Regarding update 2.60 and my plans for the next episode

As I have previously stated, the update turned out to be the way I imagined it to be while working on Episode Two, and perhaps even better.

It's one thing to plan an event involving you drinking a potion, but it's a whole different affair trying to fight the limitations and fit it into the existing environment. For example, the red-haired man event was rewritten from the ground up. When I was making plans for the third episode, there was no such man, but in the current version he may stand on the road, and that has to be taken into account.

The released update has many interesting things, game design-wise (to me, at least), such as accompanying Lawrence, having another walk down the road of shame, the multiplication of Dran, and even choosing between summoning the group yourself or letting Vivian do the job.

that's pretty much how I planned the road of shame to work

Working on it's been interesting, and some things also have small stories behind them. For example, the moment with Dran's multiplication was made primarily to liven up the boring wall of text and let the player save, and only after came the plot and simplification of moving the characters from different floors into one place. And the moment with Lawrence came right from personal experience and my desire to convey the awkwardness of such a moment.

I really wanted to make a delay between the flash and clap of thunder, just like in real life, or at least in Russia, at least where I live... but in the games and movies they happen simultaneously, and I wonder why. Do tell me if you know the answer.

I wanted to cut the event with the kitten's dream out, just like the option to scare the bear, which I at that moment thought to be too silly, but I brought it back right before the release, and here things were in a similar way. An inner voice told me: "This is stupid, don't do it, stop", and then, later, another whispered: "This is your game, make it the way you envisioned it, so that even the silliest things can have their place".

It pains me to leave the third episode unfinished, but it is better to move on with the story. You want the plot to move along, the project itself needs its plot to move along, the progress will be obvious, and I will continue improving my skills.

I am currently working on the rather short and linear Episode Four. A month ago I thought it simple to bring to life, but even the minute-long introduction made me work for it. I will try to finish all the text as soon as possible, edit it, and put it in the game, so I could with peace of mind send it off to be translated and move on with other things.

I hope the events inside the count's mansion will turn out to be captivating and exciting.

p.s. an interesting observation: I once have said that the more ready-made solutions are implemented, the faster and easier it will be to work on the game. It turned out to not at all be true, because every implemented solution meant that there is one more responsibility, one more thing for me to keep track of in order to maintain consistency.