Everstone Daycare - Progress Report (Nov. 9, 2023)

Howdy everyone!

It’s been a rough few months for my release schedule, and Baldur’s Gate 3 hasn’t been much help with that.

First on the agenda, the new side story released this demo.

This is the first half of the Nurse Weavile-related side story that’s been in the works. Some of you may remember that I released a set of CGs of Nurse Weavile getting his just desserts, and that was originally planned to be the whole beginning and end of it. However, I wanted there to be more build-up and characterization for Nurse Weavile than what was originally planned, to make his inevitable fall more satisfying.

As I was expanding the original outline and began writing the beginning sections of the story, it became obvious that the scope had ballooned to the point where I wouldn’t be able to finish everything in a reasonable amount of time. I decided to split the story into two halves, and even then, it became an unexpectedly time-consuming endeavor with one of the largest scripts I’ve written in a while, nearly reaching the size of the script for the intro. This is also the story with the largest amount of art assets related to it, with 12 new CGs and double that for the amount of what I would call “miscellaneous” art in addition.

While I’m happy to have made something I would consider “meaty”, I made you all wait an awfully long time as I tried to make something that I, Spooky, and Tennet would be satisfied with. I’m not exactly punctual with releases, but this is the longest I’ve taken on a single script so far.

From this point on, I will be limiting the size of the script for each scene, for both consistency and time’s sake. I’ve made enough of these that I think I have an idea of what a happy medium would be that will let me tell the stories I want and not be stuck writing any singular one for too long.

Going back to the Nurse Weavile side story, I mentioned that this is only the first half of the story. Despite the fact that I have the CGs for the second half all ready to go, I might postpone finishing it in favor of continuing the main story, at least for the next demo. I’ve been wanting to push for finishing the main “route” of the game and to have a finished story to tell before I start focusing on branches and side scenes and stories. I still intend on finishing the Nurse Weavile story soon, but after that point I’ll be primarily working towards the story of how “you” escape the daycare. That way, it’ll be easier to think up and write about all the fun ways you don’t!

Secondly, I’ve finished the overhaul for the Inventory that I had teased a few months back. As cute as the original idea to have it be an ever-increasing mound of stuff on top of each other was, it started slowly becoming a nightmare of where to put everything in a way that each item can still be clicked on with little issue. It also made it seem like the toy chest was completely empty save for the stuff you’ve put it in, despite it being described as “your stash hidden beneath all the toys”. I’ve added a transition whenever you open the toy chest that should hopefully alleviate that feeling.

The UI for the inventory should look more reminiscent of how it is in most other games, something more practical for both me and the players. Items should all be listed down, with the same icon as they have when they’re equipped. Clicking on them will give you a short description of the item, with a close-up and detailed image of the item being flashed on-screen being planned for the future, before prompting you on whether you want to equip it or not.

I’ve also separated items into 2 distinct types: ‘items’ and ‘key items’. We wanted to keep the limitation of only being able to hold 1 item at a time and not having your whole inventory with you always, I imagined situations in the future where a locked door meant having to go get the key, open the door, come back to the Playroom, and getting the item you actually wanted to carry just to pass through, which I want to avoid at all costs. I remedy that, all keys and anything I would consider as “plot-relevant” items (such as Nurse Buizel’s schedule) will now be key items that you always keep on you at all times. Where in your diaper that is, I leave up to your imaginations.

Lastly, the credits! Thank you to all who filled in the Google Form and messaged me directly on Patreon! Me and Tennet have filtered through all the names to check if each entry is or has been subscribed to this Patreon. There’s a fair few of you, and hopefully we got everyone who opted-in. If you don’t see your name in the latest demo, or if it was misspelled, or any other related issue, please feel free to send me a DM! I don’t expect to get this perfect the first time, so I’m expecting some names to slip through the cracks despite all our double-checking.

But other than that, there’s not much else to discuss. This demo contained 2 really large inclusions which took up most of my time, and then the credits. Still, I’m proud of them all in the end, and hope you all enjoy them as well!

Thank you all again for your continued support and patience!

TL;DR – Nurse Weavile story split into 2 parts due to size, I will be attempting to put a limit on the size of a script from now on, Nurse Weavile story part 2 delayed while I focus on main story scripts, Inventory overhaul has been released, completely changing how it looks and splitting items into 2 types: items and key items, The names of everyone who wanted to be credited in-game has been added to the ‘Credits’ page.