Hey there!
Since right now we're focused on a combination of Crystal Springs preparation and Starlight Isles finalization work, we're not going to go as in-depth as previous progress reports -- but rather focus more on a few smaller things.
Let's start!
Brief Catch-Up!
In case you missed our August 2023 Progress Report, here are its major highlights:
Most notably, we reported that Starlight Isles reached functional completion, with the entire area being fully playable from start to finish -- though from a technical standpoint:
"Functionally complete" refers to having an area fully playable from a technical standpoint -- meaning that players can get from the beginning to the end.
Not all assets have been implemented, nor some writing.
Functional completion does not account for any side content that is not required to fully progress throughout the area (i.e. side content, certain route material, etc.)
Out of everything that's been implemented, not all content is fully polished or playtested.
This meant we've been able to begin more in-depth development of Crystal Springs in addition to what's left for Starlight Isles!
When it comes to our general progress:
Writing -- The entire major script for Starlight Isles was finished.
Artwork -- Necessary assets for village content, polish material, and Crystal Springs preparation were made.
Soundtrack -- We had 33/36 planned tracks for Starlight Isles, 3/4 current Crystal Springs tracks, and some "extras" tracks completed.
Programming -- As stated, Starlight Isles is functionally complete; nearly all Crystal Springs introductory rooms were fully-implemented (excluding some polish.)
In non-development news, Koffin-K was part of another character contest!
From October 1-18, The_Ginger_Heed hosted an Undertale OC poll tournament -- we initially weren't too involved in this one, but decided to post this animation to Twitter on October 9th once Koffin-K was pitted against Taxiderby's Red.
Unlike last year's tournament, though, he lost against her this time around.
Even still, we had a fun time coming up with this video, and paying tribute to the original Undertale: Red fangame (posted on December 16, 2015!)
Progress Updates
Currently, we're focused on making refinements to Starlight Isles and implementing still-needed content whilst preparing for further in-depth work on Crystal Springs -- here's what this looks like:
Writing -- We've finished the entire Starlight Isles script!
All miscellaneous minor dialogue and flavor text throughout Starlight Isles (resets, routes, side content, etc.) have been written.
All script for the Crystal Springs introductory rooms has been written.
Artwork -- Necessary assets for village content, sidequests, polish material, and Crystal Springs preparation have been made.
Soundtrack -- We currently have 34/36 tracks for Starlight Isles completed, and all 4 currently planned tracks for Crystal Springs completed!
The final 2 tracks for Starlight Isles are a work-in-progress.
We also remade a track from Demo v1.0, which we'll talk about momentarily.
Programming -- Various major & side content additions have been made, as well as bug fixes and polish changes.
We're currently playing "catch-up" with finished assets (writing/art/music) for implementation before we move onto future content implementation.
Small Previews
For this progress report, we're going to focus a little more on some minor content previews! These mainly consist of refinements to existing content -- primarily for Demo v2.0, which has been retroactively applied to Demo v1.0 (Ruined Home) material.
"A Special Feeling" V2
First up, we have an updated version of "A Special Feeling" -- its composer, Devilredd, wanted to revisit this track due to dissatisfaction with its previous iteration, and wanting to focus more on an "unsettling" feeling over something that "tried too hard to be spooky."
We're really happy with how this turned out! Although we have yet to update our YouTube soundtrack playlist with this change, we'll make sure to do so at some point in the near future.
Mini Dialogue Portraits!
Sometimes when implementing new features in-game, we find places for them in earlier segments! In this case, we decided to take a page out of Deltarune's book: tiny talk sprites!
While this feature was specifically implemented for certain characters in Demo v2.0, we decided to reutilize this for The Ruined Knights -- even though they have their own dialogue quirks and talk animations, we gave them unique sprites to improve clarity for who's speaking at a given moment.
Sidequest Notifications!
Something else we've decided to add to improve visual clarity are sidequest notifications! With these, it'll be much more clear which characters have something important to tell you -- and who you need to interact with for certain sidequests.
Of course, we've decided to backport this to The City of Old's sidequests...
.. In addition to the sidequests of Starstruck Village in Demo v2.0!
That's everything for now!
At some point in the not-too-distant future, we're going to have some more in-depth information on what we've been working on -- as well as what's to come.
We'll see you then!
- Beethovenus and Team Switched
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