'Ello, 'ello, it's the 31st again, which means its time for shitposting and a summary of where the project's at!

Buckle up gang, it's a long one.

Art

No real changes to report. The art for the demo is done, aside from one character sprite and one small cut-in. There are certainly things I'd LIKE to do (such as fixing Cyrus's eyebrows, giving Cory facial expressions more befitting of his personality, and redoing the title screen), but on the whole the demo functions with the art that's already in place.

(And, yes, there's a couple of new CG's I'm not showing off here. They may not be spoilers but I do want to save some surprises for the next build!)

In regards to November's post, I've decided not to do anything with the cafe window as I can't think of anything interesting put there. That said, I might include a close-up of the cafe's wall - paintings, photographs, news clippings, etc. Could be fun for both cameo purposes, missing-barista-clue purposes, and expanding on the lore of the world.

In the event that it's mostly cameo-centric, I'll make a post and/or swing by the Discord to ask around for volunteer characters. But that won't be for some time.

Audio

All in all, it's coming along quite well! Here's a video showing off how things sound. (This is a scene that's in the prototype, so you can watch this without any fear of spoilers.)

The character speech-bloops are still mostly a work in progress, so if you have any preference for the pitch of your character's voice, let me know and I'll get right on that.

As for music - currently, the soundtrack is composed of royalty-free and public domain songs. (And for those who are curious, Team Sugar's alley uses Alone in a Crowd by Joel Steudler.) If you have any recommendations for music packs, or people who are happy to do musical commissions for free games, hmu!

Writing (AKA Incredibly Mild Spoiler Time)

Team Sugar's side of the demo is done and has been for a while now. Sugar's side was always the easiest to write, as the bulk of the outline was done in a manic, 12-hour rush to make the end of fight deadline, and the rest was a matter of riding out that momentum. The outro still needs a bit of tweaking to fit with whatever scene is supposed to come next, but! That's a problem for the very end of demo development. You can't edit for coherency when everything else has yet to be written.

Spice's side has been giving me some trouble. I've got the major events written out, and technically it's playable from start to finish - albeit in a choppy prototype-y way. But most of the side-conversations and character moments are... well.

Not exactly publication-worthy material, shall we say.

Many of the scenes feel either flat or unfunny or both, and I think that's largely due to me not yet having as good a grip on the characters and their place in the world as I do with Sugar. Sugar's dynamic is easy for me to work with; they're a chaotic, high-energy heist team with a vendetta against the "pretentious" cafe down the street. Their place in the world often involves things that have exploded recently.

Spice, meanwhile, is a little more restrained - a collection of investigators and researchers of varying areas of interest and experience, plus the demon that hangs out with them because nerds are fun to mess with. (And also Ria.) While they have some similarities in terms of personality and goals... I dunno. There's still something missing that would help tie everything together.

I've been brainstorming ways to give Spice a bit more group history. Current train of thought is that every individual on Spice has had to deal with the fallout of Sugar's actions at some point, and they banded together to make those clean-ups easier. (Don't get me wrong -- they're definitely not anything remotely lawful, and a lot of their problem-solving methods are equally weird, ill-advised or dangerous. They're just a teeeeeny bit more subtle and defense-oriented.)

But if that doesn't work out, then maybe they met some other way. Maybe they coincidentally survived the Circadian City apocalypse together and suck together afterwards for insurance purposes. Or they're all members of an online forum where you talk shit about the people who caused your tragic backstory. Whatever the common thread is, it's probably gonna be weird. Because that's what this world thrives on.

Decisions, decisions. Either way, ironing that out is priority number one for the near future. And if you guys have any thoughts or suggestions - do let me know.

As always, thanks again for sticking around for development! It's wild to me how many page-views and comments this game gets, considering it's not publicaly visible on GameJolt yet.

See you all in February, if not sooner! o7