Hey homies, 

I've been deep in the testing for the first 3 sections of this release, and things are turning out great! Sections 10 and 11 are essentially done, but I definitely wanted to go over them a couple more times before actually feeling safe enough to call them completed. It may seem excessive to some, but trust me when I tell you that my work is kind of rough until I've reviewed it a dozen times haha.

I discovered that I was a little overzealous with my estimations on the amount of testing completed for section 9 last week. I realised that I didn't only have 7 varied paths to get through, but rather 12 paths. The good news is that's what I was doing all week, so it won't take me long to get through the rest. Additionally, now that S10-11 are finished, it will be a million times easier to get into the right headspace to dive into S12.

Between S12's renders or script, at least one of them is getting a sizable chunk bit out of them this week. With nothing else apart from the Codex/Gallery to work on, my back is against the proverbial wall. As for the Codex/Gallery, those are definitely lowest on my priority list for the moment, and I would much rather get the actual game finished as soon as possible. The Cod/Gal can always be put off until after the release if necessary.

That's all for this week, my dudes!
Much love
JB

Hey homies,

It's been a little while since I've been able to say this, but I have incredible progress to report this week. First of all, as you can see, the alpha testing has officially begun, and I've stayed buried in my work every single night.  As usual, I found a few things that I missed along the way, but I've been surprisingly locked in this week and have patched every single hole I've come across so far.

I'm sure a few of you are concerned about the continued lack of progress on S12, but I promise that it hasn't been forgotten. It's been simmering on the back burner, and I'm taking my time planning it out for when the time comes to dive into it. I went through something nearly identical when I was working on the last release. I kept putting off the final scene for months while I completed everything else, and by the time I got around to making it, we ended up with the Lydia and Louisa scene. Which, not to toot my own horn, but I think it's easily some of my finest work ever.

Even though it's part of the testing process for me, I should also mention that I've been adding new music and sound effects while I go. So far, there are a few new songs and a bunch of new sound effects to look forward to. I've also been refining the code and the script as well, but I suppose that's to be expected. 

Look, real talk... So far, I'm damn near giddy with how things are turning out. Obviously, with VNs, things are rarely as cinematic and impactful as I would like, but all things considered, I'm thrilled. There's still a lot to do, but seeing things finally come together in an early version of the final product is just so damn satisfying. Now I just need to stick the landing, and pray you all continue to enjoy the story.

I've jabbered on for far too long now, so I'll leave you here, and I hope you all have another wonderful week!
Much love
JB

Hey homies,

I'm very happy to report that I've made much better progress than the previous few subpar weeks. I don't know why I haven't dove more into S12, but everything else has been getting primed and polished in the meantime. So far, everything worked on in S9 through S11 has been broad strokes, trying to cover as much ground as possible, but this past week I took a much closer look at the script. 

As usual, when things are near completion, I manage to find a startling number of script sections that I've skipped over previously for whatever reason. Thankfully, I've been thoroughly filling in those gaps as I go, and since most of them are transitions from one scene to another, or one conversation topic to the next, they aren't terribly large. I did find a couple of large sections last night that were missed, but I'm thankful to report that they're alternate versions of a scene that is nearly complete. I only need to finish polishing the first before altering and adapting the relevant sections for the other two versions.

Thankfully, with most of S9-S11, I think we're at the stage where the renders appear to be complete, and I just need to start layering in the audio and getting lost in the script/code to get them to a place where I can start testing the audio and gameplay.

I'm going to do everything I can to keep this momentum rolling, so I'll leave the report here for today. I hope you all have another wonderful week.
Much love
JB

Hey all, 

I wish I had more visible progress to show you, but truthfully, I've been hitting a wall with a lot of the dialogue, which was holding up the line for everything else. I probably should have taken another day or two to work on something else, but ironically, I really wanted to get more finished, so I inadvertently chose to spin my wheels instead of breaking to progress slightly more. I fully expect to lose some subs for another poor performance week, but as usual, I would rather be honest with you all.

Despite having a lot of chatter to get through in S11, I was finally able to wrap the first draft for all the S11 dialogue. It will no doubt require some future passes for polish, but the hard part is over. It will be a lot easier to edit existing dialogue now that I found a way to finish the conversation. At this point, it's safe to say that the heavy lifting for S9, 10 and 11 is finished. There's still definitely work to be done there, but most of the pieces are finished, and I should only need to fill in the gaps between the bricks.

I'm nearly pulling out my hair finding ways to get around my creative blocks, so pray for me, homies!
Much love
JB