Hello everyone, we hope you've been having an amazing pride month!
Exceptionally, this Dev Diary is made public, but we have a section exclusive to Visionaries (and tiers above) in a different post.
Our clash of titans continue, and by this we mean... the engine. Currently as it stands, if we want to release a content build, we have to do so with the buggy old one, as we are still figuring out a few last quirks of the new one to finally begin porting the entire game over and playtest it. Some features needed to be completely redone, and this takes time that needs to be juggled around with IRL obligations.
We are still figuring out if it is worth pushing an update with the old Godot 3 or if we should just do a larger one with the Godot 4 and its (hopefully) fixed functionalities.
But we still have plenty of other stuff to show you!
We've been working on some concept art for things we were still missing, like an actual concept of the city outside of the resort. Our artist has even made a compilation of references and exploratory suggestions to complement the city, architecture, features and building functionality. This is important not only to creature further visual assets, but also for writing. We should keep consistent about the main ways people use to travel around the city, main entry points, what sort of amenities are present, locations of note, etc.
Below, you can also find a background that will be featured in the ongoing Day, which illustrates the town square, where a few scenes will be taking place. Here you can already observe the directions we are taking with the architecture of the oldest part of the city, with its surroundings being more modern, quicker constructions as per the demands of urban expansion. Our artist did a fantastic job at including all these elements in a single painting while keeping the town square as the focus, and added a needed variant during Market day.
Now, we sense a question coming: Why now? Well, as you may already know, Act 1 is almost over, which means new things coming. For Act 2, we are considering a different narrative method, while still keeping the game a Visual Novel (as is its whole... Identity!)
With a presentation of the overall view of the city, we can use it as a sort of navigation map and opt for a less linear approach to storytelling, opening up choices by doing things more horizontally, and that goes for content updates as well.
One thing we have noticed during recent times is that, sometimes, we would have preferred to release an optional event that could be done besides the main story, rather than instead. The Mask Event night is one such example. What if one could simply head there at any time instead of being able to do so only during a specific day? And how about taking Brym to a cozy café date at any time without fearing losing your chance to do so because you progressed past the day when it can happen?
And besides, we love the world we have created, and would love to show you more of it, going into the neat details, allowing space for more short stories, more character interactions, even the smut scenes! We believe this can only benefit the overall player experience, while allowing the developers to do more without locking us into a corner. Anyway, speaking of the Mask Event and smut scenes...
Did a certain huge white dragon catch your eye? Well, okay, everything is white right now, but that's because this is only a sketch. Once it is finished, we will be including this illustration and the complete set alongside the scene.
We will even throw you a free one. Yes, Argyr will be a fully romanceable character. And yes, some of these Act 2 characters can be romanced alongside some Act 1 characters. Polyamory is a possibility... with certain characters and in certain circumstances!
Now, there is another scene that is going to receive some love as well... Have you already ran into the bull bartender at the Mask Event? We named him Quincy.
At first, we were trying to figure out what sort of vibe to go with him, but we ended up picking the first as we thought it gave more "butler" vibes, although the latter was still pretty cute!
Quincy, who yet had to receive a character reference sheet, will also be featured in future content. We are still figuring out this one, but his role is tied mostly to the Mask Events, at least so far. We would like to hear your opinion on him!
As for the scene you can already find in the game... Well, he's big!
Illustrations are in the works! Quincy definitely loves to have fun, even during his work shift (naughty naughty!) but what other secrets does he hide? He may be featured in more scenes, and there may even be a short story related to him, but there can always be more if reception is positive.
As for the future of the Mask Event... well, Yarin has been getting a lot of size difference smut, hasn't he? A lot of the characters are bigger than him, that's true. But we'll be having another scene coming in which Yarin takes on a more dominant role, so stay tuned for that!
Finally, we have updates to Roy's sprites. Three more emotions and an additional pose!
We are trying to keep the rule of at least four expressions per character with the most prominent emotions, besides a neutral one, but that doesn't mean we won't add another if we see the need to it. Currently Roy doesn't have an 'angry' one, for example, because he's not really easy to anger, so that's how we prioritized it. He might need it when drama starts catching up.
Next in line... Demon sprites! Still in the works, but you remember him, right?
Think of Demon (his actual name, yes) as an alternate Corvolin. His role is to represent Yarin's alter ego, the things he truly wants to do, his "true desires" incarnate. But Demon is still an individual, is his own person and has his own story to tell. Sprites will help bring him alive during his interactions and in special dream sequences where Yarin physically meets with him.
We're still considering where else to take him. During Act 2 he might be, perhaps, a full route, but an unconventional one. More on that later!
Phew, now that's quite a lot of art! As mentioned before, Visionaries and above can, exclusively, have a look at the smutty details on a different post for all the aforementioned artworks.
As for an actual, playable build, we have decided to focus on the Godot 4 update as of now, but if we see that's still taking too long, we'll consider another content release. Until then, we'll keep in touch with more dev posts, worst case scenario.
We hope you have an amazing July, and we truly appreciate your support. We know we aren't the most consistent with updates and are very sorry for that, but we're hoping that this engine update will help us standardize our work process, thus making it more efficient and easier to manage. Currently we kind of have to scrap around with old methods that we don't really like very much anymore, so obviously, it ends up taking its toll on us. But we're positive on Identity's future development.
Until next time!