August Devlog (+Plans Going Forward!)

Hiya Hello, Everyone!

I would like to foremost apologize for not also updating the devlog here. Once I put it up on my Tumblr at the beginning of the month, life became very very busy, unfortunately.  Good news for all of you itch.io devlog readers though, I have more information to share than I did at the beginning of the month!

In terms of current progress from the past month, I've been working on a few minor fix-ups but also working on continuing the story. 

• Antonio's route outline is complete (pending writing)
• GUI Overhaul is DONE! (pending distribution for the next update)
• Looked into Web Browser Build - unavailable at this time (the amount of assets exceeds the limits. If I separate the demo page from the full game page in the future, then I might be able to make a demo-only web build. But for now, it's not something I can do.)
• Started outlining Renzo's route

So, yay! We've made some progress and we're chugging along. But what now? Originally, I had a goal of:

• Minimum 3 other routes fully outlined
  
• Work on character sprite redesign
• Make backgrounds more cohesive

However, I think I got caught in a vicious cycle I want to nip in the bud early rather than continue to perpetuate. As I've worked on this project, I've been improving - no matter how small - in so many different areas that I keep trying to go back and touch up things before progressing the actual game. If I keep going back to touch things up, the game will never finish, because the loop will continue and thus I would never be satisfied. 

Therefore, going forward, I'm going to refrain from additional artistic assets or revamp of assets for a while. I think the priority should be on getting the story outlined and written first, and then the art can be completed in one fell swoop. This process should allow me to keep the style of all art more similar and avoid as large of "improvement gaps," due to them being done in batches together. If I'm correct about this process' effectiveness in my workflow, I plan to implement this into development for future games (so I can get them out quicker, and more polished). I appreciate everyone's patience as I go through trial and error with my first game.

Instead, I want to revise my previous goals to this.

• Minimum 2-3 other routes fully outlined
• Minimum 1 route written & sent to proofreading
• Work on social media balance** (and something else pending announcement!)

With college starting up again this week, this will allow me much-needed time to adjust priorities in my real life as well as ensure the game is actually progressing - especially as a one-person team for everything. The next game update will be within the week, and it will be the GUI Overhaul Update. It won't be anything adding to the story, so for those of you who already played the game, you're safe to opt out of downloading this copy until the update after it. 

After the GUI Overhaul Update, it will be a hot minute until another update BUT it will be an Extended Demo Update. The release date for the EDU is TBD, but I plan on updating you all as it progresses. The EDU will contain chapter one for all routes, updated common route CG(s),  and an additional CG per character (+ most likely updated backgrounds and sprites. The goal is to make the EDU the final step before full release.)

**Additionally, I plan on updating my Twitter with more snippets and sneak peeks and such, but before I do so I think I need to think about how to do so effectively. Twitter very easily becomes a doom place when you scroll it endlessly (at least for me), so I've been speaking with friends for their opinions about helpful boundaries in this space to keep my own mental health safe while providing interesting updates to everyone!

Thank you for sticking through with me on such a long read! I'm excited to keep making progress on this game, and I hope you're all also interested to see how it turns out!

Much love,
- Snakkz <3