Hey hey everyone! Time for the monthly Devlog :V

Alright, so first off, I will be announcing the release of v0.09 on the day of the 2nd Anniversary of Dungeon Days's release! :V Yeah it's almost time for the second anniversary and I can't believe it came by so quickly! Time sure does fly and all that jazz. So for that matter, the day I'll be releasing early early access will be on OCTOBER 27th! This'll give me an extra week of polish work and also just aligns with the anniversary date :V

So for that matter, v0.09 is going along well. Had to reorganize a little because one scene in particular was rather IMMENSE, so had to cut that in two, but otherwise things are trucking at a decent enough pace. I don't want to jinx anything but I will say that you guys are at least getting more scenes than the previous two updates for sure, that is confirmed.

And now, I want to address some elephants in the room, some more obvious than others. The first being the new sprite system that I've been testing out. 

I'm not gonna lie, I personally like it a lot and I'm fairly happy with the results I've been getting. I was raised on a TON of games that implemented sprites as a core aspect of more blanketed, non-action conversations. So for me, it's a bit nostalgic but something comfortable that I still think works well for Dungeon Days. It's still in practice today and still widely used for many, many current VNs and games out there as well! Now, do I wish that I had done this from the beginning so that the style change wasn't as abrupt? Yes. But I have to make steps to keep my sanity in check and doing this helps alleviate a lot of stress and pressure on me during development.

Speaking of, I just want to clarify, not use as an excuse, that if you don't already know, I work a full-time job as well as do this. Along with other responsibilities out in the world, I try and fill in my off work time with work on Dungeon Days and the occasional game session to de-stress. I can't tell you how many hours of sleep I've lost trying to figure out something in the studio or writing or editing or finding music, etc.  I'm just saying that I'm doing this with some help from friends, but I'm the only dedicated worker on this long, long project.

And speaking of that, I also wanted to talk about the less obvious elephant in the room that I realized I never actually discussed; the length of Dungeon Days... 1. Yeah you read right. So when I first started Dungeon Days, I planned it to be long. Like, "gonna take me several years" long. I was thinking it would be a good romp to do on the side and maybe make my main job. I was, of course, horribly mistaken and didn't realize how much work would be needed to put into it. And then when I finally had a sit down with a friend and really boiled it down, I realized something a bit horrifying...

With everything that I've done in these last two years, I've only done a little over 5% of the FIRST Dungeon Days. I had planned for THREE Dungeon Days, a trilogy. To say that I bit off more than I could chew is an understatement but at the time of conception, I didn't think it would nearly be that long for development time. For total clarity, I currently have planned, after shortening it, to six total Arcs, each dedicated to a pair of the main characters and then the ending arc. The Wes & Pah Arc, the Celeste & Rainha Arc, the Koko & Adzumi Arc, the Vanhi & Kendra Arc, and the Callie & Juliet Arc. At the moment, we are at the beginning of Part 2 of 3 on the Wes & Pah Arc. 

To elaborate a little, this is NOT a finalized list, but rather what I had had planned and recently realized how much was left. A staggering amount, especially at the pace I was at. I'm currently in the works on trying to figure out ways to condense things or shorten stuff so this will most likely be changed up in the future. But I'd rather be clear with you all in the scope of Dungeon Days and why sometimes it may seem like I have odd scenes or conversations that seem unnecessary. Let me say that I don't make unnecessary scenes because I don't have the time for it. 

Anyways, if you have any questions, please please please just DM me on Discord or ask about it in the Discord server. I will be able to answer you very quickly on there as to any other site. The last thing I want is to deceive my audience in terms of VN development and this devlog was a chunky one so let me know if you have any questions. If you don't, then I'll just see you on  OCTOBER 27th! Also if you just wanna see me doing dev stuff, stop by the Discord as well and you can join in on the Dungeon Discussion channel there and see some spoilers and stuff about the Dungeon Days universe as well! I'm always theorycrafting with others in there and the conversations and ideas can get wild! :V

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