DevLog Update: Initial Thoughts on v021 (Patreon)

Sup.

So I've been kinda quiet with the development on v021 so I wanted to check in. We've had a few questions on the Discord and on the last release post so I wanted to clarify a few things so the format on this DevLog is a little different. I'll address that first.

FAQ: Last Update?

So I've talked about v021 being the "last update" for the game and this is true but somewhat misleading in a sense as well. I'll continue to talk about this as the update moves forward and definitely will speak about it after the update is released. Yes, v021 will be the last update to the game. It will conclude chapter 10 and bring the game and the story to an end. However, Straight!? will continue development until it is actually finished. This is the rough draft. I do plan to keep the Patreon open after v021 and will then begin revamping the earlier sections of the game. This will likely add thousands of CGs to the game (yes, thousands). It will flesh out the beginning of the game and improve the lighting and the graphics. It will also fix the early gameplay that is repetitious and "grindy." That will be removed and the game will become more linear. I also plan to flesh out some stuff like adding in some people that were removed from the original game as well as add background students to populate the shots and make the world feel more alive. There's a ton of work to do and it will likely take me another year to go through and flesh this thing out to do the entire game justice. Hopefully, y'all will stick with me on this because I think our characters deserve my best and the current iteration has taught me many lessons; I can do better and I will.

If you have other questions about that, let me know. I'll eventually do a long public post regarding the future of the game as well as have to update the Patreon with the new mission. But not yet... we have a story to finish and I'm concentrating all attention on the last chapter.

Ok... now on to the DevLog stuff.

Outline

My recent silence on Patreon has actually been pretty fruitful. I have completed a rough, but very detailed outline for the last chapter of the game (I'm gonna start using the word "chapter" more often here to try and get us used to this not technically being the last "update). So... stat time: The current outline is pretty friggen large and clocks in at 11 full pages. In comparison, v020, which was previously our longest update was almost 7 pages. So I expect this update to be long. How that actually translates into writing will be determined but there is a lot to cram into this. That being said, I'm gonna add some personal thought here to hopefully ease some worried minds: in my opinion, the outline doesn't feel rushed. There's a lot of moves left in this story but they're powerful moves and that doesn't necessarily translate into a ridiculous number of events to get closure. As we approach the end, there is tension. There's tension for our characters and there's tension in all of us for an ending. That's real life so we can expect things to move quickly because that's the reality of things. When we enjoy something, we want to savor it... but such is not always the way of things. If you find yourself wanting to pump the brakes on this, it's because it's unstoppable and we shouldn't really expect anything less for a story that's mostly tried to stay true to reality.

In terms of scenes, the current outline has 10 planned, the longest number of scenes we've seen in an update yet (Update v020 had 8 on the initial outline). So again, hopefully those of you that are worried about me just throwing up my hands and slapping a pointless The End on it when I get tired, I hope your minds will find peace with this. I care about this project as much as you do and I have a strong desire to do it justice.

You can also assume that this outline will continue to be revised as things move forward. I will continue to evaluate it to see if it holds up.

Based on the length, some of you may ask why I don't split the update as well as wonder why the hell I ended the last update where I did. Honestly, that wasn't designed as an annoying cliffhanger, It's because there's a series of events that begin from the point of the "question" and much like the beach update, splitting that up is going to ruin the immersion. We all need to take a deep breath before Zack opens his mouth. I think this last update should best be enjoyed in one sitting, if possible. So I'd like to do one update on that so we can just take it all in and know that there's going to be some form of resolution this time at the end. I'm not splitting this, it'll fuck things up. 

Writing

So honestly not a lot to report here so far. I've gotten the first scene written and am working on the second one. I do anticipate this will be all over the place in terms of the efficiency of writing. I'll try to update the Patreon or Twitter as I go but sometimes that slips my mind because I'm more focused on the product than I am trying to determine percentages of completion. Like all the other chapters, this one has a TON of emotions in it and I gotta be in the right place to feel those out. So this could translate into me being less responsive on Discord if I'm in the right headspace to write. I'm also anticipating a need to replay the game in it's entirety. I'm concerned to launch an ending without playing this beast all the way through to mostly ensure continuity and resolution. That will likely take time, too. 

What to Expect

I was talking earlier today on Discord and we all know by now that I'm terrible at Public Relations, lol. I either give too much or not enough so I'm not sure what all to say here. I think it's gonna be a long update with another rollercoaster. One of my favorite things about this project is the way in which I chose to write it. I didn't plan a lot in advance and each update has been outlined separately, somewhat self-contained to stay true to it's episodic nature (and to make it a little easier with coding since I'm so new at this). I didn't want to spoil myself because I like these characters. I like the world and I was jealous that the public got to experience things without knowing what was going to happen. But, there's an insane amounts of twists in this story that I never planned--they just wrote themselves and that was fun for me, too, as a fan to experience with you. However, I've publicly stated it before that the ending has never changed. It's one thing that has been a constant in the story and it's going to be incredibly difficult. 

But that being said, I found myself surprised at the outline-- somehow parts of the ending changed-- so this update even has some surprises for me in it and there's strength in that and I'm kinda excited to experience those moments as they spill out onto the screen. It should be fun and emotional and I can't wait to shed tears over these two one last time.