Saturday Update! (Patreon)

It's finally Saturday! The weekend is here!

Canada Post is still on strike, the news is still a neverending carousel of horrors, but for now, right here, it's Saturday and it's time for some project updates.

I had a very productive week! I managed to get a lot more script bones hashed out, to the point where I'd say that the planning document is 'basically finished'. There's still some decisions up in the air and there will of course surely be deviations from this plan once I begin writing for real, but I think this is a good enough guide to jump with.

I've gotten one of my classic 4+ day headaches and I'm pretty sure it's from trying to keep all this shit straight LMAO [ as usual, the document pic is deliberately unreadable, this image is just to give you guys a general impression of the work I've been doing ]

Now that I've gotten this far, I have a better idea of what I'm going to do with this game. It's definitely a bigger change from the original than's Strade's project was. This is mostly because I feel like the 'meat' between endings on the original was essentially unusable. My favourite bits from the old game are still in there, but most of them have been shuffled around and used differently to fit into the new narrative.

I'm confident that this story will be more broad and cohesive, but I'm not confident that people will like it more. I can't be confident of that obviously, even in normal circumstances, but what I mean is that the mood of the story is different. I know that a lot of people get anxious about change and that some people are anxious about what I'm going to do with this story. All I can say to that is that my goal has always been to challenge myself and to make art that challenges me. And that I'm a very different person now than I was in 2017, so if I want to make art that comes from my heart, it will be different.

I can already feel that this story is drawing on experiences I didn't have when I wrote the original. I warned people last week that this will be more horror based and that Lawrence is more sinister, but I think I may have given the wrong impression. It won't be so much the playful slasher horror that Strade embodies. I'm going to be drawing from my own experiences in 2019, a much darker time in my life, when I struggled with overdose, withdrawal, and suicidal thoughts.

People might not want to engage with that, so I'm going to warn you guys now that this game is gonna have dark themes in this realm. I will of course also be extremely clear with warnings when the time comes for that.

But this is the game I want to make, and that I'm committing to making. I just wanna be really crystal clear with people that these themes are going to be present throughout this project and the updates on this patreon coming ahead.

Anyways, tangentially related, here's another art test of Lawrence:

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And now in a gear switch hard enough to give someone whiplash: The Willow Zone

I finally got some good pics of Willow's toes, because she just let me LMAO

Toe time has been a raging success as well. She's still squirmy but she's already calming down and letting me get a couple claws clipped now. She also runs to me when I call her to start because she wants her treats after hehe!

I've gotten a tube tunnel for her that she's still getting used to, and her new favourite toy is a pawbreaker [ it's just catnip pressed into a ball, named like a jawbreaker ]. She goes crazy chasing and licking on it! I'll have to get another couple for backups in case it gets lost.

She's getting more into laser pointer and fishing pole style playtime with me too. It's really been great for both of us!

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Next week I plan to do some more art tests. I want to try a fully rendered Ashe test and I also need to plan a new layout for Lawrence's apartment. He needs a better floor plan and a couch. I'm also thinking of having the apartment be in a mixed commercial zone, since even the old version looked kind of like a repurposed industrial loft of some kind. Then I can put a neon sign somewhere outside the window for ✨Weird Lighting✨ [ this is exciting for me let me have this ]

Soon I will also be creating the basic files for the new game by copying YKMET:Strade [ it'll be easier to replace Strade's script and modify the UI than to start from scratch ] so I can start messing with that UI. I have new kind of struggle bar I need to figure out how to build too. Lots of work ahead! Maybe it's getting to be time to give it a page on my website too...

But I am getting ahead of myself. I'm sure I can't do all of that next week LMAO I'll do what I can and report back next Saturday.

To anyone who's willing to trust me to make this new game with all its differences and serious topics, thank you. I will give it everything I have and I will try my best.

Stay safe, take care of each other, and see you next week!