Devlog 36 and poll results (Patreon)

Hey everyone, time for a new dev log.

The winner of our recent poll is Scylla! Votes ended a bit earlier, but we decided to delay the announcement till devlog. They were very close for a while but Scylla eventually overtook Osh'To to be our next companion update. Here is the final result at the time of counting:

Scylla: 346

Osh'To: 249

The companion update will arrive after the coming one (so build 20) and will be focused on expanding Scylla, getting her second CG and more quests, similar to Hiho and Samara updates. Osh'To will get her update too later. We already started preparations, have a peek at her dialogue sprite touch up and expansion above.

So moving on, when's the next build? Currently we aiming for early June, if no additional hiccups in production happen, we should deliver in first week of next month. Next update will feature a small quest for Terri, leading up to her new animated scene (and in the future to the brothel quest line arc to get extra scene with the other girls).

This update also progresses our main story with the aftermath of the Bandit Fort quest. Redic sees himself dragged deeper into Kaldean politics, whether he likes it or not. Lots of optional lore to explore by asking NPCs around, Valaska spent extra time for side dialogues in the new senate session.

Our wanted combat rehaul progresses slower than planned, so no big changes so far due we had to shift our focus to some other core issues like quest editor finalization, which we mentioned in the past and was already functional to a degree, but needs final push so it can be used by anyone. Though preparation for combat update aren't halted, we are continuing to update sprites for the main cast, adding new enemies and NPCs, as well as slowly replacing old static sketch NPCs with functional and animated rigs.

We slightly expanded more on Toreign (mercenary village where we pick up Scylla) locations, since we are planning to utilize this location more in the future and it is involved with the main quest arc. Since we already finish all planned hub location we will continue to expand on small interiors connected to them to flesh out the cities and villages.

Speaking of new locations, we will add magician shop in this update, currently magic items and services aren't added, but it will be needed to recharge or buy magic items in the future. Who knows, if you manage to be on the mages good side, maybe he will explain a thing or two about magic as well!

And last but not least, we are trying out a new artist to assist me (Arbuz) with the artwork, since I was mostly soloing it due Zlasova mostly switching to animation duties. Some of his work will be already featured in this update.

On a final note, we are working on a few quality of life features for our players, which should be included in the next companion update:

- Key binding settings.

- An updater integrated into the game, so you can update your game without downloading the whole thing for every patch.

- A bug report feature, so you can quickly report a bug directly in game, which will send us your message, the logs and the relevant save.

That's all for now, the main takeaway is the next update is very close to done. Have a good day!