I'm Still Grinding Away Here

I feel like I've been to quiet, lately. I'm still working on the update, I expect it to come out this month still, so a little late. It's going okay, just a lot of stuff to squeeze into it. I'm also struggling a bit with the portrait system, of all things, the drop-shadows are appearing in the wrong place since we've added the outfit system, and fixing it is turning into a spaghetti code nightmare.

Notice how the pink shading is around her face and it creates that ugly outline effect? It's not supposed to look like that. It's meant to look like this:

Turns out adding features you never planned for is hard.

Anyway, small struggles like these are frustrating because they eat up a lot of my time and I feel like I don't have anything to show for all the work, so it's better to just keep quiet. At the same time, I do need to make sure I keep you guys in the loop, so now you get to hear about boring image rendering issues.

On the other hand, I really think you guys will like how some of the Charlotte romance content is turning out. I think it's becoming my favorite of the three. I feel a lot more confident in it than I thought I would. I got kind of a brain blast earlier this week and rewrote a request with a totally different concept. Very mild spoilers ahead. I don't normally share any content details before release other than the minor blurb you get in update previews and some general details, but since I'm oversharing in this post, why not go all the way?

My idea for the Charlotte request I wanted to do in this version was one where you wound up making two different potions for her, one sleeping potion (if you've played Charlotte's requests you'll know she's an insomniac) and one heat liquor. Basically she'd take the wrong one (meaning she takes the heat liquor), and you'd help in the way only you can ;D. But honestly, that felt a little boring. Accidentally drugging her homies is basically Paige's love language at this point.

So I got this brain blast to tie in the kissing magic stuff. What if Charlotte wants a stronger sleeping potion, and Paige can't do it, but she can smooch her to cast a sleeping spell on her. And Paige invites herself to sleep over with Charlotte and kiss her back to sleep whenever she needs it. And Charlotte is flipping out because, well, you know, that's pretty intimate and she isn't sure what to make of it. And hijinks ensue.

I think it's a really great idea and I think it really elevates this request, and shows a different side of Charlotte where she isn't just drugged; you get to see her genuine reactions to Paige's antics. Of course the unfortunate part is that I had to throw out a mostly-completed request, but I think the improvement is dramatic. It's a pretty linear request, but it's really cute and fun if I do say so myself.

Anyway, I should get back to it. I like how this update is shaping up, and I think you guys will as well. As far as when to expect an update preview, I like to make sure I can nail down a release date before doing a preview, and I'm not confident right now when that will be. As I said, I would be surprised if this update didn't come out in July, but anything is possible. As always, I will suspend payments if the update slips into August. I don't expect that to happen, but it's worth mentioning.

These updates are taking longer and longer, and I think a lot of it has to do with just how dense the code has gotten and how much content there is. It takes my code editor several minutes to load up my syntax highlighting when I start editing because of the large number of files. When I add a new request I'm wading through dozens of conditional statements.

That's like, maybe half of what's in uptown.

The point is, it's a good thing this project is reaching the end. There's only so much the framework I've built can handle. I need to make a better framework for next time, and I plan to. One that's more data-driven instead of requiring me to hand-script the conditions for starting each request or story segment.

But that's neither here nor there. The point is, until this thing is done, it's just gonna take longer than it used to to make updates, and I think I've been beating myself up about that when maybe it isn't really all my fault. I'm breaking things because some of the systems are fragile. It takes longer to make a new request than it used to because there are more systems to think about and I have to wade through more conditional statements and I have to search through more files when something breaks.

Anyway, that's enough navel-gazing. The point is that the end is in sight. We have one chapter left, and then some post game stuff. But we're almost there. It's a marathon, not a sprint.