Hey lovebirds.

Today's another progress report. We started doing these on holidays instead of monthly since it gives us more time to think and we feel less pressured to push updates on time.

That being said, this one's not really that big. We've been chilling back since the start of 2022 for the most part. Hopefully this will still be interesting though.

Here's a quick summary of what we did in the past month:

• Finished various character animations and poses

• Worked on talk sprites for Susie, Berdly, and others

• Redesigned the school lobby

• Brainstormed several cool boss ideas for Chapter 1

• Finalized the ENDING

The development process is mainly a group of three team members fooling around and sharing their ideas, with a couple others pitching in sometimes.

@Kidthatcandostuff is essentially the lead when it comes to writing every major event in the story. He was actually the one who came up with the entire idea for this current reboot.

@JustTheMoon also helps a lot with starting the writing and keeping ourselves on track. If he wasn't here we'd probably go insane working on this! Haha. Ha. (We're always insane.)

Finishing dialogue for the demo has been pretty slow though, since coming up with ideas is honestly a lot more fun than writing them.

But we don't see the point in hiring any extra writers because it would start to feel more chaotic. It's already hard enough to keep everyone on the same page as it is.

A lot of work recently has generally been put into ideas. This began after Chapter 2 released and hasn't really stopped since then.

While it's not necessarily progress on the demo, it at least helps us build the start of the game with hindsight.

There are many things further in the story we need to prepare for, and those parts would be harder to add if we didn't know about them beforehand.

We've mostly been getting things done in terms of sprites. Not to mention the fact we've also been testing character expressions and dialogue on our Tumblr.

The approach with these talk sprites are minor touchups. Still immediately recognizable expressions, but with an added flavor to make it feel slightly more fresh.

More importantly though are the expanded overworld animations, which we've been working on sporadically.

We've thought of many ways to breathe more life into Chapter 1. In some ways, we're actually more excited about this chapter than the second.

We're incredibly confident in the story we want to tell. It's filled with hilarious, badass, and shocking moments.

Looking at our current plans, it's crazy to think that this was once just a simple swap AU.

WHEN ARE WE GOING TO GET GAMEPLAY?

Here's the answer. We have no idea!! Mostly because there are factors outside of our control which are stopping us from beginning on the actual GAME part. That's why we haven't been in a rush to get things done.

Problems include schoolwork, burnout, tech problems, and modding support for Chapter 1&2 honestly not being that great at the moment.

We're obviously dying to show what we've been cooking up, but a small team comprised of mostly teenagers can only move development so fast.

Though next time we have something to say, it's likely the design phase will be DONE or near completion. That means we'll be fully ready to begin work on a playable mod.

For now, the team's next focus will be on designing the first Dark World area: the Valley.

That's the end for today's progress report. Here's something extra before you go!

@JustTheMoon made some new Valentines-themed stickers for our Discord server, so go check 'em out!

Stay in love, lovebirds.

Or LOVE... whatever you prefer, I guess.

• Team Fun Gang