IT'S MARCH?? Time blindness strikes again...

HELLO... It's been a while. I apologize. The beginning of the year was a bit hectic, but also productive, which I will go into in this devlog!

I guess, with that being said, we can just dive right in! This devlog will cover about two month's worth of progress (kinda) so basically what I've been up to since the year started! I also think it might be helpful to give an overall view of where we're at with progress, period, as we near the final lap. More details in each individual section, but right now, this is where we're at for game development \o/

• Writing: 100% Finished (0 Words Remain (!!!!))
• Editing: 85% Finished (60k Words Remain)
• Art: 85% Finished (0 BGs (!!!), 14 CGs, 3 Sprites Remain)
• Coding: 80% Finished (55k Words Remain)
• Voice Acting: 50% Finished

So where we left off last year was that I'd finished the base draft for Aisa's route, marking the completion of ALL routes in Alaris (EVERYONE CHEER). These past couple of months have been dedicated to fleshing out the last bits and pieces of Aisa's route. There were still some scenes I wanted to work on a bit more, and with the new edits, we've officially passed the 350k word count mark on Alaris (MEOW). It currently sits at 351,465 words! Aisa's route will probably still go up a bit in this coming month. But I anticipate wrapping up the last of the edits this upcoming month so that I can move on to almost exclusively focusing on art uwu

On the editors' side, Wudgey has been working hard on Aisa's developmental edits. We have entered the second arc (out of three) of Aisa's dev edits, yay! And Allie has been patiently chugging along with Kuna'a's line edits. As a reminder, once line edits wrap up with routes, they're basically finished, meaning Kuna'a's route is getting to the end of its final phase YEAA.

I also got started on some Kuna'a CGs this month. Not too many because admittedly I wanted to wrap up writing as fast as I could. I believe I finished 2-3 of Kuna'a's CGs, which brings our total CG count to 40!!! Our total count will be 54, so we are 3/4 of the way there!! Once I enter my art phase again, I think I'll be locking in on those, the same way I did for when we entered Early Access and will hopefully bang them out Fast as Fuck Boy.

Since I'm nearing the end of the tunnel on Aisa edits, I'm going to start working on some Aisa CGs to prep for the Aisa Beta release (NYEHE), which will hopefully happen sometime Soon.

In exciting news, at the beginning of this year, we entered BETA ACCESS for KUNA'A'S ROUTE!!!!

I was REALLY nervous about Kuna'a's route. Probably the most out of any route except for maybe Fenir. Partly because they're the most popular LIs so I wanted to make sure they live up to the hype. But also partly because Kuna'a specifically is the first Fae route and so is the first route that REALLY starts to get into the plot. Making sure I address every plot point I need to in a satisfying--and not confusing--way, while still leaving room for enough mystery to happen in Aisa's route was such a tricky balance, especially when I had to make sure the romance was also there.

BODY TEA. ALWAYS CRACKED @saffein-e

Luckily, the beta reception (which I think has had the most beta testers out of any route) has been really rewarding!!!!!! I literally banged my head against my keyboard so many times while dealing with Kuna'a's route (as expected of my bastard ragebaiter child). I think I made my dev editor bang their head on their keyboard too FLAJLSDFJLJ. But it feels like the effort was definitely worth it because the reception has been way more positive than I expected.

If you haven't had a chance to play, Kuna'a's beta will probably be up for about another month and available to all Hydra patrons!

As a hint to what's looming on the horizon, I hope to have Aisa's beta out soon enough, given Kuna'a's will only be around for a limited time heh. We'll see how fast I'm able to bang everything out. But fingers crossed!

Last, not market research. But I DID lead a super cracked team on a project for Shoujosei Jam!

Somehow, in the span of three weeks, we were able to put together an entire stat-raiser game, complete with 7 BGs, 6 CGs, two love interests, 30k words, partial voice acting, RNG weather for unique playthroughs, and more! I really recommend playing it---the team worked so hard. This was my first time leading a project, and it was the best experience ever being surrounded by so many crazy, talented people!!

If you're not enticed yet, maybe THIS WIL CONVINCE YOU!!

PLAY OUR GAME! ROMANCE OUR LIS!

Some of you may be wondering why the FAWK I'm entering a jam and making a big ass game like this when I have Alaris to work on, and please just know I haven't fully worked on a game outside of Alaris in about 3 years LMFAOOO. The last one was Intertwine, which was released in 2023, and after grinding Alaris for so long (I've finished four routes since then), I could feel my creative capacity running dry.

Thankfully, this game gave me everything I needed---fun with friends, and another creative outlet that let me feel refreshed again. I feel ready to sit down and grind Alaris out again for the day this game fully releases, which hopefully looms Just Beyond the Horizon.

Anyway, until next time! Stay safe, everyone \o/