Dev Log 3.1: Prelude

Hello!

This is the first official weekly dev log for chapter 4! Firstly, thank you all so much for being here. Your support means the world to me.

Now, as for progress on chapter 4 ...

You'll have noticed at the end of chapter 3 that I'm splitting ch4 into two updates. "Playing Around Before the Party Starts" leading into "Chapter 4: The Party". This was a conscious decision I made during development of chapter 3, in order to ensure that certain things that happen in ch4 have the correct weight and build up to them. The prelude to chapter 4 will itself be a full chapter's worth of content, as will "The Party" itself. Thus, I broke it down into two separate updates. Otherwise, it would likely have been another year long cycle before a release, which I really want to avoid in the future. Particularly as I'm now monetizing the project, I want to give you value for your generous contributions, and justify your faith in me. (i know that generally people prefer longer updates, even if it results in a longer dev time, but each 'half' of ch4 will still feel like full updates - they will both be notably longer than ch1 was)

With that being said, the prelude is now fully planned out (some things might get added later but so far it's fully structured out). It's going to be 12 scenes. If that doesn't sound like a lot to you, I counted back through ch3 and it's turns out I'd consider that to also have 12 scenes, as I don't tend to count transitional stuff/small conversations. Just the big set pieces. It will definitely be shorter than ch3, though, as you can probably assume, most notably because there isn't going to be a big party/gathering in this prelude. My best guess is that it'll probably sit somewhere around the 2000 render mark. This is a completely arbitrary guess, though. (with the second part of ch4 probably also hitting this mark, if not more, partially a reason as to why I separated them)

As you may have noticed, there isn't a preview image on this post. For most dev logs I'm planning on doing a little preview, but I've really only just started rendering for ch4. So I didn't really think there was much value in a preview this early, as all I've done so far is continuing on from the scene ending ch3. So it's nothing new to see. I should be far enough into rendering by next week that I'll have something worth previewing, though.

I'm very excited. Chapter 4 (as a whole) contains one moment in particular that is in my list of critical story beats. So it's quite exciting to be coming close to it. There are a few of these moments I'm particularly excited for in the future, the sort of things I've had planned since conceiving this idea back in late 2021. The foundational pieces I've built the rest of the game around. We're getting to the first soon. (yeah that's right. we're only just getting to the first. three whole chapters of set up? you better believe it)

Once again thank you all so much for being here. This game is the without a doubt the thing I've been most passionate about in my life. Genuinely. Getting the chance to get it out there, and have you all read and enjoy it, means more than I could ever really say.

Also as a reminder for those of you in the Absurd tier who haven't yet done so, feel free to message me here any time with regard to getting your monthly render set if you're interested.

Thanks!