Interactions And Story Progression

Good afternoon,

it's been another busy week, so now it's time to tell you what I've achieved and what still needs to be done.

I started the week working on more animations and still images. For the scene I planned for Elisabeth I also had to rework the already existing upper floor map of the coldstone manor a bit, which led to me adding a changing room/bathroom.
Next I required more sprites for corresponding situations. (Character pictures in nightgowns for Elisabeth and Lilly as well as matching character sprites). I also needed more sprites for the MC, but no more spoilers about that right now. The implementations of the scenes that I made the week before took also some time and I decided to rework Penny's animation of the "on the field" scene and added to it a 2nd angle + made some of the transitions smoother.

So much for the work on graphical material, but of course I also worked on the interactions at the manor itself. Currently my main focus was on visiting Elisabeth during the day and having some conversation with her in the livingroom. In the end this will lead to a way for the MC to sneak into the manor as the title image hints at.

I'm currently a little conflicted about how far I want to go with writing the story for 0.5.9.0. Because of course I know that even if the story is interesting, to really bring it to a full conclusion (and thus reunite 2 specific people) I still need a lot more interaction, character progression and story writing.
That takes time and I've already stretched it further for this update than I originally planned.
I will therefore not be aiming for a full conclusion of Penny's story.
Let me explain my reasons: If I'd do that, it would mean that I have to change the entire daily routines that are currently in the game for certain characters and add/rework current interactions. E.g. Penny's dinner would have to be completely reworked and of course it wouldn't stop there. This would just be too much for this update, as much as I want to finish the story I also don't want to rush it (nobody want's another Syfa standing in the basement with no interaction because of missing time).
So while I will make some progression for Elisabeth's, Lilly's and Abraham's character as well as interaction at the manor, it has to end there for now. I think a little change of scenery will do us all good and I'll finish the story in Penny's next update.

I hope you can understand why I came to this conclusion. September is now almost over and I really want to finish this update. But I know that even though I'm making the mentioned cuts, I won't be able to do it within the next few days. As I said, I would still like to include certain events for which I have already created graphics.
I hope to make it by the end of next week, but even then I don't want to give any absolute assurances. Today I'm going to work until I'm too tired and then go full throttle again next week.

For now I wish you all a nice weekend!