4/26 Status Update

The main thing I want to talk about in this update is what's going to be happening in May. In short, I'm taking a vacation. I've taken vacations from my day job plenty of times while running Apollo Seven Games, but I've always kept working on the games even while on a trip abroad or something. This time, I plan to not work on anything. Maybe I'll make some prototype just because I like making games, but I'm not planning to do any work on Netoria Tactics, or At the Mountains of Friendship, or Naked Ambition for essentially all of May. I'm also not planning on making status updates, although I might if I have some thoughts I want to express.

Hopefully this break will let me refocus and re-energize. Development has been going slower and has been less fun than I'd like as of late. We're not at burnout levels here, but we're getting close. I've got some soul searching to do with what I want the future of my studio to be. A change of scenery and actually getting out and about now the my foot is mostly healed should do me a lot of good.

But that's the next month, what happened the past week? I'm not on vacation yet afterall. Pretty much all my time was spent on the new Netoria Tactics update. More scenes have been written, and I'm starting to make the actual levels too. It's going pretty well. I'm thinking of calling it the Carwyn Triumphant route. "Golden route" is very confusing especially with golden being in the title of the Steam version. It's really all about Carwyn getting everything he wants so Carwyn Triumphent makes sense to me.

 An important part of this route is how Carwyn's relationship with Gwen and Vivian grows over time. It starts out with Gwen and Vivian not being all too happy with having to share, but over the course of it they learn to appreciate each other. The go from being rivals, to fellow girlfriends of Carwyn, to lovers who maybe even like each other.

See? They don't need Carwyn! This one scene is going to be the closest we get to a Gwen-Vivian lesbian route in this game. Although a branch where you get on the Carwyn Triumphant route but the girls end up liking each other more than him would be interesting. Maybe if... okay, calm down Apollo. I need to stop making new routes and focus on the sequel at some point. Can't keep adding new stuff forever.

Speaking of the sequel, here's some more character art:

These are two slightly different poses for one of the Vizier's classes. She certainly looks different now that she's managed to change her class. She knows much more about them and how to use their power than the other characters, so instead of latching onto an alternate life-path she just grabs onto her past letting her de-age herself. Will the Prince manage to keep true to his relationship with Shahrazad now that his ex-wife-to-be is hot? Not if she has anything to say about it!

That's all for this week and pretty much all for a whole month. Hopefully by the next time you here from me I'll be buzzing with energy and motivation. As always, thank you for your continued support.