Hi friends! Just want to provide a quick post on what to expect from Build 1.

• How much content?

  
  

  • Currently, my script is about ~60k words. But that'll be trimmed down to ~40-50k.
  • There'll be three in-game days. If you've read the demo (public or Patreon), you have read most of Day 1. Day 2 is about half as long. Day 3 will be about 4/5's as long as Day 1, but have much more character dialogue.
  • Build 1 will probably be the largest build. Subsequent builds will be limited to 10-20k words.

• What will change from the demo?
• Like I addressed in my last post, I'll be trimming some unnecessary words for descriptive passages.
• I'll be focusing on playability/readability aspects like dialogue box crowding, sentence structure, etc.
•  Overall, I do not plan on changing any of the story structure or much character dialogue.

• What will be new?
  • Players will be introduced to Cliff and Trent! I'm excited for you all to meet them.
  • As stated before, Day 2 and Day 3 will be featured in Build 1.
  • More backgrounds will be completed and added.
  • More sprite outfits will be featured.
  • One more character scene (AKA CG) will be shown on Day 3.
  • I'm currently working on recording some voice acting lines. Not every character line will be recorded, but some key ones will.
    • Since this novel is so focused on audio elements, I wanted to see how well voice acting goes over. I'm unsure if this will be a success or not, but I'm willing to take a risk.
    • I plan on making the voice acting mute-able for players who don't prefer it or for anyone streaming/reading aloud.
  • I plan on testing out a system to allow players to optionally view content that provides miscellaneous/trivial information.
    • As a quick example, when the player is reading the passage about Darrell playing a guitar, they can click on the word guitar and it'd provide information about what the guitar looks like in great detail.
    • For the players who wish to be more immersed in the story, it would provide some extra content. For those who aren't looking for detailed immersion, they can ignore it. There would be zero story-critical details in these optional passages.
    • Overall, this wouldn't be difficult at all to implement in RenPy, it would just take some time. I plan on testing it internally with my creative team, then test with Patrons.
    • Usually, this kind of system is popular with fantasy games. I was specifically directed to Golden Sun as an example of this system working well.
    • Just like with the voice acting, it's a bit risky. It may go over well, it may not. I have no idea unless I try.

• When do I get to date the cute boys?!
  • In due time, friend :3.
  • I plan on having the romantic routes for Darrell, Cliff, and Trent all be accessible during Build 2 or Build 3. After Build 3, the play can branch off into each unique romance route.
  • I would like to get ~1/3 to ~1/2 of the way done with the first 3's routes before starting Pat's.
  • I'd like to be done with the first 3's routes before delving Chester's and Dave's.

As a side note, I probably will not be active on here or on the ChoPro Twitter for the next few days. Since January, I've poured nearly all my free time into this game, amounting to hundreds of hours. These past few weeks have especially been grueling since I setup the Patreon and worked on the demo releases. It's starting to wear on my mental health and I need some time to refresh before I can jump back into it. THIS IS NOT A HIATUS ANNOUNCEMENT. Everything is still on track for Fall 2022 release of Build 1.