Progress Report

Hey all. Apologies for the long silence! I've been inadvertently taking a little break, I think the burnout finally got the best of me and I've wound up taking some time out to work on myself and work through a backlog of video game releases. In particular, several of the games I've played have been those with ideas, systems or mechanics that inspire me. I discussed how this impacted the design philosophy of Lukas' Route in my last post, but I've continued to gather ideas and refine them in the time since then. I suppose when your work and primary hobby cross over, you're bound to see those experiences in a different way and to find inspiration among them. I always feel guilty taking time for myself like this even though I know I shouldn't, but in a weird way, it seems as though the time was well spent, and I feel as though my metaphorical batteries have recharged somewhat. Not fully, mind you, not even close, but we're nearing two full months since the last update, so it's time to get the lead out.

With that said, I'm loosely planning for a release by the end of the month. I'm definitely behind schedule right now, so that'll rely on many days of intense work, but the optimist in me thinks it could work. The realist is somewhat more pessimistic, so be prepared that the next update could slip into next month, but with any luck, I'll have everything ready before then.

I can't say fully what our plans for the subsequent update are, I'll know more once this update is done, but the most likely scenario is that we'll focus on concluding Day 6 and perhaps also bundle in the opening for Day 7. With that said however, I feel we're at a point where the plan for Lukas' Route is now mature enough to proceed onto a more detailed plan. It is my intention to develop these routes side by side, giving me options on what to work on at any one time, so it's possible that after this next update, we may get the ball rolling on Lukas' Route. Part of me wants to build the systems involved in that route first and use them in a small-scale tale with Eric as the protagonist (best boi) both as something fresh and interesting to do, as well as a way of experimenting with the mechanics and fine tuning them before they're used in a full route. I crowdsourced some ideas in a previous post, but nothing quite lit the flame in me like I was hoping. Nonetheless, if we went ahead with it, it'd be a smaller scale thing with minimal stakes, it wouldn't be the end of the world if we winged certain aspects of it. I'm reasonably confident in my ability to conjure up compelling content in the moment these days, so I'm sure it'll be entertaining and exciting regardless.

Anyway, thanks for your patience, it shouldn't be too long now before the next update is with you.