(devlog) New public build + I finished writing LtGBtK! What’s coming next?

Heeellooo, everyone! Get ready for another long devlog. ;)

As you might’ve seen in one of my other posts, I finished writing LtGBtK! Yaaaay! We’re getting a little closer to the real finished game, and I can’t wait to properly package this story for you—you know, with CGs, sprites, and edits included. Hehe.

Fun fact: even though this game has been in development for a while, I wrote ~65% of the entire game in the past 14 months alone, since I decided to dedicate all my creative energy to it. This means my development time, alone and for a game this size, is around 2 years when I'm fully focused!!! i.i I’m really proud of myself, even though I still have a lot of work to do. ♥♥♥

Finishing LtGBtK’s writing has been like a marathon, and while I’m very happy I crossed the finish line, I also needed to just lie on the floor and exist for a minute. XD hahaha

Now that I’m all rested up (or as rested up as one weekend allows, hahaha), I’m already working on the new CGs/BGs and sprites. I’ll record my drawing process and share it with you all on Patreon/Ko-fi/Tumblr. I actually finished the first two already; I’ll leave a link here as soon as it’s ready.

First of all, I released the new public build, YAY!!!

Make sure to update your game, for it's time to have some pretty intense conversations while you stand guard with your chosen partner—and then face truths and consequences of your choices in the VERY FIRST Battle route.

Mel's battle route is filled with opportunities to gather information, meet some of the pivotal characters from the next game, and make choices that (maybe) you'll survive long enough to either celebrate or regret, bwahaha! xDD See the new Castle Status screen in action and make sure you'll use it to make informed choices as you (try) to take Mathias's castle back!

What to expect from the public builds from now on:

Now that the supporters’ build is close to being complete, I’ll start updating the public build every month, always on the last day of the month. In around ~6 months, the public build will catch up to what the supporters’ build is today, and it’s also by that time that I plan to release the game on Steam, yay!

Once the FULL game is released on itch.io, it’ll stay there, for FREE, for one month. After one month of being completely free, I’ll change the game price to $7.90 ^^ This is my way of thanking you all for being amazing and following the development of the game. For giving me support, for believing in me, and for (hopefully) staying by my side when I start to develop the next game in the series, “Ward the Dragon, Love the King.” ♥♥♥ 

And don’t worry, I’ll let you all know once we’re close to the shift to paid, so you'll have time to get your free copy of the game. ♥ 

Also, all of my supporters from Ko-Fi and Patreon will receive a free key that will give them full access to the game and any/all future DLCs, plus an exclusive gift as a special thank you. ♥♥♥

What to expect from the supporters’ build from now on:

I’ll continue to update the supporters’ build every month so you all can see the final version of the game taking shape. ♥♥♥ Once I start editing the game, you might also see completely new or improved scenes.

I think that I'll need maybe around 3-4 additional months to fully finish the game, edits included. In fact, I think I'll need 3 of those months only for the edits, hehe.

During that time, I'll continue to post exclusive content on Patreon/Ko-fi, as well as WIPs, polls + something new I'm preparing for you. ;) 

What I plan to do in September:

Now that the writing is out of the way (for now), here are my plans for September:

• Add more expressions to R****’s, Lord Aurélio’s, and Alette’s sprites. (almost done!)
• Add hurt versions of the main characters’ sprites
• Create sprites for Neandra and Niccolo (Done!)
• Create D********’s sprite (WIP, will finish it this week)
• Work on at least three new CGs (the first one is from Matt’s Battle route, and I already started it, but I’m still not sure about what to work on next—I’ll create a poll so you all can help me decide ♥).
• (slowly) work on Rise of the Bloodchemist. Even if working slowly, I’ll probably finish at least one of the routes this month, which will be available for everyone on Ko-Fi/Patreon at the end of September.
• A new short story you'll help me decide the theme of, haha :))
• Start outlining WtDLtK!!!!!!!!!

My complete to-do list to polish the game:

All of this should take no more than 4 months; it’s possible that I’ll take less than that. Please note that these are just initial numbers, and they might change. While I’m a slower writer, I’m pretty quick when I'm drawing, so I might decide to add more stuff if I see that I’m making good time. Aaaand, I’m pretty sure I’m forgetting something here, so this list might grow over the next weeks. xD These are all the things I’ve written in my notebook in the past months:

• CH03 CGs - 4
• CH04 CGs - 3
• Final Battle CGs - 3
• BGs that need rework - 2
• New BGs I want to make - ~4 (not sure about this one yet)
• Additional sprites I need to make: Lady Aretusa, Highborn Irene, Knight Jillean,  Knight Olivienza, Hunter Trêis, Hunter Otávio, and maybe some other tertiary characters if I have time.
• Sprites I want to rework: Mandra, Esma, 
• Final chapter balancing: time spent on choices, DC’s energy, wounds, as well as the consequences that each of them has on the battle scenes.
• Story: add small variations depending on DC's attitude toward both nobles and knights in specific scenes.
• Music and SFX: Normalize EVERYTHING, make sure I’m using the right file format, and remove obsolete files.
• (programming) update obsolete image manipulators, clean my code of the shadows of my past mistakes XD, make sure to finish implementing the code that will allow the choices from the first game to be imported into the second game.
• Optimize game size
• (secondary) expand codex
• EDIT THE WHOLE THING!!! My favorite part! I’ll start in October and should be finished by the beginning of January (3 months). The game is currently at 255k words, and I can easily edit 100k of my own writing per month. Still, I’m adding a little extra time to cover unexpected problems.

When can you expect to play Ward the Dragon, Love the King? :3

Ko-fi/Patreon supporters will see it first; as soon as I have the first scenes ready (I’m thinking in January or maybe a little earlier, still not sure), I’ll upload it on itch, and you’ll be able to access it in the same way that you access the supporters’ build now. I still need some time to give you a proper release date, but I don’t think it will take more than a few months. ♥♥♥

In all, I’m very excited, and I really can’t wait to share this little piece of my heart with you all. As always, if you have any feedback, comments, or concerns about the game, please feel free to reach me on Ko-fi, Patreon, Tumblr, Bsky, or Itch.io

Big hugs,

Ligia