LCC Episode 3 Status Report and Future Plans Discussion

Hello, everyone! It's been a while since we had some serious talk like this. But first I wanna start it with a status report.

So, we already started a very small portion of the update this week.(Refer to the first image posted) It was a very short scene, but it's animated and took days to finish the setup and animation so we decided to start it early. Now, we're ready to write! There's still a planned animated scene later on, but I practiced and prepared that one in advance(mostly what I did for the whole month 😅) and I can say, it's paying off quite well.

What kind of scene is it?
You're about to find out! 😄

While we're at it, we also made a total rework of the UI.(Refer to the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th images) Now you can access all the characters in a single screen inside the character menu. That makes easier, faster to access, and cleaner at the same time.
Why does everything look like that? That leads us to the next topic.

As my study and experimenting about story telling for the past month went on, I hate to admit it, but LCC for what it has been so far was really, really flat especially the main story. We have a certain story objective and that's first to find Irene(your girlfriend), but what do we have more aside from that and learning about the mystery behind it?
Nothing...
What's the theme of the game? Nothing...
The philosophy in it? Nothing...
The MC stays passive most of the time and waits for things to unfold as well. Thus, I decided to completely overhaul the main story that I can say that it's no longer just a remaster but a rework at this point, I am no longer following the old LCC. Don't get me wrong, we're not starting all over again, I have been thinking about this since we went back all over to Episode 1 and dropped shades of what the story will be like. So we're still going to continue with Episode 3 and move forward as it is. 

Now, what happened to the main story? I'd say... you will have to play it to know and feel. But if I can describe it, then it's a lot darker. The biggest changes are the "Psychological", "Graphic Violence", maybe hints of "Horror", and "Deaths" theme for the game. Yes, the main story is a heck of a bloody one. But with all those dark stuff you will have to witness, we're still not losing our overall charm from MBML. I know this will put some you folks off, but it has to be done to pick up the game in it's current state. That is to say, for it to have more impact. It's either it stays at the bottom, or go 120%. All of that though, will just stay in the main story. 😄 It is now very objective driven, the MC will have to move and work is ass in order to solve things. Let's just leave the passiveness to MBML as it fits the story quite well, albeit it won't last very long.

Last topic in this post is about the Love Interests.(Refer to the last image)
The game as it stands, we have 12. And that is a loooooooooot!
I received some feedbacks about it -- some are happy, and some are not. Now that I have a lot more sense for what I am doing, I myself can say that I'm not happy. That is my biggest mistake in LCC. I made too much characters that the amount of development I have to go through on each of their stories are now getting pretty heavy. It's not healthy for me as a writer and for the game's flow at the same time. So I once thought that I will reduce the number of LI's. But it's too late for that now, we already established something for them and LCC as a whole will never be complete if ever one of them gets removed. Now my solution is to focus less on the ones that don't have any major contribution in the main story and the ones that has nothing at all. That way, we can fleshly develop those who are greatly involved in the main story, and those are the ones that are in the new game banner.
(Zoey, Nicole, Jess, Eliza, Irene and Yuna)
We can call them our main Love Interests. Again, don't get me wrong, the rest will still have their own development, just not much as the main ones.
As I grow as a developer, I slowly realize the things where I fucked up and this is the biggest one of all. I really apologize for that. Still, I want to get this game going no matter what happens. I want it done and be proud with it. I never once complimented myself for the things that I put out, but with this game as a challenge for myself with the goal of finishing it with a bang, is really a dream for me.

Now, what do we have to do next?
For us, continue moving forward.
For you guys, be ready for what's coming. 😅

Thank you for everything up until now and for the future, you guys are the best!
That will be all for this post!

LET JUSTICE BE DONE, THOUGH HEAVENS SHOULD FALL.