First off, I wanted to preface things by mentioning that Zeta Wolf is the third most anticipated Visual Novel coming to Kickstarter (out of 11 projects). Thank you all for following! I’m hoping I can keep the hype train rolling, and trust me, I have quite a lot to show still! For now, the next milestone is 100 followers, but we’ll get there. Follow us on Kickstarter here to get immediate notification of our launch. I hope to reveal the date shortly, but it’s looking like late February next year.  

December is here! Cold weather, holiday spirit, family time, and more! Not the ideal situation for game developers though! Did I mention my wife is a huge Christmas enthusiast, and I have the inlaws staying over for three months? The latter half of November was busy as well, being in the retail space for work. Suffice it to say, I did not get as much programming done last month as I would have hoped. Nonetheless, let me give everyone the full report!

Programing Grind Continues

The unfortunate part about programming is that I have to be chained to my computer desk to complete any of it. This means dodging my 40 hours job, and any other family commitments, especially with company over. The environment has not been the best, but I'm doing all I can. Most of this progress has been toward drafting the GUI for the scene selection, which is quite extensive. I'll give you the breakdown here. The next demo is comprised of the following:

• 6 days of the "common route" (playable in past versions)
• 3 days of Ravias route, including one unlockable scene. 
• Extra scenes include preview scenes of the other girls and other non-chronological events.  

In total there are more than 40 "scenes" in the demo, as a rough estimate. With the GUI complete, the next task is actually to program things so the game knows what to do! That shouldn't be too difficult here, it's more about sitting down and connecting the dots to everything. If only I could easily grind out about a week of programming without life getting in the way. Hmm… 

That being said, I'm more or less content with how the scene selection feature has turned out, as it's a nice quality-of-life upgrade. As I mentioned before, you will immediately be able to jump into chapter 3 (new content) or revisit past scenes if you wish. Scene selection will unlock for day 7 onward after you complete the demo once. 

Unlockable Scenes 

There will be one unlockable scene in the demo, and it will take some work to get. Conceptually, I am a fan of these types of scenes, as it allows for more "gameplay" in a medium such as a visual novel. In this case, it opens up Siona's backstory bit by bit, as we know how mysterious she is. In essence, the content is there if you want to explore everything and work towards it. I will say that your progress is monitored regardless of saved games, similar to the glossary, or CG unlocks. Do keep in mind that certain unlocks have "triggers" that only activate during specific scenes. In order to obtain all glossary, CG and scene unlocks, you'll have to start the demo from square one. 

The above screenshot shows Day 9 of Ravia's route, to give you a small glimpse of things. 

For clarity, I will say that Alphi, Crescia, and Maikah's scenes technically unlock as well, but this is simply from completing the demo. The aforementioned scene with Siona requires additional conditions to be met (which I'll keep under wraps for now, but shouldn't be too difficult to figure out). 

Status of Trailer and Voiceover

Some good news, here, actually. Recently, I contacted a collaborator to assist with our Kickstarter trailer, so everything is lined up on that front. The bad news is that it will release on the day of the actual Kickstarter. However, this is intentional, mostly. With the date work actually begins (late Jan) and my marketing plans, it just happens to be the best way to do things, in my opinion. Speaking of marketing, I'm planning a live stream reveal of said trailer on my twitch and this will coincide with the launch of the Kickstarter. If you wish, please follow my twitch channel, but note that I stream only for extra special events, like this. 

About our voiceover progress, I will say that everything is nearly done! I recently received Ravia's (looking forward to reviewing it) and I'm just missing Siona and Arctia's which will be coming in December. There's also an audition I'm putting out for a female minor/supporting role to round out the demo. This character doesn't have artwork and is off-screen for now, but her role may expand depending on certain developments…

Latest Screenshots

I've been meaning to post the latest progress on Twitter, but they'll be up there eventually! For now, I'll give everyone here first dibs. 

The reunion with Lyca and Ferine happens in Chapter 3 (Day 8). They talk about your progress with your "chosen girl" and check up on you. There will be a converse-style event with each, similar to Chapter 2, but split up so the conversations are more self-contained.  They make a great duo, don't they? 

Secondly, we have a nice little screen of Alphi's scenario! The most popular girl so far (based on an extremely limited poll, mind you)! I'm just about to put everything together (music, voiceovers) and I hope you're looking forward to it as much as I am. 

One final screen that I nearly forgot—a small overhaul to our main menu. I added on-hover events that give a brief tooltip explaining the selection in greater detail.  

OST Previews

Recently, I posted up a full-extended track on our Youtube Channel, which you can check out below.  The following track, "Uncertain Path" plays during moments of intense anxiety and uncertainty. 

Here's a past tweet that shows some modifications to converse events and a sample of our new track " Sophisticated Teachings".  

https://twitter.com/AniClashStudios/status/1581333581472813056

...and that's likely all I have to share for now. I really have to put my foot down on the gas on the programming front. It's crunch time! 

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas everyone! I'll see you all in 2023!