Hello everyone! 

Now that February is winding down, I want to take the time to share about some progress that's been happening. Sorry if there are more typos than usual. I am a crone who pulled a fucking rib in their sleep, and now sitting up fucking hurts.

Let's do this in proper order though:

Sacrarium Pario

Pario's last CGs are still in development. 1 out of 5 is completed though! It's the one I put up for the teaser last time, and it is a neutral CG that plays on most routes. The remaining for are still being worked on.

The Woeful Rose & The Bitter Crow

WRBC has had some lovely work done. Currently about 70k of the 150k script is fully programmed. I haven't done the last bit because poor Elizabella needs a bit more time to tackle editing that beast of a remaining script.

As previously shown off, I've also included some shaders to help make the sprites blend in with the backgrounds, and there is some light ATL code included for sprite movement.

We've also gotten some of our first CGs in! Including the CG we'll be using for Zahir's intro made by @oblivion-blivi3!

I've also gotten in some other lovely images of course, but I don't want to post spoilers ;3

I've also fixed a major bug that caused the game to not continue into the route section like it was supposed to. I accidentally used an elif when I should've just used if. You live and you learn.

Sacrarium Contego

As previously mentioned, Contego has been outlined from start to finish. I've also determined the asset count and made my godawful placeholder backgrounds. Truly photo editing is an art, and I dunno how to do it. I'm hoping and praying to find a BG artist (especially since I actually want kind of a faded painted vase vibe for the BGs. I.E: no super detailed rendering, just line art and simple flats).

As it stands, the rough outline I put into the programming test managed to survive not getting drop kicked by my buddy. Though he let out an audible groan upon realizing how many variations he's gonna have to test in the future.

Currently, the word count for Contego's first third is about 16k in total (though that does include variations and callbacks). I was planning on blitzing through the rest of it for the end of February, but sitting at my desk fucking hurts rn. So that may or may not happen depending on how I'm feeling since...well...I think I have another 20-30k words to add to this first section. I've stopped trying to guesstimate how long my stuff will end up being. I just need to finish up the non-schedule elements of the script and the last two "I want to do x today" scenes.

Honestly, Contego's rigid structure is actually helping with the writing since I get lost less often. Once the 'first test' section is done, all that will remain is the 'second test' (which will be longer since Necare will have formed more of an opinion on the player), and then of course, the 'final test' which is the finale.

It's been fun putting in trackers for conversations that happened (how rude were you when you first met Mayukh?) and tracking separate bars for things (Necare's affection, Mayukh's fear, MC's Faith). Downside is that it also means that stuff spiderwebs more easily. Still, it's been intriguing!

I've also been fiddling with the itch.io pages for Contego and Rescisco.

Project I.C.

I managed to scope knife it into a workable product. I word vomited about it to an artist who is down to clown VvV.

I'm not pulling focus away from Sacrarium to full sell work on it yet, but I am going to go about securing assets. I've also been fiddling with visual stuff I want to do. My current goal is to get Sacrarium entirely written and mostly programmed while slowly expanding out that game. Sacrarium is actually the testing grounds for a lot of mechanics that I'm thinking about including in Project I.C., so it's important to finish Sacrarium first. Then, I'll fully transition to hammering it out.

As for more details about it, I can't say! However, I will leave you with the working tagline:

Is maintaining your cover worth your life?

Conclusion

That's all I've got for you this month everyone! Not a particularly busy month since my IRL job has been dicking over my hours, so my schedule has been nonsensical at best. Still, I'm happy with the progress I've made!

Anyways, I'm off to go work my IRL job hours, and then try to find a comfortable position to settle in that doesn't make my back scream and desperately not sneeze for any reason.