Sweet Leaves June Dev Update (Patreon)

Hi everyone! Here's your monthly update for June.

The first thing I want to mention is actually about episode 1, not episode 2. After discussing things with our developer, we've decided to release future episodes in the same executable file as episode 1. Originally we were going to have every episode be standalone, but for reasons I won't bore you with, we've switched that around.

I had already planned on revising episode 1, improving some of the writing in spots, doing some trimming to help with pacing, and revising scripting commands to take advantage of new functionality added to our engine after episode 1 was completed. On the days I'm a little too brain-liquidy to write or edit episode 2, I'm working on episode 1's revisions. I'm already a third of the way done. If you're already read episode 1, don't worry, nothing significant will change about the story. You can choose to check out the revamped episode 1 when episode 2 launches, or jump right into the new episode (we'll have episode + scene select as options).

We continue climbing the mountain that is episode 2 little by little every day. Writing-wise, 11 out of 25 total scenes are in a pre-final state (as final as we can make them before minor pre-release tweaks as necessary). Another 6 scenes are in a mid-drafting state, and 8 have yet to be drafted other than their outlines. I'm very happy with the writing/story so far, and with future edits and harder scrutiny, it'll get even better. There's a LOT of emotional scenes across the entire spectrum in episode 2, and if you thought not much happened in episode 1 (and technically not a whole lot did, because it was mostly set up for future episodes), you'll be pleased to hear that a LOT of story happens in episode 2. It's still slice of life, but you'll be getting a hell of a lot more drama and fantasy this next time around.

Background and insert art is coming along nicely. For select scenes, we're doing cinematic intros, and we've got another one done for what is probably the marquee scene of episode 2:

We've got seasonal updates to our maps too - you've probably noticed that episode 2 takes place in autumn by now, but towards the end of the episode, we dip into the first heavy snowfall of the season, and we get to visit Nico's house finally. (Note, the video below starts on a black screen and fades in, so that's not an empty video!)

And the bear's cozy abode:

Some additional backgrounds and CG backgrounds have been finished as well, but I can't show you a lot of them because SPOILERS. Willow, one of our new characters, has a scene in her room, which was illustrated beautifully by Reo:

Also, if you're not down with Billie Irish, do u even music bro?

Character art! We have just a couple sprites left to do, but right now Flint is burning through drawing the dolls for various scenes. There's a lot more dolls (and custom ones rather than their default isometric poses) this time around, and a lot of completely custom poses, like this one in Toby's room when he's picking out a book for storytime:

And a little band room lunch between Pinecrest School Employees:

That's all for this update! We're still on track for an end-of-the-year release, and the team is very pleased with what we've got so far (and we're pretty hopeful you will too).

-TanukiDad