I’M BACK.

My goal from now on is to write a monthly-ish devlog just to give everyone a chance to be informed on where the project stands and how long until release. If I mentioned this already in the last devlog…no I didn’t. Writing these with a little more frequency/purpose will be great for documenting the process, plus honestly…it takes some of the weight off of having to post on social media. Tiktok was the only platform I’ve gained any traction on and my account has since been suppressed, so there’s not much point in wasting the time on making content for reach. Whatevs. My focus has always been the game anyway and itch has been really generous with me lately. There’s always a silver lining! As a social media hater in the first place, this lining is a little extra silver too.

Now, onto the stuff we actually care about… Remember that cutesy little graph I made for our last devlog? I told you that’d be a permanent addition.

The good news is we’ve made quite a bit of progress since the last time we saw this graph. The bad news is I wanted to make more. On the bright side, I’ve still been working on games. Lucidity Day 1 is officially finished just in time for Otome Jam and if you’re into otome games, it’s worth checking out. It’s been really fun to branch out from horror and lend my powers to a project like Lucidity. So play it. Also it’s free.

Let me also quickly mention if it isn’t already obvious…Divine Omen is not an otome game. I’ve been peeking around at the collections this game has been added to on itchio and it’s come to my attention that some people are marking it as otome. I know, looks can be deceiving, but Avan is, in fact, a boy. There’s also no dating aspect to the game. There’s a little romance here and there, sure, but to put it bluntly, that’s Avan’s decision, not the player’s. I don’t know if this confusion is coming outta nowhere or if it’s because most VNs are otome games…or maybe it’s because of the LGBTQ+ jam I accidentally joined at 4am because I missed the part where it was for romance games only. It wasn’t even up for 24 hours before I realized my mistake, so I doubt that one, but I will fess up. Yeah, I did that. My bad. I just thought it was open to all games with a gay and/or trans protagonist. FALSE!

Aside from all that cool stuff, I’ve just been busy with life. I had to get a new car (boo but also I love it) and I’ve also been dealing with/helping with some family matters. Nothing you need to worry about. It’s fine.

ANYWAY…the placeholder art has been the most notable change in progress, so we’ll go right there. I have lots of neat screenshots for you guys!

If you’ve been following the project for a while, you probably noticed these new sprites look a lot more bare. In the past, I’d render my sprites a lot more fully (I’m talking full color and everything) which I’ve since realized is just a big waste of my time. My artwork noticeably improves after each round of sprite making too which means putting a lot of effort in now is just setting them up to look a little worse than they could’ve. It makes sense in my mind, okay? Just let me cook.

As for the other categories in the graph, progress is minimal. Again, I’m not touching music/sfx until I’m done. It’s always my last step. I’ve made a little progress on the writing as I’ve gotten further into the game. The final artwork has gotten a little boost due to finding a few more things I can reuse. Yippee!

That’s about it for this update. It won’t be long until things are in place and the final art phase can begin again. That’s good news! That means I may just make my goal of having this chapter to you by next April. Pretty cool! I like that! As always, I wanna take a moment to thank everyone for their support and also thank itchio for whatever crazy thing has happened to the game’s reach on here. It’s been really nice to be able to log in and see that people are actually seeing - and enjoying - my work. If you like what I do and wanna support the game’s development even more, you’re always free to donate but only if you’re able. Reviews, follows, and comments also make me happy and they help push my work out to more people!

Thanks for reading! Until next month :-)