Devlog #079 + Monstergirl poll #18 is on! (Patreon)

Finally, it is done!
I've finished drawing the new characters. I needed to add some story related characters unrelated to the polls and that's what I had been doing these past 2 months. The ones I did this month in particular gave me quite a bit of trouble, one of them is the second most visually complex character after Hydra I'd say. But anyway, this is now taken care of, and I'm super happy with the results! I've said this before but these characters are not going to be revealed, so this is something to look forward to in the next demo.

What is going to be revealed is the 3 NPCs that won in last month's polls, I mentionned that only a few days ago but I'll repeat it anyway: Deep sea Voleian will be revealed in the next devlog on October 1st, Mimic girl on November 1st, and Cow girl on December 1st.

So! Here is a look at the current state of the TO DO list:

-̶ ̶D̶r̶a̶w̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶n̶e̶w̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶a̶s̶

-̶ ̶D̶r̶a̶w̶ ̶n̶e̶w̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶r̶a̶c̶t̶e̶r̶s̶

- Draw new NPC characters

- Draw chibis

- Draw chibi ranks

- Draw new collectables

- Draw new shapes

- Implement everything

- Create the rooms

- Implement the new music and SFX once they're done

- Create the story scenes

- Create the shape waves and balance everything

- Write the dialogue

- Probably more stuff I can't think about right now

Now it may not look like much in that only 2 tasks have been crossed out out of however many, but these 2 tasks together do represent 50% of the time and effort that needs to be spent to clear the entirety of that list, give or take. So yeah, these were 2 colossal checkboxes, and it's done!

The next things I'll work on are the chibis, and of course the 3 poll NPCs. I do need to figure out exactly which chibis I'm going to need and what role these NPCs will have first, so I'll take some time to go over the story once more, in even more details this time. Obviously each character requires the base chibi sprites (idle, walking, fighting stance, KO, happy, sad, falling), but in some cases, some characters will need some additional sprites, during dialogue or story cutscenes in particular. Of course, I also need other chibis: These 3 new NPCs will need at least one, and I'll need some more like the voleians walking around in Sablee and such. Deep sea Voleian has the highest priority obviously, since she'll be revealed in the next devlog.
If memory serves the chibis of the current demo were drawn in about 3 or 4 days? Maybe 5? So I feel like I might be able to knock that out in 1 month, or at least get close to it.
It's still listed for now, but I'm probably not going to reflect the rank changes on the chibis for that next demo, I feel like it would take too long. At best I'll do it for Vuu, and Slime girl will get her height growth but no chibi BE just to show that it's in the game and planned for the full release.

Also, I mentionned a few times that I was hoping to release the next demo in 2021. I was right in not promising anything or giving a date however, because I clearly realise now that that's not happening. I said that the 2 crossed out tasks were about 50% of the work, and they took about 6 months in total. So that would be another 6 months. Considering that everything always take longer than you'd expect as I've learned, mid 2022 sounds about right to me. I'm sorry for anyone who was still betting on a 2021 demo release, but I'd rather take the time to do things right than disappointing everyone with a half baked earlier demo. I hope you can understand...
But yeah, turns out never giving a release really is the best call, especially as an indie dev. I'm still annoyed I've had so little to show for the past 6 months, but at least this will finally change in the next devlog! Thank you very much for bearing with this.

I think that's all I wanted to talk about! Doing another pass on the story will also help me figure out if I'll need more NPCs or not, so if I do, I'll mention that in the next devlog and there might be another pre demo NPC poll in that case. But we'll see about that then! ^^

That's it for now!

Here is the copy pasted stuff:

The next monstergirl poll has begun! You can now vote for the monstergirl you want to be included in BE Witches in the Discord if you are a 2$+ patron!

The poll will be active until September 12th. After this, you will be able to change your submitted modifier until September 15th. Finally, the two rounds of the modifier poll will take one week each.

Monstergirl poll rules

Poll submissions

Also, now is a good time to submit a monstergirl and/or modifiers if you haven't already as a patron! If you can't think of anything to submit, here is a list of ideas you can choose from. You don't have to submit in the Discord server, you can also leave a comment here or e-mail me at Nosebecc@gmail.com