Update - Shizu at the club (lower angle)

tl;dr - On a slightly slow week I was very focused on PAT work.

I forgot to write my usual update on time because my schedule's been a little different to usual this week. Got to do a rather quick one this time, as a consequence.

This week's image

I assume I'll use this for something - I went to the trouble of rendering it, after all - but I don't know what. Actually, initially in this scene Shizu wasn't actually wearing any panties, which made for a fun upskirt, but it didn't really make sense for her character here.

I'll have more explicit stuff to show for PAT in time, but right now I'm generally being quite careful about not giving away too many spoilers; I'm sure you understand.

Slow week

I actually think that this week I didn't work on PAL at all; this week was all about PAT for me. That said, it was kind of a slow week because I had some stuff getting in my way. Wednesday I didn't really have time to work at all, I lost time on Sunday and throughout the week I was feeling kind of garbage with mild, persistent migraine symptoms. It's a pity, because now I've got to get back to PAL work and get it going fast, because I need to prepare my update for next month.

PAT work

Now, all that said, I did do some important work this week, even if the amount of completed material I've got to show for it isn't as big as I'd like. I've rendered some stuff - sloooowly (I need a more powerful rendering PC) - but it's mostly either been a bit dull, like night versions of location images, or it's been more basic stuff that's needed for the daily actions. Still, you know, it all needs to be done.

On the writing side, though, I've been a little bit active. I don't think I've written a really high word count, although I have written some, but importantly I've been going through my scene by scene outline and working out how the story will go. There's still a lot of empty space in it, actually, so there's a fair bit still for me to come up with, but I've managed to organise it a lot better than before.

I've been keen to really, as much as possible, minimise the amount of exposition in the early days. There's a natural instinct to lay out everything in the scenario upfront and it takes a certain amount of discipline to cut those bits out of the first day and spread it out over the course of the game. I don't want players to have long scenes just explaining things early on - the stuff that matters is that you get an interesting introduction to the characters, enough intro to the story that it makes sense but no more, and then you should be able to get into the main gameplay as soon as possible. I'm still working on this, but I've definitely made progress.

Is this pic okay for a weekly update? I wasn't sure - what do you think? And do you understand why I try to get rid of exposition in the early parts of the game? Let me know in the comments!