Progress Report 2023.01.30: Trees & Branches

Hi friends,

This is going to be a rather brief progress report to round out January! First of all, I am sorry for the general radio silence. I have been sick with a general cold since after Christmas, which has greatly impacted my ability to write. I am very tired, but I am finally starting to get better. Development on Episode 3 is ongoing, but it is very slow. This has been an extremely rough patch and perhaps the most difficult part of the game to date.

I am still working on the Veyer branch and it is coming together slowly. I’ve been stuck in the same dialogue tree for about two months, but I have finally finished it and can move onto the next story beat. I’m hoping that now I’ve through the section that gave me writer’s block, I’ll be able to pick things up a bit. I have a few more story beats to get through on the PC fired from the Lethalis mission continuity (shorthand: Mission Off), which I am hoping to wrap up soon. I then need to jump over to the other continuity (shorthand: Mission On).

Even though I am working through my outline quite quickly, there is still a significant amount of content to get through due to branches and various continuity states. To try to illustrate this, I made the graphic above. 

The Mission Off version of the Veyer branch is almost finished as I am currently in the "Veyer's Request" section. Once I finish the additional story beats, I need to back up and tackle the Mission On version, which covers much of the same information, but albeit in a different way due to different party configurations. 

Accounting for continuities, previous player choices, and making allowances for roleplay are the main reasons why Episode 3 is taking so long. All of the choices made in Episode 2 are being threaded together, but it takes a while to account for everything and bottleneck them together in the same spot without making the player feel like they are being railroaded. This is an extreme challenge in non-linear storytelling, but I am hoping that it will be worth it in the end.

As I mentioned in my last progress report, bonus content and side story content will be on hold until I can finish Episode 3 Part 1 in its entirety. This means there will likely be a few more months without these benefits. I am very sorry for that, but I am currently not able to work on additional content while I am working through this section of the game.

Other News

The Wayfarer Calendar has officially raised over $1000 CAD! I am extremely thrilled and honoured that it has made such a big impact. The calendar is available until March 2 and all proceeds will be donated to the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out. As always, thank you all so much for your support. 💕