what do you mean its november...... WHAT DO YOU MEAN....

We are back to business as usual everyone. I'm just gonna get INTO IT this month. But BEFORE I DO... if you liked the demo/early access of Alaris, please consider leaving a rating/review on Itch or Steam!

adding this month's fanworks into the devlog because I have like no art to show you all this devlog LFMALSDJ | credit to @bangbangban_g 

Also, if you'd like to talk with more like-minded Alaris fans, our Discord community is ready and waiting with open arms.

This month, we made some nice progress on Kuna'a's developmental edits! It's been a bit of a journey writing/editing Kuna'a (and Aisa's) route because they're so plot dense and keeping track of which lore to drop in each route, especially in a way that's not repetitive from what's been revealed in Central routes has been A Process. But Wudgey has been the world's strongest soldier and has really been helping to smooth out the kinks and slim things down so that Kuna'a's route feels juicy without feeling bloated and/or confusing.

We made a lot of progress this month on Kuna'a, and I'm really happy with how his route is shaping up! Hopefully when it is available for beta readers, you all enjoy it too ^^

The fanart showcased on Tumblr is a bit different bc itchio layout doesn't let me put pictures side by side collage style BOOOO | credit to @teabeexo 

Aisa's route has also been well, A Struggle, but We Persevere. While I have had a couple breakthroughs with them this month, they're a complicated character for me to write. Out of the entire cast, I'd say Aisa and Druk have been the most difficult for me to nail. Aisa specifically has a lot of complexity under the surface that, combined with the plot reveals in their route, are hard for me to balance.

That being said, I'm 70% done with their first draft!! Meaning I only have ~12k words to write until I'm completely finished with the ENTIRE ALARIS SCRIPT!!!!! In the last devlog, I mentioned wanting to be finished writing Aisa's script by November, and I definitely think this goal is doable with how much progress we made this month \o/ Hopefully by the next time we talk, I'LL HAVE FINISHED WRITING ALL THE ROUTES!!!! YEAAAAAA!!!!

For art progress, Stef finished our second to last character design of the entire cast, and they started our LAST CHARACTER DESIGN!!!! By next month, we'll probably have the entire cast designed as well. That's crazy, bro. We are gonna meet so many milestones by the end of this year. Alaris Full Release we are SO COMING FOR YOU!!!

in his little terrarium OUGHHH!!! | credit to @franaticdusk

I also started some of Kuna'a's CGs for when his beta release happens! Art progress on my end has been slow lately because I shifted to CSP (I used to use Procreate), and getting a handle on a new platform and finding a new rendering style has been difficult. But I think I've finally accommodated and can start up art progress again!

I try to put at least half of the CGs in when we go into beta, so I'm planning on churning out a couple more CGs this upcoming month. Because this past month was focused on Aisa's route (I really wanted to make sure Aisa's route didn't fall behind in development since it's The Last Route), I didn't spend too much time on Kuna'a. But with Aisa's route reaching a decent place, I'm gonna be shifting focus to balance the two a bit more this upcoming month so we can prep for Kuna'a beta (I can feel the Kuna'a fans staring at me rabidly from the shadows) !

This month, we also got started on some extra tracks for Alaris actually! We're teaming up with Faefield Productions to create a small handful of tracks to add to the OST. For those who have played Intertwine, Faefield helped me with the OST in that game as well (and are known for some other banging projects like Bloomic and Infinite Blue). So I'm really excited to see what we cook up---the sneak peeks that Orpheo has sent my way have already sounded super beautiful!

gifted by @1mandywandie1 | credits to Chỉ Là Linh

I also was able to get my grubby hands on a tool that might help configure Alaris for play on mobile/tablet (shoutout to the ever iconic Fen for always saving my ass). So that is a possibility looming on the horizon for my android gamers!! I'll have to see how much work it actually is to make Alaris mobile-friendly, but a dear dev friend (who is also the reason I'm even seriously considering this--everyone thank the ever iconic Robo) has already offered to help me with testing. No promises at the moment, but a possibly exciting development on the horizon if my sanity can handle it o7

Market research.... Well, because I finally had some time to breathe after EA release, I caught up on a lot of games that have been sitting in my library that I never finished. AKA I finished Hades LOL. As in like.... Hades 1..... even though everyone's playing Hades 2 right now.... LFJALSDJF.

But Prometheus Hades 2 was so unbelievably hot to me that I had to draw him. This was mainly for rendering and art style study purposes, but I am thankful for it because now I feel a lot better about when I have to draw the rest of the Alaris CGs LOL

Anyway, that's all for me this month! Lots of writing and getting back into the swing of things. But it's getting pretty obvious that we are nearing the end. While we have a ways to go still in terms of polishing, that's still a ways out. But the release date is getting closer and more concrete for sure!!!

Stay warm as fall starts up, and until next time, everyone! Thank you as always for the support; it always means sm to see how connected people feel to Alaris <3 Can't wait to get these last two Fae routes out to you all!!!