Greetings, everyone. It's been awhile since I last posted an update on Zeta Wolf Chronicles. Despite the time lapse, I can assure you that development is going well. There is much to report and many things to share since then. Before we get into my long spiel about development, let me give you a bulleted list of our progress at the moment.

• Version 1.5 is planned for Spring 2021. This adds roughly 2 hours of additional content, new voicework as well as characters. We'll also be condensing the assets. This should reduced the game's file size by up to 50%!
• Ferine is the character from our twitter raffle in March 2020. Design was assisted by twitter user: DiGreatDestroyer
• We’re currently working on four new supporting characters. You’ll get a sneak peak at one by completing the demo. 
• Auditions are open for the roles of Arctia and Ferine. If you’re an interested voice actor, you can apply here: Zeta Wolf Chronicles - Casting Call Wave 4 

Some milestones for our game: 

• Our 1.0 demo was downloaded 900+ times. Thank you. Along the same lines, we have nearly 900 followers on twitter. This support gives myself (and by extension, everyone else involved in the project) extra fuel to keep going. 
• We received some donations from a couple of generous users. This was greatly appreciated! All of these funds went toward development. You’ll be listed in the credits of our 1.5 build.  

Ferine Preview

We mentioned that Ferine is our latest character to join the Zeta Wolf cast. I personally believe her design came out great, so kudos to DiGreatDestroyer again for their lovely design recommendations. Ferine can be met in Chapter 2: Two Wolves Too Many, which just so happens to be the start of the version 1.5 demo. She's Lyca's accomplice of sorts—because she just had to have someone to bully, being Arctia's subordinate herself. You can imagine that Rayen will get heavily flustered confronting two girls at once! Please look forward to more of Ferine as well as her future voice actor in the next build. (Full-size screenshot here)

Highlighting a Top Commenter 

Recently (actually 10 months ago after the version 1.0 debut) we received some great feedback from itch.io user Nour Hendryks and desperately wanted to share want they had to say about our game. It is quite rare that we receive feedback this valuable. 

Their general thoughts on the game:

Hello! I stumbled upon your raffle on Twitter and after I look at the art, I simply interested and decided to give it a try immediately!

I like playing this game soo much, not only because the art of the characters and backgrounds are superb, but also those BGM and SFX are perfectly match. Personally I like that ting-ling sfx when I hover over a button. That was cute and I hover to any button several times to hear the sfx again heheh. The UI and Graphics are gorgeous too, although I believe some font size could be bigger, like in the Save Game Pages. I also like the Voice Actor, like ghosh! They did a pretty good job! (especially Ms. Crass huehue) and those "Insight" concept. That was brilliant and it was my first time encounter a Visual Novel with such a concept. Totally love it! That's what makes your works original and unique, different than anyone. Oh, and moving sprites for blinking and breathing? Plus point added. Last, appreciating the Tutorials! It was super kind of you to give tutorials for those new player.

However, I noticed some bugs here and there. First, the text names came out and disapper later than the box name. I found it quite odd because usually the box and the name came out in the same time. Some names also didn't appeared in the later scenes, especially when Rayen already meet Ms. Crass to consult about his love-life. I also noticed when Rayen do a narration (and it's voiced, gosh! You guys rock!), the background turn into a sad evening cloud and the narration text supposed to appear there. But for some narrations, the text isn't appear at all. I still can hear Rayen well enough tho, but I guess you need to look that out. Oh, and when I chose "Game my time" instead of "reading e-book" (I must say, the e-book is hillarious LMAO) in one of the Rayen's choice to spend his free-time, nothing happened. No dialogue box at all, but the BGM is still playing. I got stuck on the bedroom background hoho, please look that out.

Overall, Zeta Wolf Chronicles is a great work and I would definitely waiting for the full-released version! Good luck team!

Regarding their recommended improvements to the game:

And this is a few suggestions to add, hope they will be considered in newer version!

1. Log features for both text and audio log. I found it somehow necessary, mainly because I press my "Enter" button too fast and I missed out some dialogues from Ms. Crass ;w;

2. Save Game Menu suggestions are as follows :

- date information for each saved file, for people who play it in a super casual way or when their friends come over to play the games in their PC, they tend to leave so many saved games and it would be helpful to add the date information when they saved it.

- or, you may give the players some options to rename their saved files instead!

- sometimes, some people accidentally save their progress in wrong slot, so I think, adding the delete option for saved files also necessary!

- Lastly, please give some confirmation prompt before deleting and overwrite files ;w; something like "are you sure you want to delete/overwrite this saved files" or etc.

3. Setting page. Have I mentioned that I totally like the cute UI? I would appreciate it if you guys considering to add the button for the slide bar. Maybe like this or this.

4. PLEASE GIVE SOME CONFIRMATION PROMPT BEFORE THE PLAYER QUIT THE GAME, especially with that 'Esc' button ;w; I noticed someone already commented about this before but I will add this here just because..

5. I noticed the transtition is a wolf-head shape. I found it fascinating but somehow it's quite taking time to wait them fully transitioned to the next scene? I suggest you to faster the transition a little bit to make it more smoother.

6. I was surprised when I want to save the choice moment for Siona (I usually did that in VN so I can comeback in that choice again) and the page says something like "The Time is Up" like????? I would appreciate it if you guys add the ticking-time somewhere to remind us that we have to choose it fast. Oh, and please put the timer information in the tutorial too, so the players can anticipate to think fast when they meet the choice.

7. Shortcut for quick save and quick load. Or for the better, everything for accessing menu! Heheh.

I think that's all of it. Good luck AniClashStudios!

Lovely input! I wanted to also highlight my response to them here. It is quite fortunate that many of their concerns have already been addressed and will be implemented in the next build!

1) Log will be present in version 1.5 (our next build) so you're in luck!

2) Save and load screens will be updated with the information you requested (date/time and such) in the next build =) We're looking into the each of the additions you mentioned to polish it up a bit, but I cannot promise that everything will be updated immediately. 

3) Woohoo! Work on a slider bar button for the options page is already in progress!

4) Yes, confirmation prompt on quit will be added in the next version.

5) Thanks for your comment on the wolf transitions, several players have wished to have the transition sped up. We'll adjust this in the next version. 

6) This particular segment of the game with Siona and her timed choice is a little buggy, you are correct. I'm hoping we can refine this so it is not a frustration for players. Currently a WIP. 

7) Shortcut, like a keybind? Hmm... it's possible. We'll look into this one. 

Players like this really make our day, and it was a great joy to read your input. So thanks again for taking the time to write everything out—especially with your level of enthusiasm 

General Development Woes 

I'll preface this by saying that game development is excruciatingly difficult. It's time consuming. It's frustrating (at times). Often, your morale is in the dumpster. On many occasions, I have lost motivation and drive to continue working. Despite all of this, I have never given up hope to eventually reach my goals. 2020 for many people especially, has been the lowest point of our lives. I have been one of the fortunate few who has been able to stay afloat during this pandemic (due to an essential day job). Things certainly could have been worse. When I think of the rolling highs and stalling lows of development, I compare it to dedication to an employer for many years. Rather than bailing a sinking ship, some choose to stick it out through the best and worst of times. That has been how I have fared through my current job of 11 years. Something on the surface that looks lackluster, with lucrative and worthwhile payoffs only arriving years down the line. 

Even within my own family life and marriage especially, similar comparisons can be made. Many things pull me away from development: my unpredictable day job, commitment to one's partner, taking care of my child who suffers with autism. It's a lot to deal with and manage on a daily basis. Over time however, I have found that things eventually do get better, as long as effort continues to be applied. The minute you throw in the towel or make a rash decision, the progress gained up to that point is in jeopardy of being lost. Throughout the script of Zeta Wolf itself, similar themes are present. Finding love has many depths and nuances, particularly from the male perspective, and this was my primary motivator for creating this game in the first place. 

On the subject of writing and script for the game, development has been slower than I would have liked. I can say that much of the plot has been sketched out (in my mind at least) and many notes have been taken regarding its general direction. I'll be honest. I'm far from the fastest writer out there, and this being a visual novel, makes it an integral part of development. Around 35k words have been drafted in total, with 15k programmed, over the span of 3 years. On paper, this looks like a sluggish pace. However, if you take all the duties of creating a game into consideration (along with other responsibilities) things add up. Expecting a constant productive workload is something reserved for professional developers where demand and responsibilities for their job must be met. Working in the industry as a career is something I could not do, and growing up, I discovered myself as far as my capabilities and limitations. 

I'm a college drop out, on three separate occasions from community college. Maybe my heart wasn't there. Maybe I didn't try hard enough or lacked motivation. It's possible that this avenue just wasn't the proper route in my life. Whatever the case, my particular skill set and talents were not suitable for the college environment (or professional workplace by extension). I discovered I had no artistic skills, couldn't program or code to save my life and generally lacked all desired skills requested by game studios and developers. Discovering this at the time, led to a heavy onset of depression. My only option, it seemed, was to join the ranks of the seemingly untalented individuals on the blue-collar workforce. Despite my preference for physical labor, let's be real here: it doesn't pay well. With financial hardships, life is just bumpy in general, and this, coupled with love struggles, made for many uncertainties and tribulations I had to overcome. 

If I had better guidance, had received more support, had tried harder, things may have been different. Nonetheless, I managed to find my own place in life through my own means and as a result of personal struggle and hardship. Circling back to Zeta Wolf, I believe that relationship advice and guidance (for guys) cannot be taught in the traditional sense. There are no set steps to follow to achieve success. However, there is one constant here: you have to meet women, or they have to meet you, through whatever means or technology. Despite popular belief, you don't actually have to proactively approach anyone (and despite being a certain theme of this game) but you do have to make the right choices. Acting passively (or in response to someone's action or approach), is in many ways, a better and easier way to find love. This, among other themes, will be greatly explored in the narrative of the game. As I alluded to before, simply saying this or proving that it works is not holistically effective. There are many nuances to romance and there is certainly not a single catch-all method. 

More on time management as a developer, I find it best to be intensely focused toward your goals. Most importantly, for me at least, it helps to cast unnecessary distractions out of your life. For example, when I'm making a game, investing time in playing games in the recreational sense just becomes unproductive. I only have so much free time as it is, and I find reading, watching media and hanging with family more relaxing. The problem lies in the fact that games are often made to get their player base addicted to them. You could imagine how much interference these games would provide to an aspiring developer. Speaking of, this reminds me of the days back in high school. Whenever I laid down on the bed for a few minutes to rest my eyes—my homework always ended up incomplete. Procrastination was the bane of my existence. Even though I operate with very loose deadlines within this project, nothing will ultimately get done if I put off work. Similarly with girls, I will put this advice out there: mentally, you should exist in one of two frames of mind when it comes to romance. You should either exist in a state where you are approaching/asking out girls without hesitation, or you should put them out of your mind, getting attached to no one in particular—and just living your life. In either case, it is best remove yourself from  desperate urges that bond you to any "crush". Obviously, love is much more complicated than this, and I hope that by playing our game, you can witness similar interactions play out over the course of the story. 

With that, our devlog comes to an end. I must get back on the game development grind—for you guys, our players. Without you, well, none of this would be possible, put simply. It's an obvious thing, but at the same time, it must be stated. Once more, I must give appreciation to Nour Hendryks and other commentators on our page. You didn't have to take time out of your day to share your thoughts, but you did, so thank you.