Jan 2022 Progress Update

Happy 2022, everyone! 

Wow, typing that out slightly horrified me. It really does feel like “2020, too” at the moment as we are retreating back into quarantine to try and keep everyone safe since the number of Covid cases have skyrocketed here. We are bunkering down and working hard on Band Camp Boyfriend and making tremendous progress. I can actually sit down and play through the game now! This is HUGE! And it means I can share more screenshots with you! I mostly share screenshots on our social media (Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, Insta) so if you're interested in more content, give us a follow on there!

But it’s still missing a lot of pieces, particularly the audio. The voice acting really brings the characters to life and you absolutely cannot have a game about marching band without an amazing, original soundtrack. Now let me finally shut up and jump into our--

PROGRESS UPDATE!

First off, you may notice an addition to my Programming Progress chart: Final. That’s right, a final route has been added! It was initially going to be DLC because we didn’t want it to delay the game’s release, but we decided the game did not feel complete without it.

But let me reassure you that it will not delay the game’s release at all! I may have just begun writing it, but I am a fast writer (the characters write themselves honestly) and we are taking steps to make the programming easier. Lastly, it’s also a bit shorter than the other routes. I’m confident I can get it done while my sister focus on the soundtrack, voice clips, and GUI. And my mom has once again offered to aid me with programming because she is the best.

Up next, did we achieve the goals we set for the end of 2021?

Just about! We don’t have all of the voice clips sent in yet, but we do have all of the backgrounds! WOOHOO! Alex completed programming the affinity while I programmed the new backgrounds and glossary cards into the game. These are really major mile marks! Seriously. We’re starting to feel like the end is in sight. 2023 release, anyone?

We’ve been sorting our goals into yearly quarters. So these are our goals for the next 3 months...

Taylor (Me!):

-Play through each route and test for crashes
-Write the final route
-Put out a casting call for the remaining characters (March!)
-Continue plaguing social media

Alex:

-Round up the last of the voice acting
-Cut voice clips
-Fix history menu + Map out extras menu

Both of us are researching ideas for the GUI Extras menu, which contains the CGs and soundtrack. We’ll be diving into all my favorite otome games today for inspiration and mapping out exactly what we want. That will be fun! It’ll be a walk down memory lane for me (I’m coming up on my tenth anniversary of playing otome).

As always, thanks for sticking with us! I hope 2022 treats you gently and that there are better times ahead. Look forward to the next progress update in a few months and keep an eye out for that casting call!

-Taylor