Devlog #13: Story teaser! (And another overdue yapfest)

Hello again! I've made very good progress on the rendering front over the past week. I've gotten 9 omniscient events in total finished and implemented already.

I'm really loving how the story's progressing so far. Like I said before, the fact that things have finally gotten to where I want them to be, has made working on the game far more exciting as well.

I was thinking that instead of previews, I would start posting story snippets like this one every Monday, to give some context and build up excitement for the release without spoiling anything. Unfortunately I couldn't do that before, given I hadn't made any renders, but rejoice! I'll make up for that now!

With the second teaser, we get Jeremy's POV! It has become a core part of the game from day 41 onwards. I'm toying with the idea of adding some differences depending on the mode you choose to play. (For example, other characters' inner monologues only appearing if you choose omniscient mode). There hasn't been a need for that so far in the story, but it's still an idea I'm open to exploring if I feel it adds more to the game and doesn't take too long to implement properly.

Also, the addition of Jeremy's POV, has allowed me to start exploring and building up certain characters (cough - Bonnie - cough) without worrying too much about restrictions.

And here's the final teaser! Note that these are all from early on in the update. When I get to rendering the other half (hopefully by the end of this week), I'll post those when they're done.

I've also added all of them to a MEGA folder, in case you want to download them in one go : Teaser folder

And this is where today's Devlog ends! I'm going to yap a bunch now in the next sections. When I released V2, I said that I would make a long post detailing my thought process behind the story progression, the characters, and what to expect in the future. I never got around to it, but no time like the present right?

If you tuned in to this Devlog just to check on this week's progress, feel free to stop reading now, as what's coming next is a lengthy section talking about how I view things in the story and my personal thought process(es) into its development.

And of course this goes without saying but, if you haven't played V2 yet, this next section contains some light spoilers for that version. Now let's get to it, breaking down each character individually.

• Adrianna:

Adrianna's proven herself to be both the easiest and hardest character to write for me for two reasons:

I . Who she is.

She's a rebellious person by nature who's been constantly reprimanded and corrected by everyone around her, and she finally finds herself in a position where she can impose herself onto others with impunity. Yet of course like any other story, that comes with a price. And that's where I have to navigate things carefully. Her struggle between her desires and the price she has to pay to indulge in them.

In short, she's bound to ask herself the question "Is all of this worth it?" time and time again, and I plan on making the answer yes while making it feel impactful, or rather earned. And that's where the mix of easy/hard to write comes from. I know who I want her to become by the end of the story, and what roles she needs to play both in her personal development, and the broader narrative, but getting her to that point makes it so I have to consider a lot of things before committing and following through on her story beats.

II. A different approach.

Physical corruption (the character cheating or committing a sexual act they shouldn't) is usually climax for stories like this one.

I'm opting instead to go a different route with Adi: one where the rationalizations come after the betrayal, not before. The real climax of her story is planned to be her mental shift. The things she says to herself to justify the person she's becoming - or maybe in her mind - the person she's always been, making it so (eventually) her mental descent hurts more than anything physical could.

What can we expect in her story?

I can't share too much, because I don't want to spoil it for you guys so I'll keep it as vague as possible.

Simply: Mental turmoil and compartmentalization. A consistent string of excuses she will cling to, in an attempt to explain and understand her actions herself.

• Gemma:

I'm writing her as someone who fails to see the dots, rather than unable to connect them.

The best example I can give of that is when Marissa expressed doubt over Trevor's intentions, and Gemma didn't just brush them away like they were nothing. She finally managed to put two and two together, and notice that something IS off, but only after it's been pointed out to her by another person. She's simply not perceptive, instead of being outright dumb, and that opens up the opportunity for people to shape her view of things however they see fit if done carefully enough, and that's the cornerstone I'll be building her story on top of.

What to expect:

When it comes to V2, she did take a little bit of a backseat narratively, with her events being more and more setup. But now that we've entered the overlap stage of broader narrative, her relevance is only going to go up from here and I'm very excited for all of you to see what I have in store for her down the line.

• Marissa

Oh boy. Sorry to disappoint, but I won't be elaborating on anything when it comes to her. The less you know about her story, the better it'll land. As for the type of person/character she is, I'll be leaving that up to you to explore and decide.

• Overall:

Each of the three main girls is bound to go through mental struggles and dissonance somewhere down the line, and now that they'll all be in close proximity to each other, whether they choose to keep things to themselves or confide in one another remains to be seen, but things could get really messy.

And I'm sure that's what we all want.

And that's all! What a yapfest, right? But most of you have been supporting me from day one, so the least I owe you is transparency and a peek behind the curtain and into my thought process when it comes to the story.

I've said it a bunch of times already, and I'll keep saying it. Thank you so much for your support and interest in the game, and I hope you'll love what I have to deliver. Have a wonderful week!