Progress Report + Tales Sneak Peek

So! The ending for Day 14 was submitted to the team, and the response? Well...

Good news first. I've been told a particular section is easily one of the best things I've ever written and is genuinely fantastic. Great!

The bad news? Well, there's some other parts that require some reworking. They deliberately done the way they were for a good reason, but unfortunately didn't stick the landing in a way the team was happy with.

As such, I've gone back and began reworking these sections. I've also begun writing Day 15 as promised, so don't stress about that, all is well in hand! 

The new version of Day 14 is coming together nicely and I expect to have it done either later tonight (if I stay up way too late) or sometime tomorrow. With how Day 15 is looking, I expect to have a scratch version done by the end of tomorrow at the latest - famous last words, of course. 

NOW THEN

Instead of the usual slice of life ramblings these Progress Reports are usually dedicated to, how about I show you a sneak peek of something I've got in the works? 

So, during the week, I think it was Tuesday, I was working on the polishing work for Day 14 and I ended up with a lightning bolt of inspiration. So, instead of doing what I was supposed to be doing, I ended up drafting a partial route plan. 'For Lukas?!' you ask? Well, no. 'Must be Axel and Dom then!' you say. Nope! Not them either. 'But... I thought those were the only other main routes planned for 1.0?'  - yes, exactly!

It was hardly the time or the place for it, but the route plan I drafted was for one of the planned 'Tales' routes. As we've mentioned before, post 1.0, we hope to add in a variety of different routes to the game in a mode tentatively titled 'Tales from Woodcrest'. The principle idea here is that these Tales routes break the format of the main game in some way or another, and as such are a part of a separate mode. Most of these routes would have to be unlocked through the main story, and will be subject to heavy spoilers.

Currently, there are 8 Tales Routes tentatively planned, and each of them tell some different story. Some are robust and long, others are short and sweet. Tales Route Number 2 for instance is planned to be an epilogue for Diego's route, a short 3-day~ route showing the characters shared vacation back to Diego's home town, meeting Diego's family and all kinds of other fun stuff. The 8th Tales Route on the other hand explores Axel and Russell's friendship as children and will be played from both of their perspectives - this route is currently entitled "The Talk", if you know, you know. 

But, those aren't the routes I added to. Quite on the contrary, the route which saw a big burst of development this week was none other than route number 1. And what's behind door number one? 

A Rat.

Hear me out. 

Tales Route Number 1 is tentatively entitled 'Eric the Bruiser'. As for the sort of content it is intended to include, well... I'm sure you know what angle an Eric route is going to take. It will be played from Eric's perspective, and will feature a blend of new and old characters throughout. I'm not going to dive into specifics here, especially at such an early stage where so much is subject to change, but there are a ton of great ideas for this route and it will most certainly be a very interesting experience - from how things are looking right now, it will play very differently from the main story, likely being branching with numerous possible conclusions, and likely also containing a mechanic which the player has to engage with in order to advance the story and obtain the content they desire. 

What I will be more specific about are two of the new characters who spawned from the slimy undergrowth of this route. 

The first of which is Rusty Mitrovic, a Rottweiler. Once introduced, Rusty will steal Lukas' throne in being the largest and oldest character in Sileo. While Lukas stands a couple of inches taller, Rusty has the body of an aging footballer, his considerable muscle mass softened by a beer gut and other jiggly bits - oh the sorrows of being in your mid forties! Rusty is rough and tough with poor manners, a course sense of humor, a commanding demeanor and an overall lack of shame and common courtesy. Despite this, he is far sharper than he looks, and exceptionally self aware, his absence of pride allowing him to easily delegate and defer to others without hesitation - he only cares about a job well done, even if he needs help doing it.

The second character is Tobias Almqvist. He is a Monkey, 22 years of age. I've mentioned it on our Discord before that I've been fighting to get the team to agree to a Monkey. The first attempt a while back didn't quite pan out on account of my visual references not being a great fit for CurryCatz style, but this time we're back at it with a completely different approach, and so far, so good, I might get my damn monkey in the game after all! So Tobias most closely compares to Dom in terms of frame and stature. His physique is more fit, although this is largely genetics - he's actually an IT Grad and rarely gets any exercise. Must be nice!  He has white fur, with very distinct almost human-like hair, and typically white/pinkish skin where it shows through. He's fiercely independent, working best under his own steam and rarely works well in teams. He also takes great pride in that independence, often making terrible decisions through a skewed perspective  in which the shame in those decisions is less than the shame of asking for help. Despite that, he is a wildly talented software designer, or a 'code-monkey' if you will (I swear that pun is a coincidence) and his efforts, working hand in hand with Rusty, have made them both very successful men.

Both of these characters are planned for Eric's Tale, however may debut in the main story sooner. In fact, one of them is referenced in the new section of Day 14 already - see if you can spot it next month!

Anyway, there's a lot of good ideas behind that route, as well as a lot of good characters, some you're already familiar with such as a charming blue dragon, a smarmy velociraptor and more besides! It's going to be a fun one to right, alas, it will be some time before we're in a position to do so. But nothing is to stop us from accumulating ideas along the way - it just means we'll have more to work with when the time comes! 

Hopefully you've all enjoyed a little sneak peek at Tales. There's plenty more to talk about, but I can't spill all of our secrets all at once! Maybe some other time, eh?