First, the Update
Coding
I, Salty, have started my work on Doll Manor. I first got all the images updated with their inked versions, so none of the placeholders are left. I also reorganized how the transformation text is handled and will be writing the next three sequences tomorrow.
I went over the combat design of Text Adventure mode with artist Chickenwhite and good-design-person Klaysee, and we came up with some improvements. I’ll be putting together a prototype this week to see how it turns out.
Aaaart
Spriter Urimas has completed cutting up the bee parts for animation, and we all laughed at the fact that he’s a serial killer. Ha ha! Ha.
Artist Stinkehund completed inkwork for all the dolls and will be doing some color samples probably next week. He has some things to do that he’s been putting off for a while. We need to decide on a shading technique which the artists will do without my input because what the hell do I know?
Artist Chickenwhite is working on the covers for the Pandemonium Story series. Patrons will get to see a preview of the cover! Sign up today!
Artist Koops is actually moving and won’t be doing any art for a little while due to a scuffle on a Philadelphia basketball court. Once she’s done changing houses, she will be doing the design for Christine’s doll form later in chapter 5.
Things that are neither Art nor Coding
Writer MarioneTTe reports that he is very close to completing the Bee story and the Ghost story shall follow soon after. Once the cover art is finalized we will be submitting the Slime and Cultist stories to e-reader purchasing stores where you can buy them if you aren’t a 5$ patron for the specific months they were available. $5+ patrons for December AND January will get the Ghost and Bee stories for free, look forward to it!
Musician DrDissonance is currently standing by. I will have more work for him soon but it’s on the back burner while I deal with getting Doll Manor sorted out.
Second, the Budget
Here is the project budget report for January 2019. Look at all those numbers, they sure are shiny. Stay shiny, numbers.
Third, the Poll
Only one question was actually asked this time, and look what the result was! People want to see Alraune Mei getting lewded by a random bee, animated by Urimas in sprites. Okay. That’s what we’ll be doing next. We’re currently doing a Zombee scene and can expect this next one to be in the next prototype.
Fourth, Our Big Meeting
Hey, we had a meeting on Saturday and discussed our plans for the project. My goal is to have Prototype 5-4 out sometime in April. The majority of the work needed is actually on me, I have to complete three sidequests and three segments of the main quest, in addition to Doll Manor. Chicken needs to only produce about 14 more images and then renormalize shading on Chapter 1’s, which is something that can be a work-in-progress when 5-4 goes live.
If 5-4 is as far along as I want it to be, then Chapter 5 will be story-complete. There will be a few sidequests left to go before I can declare Chapter 5 to be complete, but 5-4 is going to be the “almost there” point.
We also went through the sidequests and fleshed them out a bit, which is good because I am a creative swamp.
Lastly, we discussed alternatives to Patreon. This is a backup thing since platforms are not your friends. Recently, Patreon angered some people who I’d prefer not to promote by naming. Patreon has effectively no internal systems or regulations in place by which to judge which people get banned or demoted, and enforce these loosely-defined regulations arbitrarily. We still use the platform, but we’re also aware that Patreon deciding to destroy us for any reason would cripple the project, so we should have alternatives ready.
We’ll be looking into other platforms which can serve as a backup. I’ll be doing the research myself.
Pandemonium Development 