It's 2024 in a few hours! How time flew by...

-Is a very generic opening for this time of the  year ain't it?

Kidding aside... 

Progress Report

Unfortunately (what a way to end the year-), I couldn't complete writing the common route... so I'll have to push back the release window to Q3 2024. 

I've had a lot of days this month (including Nov) when I wasn't feeling well, and while I could bring myself to do art and coding at that state, I just couldn't write.

-Which means... yes, I ended up doing more coding instead (don't worry, I was well enough to code!). Sadly, I can't release it to beta access just yet since I still lack the expressions for the new characters, but we're getting there!

Now, if you've been following my Twitter account (apparently X now, but that name's so confusing), you would have seen a poll I put up regarding the name of a new minor character who'll be appearing in the game.

So yeah, he's Rowan now.

Also, I think it's pretty obvious here what he is🤔

I've also made some progress on a few other things that I couldn't talk about just yet... or at all- it'll spoil the experience if I do! But just know I'm working on some stuff.

Dev Corner

Last time I talked about the animations, now I'll talk about in-game choices!

So there are different types of in-game choices in Thorn for the Villain... some contribute to survival, some are flavor choices and others mold your MC's impression and relationships toward the world and the characters.

For example, if you choose to say that Vicenzo is your type, then the MC may fawn over his appearance throughout the game, or she may easily get more flustered around him.  Don't worry, early choices (including everything in the demo so far) shouldn't lock you to a route just yet. You're still getting to know the world after all! Your decision on which route to play first may change later on, so route-lock choices will only appear later in the game. I'd like to make it easier to play the other route with this, without going through the whole common route again.

-That doesn't mean choices don't matter. 

If you have already played the demo, then you'd know that there are survival "checkpoints" on certain parts of the story. Early choices can haunt you in that regard. Did you say something that you shouldn't know? Did you lie? Did you try to fight back? -things like these can affect how easy or hard your playthrough can go. 

Not only that, but there are also scenarios that you can only see if you picked certain choices.

That said... always save.

Next Update

Next update post should be around February. Technically, I can release an updated demo version for those who availed beta access before then, but there is a certain part I'd like to reach first. We'll see!

As I've mentioned before, I won't be running a Kickstarter for this project, but if you'd like to support this game, you can donate here! For the list of perks, you may refer here under "Q: Do I get anything for donating?".

Well, that's it for now. Hope to see you next year!