News 11.10.2024
vor 3 Stunden
Hello, wizards and witches!
Ten days have passed since our last update, so today we have a bunch of exciting news to share with you. To kick things off, we’ve got our traditional art preview (available in the next post), featuring Marcus and Xandria. Judging by her current state while she’s resting in the Headmaster's bedroom, it’s safe to say that long walks through the school corridors have worn her out. However, Marcus, with his smug grin and raised eyebrows, seems entirely unfazed by the scene. In fact, he’s more amused than concerned by the charms Xandria unintentionally revealed.
Next, let’s look at the work that has been done lately. We’ve been hard at work on several key tasks. The first one is updating and finalizing the main menu interface. We wanted to make it more compact and user-friendly by removing unnecessary clutter. Now, background switch buttons are placed under the book in the form of themed bookmarks. Additionally, we’ve updated the button fonts, which makes translating this part of the game into other languages easier — before, the text was part of the art, making localization more complicated.
Another task has been preparing for the upcoming Halloween and Christmas events. Since our primary focus right now is working on the 0.12A release, there’s not a lot of available resources to create multi-stage seasonal events with rewards for prefects. But we can’t let our dear players miss out on the festive spirit! Therefore, For Halloween, you’ll get access to new content and a small event where you can gift a prefect a new themed piece of clothing and inspect how it looks on her.
Sonya will also get a new look that we think you'll love! The sketches for possible costumes (you can see them in the image below) turned out bold and stylish, with a touch of gothic flair. One of them has already been selected and drawn, and we’re sure it’ll give Sonya a special charm and refresh her appearance. This outfit is perfect for the Halloween vibe, so we thought that you would like it too, together with the piece of clothing that the prefects will be receiving
For the Christmas update, we’re also planning something special. It’ll probably include festive additions similar to what we’re preparing for Halloween. But honestly, we’re not sure of the exact plans yet — it depends on how busy our artists are and what ideas we come up with closer to the holidays. We always strive to surprise you with new features, and if possible, we’ll definitely bring a bit of Christmas magic to the game. Don’t forget, your feedback is super important to us, so as always, we’re open to your suggestions.
We’re also actively working on the next patch. Right now, our artists are focused on creating miniatures for various main storyline events and full-size character art. Some of this work you may have already seen in our regular speed-paint section, where we share the process of creating art in a time-lapse format. This lets you peek behind the scenes and see how new visual elements are created step by step.
Though there’s still quite a bunch of art to create, the process is moving quickly. Nearly every day, one of the art tasks gets completed and passed to Siserg for review.
Meanwhile, our programmers continue working on optimizing the game to make it even more stable. Recently, we implemented an important engine update that improved memory cleanup (garbage collection). This significantly reduced the number of micro-freezes that occurred during the game, especially when art was displayed for the first time. Now the gameplay is smoother and more enjoyable, allowing you to better immerse yourself without being distracted by the pesky stutters and freezes.
To wrap up today’s news, we’d like to address an important topic — the format and timing of the next release. Previously, we mentioned that the new chapter was too big for a single release, so we planned to split it into two parts and release them separately. However, after some discussions and analyzing the content for this release, along with your votes in the September 20th news update, we’ve decided that it would be better to release one large patch and delight our most devoted supporters with a more substantial content drop. This will allow us to pack more into one release, though it will take a bit more time to prepare.
As a result, instead of two separate releases, you’ll get one big patch that will include at least two full-screen scenes along with the main storyline. This will make the gameplay more immersive and longer, so the pleasure of spending time with your favorite characters will last even longer.
We’re aiming to release this by the end of the year. Currently, we estimate that the first half of the patch will be ready in early to mid-November, which will include the text and visual content originally planned for version 0.12A. However, now this part will be combined with the remaining content. Completing the second half will take about a month and a half, as it includes another full-screen scene and updated versions of some scenes from the old storyline. As a result, we’re aiming to release this combined version 0.12A either at the end of the year or early next year.
We’ll keep you regularly updated on the development progress, so you’ll always know where the release stands. Thanks for your support and patience — we’re working hard to make the content you love!
That’s all for today, folks! We deeply appreciate that you continue to stay with us and support the development through your donations and feedback. Thank you so much!
We’ll be back with more news soon. Until then, take care of yourselves and don’t forget to enjoy life!
Peace out✌
Your,
Sad Crabs
