Identity - Update a.10

 (This is a long post, you can find the download links at the bottom of it, for those that prefer the tl;dr approach. Even though, you might want to read these, heh.)

Hey guys! Woohoo!!! It's been 10 months since we started this project! How crazy! So, what better way to celebrate it than with another update?

That's right, Update a.10 is now up for you to enjoy! Perhaps the most important change it brings is that the story finally progresses more! We've also finalized a new background (the one right there in the update image, which also marks the presence of a finished title screen artwork), and we've upgraded that big guy with a proper sprite!

As mentioned before, this update actually builds more on the plot of the game. We've listened to some of the comments we received regarding the way we approach story updates and it became pretty obvious that we weren't doing it right. We want our story to feel immersive, to put emphasis on and give meaning to the choices you can make. However, we became somewhat blinded by this and it resulted in us writing tons of alternative choices early on and still not being done with the prologue after almost a year. We were aware that it wasn't the best way to handle things, and the fact that SiriusLeeLost, or lead writer, had a very rough time during the first quarter of the year because of his multiple jobs that were overworking him didn't help either.

The feedback we got for this acted as a 'last straw' of sorts, helping us realize that we needed to change the way we went about our story's architecture. Some of the choices we introduced feel outright bland and pointless to have, and only meant adding another branch to worry about for little reason. We decided it is best to focus on advancing the story rather than finishing every possible detail of the prologue first. The prologue in itself is massive, though it may not feel like it at first. it measures over 40.000 words across many, many branches (we're serious, check out this overview of our plotmap we're using to structure all the routes. Every single blob represents a good chunk of text and any bunch of blobs arranged in a horizontal line, a choice).

(the plotmap overview)

It is huge. And that's not always a good thing, particularly when you get bombarded with choices, some of which don't quite make sense to have in the first place. That's why we will take on the task of doing a content revision over the summer, where we go over all of the prologue again in depth and a) decide what is relevant and important to keep, what to scrap and what to merge together, and b) to go through all the branches and add missing assets and to catalog their positions and other concepts we have for completing those scenes. (sfx, overlays and other such additions).

Anyway, we're rambling on for too long :P Brymror got himself a sprite, guys! It's... not as much of a news anymore, but still, yay! Kovle's up shortly, and then we'll start working on alternative expressions for the characters we already have, as well as for new ones (Ooo, who might they be? :3 )

We're also working bit by bit on enhancing the title screen and affiliated menus. The title screen art is now finished, we've added a few button sounds when clicking and hovering over buttons, and even changed the UI theme a little for good measure! :P

Anyway, what do you guys think about this update, and about what we plan to do in the upcoming months regarding our story? Let us know in the comments! <3

Changelog

 - Added more to the story. Partially wrapped up prologue work, now dedicating more time to continuing the storyline.
- Note: For now, almost all of the prologue branches have been set to continue with the new story bits added with this update. Over the next few updates, there will be a massive content revision phase for the entire prologue.
- Added a new background: the hotel's bar.
- Replaced Brymror's concept art sprite with his actual sprite (nude variant for now, will be changed with a clothed variant once that is finished).
- Added button sounds to the title screen interface, soon they will also be added to other parts of menus and GUI.

 - Changed the UI color theme from (dark themed) blue to (dark themed) orange to better suit the atmosphere of the game.
- Note: We are so far only using the default UI themes and templates offered by Ren'Py. As we move forward, we will gradually change the interface layouts and replace the default assets with original and or royalty-free ones which we deem more suitable for our game.
- Replaced the work-in-progress concept art for the title screen with a finished concept art. (the daytime bar scene)
- Fixed the title screen theme having a 10-second delay in playing for the first time when entering the game.

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