Update 4 (12/04/2025)
Hey everyone!
Sorry this update took longer than expected—college has been rough lately. This update adds around 40k new words, bringing the total word count to 180k. It includes a follow-up to the end of Chapter 1 to help set the stage for what’s coming next, and also introduces two new romance options, who have been added to the Codex.
The stat screen has also received some changes. In addition to Combat Skill, you’ll now see Magic Skill and Flight Skill, both of which you’ll be able to train throughout the story. However, these new stats aren’t fully implemented just yet in this version.
This update is more of a sneak peek, mainly because I really needed some feedback. At the moment, choices in Chapter 2 don’t affect stats or relationship values. That will be added later, along with the full integration of the new skills, once I get a better idea of how everything is working.
Some Design Struggles
I ran into a few complications while writing this part, especially having to create two separate versions of scenes: one if you brought Arael with you, and one if you didn’t. Writing these branching paths is incredibly time-consuming and gets confusing quickly—and that’s just for one character.
- Optional Companions vs. Narrative Depth
Originally, the two new ROs were supposed to be optional companions—you could recruit them or send them away. But juggling every possible combination of companions quickly felt overwhelming. If I want to keep developing deeper, meaningful interactions with each character (which I really enjoy doing), this path feels unsustainable.
So I’m thinking of two options:
- A) Make companions non-optional, allowing for richer, more integrated scenes.
- B) Keep companions optional, but reduce their involvement in main scenes, instead reserving their content for side interactions or standalone relationship events.
I’m not the biggest fan of option B, but it might be the only feasible approach if I want to keep them optional and avoid burnout. I’d love to hear what you all think: would you rather have deeper scenes with non-optional characters, or keep the choice of companions even if their role is more surface-level?
- Too Many Arael Variations
I may have gone overboard with the variations in Arael’s path. Originally, when returning to Emberford, if she went with you, you could choose to carry her, leave her behind, or slow your pace so she could keep up. If you chose to slow down, you’d arrive late in Emberford. I had plans for that, but it started branching too far and became hard to manage—plus, I think most players would rather get there on time anyway, so i decided to cut it off for now.
From now on, I think I’ll need to simplify how I handle Arael’s path. I thought of two potential solutions:
- A) Make it so Arael can’t become an enemy during the first encounter. She always sticks around after Chapter 2, either as just a companion or a romance option.
- B) If you’re not romancing her, she disappears after Chapter 1 and hides somewhere else—essentially being written out. This way, I’d only have to write two versions (enemy and romance) instead of three.
Again, I’d really appreciate your thoughts on this. I’ll probably make a poll later, but for now i’d like to hear your reasoning or any suggestions you guys might have of alternative options!
Lastly, I was juggling so many variations that I might’ve missed some continuity details. If you notice any mistakes or inconsistencies, please let me know here so I can fix them.
Thanks so much for all the support and feedback so far—it really keeps me going.
