Progress 10.03.2025

Hello all!

It's amusing how I'm always in panic mode on Fridays because I'm not where I want. Then suddenly come the weekend and I'm pretty much where I want and need to be in relation to the script. And I don't even do anything extra as is. Anyway. So the rendering?

I have three scenes left to render. This isn't entirely accurate since there are variants, and they aren't that large scenes. Hopefully, I should be able to do most of them today so I can spend the couple of days that are needed for the last scene. And speaking of that... I can fairly certainly say that 0.39.0 and 0.40.0 will take a longer to render. Annoying, but there simply will be a lot of renders needed for those days. But the silver lining will be that then I probably have a better idea how long will the epilogue takes to make. Maybe.

Writing. Writing of 0.40.0 is in a good spot, so I'm happy with it. There have been changes to what I originally planned, slightly irritating... but it might be for the best. There is an aspect that... is still happening, just not like how I envisioned. Partially because, while death is always an option, I don't exactly want to punish people for some of the choices they have made twice. There are darker choices that can hinder things or make you miss things. During development, they are more glaring than with full VN. So what changed exactly? How I think of the endings. Originally, there were supposed to be two (technically three, since failure is an option, and still is, but not counting that). Two sides of the same coin... this got changed. Now one of them is still what I originally planned. The second? That changed rather drastically with a simple choice ages ago. And yes, I am referring to the one choice that made things difficult for a lot of people. It isn't a bad thing, just... different. But that spawned also something else that I'm still trying to figure out how it will play. Throughout the VN, there have been these choices that track "soul balance", that was originally what determines the outcome during certain times. It still does, but not to the degree I thought it would. Partially because some of the choices are so intertwined that it would lead to choices where you can't influence things when you should be able. That... isn't the desired thing. So how will it change? I was going to say that I'm not sure yet... but as I wrote this long paragraph, the idea formed and it has been noted down. It might not be an ending people will like... but choices need to have consequences. But don't worry, there will be room to play. And there is a good heroic ending if you will. One what I suspect 99% of the people will see, granted that is the only "surviving" original ending. Anyway, preview time!

A lot of dwarfs. Update 0.36.0 can be painful. And it can be short if you messed things up. There is about a third that can be missed. And as I said above, these things are more glaring during development time than during full VN. This? This is seen when things go well. Which I suspect most of you will see, anyway. So there is some... politics involved with things. And some of you might recognize a couple of the dwarfs in the semi-circle-line-thing... Also something important to note about this update: there is only one choice in it, to my surprise. But it is a kind of "end of Malgrins story arch" in a sense, so only thing that are left is consequences of the choices made. But not to worry, more choices in the next ones.

And this might seem familiar. And you are right to think so, it is an further customized version of the "Daily Motivational Render" from last week. Didn't expect to use the environment this soon, but it made sense to use it for the exit scenes. And yes, not all the possible characters are in this, this is one of the variants where things didn't go as planned... Anyway, a few more renders then a short break.