Hello!

22/31 done. Render count now clean over 2000. I've previously estimated that the chapter would end up containing around 2500 renders, but I now think it may even push 3000 when all's said and done. I've got three scenes still to do that'll take about 100 each themselves.

But the most important part is that the end of Chapter 2 is well and truly in sight for me now. I'm very excited. There will be one more dev log before the release when I've finished rendering these last 9 scenes. Then after that I'll have to test it, although the game is playable in it's current state, it's just the images that are missing. But I'll have to test it for continuity etc., add in/fix any major issues with the visual side of things, and make sure the general flow of the chapter works. I can't imagine that side of things taking too long, but I'll better be able to guess in the next dev log how long that will all take. There's quite a lot of branching in chapter 2, both significant and less so, and I obviously want to make sure as many possible paths have been tested and checked as I can, but as I say I don't see that side of things delaying the release dramatically unless I realise I somehow have to re-render whole sections of the game, but I can't see how that would happen.

Not too much else to add for this dev log. I've continued to plan and write some of the future chapters, but obviously I can't really talk too much about that kinda stuff. But it's made making Chapter 2 really quite fun. I enjoyed making chapter 1, but it was very introductory, whereas chapter 2, while still establishing the world and the characters, contains a lot more story stuff, and it's been fun to weave little hints and foreshadowing moments into it.

If there's one thing I can say about this project, without spoiling any actual content in the story or game, it's that I enjoy the subversion of expectation. I've tried my best in these first two chapters to create a world with characters that feel real, at least to a certain extent. And, like real people, no-one's just a caricature of a stereotype. People are good and bad, honest and deceptive, authentic and hypocritical, whatever, nobody is one-dimensional, nobody is perfect. I've not personally read loads of other visual novels, but the ones that I enjoy the most have the common theme of complex characters, and characters with their own motivations. Games that are more than about one story, one character.

Anyway, attached above are some previews of what I was working on since the last dev log.