Dev Log #45 - Finally, some good consistency!

Hey all, welcome back to another weekly dev log! Progress has been maintained through the week as I am starting to hammer (gently) away at the episode development. Let's get to the good stuff!

Consistent output
It has been a good week as I've pumped out another 150 renders, which are intended to close off the first day of the game. This day has a healthy amount of renders (nearly 500) so far as this first day includes one free-roam as well as a good amount of character development (of Cara and several others), which is meant to be a good pivot point to everything that occurs after.

Overall, there are plans for 3 free-roam sections, with the first one already completed, which I consider to be the "medium" complexity free-roam (i.e. has layers of interaction, and interactable characters). The remaining 2 free-roam sections will be considered to be the "small" complexity (i.e. similar to the free-roam developed in E1P1) and "high" complexity (i.e. "medium" complexity + player-determined scenes + pivots in story after).

I will also mention that the "high" complexity free-roam is currently a work-in-progress and not everything listed here is confirmed to be in the final product, as I do want to reduce the time taken to develop Episode 2 wherever possible and not needlessly prolong it.

On the other hand, I will be doing my best to optimize the VN (i.e. linear) sections and have those completed quickly. Of course, this also includes scenes that result from player choices (i.e. many choices from before will affect what you see or read in Episode 2), so as much as I want these to be done quickly, I do want to ensure I'm not cheating anybody of the choices they've made from before and have different scenes to progress different combinations of player choices.

Game-wise?
Regarding the game, I'm currently stopped at the post-free-roam section, and seeing what else needs to be added or coded before I finally conclude the first-pass development of the first day. This is taking longer than expected as I'm aiming to exceed the expectation set by the first (and only) free-roam of Cara in Creekmaw, so I do thank everyone for your patience!

I will be looking to get started on the second day shortly and that should take significantly less time (as it does not have as many moving parts as the first day).

------------------------------------------- PROGRESS BREAKDOWN -------------------------------
Story: 95% done. No change from last week.

Renders: 17.5% done. Day 1 rendering is mostly complete. Up 2.5% from last week.

Dialogue: 12.5% done. Touch-up is complete and pending the last additions, but will be working on post-free-roam dialogue as well. Up 2.5% from last week.

Gameplay: 10% done. No change as no additional gameplay mechanics added since last week.
------------------------------------------- END OF BREAKDOWN ----------------------------------

Before I conclude...
If you have wondered for the last few weeks as to why the progress breakdown above seems to be going at a crawl (i.e. 2.5%, 5%, or even 0%), it is due to how Episode 2 is essentially E1P1 and E1P2 combined in terms of planned content. As a result, progress will tend to be halved from what is expected from previous development cycles leading up to release. This is expected and it is intended as a way to gauge expectations; both in terms of time required as well as the fact that the new content will be nothing short of plentiful!

Thank you everyone! Stay safe and stay healthy!