Saturday Devlog (November 23) (Patreon)

Hi, everyone! Hope you've been staying safe and healthy.

Happy to report that progress remains apace this month! Narrative-wise, I'm currently entering the Aulain arc—that is, the arc wherein the mage and co. raid the tomb of Saint Augur with Eli and first encounters Raegusa. It's difficult to tell where the wordcount falls exactly, because a lot of the rewrite is so tightly intertwined with already-existing content. By my guess, it numbers at around 17k words presently, including the new sections showcased in weeks prior. And while those sections are technically finished, they're not as polished as I'd like them to be, and I'd like to revisit them once I've hit the (estimated) wordcount goal for the month. They will be released with the main update at the end of the month.

A lot of the rewrite's focus has been on rehauling the game's descriptions of places and atmospheres, as I felt this was severely lacking in the earlier portions of the old demo. Compared to places like Jiasei and Kyuhan, for example, Aulain does not really have an established identity, and was just a mute backdrop for the story's beats. Over the hiatus, I went back to the drawing board and gave a proper investment to the city's worldbuilding, and I've since settled on one I've really liked for the arc's tone. The city will be grim and stormy throughout the arc, which I felt would better serve scenes like Ralos and Altea's introductions (these are the twins who the mage fights in the tomb, if you recall) and the funeral scene towards the end of the arc. I'll upload a Sneak Peek immediately following this update to showcase the former!

Reglaire got a bit of the same treatment, though for how little its screentime was, being a mute backdrop suited it just fine. I added some flavor text here and there to let a bit more of the worldbuilding peek through, but much of the rework there has to do with scene flow and dialogue, which I'm presently very happy with. I think the scenes read a bit less anachronistic, which had been a pretty significant concern for me pre-rewrite.

Finally, the mages for the spell illustration have been picked via random picker: Jasmine's Mesily Arbolais, and Mila's Estë Selencal (random picker screenshot enclosed below)! The spells illustrated will be Sunflame and Waterwyrm, as nominated by Chiara. I'll be in touch with the winners soon to confirm details about their mages, and they will be featured in the spell illustration feature at the end of the month.

That about wraps it up for this week's devlog. As always, thank you for supporting the development of A Mage Reborn!