Hi everyone!! 

I’m back with another update for you all <3 I have lots of exciting news this time around as well as general ramblings - the usual. So let’s just get straight into it :’)

Announcement

I’ll start with the most exciting news and insert my usual clickbait image here. In honor of entering the final stage of development for our demo (wow), we will be creating a trailer that will be used for promotional material for when the demo is released and other stuff! This trailer will feature VA for all of the LIs!!! The casting call document is complete, sneak peek here, and will open TOMORROW (omfg)

This is... honestly crazy to me and was only possible because of the donations people have made to the game, so thank you all so much for the support <3 I can’t confirm right now if the game itself will have VA since that’s expensive, and I definitely don’t have the money for that right now. But the fact I can even do a casting call for a trailer is really exciting and I’ve been blown away by the reception around it. If you’re a VA and you’re interested, definitely keep your eye out :)

And if you’d like to support the VA’s, please consider supporting to our Ko-Fi! All funds donated right now will go towards the VAs and can help in either having more lines voiced (maybe partial VA for the demo) or increasing the rates! If VA is something you’re interested in for the game or you just want to support, definitely consider it, though there’s obviously never any pressure <3 

Demo Updates

I mentioned last devlog how the next chapter will actually be the last update for the demo. I know last week was my break week, but... I did work on the game lol. Like, a lot. Basically all of the writing for the demo has been complete. Not necessarily as a final draft, but I’ve gotten the base script down for the final chapter and all of the Free Time dates completed. And it was about 30,000 words of content. So there’s that (so much for a break week amirite).

Outside of writing I started working on CGs. For now, since I’m trying to ease back into things after my break week, I’ve returned to old CGs and played around with touching them up. I started with Fenir, and you can see a before and after below. It basically turned into a full render LOL. I think it looks a lot more polished so I’m excited to see how everything will start coming together, including old assets. 

This next week, I will probably start working on new CGs, sprites, and other art assets needed for the full demo! The casting call will also officially open, so having to manage that will also be on my plate between now and next devlog!

Developer Ramblings

This is a bit of a new addition, but I’ve had a lot on my mind what with the final stage of the demo and all this other stuff, so this is just a bit of a brain dump for me and anyone interested enough to keep reading :’) 

Lately (maybe because I was on break last week and had too much time on my hands), I’ve been getting in my head a lot about the idea of this “final release” for the demo. I think with every chapter release, I had a safety net in my mind of “Oh, if anything’s not quite as perfectly aligned with what I had imagined, it’s okay, I can go back and fix it later.” But now, because this next release will be the actual demo release, I think my perfectionism tendencies have been triggered a bit and have hyperfocused on every little thing I’m not happy with.

At the end of the day, Alaris has always been a passion project for me, a side project, a hobby. And now with the demo, and even the trailer, which I had thought of as just a fun thing to do, the release and the game have felt a lot more “real” if that makes sense? Like there’s actually people wanting and expecting an actual game out of this, and it’s not just this little project I play around with and work on and just release into the void of the internet. 

I’ve definitely noticed my imposter syndrome acting up big time, and I think I’ve gotten a lot more nervous about development this point forward. While I appreciate recognition and support for the game, I think I’m definitely scared of having to deal with the idea of being a “real developer” with a “real game” instead of just a PhD student who does game development on the side. Mostly because people on the internet can be quite... brutal. Even so, I’m trying to just stay positive and appreciative of everything and just take things step by step, which I think is all you can really do at the end of the day!

Anyways, thank you so much for all the support everyone and the kind words as always. I appreciate and cherish each one. Until next time!