Patch #3: Third Time's the Charm

Hello again, citizens of St. Agatha! It's been a minute since the last patch, but it's here at last! The wait was not for nothing, there  have been a lot of changes.

♡ Let's first talk about what's new! ♡

New Content!

• Baxter's Interlude - Unlike other routes, the epilogue of Baxter's good route takes place in the middle, making it an interlude. It also didn't exist yet, but now it does! Pixy will get to check in with Norman, and get some additional information and context from him, before proceeding to the second half of Baxter's quest :) It was really nice for me to write for Norman again, I missed the guy.
• Ross' Bad Route - It now exists! Edits were made to the choices as well, in order to make them feel more authentic to Pixy's character. If you choose to leave your tour with Ross early, Cole will show up and check on you, as opposed to the game just skipping ahead or asking you if you'd like to rewind.
• "Persuading Gatsby" Mini Game - The mini game in which you have to barter with Gatsby during Tara's route is now done! It has two different choices you can make, and four different outcomes depending on what side quests you've played prior! One of these four even contains a brief cutscene.

Re-Writes!

• No Name Girl / The Community College - If you've played the No Name Girl's good route already, it'd be worth it to check it out again! The dialogue in Caliber Coffeehouse has been improved upon, heavily edited, and now gives new info.

Bug-Fixes and Edits!

• Now when you click the button to rewind to the start of an unfinished route, the sprites and scene you skip back to will load in!

♡ What went wrong...? ♡

NOTHING!!! Not to congratulate myself too heavily on behaving normally/as I should, but I am SO proud of myself for setting out a deadline for my tasks and completing all of them on time! aaaaaa~ eheheh!! I'm hoping this will set a precedent! I'm going to spend some time refelcting on what made this doable, and try to incorporate what I learned about time management going forward! Feelsgoodman.

♡ What's next...? ♡

Glad you asked! I'm in a pretty good mood, now that Autumn is coming in on a cool breeze, and so I'm going to try to take advantage of that to knock out more writing. I got some help from the community members in the Discord to brainstorm what still needs to be done, and how we could make it fun! Here's what we decided will likely be next! :D

Ian's Bad Route

This, like most of the bad routes, has been on hold while I spent time trying to think how to balance it. Because this is the very first chapter in the game, none of the "bad routes" in it are designed to trigger a "game over" or make the characters you are talking to hate you - they're supposed to familiarize you with the game, and offer a different perspective on the lore. I think this one will be easy to knock out, now that I've figured out how to proceed with it, and what I want to do with this extra time and dialogue.

If you only play a little bit of St. Agatha City at a time, which I know a lot of you do, I'd wait till the next update to check out Ian's bad route! I think it'll be well worth the wait.

The Orion Offices Side Quest

During our brainstorming session, I spent some time hammering out the details of remaining unwritten side quests (Parkview High School, the Hospital, and Orion Offices.) I'm going to hold out on spoilers for Parkview and the Hospital for now, but I am pleased to announce that there are plans to go ahead with putting fan favorite side characters, Earl and Ludo, at the center of this new content. The first stage of drafting is now underway :)

For those who are new, or haven't been following development on the blog, Discord, or subreddit - Earl is a troubled and mysterious young man known for looking miserable all the time, and he's by far the most well-received side character, out-pacing even some of the main characters in popularity. Ludo is his smug, wiry, gothy accomplice. The two never seem to be up to any good, but it's unclear who's really pulling the other's strings.

Ludo (left) and Earl (right)

I also am going to have Milford Community College renamed come next patch. Sorry to MILF fans!

I'm trying to keep the initial focus for Patch #4 narrow, as to not overwhelm myself, as if a task looks too daunting, I sometimes hesitate to start. However, with littler to-do lists, I will oftentimes find myself overachieving with excitement. We'll see how that pans out!

Thank you for all of the support. I could not have done it without you. If I haven't spoken to you directly before, please feel free to say hi! I am very fond of everyone who is a part, even tangentially, of this project! If you have any favorite scenes, characters, or lines, I would love to know. I've found this fledgling fandom to be extremely welcoming and friendly to both myself and newcomers, and I'm sure there are others here who would love to meet you as well.

Till next time -

-Fairyfly