Snowbound Blood Devpost: Volumes 8 - 9

Another nine months in the future, another SBB devpost. Someone remind me to stop playing with firearms; because I keep having a tendency to shoot myself in the foot when I gush about expectations, even when I go out of my way to measure them.

The thing about SBB is that, in essence, its very genre begets the need for patience. Really, you can say that with pretty much anything related to VE, given its serialized format. But neo-noir mysteries need time to sit in your brain and stir before you start putting pieces together. Bundling up clues and posing theories through the scientific method of fictional crime solving. As such, it's hard to plan one volume of SBB when the other is not yet finished. There's always a detail to catch, a part of the puzzle hidden in a dark crevice somewhere waiting to pop out at you. In turn, this makes volumes longer and the need for additional assets and tweaks necessary.

Sadly, I've never been much of the patient type, even if I'm forced into playing the role. I would pretty much kill myself to continually produce content if I were left unchecked, surviving off of nothing but Whataburger and spite. But that being said? I do think the extra time has been necessary to have SBB be more than what it was originally intended to be. I think the ties to the world and VE's cast itself and the counteracted effects on both stories speak for that much.

Though as a wise doctor in a movie with a funny purple man once said though: "We're in the endgame now." Not just in SBB's narrative, but only two more posts like this will be made after SBB wraps. Kind of fucked up, huh? It's been so long, but honestly these moments are kind of fleeting.

So let's enjoy them while we can.

VOLUME 8:

VOLUME 9: 

UNUSED CONTENT:

Beta Sabine, originally done by Bana in late 2019 when Sabine's route was first being written. They eventually decided to scrap most of these and start from scratch with a majority of the poses. Though you can still see where a lot of the same expression ideas and body language were used.

Beta Cinare sprites. Cinare's sprites were reworked a few times just to make sure that her face and body language were adjusted and proportioned properly, specifically due to just how many edits and variations she was going to need in her route. Most of her original sprite sketches weren't saved after they were utilized, but these old concepts survived.

Lastly we have a first for the SBB devposts! An alternate take of the beginning of Secily's Bart suit adventure from Glomer's route that me and Alienoid penned and was eventually retooled to keep an already extremely long route from going on too long. This is not the first time a route has had rewrites or scenes scrapped, but we liked some of the bits that got set out onto the cutting room floor.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uU4th8Fhdlyv_aipo-VXsg0GBqCrK2coZ5W5adF4msk/edit?usp=sharing 

That's what we've got for you this time! Reminder again to check out the social media of the artists if you are looking for anything that this devpost didn't cover! 

Artists for these two volumes were:

Xamag 

eddieDraws 

Donut 

spruiko 

phillodough 

calochart 

banavalope  

Chumi 

Olschu 

Sparaze 

Thank them for their hard work, give them a pat on the back, maybe find them a few expired coupons.

The finale might have already been decided, but let's see how the road taken to get there plays out.

- Austin