Posted March 24, 2023 by Carrot
GOLLY BOB HOWDY, IT'S HERE! Tuck your shirts into your shorts because the first half of Arc 5 is RIPPING ITS WAY ONTO AN ITCH PAGE NEAR YOU YEAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH.
WHAT'S THAT, CARROT? I DIDN'T KNOW YOU WERE RELEASING ARC 5 IN TWO PARTS????
Well, I am. SURPRISE.
Actually not really a huge surprise I already talked about it in this here devlog, so I'm not really gonna go back over the decision to do so in detail here that would make my already-longwinded posts even more of a chore to read. But in case you didn't see that post and don't want to put up with my ridiculous drivel any longer than you have to, the long and short of it is that Arc 5 was just getting Too Large (like two arcs' worth large), so I've AXED it right up the middle to create two dinner-sized plates of dubious delight. And by axed up the middle what I actually mean is I just stopped and decided to release what I had since it was already submerging me softly with its oVeRwHeLmInG sIzE.
AT ANY RATE. Enough about that.
Time for The Goods™.
WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT IN THIS (HALF)ARC?
Just what has happened so far in Carrot's Tale of Woe? Well, Iggy has taken 100+ tree tumbles down into Wonderland, died in a variety of delightful (and not so delightful) ways, attempted with varying degrees of success to understand his friends better and fix all their problems like the Great Friend he is, fallen in love(???), and learned a bit (a lot) about himself in the process. BUT NOW SOMETHING IS DIFFERENT. Right? Right.
YES. That's because, if you'll remember from the end of Arc 4 (yes, I know that was a while ago now, but bear with me), Iggy has actually RETAINED all of his memories. You heard it right—all the times he was beaten, bamboozled, broad-beaned, beset, besmirched, besieged, and borne witness to his own shortcomings and issues—they're all just crashin' around in his noggin'. How might this affect him? Well, you can probably hazard a guess. How might this affect the final trek down the tree? That one is maybe harder to hazard. Who can say. BUT YOU'LL KNOW SOON AS SOON AS YOU DOWNLOAD THIS BAD BOY AND START ERRRRRRRRRRRRR UP.
Dear god I'm literally losing it this devlog is already going off the rails.
ALL
RIGHT
THEN
Let's take a look at some of the nitty-gritty features ready to shellac their way straight into the folds of your brain:
BUT WAIT.
THERE'S MORE!
HOLY HECK IN A HAND BASKET. CARROT HAS ACTUALLY GONE IN AN ADDED SOME FEATURES THAT ALL REAL GAMES SHOULD HAVE (and had just been passively aggressively ignoring until now). Untwist your skivvies because it's time to pack them full of SWEET SWEET FEATURES.
Remember that CG gallery I mentioned I wasn't going to be adding yet? BANG! SURPRISE I LIED IT'S DONE I ADDED IT IT'S IN THE GAME NOW check it out in all its sweet glory hohohohohohoho:
DON'T EVER SAY I NEVER DID ANYTHING FOR YOU because this literally took me hours and hours... and hours........... of work.......... but.... it's done now............ which is what matters.......... in the end........... really...........
Anyway, it's divided up by arc for ~ easy viewing ~ Making this is also when I realized I 1) have way too many CGs LAWL and 2) for some odd reason had not been counting like half of each arc's CGs towards the total CG count for the game AND I DON'T KNOW WHY? Because in my head I'd arbitrarily categorized them as "the ending sequences" despite that literally meaning nothing and they're still just a bunch of CGs???? So you'll notice that I've now updated the total CG count to..... uh.... 337! Which is over a hundred more than it would have been otherwise. My god.
I do have to apologize, though, because all the images will be locked??? Even if you have already played the game. There wasn't much I could do in that regard, because it was either that or have them all just be unlocked, but then where's the fun in that??? If you have already played all the previous arcs, though, it doesn't take long to just fast-forward through the whole game and unlock everything I did it myself many times to unlock them myself and make sure everything was working trololol. (Also maybe you'll discover there were some you were missing all along hmmmMMMMMMMM???)
What else what else what else...
OH YES. A brand-spanking-new MUSIC ROOM:
If you go to the About page now, you can actually click on a song to listen! I hope this will make it much easier to find and listen to your fav songs (and by fav songs I mostly mean all the tracks heavily associated with Orlam because those are the ones I get asked about the most LKADJFLSDK).
THAT'S NOT ALL THOUGH! There are also........ TWO NEW MODES!
The first is one I've been wanting to do for a while, which is a Censored Mode. This mode is for everyone who might be interested in the game and story but is a bit squeamish when it comes to gore (or just generally would prefer not to see it). NOW YOU CAN CENSOR IT! Censored Mode spot-pixelates the graphic gore shown in some of the CGs, namely, things like severed limbs, intestines, and so on. I've tried to do it in such a way that you can still follow along with what's happening in the CGs, you just won't see the gory bits. Do note, however, that it doesn't censor stuff like blood and minor injuries, nor does it censor any textual descriptions of the gore. This is still, at heart, quite a v-v-violent game in that regard. But this mode can certainly take the edge off of things for those that want it!
Along with this is what I'm referring to as Streaming Mode. This will probably not affect very many people at all, but I've added it just in case. As you likely already know, the music in this game comes from a variety of different sources—royalty-free music that was either free to use or that I paid a subscription or license fee to use in-game. Mostly, this has always been completely fine and caused no issues. However, one particular site that I was using early on in my Music Scouting Endeavors has all of its tracks added to the YouTube copyright flags... list... (or whatever it's called) and will demonetize any videos using its music that aren't on a channel owned by the person who bought the subscription/license. While typically fine if you're a YT content creator making your own vids using the music, this doesn't work as well for games, where any vids made of the game will most likely be created and uploaded by, well, not me! LOL SO LONG STORY SHORT—this mode decreases the volume during those specific songs while playing the game (there are 4 tracks in question) so that if you want to record gameplay and monetize your vids, you don't have to worry about those vids getting demonetized. (Needless to say, I have learned my lesson since and stopped using that site for music once figuring out some of these issues...)
A FEW LAST TINY THINGS:
I have added arc and chapter titles in so that your save files will be labeled better! Hopefully, this will make it much easier to track your save files across the different arcs, since this game IS quite long by this point...
ALSO! I have optimized all the music files (by that I mean I have converted them all to opus files—which knocked over 100MB off the final build???). Lovely! However, because of this, you may receive a Ren'Py error when loading any previous saves that were saved at a point when a music file was actively playing. Don't worry, though—simply hit "Ignore" on the error screen and you'll still be able to use all your old saves just fine (they just will be music-less until the next music track starts in-game).
ALSO ALSO. A few little config updates—you can now toggle auto-forward on and off using the A key! For those who don't want to keep clicking through, this will make it easier to sit back and simply read. You can also now roll back a line using the B key! You could always roll back using the Page Up key, but my keyboard is broken and I can't use that key, so I self-indulgently added the B key as an additional option. Who knows, maybe someone else will benefit from it too, so I left it in LOL
OK I think that's.............. finally it as far as random new updates goes. BUT I HOPE YOU'LL LIKE THEM. See, Carrot is learning how to make a better game experience! Just... very slowly. By the time the full game is out maybe this will be an actually somewhat respectable visual novel aldkfjasld or not
GOD I NEED TO STOP RAMBLING. LET'S MOVE ON.
The install for Arc 5 should be the same as for all the previous arcs.
If you can't remember which save file should be your Gateway to Arc 5, it should look like this!!!
You'll know everything is workin' ship-shape if as soon as you load up that save file, the screen says "Arc 5" instead of "To be continued..."
LAST BUT NOT LEAST, WE AS ALWAYS HAVEEEEEEEEEE...
Arc 5 abides by the same general content warnings as the rest of the game, which include:
I'm also adding in a handful of new general warnings specifically for this arc, similar to what I did for Arcs 3 and 4! These include:
And, as always, here is the more-detailed breakdown of content warnings! These contain spoilers for obvious reasons, so don't click if you don't want to see. If you're at all concerned about the general content warnings, I do recommend checking them out just in case:
Don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions about anything! I am always happy to provide even more details about any particular scenes you might be worried about or provide screenshots, etc.
AND THAT'S THAT, CHAPS.
PLEASE TO BE ENJOYING THE FIRST HALF OF ARC 5.
Now to go start working on the second half...................
.....BUT WAIT.
I may possibly be doing the O2A2 Queer Edition jam from April 7th to April 22nd. The point of this jam is to create something short and small and simple (you can only use one of each asset), so I thought it might be a nice short little break to create something small and fun after the launch and before I get too deep back into the production for the rest of Arc 5. Haven't made the final decision yet, but we shall see. If I do, the idea I have bonking around in the noggin involves a tiny little self-indulgent OW side game involving text messages LOL I'll let you wonder about what that could entail for now, and if I do end up doing it, I guess you'll get to see for real.
ANYWAY.
TOODLE-OO FOR REAL THIS TIME.
Sneak peek of Arc 5 Part 2 or something LMAO.