Let’s do a general check-in with development progress, shall we?
Right now we’re wrapping up all the dates in chapter 05, our most branching chapter to date. We’re using the ‘ol Bioware / Telltale expand and collapse model to tell a singular story with many side paths and choices to make along the way, but for chapter 05, you’re straight up saying “Okay I want the second half of this chapter to be all about this dude/dudette” and that means we have to do a heck of a lot of writing. But hey… you’re worth it.
While my cohort wraps her dates, I’m working on the “vertical slice” demo that we’re aiming to get out at the start of April, just before PAX East. We need something we can show folks and say “See, look, we’ve got a game!” since the Patreon build is getting… unweildy and large. Fun for our backers, not so fun for press.
Meanwhile the artists keep artin’. Greg’s working on some tracks, notably Neon City and 80s Hot Mix #1 (our internal names for ‘the one at the start of each chapter’ and ‘the one that plays in the arcade when things are groovy’). Taylor’s finishing up Donnawood and its related artwork. Molly’s getting all the characters facially expressive for the demo. And I’m improving the code for our animation system, for emotes and popups and the UI.
Now, a lot of this is not going to be as splashy of an impact in the monthly builds as getting, say, half a chapter of writing. We’re improving the infrastructure and filling in placeholders, basically. But I think in the end, that’s possibly more important than constantly filling in new writing. We need content to make the writing come alive.
So, that’s what’s up. Busy, busy, busy. More splashy blog posts soon, as more art rolls in. Meanwhile keep an eye on the twitterings for random screenies.