Progress Report 2023.03.29: Coding Update

Hi friends,

Just a quick update to round out March. The editing and proofing process on the Aeran and Veyer branches is complete. I have also finished all of the updated required for the next patch, rebalanced Aeran’s low romance, fixed a bunch of variable issues, excised additional coding that was clogging some stuff up in Episode 2, and fixed the backlog of reported bugs and typos.

I have started coding Episode 3. This is the largest amount of content I have attempted to edit and code in one go, so it is taking me longer than usual and I can’t correctly estimate how long it will take (I typically work in smaller sections of 80k words, but these two branches together total around 350k). Once coding is finished, the update will need to be passed to the playtesters before it is ready for patrons. Due to the size of the update there will likely be many bugs and various issues and I would like to crack down on as many of those before I release it to you.

I am working a little slower than usual as I haven’t properly coded anything since October and I am a little rusty on much of the documentation. I got a new computer in December and my cheat sheet documents got lost in the transfer, so I’ve had to rebuild that from scratch. The new Twine editor has also given me some trouble with its new UI and the omission of some necessary tools. After a bunch of experimenting, I’ve reverted to an earlier release. I am potentially looking into using Visual Studio Code with Twee extension to make the game instead, but there are things about the Twine editor that I vastly prefer, even if it’s a little temperamental from time to time.

Because I am coding the next update, I will not have any sneak peeks to share until I start writing new material. Short stories and additional bonus content remain on hold, but if you are in a tier that has access to those benefits, there’s a backlog of old content that can be found in their tags (short stories here, bonus content here).

As a reminder, once the update is out, everyone will have to start their playthroughs over from the beginning. Loading old saves WILL result in errors.

As always, thank you all so much for your support. 💕