A chill, afternoon Friday post (Patreon)

Well, actually, it's still before noon... but who's counting? 

Welcome, everyone, to today's update post. I don't have a whole lot to share, but I've got some fun little bits. 

The first one is the results of last week's poll. This is one that I'm going to keep an eye on as we go forward, in case more people vote, because as is... I guess I was hoping for a more definitive result. You guys voted with a slight lean towards longer updates, but just as many people for either the current schedule or an even shorter one, so... I can't really make a ton of that. Not that I won't keep it in mind, but I'm certainly not gonna make any drastic changes to my release schedule just yet. 

In fact, the next update is already fully planned out- I know exactly what it will contain and when it will release, but there are factors in play for that one besides just length, so it's an outlier. Going forward, I think I'm leaning towards, on average, slightly shorter updates... then use the time saved by those to build up progress so that every third update or so is a larger, all-in-one package. That way we still get frequent releases for those who want them, but the people who would prefer new segments of gameplay not be split up can have that too. It's either a good compromise, or the worst of both worlds, so... who knows. 

Anyways, the other thing I have to share today- as most of you have probably noticed, I like to balance each new update with a share of new, exciting scenes and events, and also some quality of life changes to the art or design of the game. And so for the next release, I decided to return to someone whose art always bothered me- Merida. 

Merida's sprite is one of the first things I drew for the game, and much like Moana's, it hasn't aged too well. So I'm giving her a fresh coat of paint! 

I like the new sprite a lot more- the line work is better, her pose is more functional, her left ankle doesn't look like it's broken anymore. I also took the opportunity to adjust her jawline, to bring her more in line with what Merida actually looks like- both in official art from her movie, and in other scenes in this very game. Overall, I'm very happy with this adjustment- what do you all think? 

That's all I've got for this Friday post. I hope you enjoyed this little sneak peek, and I'll see you all in a week.