Hi everyone!

Long time no talk?? Or at least, it’s been a long time since the last devlog, or at least the last proper devlog. I posted one mid-campaign, but that was moreso an update of the Kickstarter and some relevant news rather than me talking about the game’s development. Evidently, the last devlog I posted was in June??? It’s crazy how quickly time has passed!

Because it’s been so long, let’s not dally and just get right into it, shall we? 

General

I’m always changing the format these devlogs, lol. Oh well, c’est la vie. 

Before I start, I would like to show some art that is not relevant to development, but that I want to show anyways LOL. I tried to do Drawtober --- I’ve always failed, and to be honest I failed again this year HAHA. I wanted to make Halloween costumes for all the LIs, but I only got to half <\3 Maybe next year I will complete the set. I’ve also been playing Collar x Malice and will insert my two faves now that I’m close to being finished (Shiraishi is my ultimate favorite though, I’m sorry Takeru)

While it’s not directly related to the art of Alaris, I am quite proud and happy with how my art has been progressing lately compared to a year ago, so it still helps with development and start CGs <3

First off, as you may know, I opened applications for some team openings for Alaris and recently selected the new team! I was very touched and honored by the talented individuals interested in the game, which also made the process of choosing people difficult.

At the end of the day, the final team for Alaris is:

Wudgeous (@/herotome), Vi (@nextinline-if), and Elm (@ArtofElm) for my Writing/Editing team. If Elm looks familiar, it’s because she helped with the demo, so I’m very grateful to get to work with her again! Wudgeous and Vi are both very talented game developers/interactive fiction writers who have amazing stories. I’m a fan of both of their works so am very honored to be working with them! 

Vui Huynh will be the BG Artist for Alaris, of which they’ve actually already made progress on BG work for Alaris! 

Finally, Re.Alice will be the GUI Artist for Alaris. If the name looks familiar, it’s actually because Re.Alice was the logo artist for Alaris, so I’m very excited to be working together again for the GUI! 

This is the final team for Alaris --- I’m very excited and have already enjoyed the process of... well, talking to people about Alaris game development, to be frank, haha! We’re all very excited to bring Alaris to life for you all, and I hope you all look forward to it <3 

Writing

Currently, I’m mapping out basically the foundation of Alaris’s story. I’ve already written up the worldbuilding, lore, and character profile sheets and have a pretty rough draft of all of the routes. While there are some details and revisions that need to be made, the route summaries are pretty detailed (essentially a scene-by-scene breakdown), so while I can’t give a percentage estimate of route completion, there’s a good amount of progress on those fronts! 

Specifically, I have rough drafts of Aisa’s route (both good and bad endings), Kuna’a’s route (both good and bad endings), Kayn’s route (bad ending), Druk’s route (bad ending), Fenir’s route (good and bad endings), and Etza’s route (good ending). As a little developer note, my current favorites are Aisa, Kayn, and Fenir’s bad endings (lmao), so I hope fans of them are excited! I’ll continue hammering out the development and details of Kuna’a, Druk, and Etza’s routes so fans of them, have no fear, hehe :’)  

Art

The part we love most! I promised a sneak peek of the current BGs. Vui just finished the first background. Can you all guess what it is, even as just a sketch? 

I’m very excited to finally have some custom backgrounds for Alaris, as I think with the “fantasy” nature of the game, it was a bit difficult to find backgrounds that fit. Specifically with the Fae areas, I’m excited to see how the game starts to come alive! 

Additional Features

On top of writing and art, I’ve also been working with our talented VAs and composer to work on the sound for Alaris. I’ve recently sent out the lines for the demo to VAs, so I’m excited to get those back and hear the characters come to life! I’ve never been too big of a fan of VA since I usually play my games on silent and at 3AM like a gremlin. But recently, because of Collar x Malice, I’ve been really into the way voiced lines can bring a game to life. 

I’ve also been working with Peter for song composition for the soundtrack. We currently have two songs that are close to completion, and I’m very excited to show those to you all in the near future! Similar to how BGs can help better align the game to the general fantasy vibe I want to set, I also think the soundtrack can help to bring the fantasy-romance mood to the player :’) 

Anyways, that’s all  I have for this update! I will probably be shifting to monthly updates now, just to let you all know. With all the moving parts to development now, I think this will be easiest and not as overwhelming for both me and people who follow the devlogs. But I hope you all have a safe and happy spooky season, and I’ll see you next month!