August 15 Update (Patreon)

I'm updating a day early because I'm mad with power and no one can stop me! Also it works better for my schedule and I'd like people to take a look at that map up top. More on it at the end, but take it in.

I feel like I broke through this week, though I'm not confident enough to be certain I have momentum. It was a good week, almost entirely dedicated to TLS. Not a lot to say about it, but I don't want this update to be unbalanced...

Some of the scenes in this upcoming set will be pretty long, on par with the longest in the game (other than the shard-absorbing scene that includes everyone). The later one is a story-critical scene, so that's not surprising, but the earlier of the long ones just... got out of hand. It's an optional scene, it just has a lot of characters doing a lot of things.

People seem to have varying views about group scenes, but I think it has real strengths. There's an intimacy to just two or three characters coming together, yet there's also something appealing about a larger number. Anyway, this scene I'm circling around will be something I haven't done before and hopefully people will like it. Trin is in charge.

Anyway, I spent fairly little time on OEA this week, but I do have some things to show you. A lot of the changes I'm making feel like rearranging chairs to me. For example, I replaced 30ish base sound effects just so OEA won't sound like every other MV game. But is one "menu opening" sound better than another one? Not really.

However, I've commissioned some custom balloon icons, on the right compared to the RTP standard ones:

These may serve the same function as the defaults, but I feel they actually improve the game by giving it some unique flavor. Hopefully others agree, anyway.

I also found the time to put updates on Steam and my blog. These will be a little redundant for you if you've been following the Patreon updates, but feel free to take a look.

Finally, back to the first thing: my mapper finally had enough time for us to do a map. Those of you who played OEA will remember the original placeholder, or you can see part of it at the Steam link. This is the first redone map, so getting our aesthetic right is important, and for that reason I'd like everyone's thoughts!

Even a basic sense of what looks good or bad to you would be useful. Though we did bounce this one back and forth before I showed it, I don't consider this perfect, and in fact I have a couple issues with it. But instead of getting into them, I'd just like to get everyone's un-influenced reactions to the mapping style. So please look carefully and be honest.

Hopefully next week I'll be able to announce amazing progress, but... wish me luck.