Progress Report: Sept 2015

Behold! The new and improved progress chart!

Progress Chart Sept 2015

Progress Chart Sept 2015

Now, how does it compare to last time?

First off, the story. I’ve written an additional 80 pages or so, bringing the total to 163. Though that doesn’t really tell everything. I also did some pretty significant editing on the first 80 pages, made a new and better story flowchart, and did a lot more planning. As for the 25% thing though, that’s a guess. I’m estimating the entire script will end up around 600 – 700 pages, but it’s really too early to say for sure. Anything between 500 and maybe 1,000 is possible.
So how long is it going to take the write the rest? Well, it depends a lot on how much time I have to work on it. If I can spend an average of 2 hours a day, five days a week, I can probably write around 150 pages a month, give or take, once I really get going. Though getting up to that speed requires that I’m able to mostly stick to a regular writing schedule which, with my other work and responsibilities, isn’t always possible. Ideally, I’d like to write for several hours a day, five or six days a week. If I can pull that off, I could have the script done by the end of the year. But that may not be possible. Honestly, if I can finish by next summer I’ll be happy. That said, it looks like I’m going to have a bit more free time than I expected for the next few months, but a lot less next year. So the more I can get done this year, the better.

In the character art section, the cleanup and coloring is done, which freed me up to focus on the script. Unfortunately, the shading progress has barely budged. Some unfortunate issue have left Brian with little time to work on the shading. However, I’ve been looking for someone to take over and get that finished and work should hopefully resume soon.

The background art is now complete!

Now for a big change, CG art has gone from a potential addition to a confirmed part of the game, as you’ve noticed if you’ve been following this blog. At present, 25% of the CGs are done and I know a few more are pretty far along. Progress was moving very quickly for a while. It’s slowed down a lot right now, but will hopefully get back up to speed soon. Once it does, the remaining CGs will likely been finished fairly quickly.

Sound and music? No progress whatsoever… I had a composer lined up, but things happened and he was forced to drop out, so now I need to find someone new. That hasn’t been a top priority lately, but I’ll get to it sometime soonish.

And the rest of the chart is unchanged. Of course, the big question is the release date. Well, if everything went perfectly, the end of this year isn’t impossible, but don’t hold your breath, it’s highly unlikely. Spring or summer next year, however, are more realistic targets, assuming there are no big problems and I don’t get too ridiculously busy with other things. What about a demo? Well, I’ll talk about that next time…