as what comes after To Be A King. Probably because I am looking forward to that fresh start. I just jot those down and move on. To Be A King has my focus until it is completed. Have a fantastic weekend, everyone!