Voltaic | See Post #311

[No_This_Is_Patrick]

So in the rewritten new chapter 2 specifically?

[trevers17]

All currently public chapters are being rewritten. But Chapters 2 and 3 will be condensed into a single Chapter 2, and the new Chapter 3 will be the old Chapter 4.

[No_This_Is_Patrick]

Nice

[trevers17]

Hey y’all, it’s been a bit since the last update, so I figured I’d keep everyone up to speed on what’s happening.

Unfortunately, I was expecting a job offer in December and I ended up not getting it yet. This has thrown me full-force back into the job hunt, with the added misfortune of needing to deal with my student loans and other financial stuff. What this means for Voltaic is that progress is going to be significantly slower, which is not what I was anticipating. This is likely going to push the release date a few months further into 2020. While I hate to do that, getting my finances and job sorted take priority in this situation, since I need to be alive to write. (And if I figure out how to write after death, well, maybe I’ll just cash in on that and pay off my loans lol.)

The good news is, once that’s all sorted out, I should be able to write a lot more because I won’t have to focus so much on finding a job or dealing with loan providers! I don’t really know when I will sort it out, but I promise that I at least will get it all sorted so I can get back to writing.

Thank you for your patience while I sort out my life. I know a lot of people are interested in this WIP and want to see it get out of this slump, so I won’t try to put things off too long. Thanks for being dedicated readers!

(If you’re interested in directly helping me out, check the main post for my Patreon and Kofi links. And no, I’m not actively posting on Patreon again - don’t worry about that ever coming back! Any contribution helps me out a ton, so please consider it if you want to help me get Voltaic published!)

[trevers17]

Hello my lovelies! Excellent news! I just accepted a full-time job today! So, while I still do expect a bit of delay on Voltaic, I can say with utmost certainty that I’m going to get the story out this year. I don’t start my full-time job until Feb. 2nd, so I’ll be using the last days of January to make some serious progress on the second chapter.

[Chopper]

Congratulations! I’ve followed Voltaic for a while now (from the shadows lol) and I’m really excited to see more! Good luck with the new job and of course the writing!

[Jeeshadow1]

Congrats!!!

[Jender]

Congrats, man!

[trevers17]

It’s been around a month since my last update, so I thought I’d let y’all know where I’m at. Just in case anyone thought that I’m not writing.

Chapter 1 is completely re-written (though I’m still considering some changes), and Chapter 2 is close to being done. I’m starting to realize that I need to drastically shorten this game because I can only milk so much out of the setting without becoming repetitive. Plus, dragging out the fight with Madison doesn’t help me develop her character or the MC well. So, expect things to move faster than before when the rewrites are provided, and also expect a lot less choice variety. I’m trying to simplify the game for my own sake, which means there’ll be a lot of cuts to things that were in the old version.

Namely, I’m looking at cutting out the Jordan/Carlton hazing conflict (it just doesn’t really fit in the overall narrative) and making the Jordan/Sabrina romance extremely casual. I realized that the Adrian/Carlton love triangle has the MC doing enough meddling that I need a romance that has less of that. Basically, if the MC pursues Sabrina at all, then Jordan won’t pursue her; likewise, he will if the MC is interested in someone else/no one. I don’t know yet if I want to give the MC a chance to stop him or if I want to just make it a random chance for them to end up together if the possibility exists. We’ll see!

As for Adrian and Carlton, I made Adrian a bit more straightforward about his interest in Carlton, and he won’t try to manipulate MC into staying away from Carlton by pushing a friendship with Sabrina (reading it back, that made no sense to me lol). Things will mostly be the same on that front, but there won’t be three different scenes with them. Instead, I’m just going to start with the Adrian/Carlton meddling scene and have it branch out into their individual scenes depending on what the player wants.

Also, there’s been a really major change: the MC is now one of three preset characters. You can select an MC with a specific gender and you can choose their approach, but that’s the extent of the customization. This should help alleviate some of the pains you all had with how I wrote the MC prior. I also reworked the personality system. You now have a fluctuating primary personality that will change dialogue both throughout the game and also in choices. Some choices will have a bigger impact if they match or oppose your main personality. Although you start with a major boost in one personality, you can change that by behaving in different ways. This should make a more gradual and satisfying change for those who start as one personality and transition to something else and also create a more cohesive experience for those who want to behave in a singular way.

Nothing else is particularly noteworthy to mention right now. Thank you all for your continued patience as I rework everything! I think you’re really going to enjoy the rewrites and I can’t wait to show you all everything I’m working on!

[No_This_Is_Patrick]

@trevers17

You can select an MC with a specific gender and you can choose their approach, but that’s the extent of the customization.

Can we still change the name and are the pictures still there, actually liked those.

@trevers17

I don’t know yet if I want to give the MC a chance to stop him

Yes please, don’t take this away from me

[trevers17]

You cannot change the PC’s name. You are either playing as Alex (male), Cheryl (female), or Rainn (non-binary). As for stopping Jordan, I will think about it. The way it’s currently coded isn’t satisfying, and I feel like the Adrian/Carlton triangle already has so much meddling that it makes the current approach to the Sabrina/Jordan romance repetitive.

[No_This_Is_Patrick]

I usually avoid the whole Carlton and Adrian thing so I’m not sure how much meddling is involved, but I felt the meddling in the Jordan one was fine considering for the Carlton/Adrian your able to get in a romance with Adrian or Carlton whereas it’s just Sabrina and it seems more of a main plot point in the story than the other one. Won’t lie I have a bias so I hope you do keep it, but even if you don’t it’s fine I’ll make Jordan disappear anyway.

[trevers17]

Hey y’all, quick update. There won’t be much progress this month because I’m currently moving into my apartment and it’s going to sap a lot of time and energy out of me. I’ll do my best to pick back up in April once I’m settled.

[trevers17]

Hello everyone! I hope you’ve been enjoying quarantine! (I’ve been playing a lot of Animal Crossing. Send kitchen counters please.)

Anyway, as I said, I intend to pick writing back up in April, and I’m starting off the month right by releasing the revised version of Chapter 1! I won’t say too much about it, only that there are some pretty heavy revisions that resulted in a lot of cutting. The chapter is definitely a bit shorter, but I feel like it packs more of a punch now. Definitely let me know if you agree or disagree!

You also might have noticed the new art, both in this thread and in the game (courtesy of the insanely talented @alexshu). I really, really love how he interpreted the characters and I feel like these new portraits show off a lot more personality. Plus, the art style is so cute!

I also made a pretty major change to customization, in that there’s actually no more customization. You now get a choice of three different characters: Alex, a guy; Cheryl, a girl; and Rainn, a non-binary person. Their names, pronouns, and appearances are all preset - their behavior and relationships are what you control. This is hopefully a way to address complaints about the disconnect between character portraits and imagine characters, and also to help clearly define the MC and make them feel like an active participant, not a bystander or meddler. I also made a pretty significant change to the personality system, but I’ll let you explore that yourself.

Feedback is both highly appreciated and sought after. I especially want to know what you think about the believability and likeability of the characters, and I want to know what you think of the more extensive backstories. And if you happen to spot any typo or grammar errors (I’m sure they’re there), let me know!

And with that, back to grinding away to pay off my house loan in ACNH.

EDIT: Also, while you can still continue into Chapter 2 and 3, they are not revised, so don’t expect any changes there. If you do see changes, let me know, because that’s something I have to fix somehow.

[tkxyzer]

Mmm… found a bug

[Misa101]

Are you going to giver our characters the new portrait style cause there uber cute.

[trevers17]

Yes! The girl on the new cover art is the Female MC. The portraits should be in the game already, but if they aren’t, I’ll make sure to add them in.

[LordLYR]

1st off, really luv’in the new demo. Played the old demo, but really like the changes & the new artwork. Looking forward to more. Just that when trying to play Chapter 2 & on, got this

. Is the work incomplete or just an error? Just thought I’d let u know.

[trevers17]

Thank you! Yeah, unfortunately, that error is kind of unfixable at the moment. I actually have a lot of progress on Chapter 2, and that error is occurring because I deleted the option to send Madison away at the beginning. I can’t fix it without uploading what I’ve written for Chapter 2, so I guess it’s only playable up to a certain point for now.

[Jender]

I really like the changes so far and the pics are great! I did think it was odd that Adrian gets.mad when you allow Carlton to kiss your hand, even though he legit tries to also kiss EVERYONES hand…like he goes around and does the same thing to everyone, sooo it’s weird that you are singled out as “Adrian is mad that you let Carlton kids tou even though he did it to everyone else too…” also, in this playthrough Adrian hadnt told me about his crush on Carlton, so (had i not played the previous wip i wouldnt have known) that made it doubly weird.

Oh, and I got this screen after telling…shit…Carlton’s friend (I forget his name…the straight dude that we cant romance) that he would catch more flies with honey: