While I am a massive fan of this game, I feel like ever since the 0.8 and 0.85 updates, the game has lost something. Transitions are sloppy, scenes seem rushed, not a lot happens and the Days feel shorter.
Things in particular:
Some scenes will have it be where a Transition will happen (fade to black, etc), other ones will have it be where he's in Biology then BAM suddenly he's in Yoga like a turning a page. Nothing showing a movement of time, just flip from one picture directly to the next. That happened in the last update too.
Then things happen like him walking the halls, which have been a thing in the past. But in previous versions, he'd talk to himself or have some sort of exposition while in scenes like that, but now it's nothing. Two scenes of him moving then on to the next thing.
The last thing has seemed to be the short encounters. Take the math class. His conversation with Marcus was so short that it almost didn't need to happen in Math. Not to mention that class is almost pointless now with the intervention of his dad. Dr. Rai doesn't even talk anymore. Neither does Sophie. You'd think she'd be more active now that she isn't in danger of public whippings anymore.
What happened to that class with James in it? Haven't seen that in 2 updates either. It was briefly mentioned once. In fact that leads into what I was saying about shorter Days. When the MC first starts school, he seems to have every class every day. Now it doesn't seem like that at all, it's like we see one or maybe two class areas and then we move on to something else outside of school. So entire characters get ignored, the content of the story seems lessened and the updates seem like less goes on.
In the earlier days we would see interaction with both family members, Marcus, James, a whole strew of side characters, Emma, Maude, Kara, then there'd be some end of the day interactions at home and he'd end up in his room at the end with the "Study or.." mechanic.
Characters we have not seen lately:
James and the entire Physiology class (lesbians, asian intern, bitchy thicc chick)
General Washington and his assistant
The Aunt (Madam of Hawaii)
Weak You or his wife
Characters that we've seen but have had no progress made on (Or conversations with) lately:
Dr. Rai
Sophie
Biology Teacher
It's like there's a lot that used to happen that doesn't seem to be happening anymore. It feels like this team lost a member or writer, something changed in the structure of the game and it's losing steam.
Hey RoadWulf,
I was kindly pinged on discord about this post and I will say right away that it is excellent feedback. There has actually been a lot of great feedback lately and I appreciate all of it.
You gave a pretty detailed post and there are some questions in there so I feel like I should answer them in detail.
As for the 0.8 and 0.85 updates, I can't speak on those. Heartless was the writer at the time and I was not on the team so I can't really comment fairly on that.
So what about 0.9 and 0.95?
Well that I can easily answer! Some of this I may have covered in other posts but that's fine, posts can get lost.
We have a lot of characters and in no way is that a bad thing. As a writer it gives me a lot of things to play with and lets me fill scenes. There is a problem that can arise from having that many characters, burning out.
I am currently the sole writer, which honestly I prefer. With so many people to juggle it can kind of burn you out. Plus everything just becomes surface level. You can't dive as deep when you have such a large cast of characters.
So what do I do?
I could just eliminate characters. But that's lazy and jarring for you guys. There is the possibility of giving lots of characters speaking time during updates, but that can burn a lot of writing time.
So I figured out a way that I can give you guys a deeper dive into these characters and still keep my sanity. I am going to focus on 4 or 5 for X amount of updates so we can get a closer look at them and maybe even hold some hands. Then move on to the next 4 or 5. Once I get more comfortable I might rotate more in. This way you guys still get content and I keep my sanity. You are right, scenes seem brief at times. This is something I need to focus on as a writer and commit myself to. Especially having more characters interact in scenes.
I know it might be frustrating to see your favorite character fall by the wayside for a bit. I know it can be hard with changes, especially so far in. But I love this project and I have some plans for the future and want all of you along on that journey with me. Even if we have a little bit of a rocky start.
Once Chapter 1 is done Chapter 2 will be all mine. I will be given the keys to my own ship and this is what I have planned.
Chapter 2 goals:
-Grow and get better as a writer
-Output more content
-Make some kick ass content
-Make an awesome game
All I can promise is that I will hit those goals and make you guys a solid product. There is no perfect science to what I do and sometimes I will fail and mistakes will be made. I may have gone off on a bit of a tangent but hopefully some of your questions were answered.
I hope you all enjoy whats to come and thank you for all of your support,
-Thrown-