Hi everyone! 

We are back with another update, and with #Devtober ending, quite a bit of progress has been made on Alaris! 

Sneak peek at what’s to come - in this devlog, I’ll be talking about updates to game mechanics, progress made to the game, and potential release dates for the Expanded Chapter 1 Release!

So since the last update, a lot of progress has been made regarding game mechanics and other edits to the Expanded Chapter 1 Release. Regarding progress of the Expanded Release, we are sitting at:

1. Writing: 100% Done | Completely Finished!
2. Script: 99% Done | Only Small Edits Left
3. Art: 95% Done | Only Small Edits Left
4. Code: 95% Done

As you can see, the Expanded Chapter 1 Release is VERY close to being finished! I mainly have small things left that I have to go in and fix or actually code into the game. 

For the script, I’ve finished the script for all the Free Time Dates that will be available in the Chapter 1 Release. Again, this will be a preview of the free time, in that you will only be able to pick one type of date for the release. Later chapters will include more dates so that there will be more diversity in the choices for players! For now, the Expanded Chapter 1 Release will only have one date option available, which you can invite four of the LIs to. The reason for this is because I didn’t want to have all the Free Time dates available for players to kinda just binge on this release and never really use/ skip past once the later chapters are released! I think this will fit best with the Chapter-Release schedule we have in place right now, but once the full Demo is complete (with all four chapters), players can really partake in the full scope of the Free Time feature by choosing a variety of different options! 

For those who aren’t as familiar with how Free Time will work, there will be specific portions in each chapter where players can participate in Free Time. During this part of the game, you can choose what kind of date you would like to do by choosing the location and then invite an LI of your choice! Later in the game, if affection is high enough, the LIs might even invite you instead! A lot of this inspiration comes from Tokimeki Memorial: Girl’s Side if anyone has ever played that game, but this will be a bit more specific to the plot of the game since players will be able to get some Easter Egg hints about the world of Alaris through these dates as well, so it also serves a worldbuilding purpose :) 

Aside from Free Time, I’ve also scripted the expanded story that will be included in the Expanded Chapter 1 Release. So there will be some additional content to access outside of just game mechanic stuff! 

A lot of work has been done on coding. Coding game mechanics, GUI, and all this other stuff. I showed a lot of the GUI updates in the last devlog, so on top of the Free Time feature, I’m happy to announce a working Codex for Alaris! In the Codex, you will unlock various entries while you play through the game, and I thought this would be helpful when navigating the world since there are quite a few worldbuilding elements, like Dragon Energy and others that I won’t spoil. I hope this helps to keep terms in check and also feel more immersed in the game without having to info dump all the time in the actual dialogue. So for people who really like worldbuilding, this is something they can access while players who don’t care so much about those components can get just the basics through the dialogue and plot! 

So Codex entries will unlock at certain points in the game, which you can see through the notification. The LI Codex entries are special in that they contain more expansive information compared to general terms or other characters. So for example, you can see Kayn has his general information on top of his Stats. As your romance with these characters develop, you might also be able to access that easily through the Codex in the future~ So just to recap, regarding the coded features for Expanded Chapter 1, there will be a Codex, the full Personality Feature (including a Stats page), the Free Time function, and the usual CG/ Gallery/ etc. access! 

Finally, regarding art, I’ve made some small changes to sprites. Etza’s shirt was fixed from the original Chapter 1 Sample so now their sprite will be cleaner hopefully - I do like the new texture of their shirt a lot more :D 

On top of that, there will be one new sprite added that will be shown in the expanded content. This one is a surprise, so you’ll have to play to find out who it is! I’ve also added some backgrounds for the expanded content and Free Time feature. And finally, I’ve edited the prologue art using a lot of art from Nimphadora (an artist that provides art packages on itch.io). The new art is so beautiful, and I’ve made some edits (just filters and overlays) to make it fit the mood and atmosphere of Alaris a bit better, but I do appreciate how the art style is very different compared to the rest of the game so adds to that storybook/ dreamy vibe that is present during the prologue piece. 

All in all, that’s all the updates I can think of right now. A lot of scripting and formally coding everything into the game as well as small edits to make the game look a bit more polished and refined for a more “final version” of Chapter 1. I’m hoping to have this done and released sometime in November. It’s hard to state exactly when, but the absolute latest will be about the 3rd or 4th week of November! I’ll keep everyone updated when I have a better idea since it’s a bit hard to really know for sure right now, but I hope you’re all looking forward to it! 

As always, feel free to follow me on itch.io or Twitter for more updates or donate at Ko-fi to support development <3