Hi everyone!!

Devlog 20, already? That somehow seems both like a lot and not a lot at all haha. I have a lot of exciting news today, so let’s just dive straight into it!

Supporter Shout-Outs

1. We received a lot of donations recently, both on Ko-fi and Itch.io. I won’t give specific details about amounts and things like that, but if you’ve donated sometime in the past two weeks, I saw it and appreciate it so much!! Anytime someone donates I feel honored that Alaris seems like something you would want to support monetarily <3

2. Thank you for the recent questions as well! I always like talking to you all, so even when it’s just to stop by and say hi, I appreciate it :’) 

Announcements

I ended up doing an entire #Mermay series for the LIs, which I posted on the blog last week (?). If you missed it and would like to check it out, feel free to look at it here! It has all of the LIs as mer-people, some of which were actually inspired by the Tumblr question asked recently about the types of merpeople each of the LIs would be! 

I also recently sent out a call for Filipino artist commissions recently to help support some artists who might be struggling due to the current political situation happening in the country. I was able to find some amazing artists to help support and create small visual materials for Alaris that I hope to reveal at a later time :’) Hope you’re all excited to eventually see them! 

Lastly, I closed the playtester applications and reached out to the playtesters selected. This is the first time I’ve done this kind of thing, but I’m appreciative of the people willing to help, especially since this version of Alaris is much more expansive compared to past releases. Excited to finally enter that stage!! Which brings me to....

Demo Updates

This past week, I’ve been wrapping up coding and scripting, as well as any last art assets I wanted to work on. Specifically, for coding, I worked on finally getting the more dynamic elements of the game in. There will be two timed choices in the game (one of which you may not encounter since it will be on a date), and I got a couple animated overlays in! Things like panning on backgrounds or CGs to make the game more immersive hopefully. I also finally coded things more dynamic transitions, specifically for the final ~action~ scene in Chapter 3 (hehe).

So basically, lots and lots of coding recently and wrap-up stuff for the script and art assets as necessary. I got things like a new startup screen, where now the LIs will greet you at the main menu. I also got the Free Time screen up and going:

And, with the final chapter, I got the Route Choice menu ready to go too :’) At first I was going to do it how all the other choices are, but I wasn’t really happy with how it appeared in the game since it’s a pretty big decision, so I switched it to something that feels a bit more “momentous” if you will. Simple, but I think it fits! 

In terms of fine-tuning, I already showed you all how I rendered some of the older CGs to make them more polished. Well, I put off Druk and Kayn because I had accidentally flattened the image the first time around... ha.. ha.. ha. So I couldn’t go back in and render. So I had been putting it off, wondering if I wanted to start from scratch or try to recreate it.

I think because my style has changed a bit since the very first CG, I ended up just completely remaking it, and I’m actually really happy with the result! Sneak peek below, but blessing in disguise, I guess?

Basically, everything in the game is done. The only thing I really have left is playtesting and converting images to WEBP to condense the game a bit. General polishing is basically where we are at!! Which is crazy? I feel like there is so much left to do, but... the demo is really actually wrapping up. I think because I was stuck at what felt like 30-40% for so long, it doesn’t feel real to be past that LOL. I still feel stuck in the void, a bit. But we’re actually moving along :o

I do have a bit of bad news, which is that I’ve decided to take out the puzzle mechanism in the game. I know some of you said you were excited about that feature, and I was too! But as I began wrapping up, the mechanism wasn’t feeling as satisfying in the game. I think because there are things like the personality system, free time, timed choices, animated overlays, etc. the puzzle piece just felt like it was taking away more than it was adding, if that makes sense. It didn’t feel as integrated as I had hoped it would, so I’ve decided to take it out, and I genuinely think the game is better off without it, at least where it’s at right now! 

I know I can always put it back in later, if I want, so I’m not too hung up about it. And maybe down the line, the game will reach a point where it makes more sense for the puzzle mechanism to be there. But for now, I think the demo shines more with the story and what we have going on without it, so I hope you all understand, and I’m so sorry for anyone who was really looking forward to that aspect <3

With all that being said, I’d say game development is maybe at like 95% (oh my lord)? Things are quickly wrapping up, and I’m so excited for it! Hope you all are too. No ramblings today since this update was already quite long. I don’t have more screenshots to share because I’m working off my old old laptop for now, and it can’t handle me recording videos of the gameplay LOL. But trust me when I say the coding, especially the animated overlays and stuff, have really made the game dynamic to look at (in my biased opinion)! 

Anyways, that’s all for this update! Look forward to the next one :’) I think the next one will be quite exciting hehe <3