Progress update #1 - May

Hey everyone!

First and foremost, you will find a number of sketches attached to this post. They were taken in various stages of development of a few pieces, and most of them are pretty rubbish to be honest with you, so consider yourself warned! Regardless, I did make a promise to share some, and it might be a nice little glimpse at the WIP to compare to the final product in the game. I think the sketches are from 7 or so scenes, but don't fear that this is all I have after nearly 2 months of work - at this point, I have 26 pictures that are all at least 90% finished, and these sketches are just excerpts from when I actually remember to take a snapshot of the progress, which I have to remember to do more in the future.

However, I understand that the topic all of you are interested in the most is WHEN will the next episode come out –

And hopefully it will be within a month to fit into the "worst case 3 months" scenario, but I am honestly already disappointed in myself with how slow the progress has been. I knew the start would be a little wonky as there is a huge difference between working on the Prologue where I can redraw things as many times as I want, throw away as many drafts as I want, take as many breaks as I want to where I am now with the prologue released and the clock constantly ticking against me. That said, I still have faith that from episode 1 onward, the releases can come out at a consistently quicker pace, and that's mainly for two reasons:

1) I am finally getting an idea for what my workflow for drawing should be to maximize efficiency (something that is steadily improving with each piece I finish) and

2) I used the money you guys generously supported the development of Elvensang with to hire the help of an experienced writer with outlining the game's story.

I know that someone might question my decision to put so much emphasis on story in a porn game, and so I can only reiterate that I do not want Elvensang to be just a porn game. My vision for the game is that the adult material contained within is just one of its aspects – but at its core, Elvensang will always put story first. I am sure I have said this many times before, but I will say it again to make sure - this does not mean that there will not be a lot of sex content or anything like that. It just means that the sex content has to feel organic and in line with what the characters would do in a given situation, rather than be an end in itself.

Anyhow, while I am working on outlining the story with the writer, I ended up drawing far more content than what would fit in just one episode, and so to compensate for the delayed release of episode 1, episode 2 should come much quicker.

I wanted to fix a bit of the art from the prologue as well, but I will have to leave that for later as I really do not have the excess time to commit to that. However, I will try to fix stuff that's relevant even in future episodes to address some mistakes that had been pointed out to me regarding character sprites. An example of a WIP of that process is in the sketches attached. It's not the final form by any means, but egregious mistakes aside, I don't want to make a habit of fixing art in previous episodes with each release because my drawing skill improved by a tiny bit - it's much better to fix art in batches when I am confident I improved by quite a lot.

On another note, I planned to implement a simple map that would be used to navigate side quests and other minor activities while giving the world (or rather, the part of the world where the story takes place) a sense of scale in future episodes. Look here (https://i.gyazo.com/84a282086cc32faa0621afd3f0b272ff.mp4) for a demonstration of the basic functionality (Krakens not included in the final version of the game!). Side quests will be quite diverse and not very conventional as 'side quests', which should only make sense given the VN format. Becky's entire storyline will be a sidequest, taking a stroll in the forest with Sunny could be a side quest, Sunny interacting with Anasteya will be a side quest, etc.. The key attribute of side quests is that they are (mostly) optional and you can access them at your leisure, which should be quite nice considering a lot of sexual stuff will happen in side quests. That way, you don't have to be pulled out of the progression of the main story for a quick romp with a side character and vice versa.

There's some flexibility required with the side quests, such as that some side quests will have to be completed before you progress in the main story, then some side quests may not be accessible for a period of time (e.g. if a character goes away into the city for one episode, you won't be able to do side quests with that character while they are gone), and similar things like that. I have already worked out the code of the map's functionality, so there's mostly just issues with narration and coherency that I have to keep in mind, such as giving the main story enough downtime to make the pursuit of side quests sensible.

That said, the map will also aim to facilitate scenes that are not from the perspective of the main character, whether they are scenes with erotic content or scenes with strictly story. Therefore, the map will not be a object in the game that the main character opens up to decide whether to go, but rather a user interface tool that you as the player use to navigate the scenes. In other words, the map will not be an effort to implement any elements of freeroam sandbox exploration, at least not in the usual sense – sure, you can go to various places, but only if you have something to do there. I have to admit I was a little bit on the fence with that, since it would be nice if you go just go to a certain place and talk to someone there as means of simple interactivity and immersion, but... once that is said and done, there's no reason for you to go there ever again unless I keep adding content to that or make it an integral part of the game, which it is not meant to be at all. So! No freeroam sandbox exploration (or whatever it is called), at least not for now.

I know that I owe you guys some rewards, namely voting on side content and such, and don't worry, I have not forgotten about that. I plan to open voting polls before introducing the map feature into the game, which should be around episode 2-3 where the first batch of side quests starts pouring in. Until the map is introduced in some form, the game will play out in a continuous single narrative the same way as the prologue did.

Last thing I want to share are some of my thoughts as a beginner artist on a journey to improve my craft. The best way to describe drawing stuff for Elvensang would be to say that it's really hard. Really fucking hard! The best I can consistently produce is art of below average quality which is not something I can make myself settle for and so every piece that I work on presents an almost insurmountable challenge where my greatest enemy is my own lack of skill and experience. Despite this, I think that the art of episode 1 is already a big step up from the Prologue, but there is still a very long way to go, particularly when it comes to drawing faces – but realistically, it is an issue when it comes to drawing just about anything. But I try my best to use that frustration as a catalyst to improve rather than grounds for burning out from my sheer ineptitude as an artist, and I think that in the long run, it will be beneficial to push myself as an artist rather than settle for mediocre shit that I am comfortable doing.

With that being said, I know that I probably make it hard for you guys to keep faith in Elvensang considering how infrequently I communicate, and I genuinely apologize for that. Communicating with the supporters of Elvensang is something I have to work on, and honestly the marketing side of things could use a little work as well. Ever since I attained the tag of a "developer" on F95 (which I expect most of you will be familiar with), I had a chance to look at the process of other developers, how they market their game and how they communicate with their audience and - man, do they put a lot of thought into that.

It has made me realize that there is a lot more I could (and should) be doing for you, but it also made me notice that sometimes, there is a certain amount of disconnect between the developers and the fans of the game – and it makes the developer's interactions with their fanbase come across as disingenuous. Keep in mind, it's just the impression that I get sometimes, and by no means am I pointing fingers at anyone specific. The take away for me is that I have to get better at communicating with players who have faith in my vision, but also remain honest and truthful, whether this page has ten supporters or five hundred.

And whether this page has ten supporters or five hundred, I promise you that I will try my hardest to make Elvensang the best game that it could possibly be.

Finally, I hope you are staying safe and healthy! If you have anything you would like to discuss, my DMs are open as always, be it here, on F95, on discord or wherever else you like. I intend to release my discord channel along with episode 1, so I hope to see you all there before Christmas!

Love you all,

Worlaix