Weekly report 230

Hi everybody.

Happy Friday! I hope you've had a productive week and are getting ready for the weekend. Here's a summary of our work since the last report:

Avatars:

I've added all of the new avatars that you have sent me to the game. This is something that I will be doing until a few hours before the release, so it's never too late to send me yours if you are (or have been) a Best Friend or Close Friend tier patron in the past.  

Changes to the game:

I've been very busy trying to improve the feel of Gomira's second quest, and there's a bit that had been bugging me every time I played it: once you finish the first quest, there's a short intro to the second quest setting up the events, and then you go to free roam mode. This return to the sandbox after a lengthy end to the first quest is something I coded in when I got to posing the quest, but every time I play it, it just doesn't make sense since there's an urgent task that needs to be addressed, and giving the player the freedom to go and just do other things, messes up the story. I was stuck at this for a day and a half, trying different options and writing convos and whatnot to justify possible delays to the quest, but in the end, I just scrapped the whole thing and went back to what I had coded first: about mid-way in Gomira's first quest, the player begins an action that locks them in a series of events that continues all the way until the end of Gomira's story. This, I'm aware, makes about three-quarters of the content very linear and less "game-like", but I believe it makes for a better story. Chestnut's suggestion is to wait until we get the public's feedback and if most people dislike how it is done, break the event up again, and give people the free roam. That is possible, in theory, but honestly, after we're done with 0.7, I'd rather move on to other updates and stories.

To improve the experience, I need to revisit the point in the story where the player is locked into the long event and clearly signal what’s about to happen, giving the players the option to return to it later (if they're busy with other quests). This way, the long event won’t come as a surprise.

Wrapping up the polish:

I plan to wrap up the first round of polish by the end of Monday and prepare for the second round. Chestnut has been helping me with both posing, and going through the posed content, and once we start the second round of polish, she will likely have more artwork to retouch, and I'm also going to need her help later with improving the sound (I'm going to keep that for the second round of polish).

Off day:

It's our toddler's second birthday next week, and we're going to take tomorrow off to celebrate it with her grandparents, aunts, and uncles. This will be our last off day before the release of 0.7.

That's all.

Have a great great weekend.
Cheers