#3) maybe a kizuna rewrite

[holydramon]

I will say most insane thing about YAOYD au plans is that the three main fics I have planned for it are:

- one fic covering the eighth child arc

- one fic covering the ENTIRE SERIES BETWEEN THE EIGHTH CHILD ARC AND TRI

- one fic covering tri

[gosatsuvns]

Weekly Update #315 - Post-Update Notes & Plans For The Remainder Of 2020

If you haven't caught the news yet, we've just released an update for SHINRAI - Broken Beyond Despair in celebration of its 4th anniversary! If you're curious about what exactly has changed, you can read all about the additions and changes to the game here.

Today, I'd like to say a few more words about the update, our new projects and our plans for the rest of 2020!

The Update:

First of all, I need to say that I would have loved to do way more than what we ultimately managed to infuse into this update. Unfortunately, we kinda ran out of time, since we couldn't allocate too much to it in the first place. I mean, it's been four years now since we've released this visual novel and, rather than keep tweaking it, I'd like to focus on our new titles and make sure that those are going to be improved in the areas that players criticized with BBD.

Besides, there are always going to be things that can be done even better and I am quite a perfectionist, so I'll never be satisfied anyway. Therefore, I originally didn't really intend to touch this game again, as I'd like to move forwards and accomplish new things.

I would have eventually made some tiny script adjustments, due to some of the developments regarding GENBA no Kizuna and Withering Without Hope. Both stories have evolved quite a bit from my plans in 2016, after all. But those adjustments would have only been minor continuity/consistency fixes. Like how the place where Raiko lives has been upgraded from a town to a giant metropolis. Thus, the word "town" has been taken out or replaced during the recent update, for instance.

(I told you, I'm a perfectionist... *cough*)

Earlier this year, however, we've been presented with an opportunity I couldn't pass up on. It's something I'm personally super excited about, so I can't wait to finally make the official announcement (which should happen within the next two months, I guess). And it's this opportunity that led us to make an update now, a little bit bigger in scope than simple script adjustments.

Given what we're working on in secret right now, I ended up deciding to also address the bigger criticisms we've received. Unfortunately, in some regards, there was only so much I could actually do about them.

The slow pacing in the beginning is almost always brought up and I did try my best to revise some parts, making them more concise, but ultimately, I doubt there is a noticeable difference. I didn't want to simply erase big parts of the game and I didn't have the time to completely rewrite and restructure things, nor did I really want to. After all, even though most people criticized the slow start, there are also players who didn't mind or even enjoyed it.

But yeah, if it was too slow for you, you probably won't feel any different even after this update.

Still, overall, I do think that we've improved the experience quite a bit. And delving so deeply into BBD's script again was quite beneficial to its sequel, as well.

GENBA & WWH:

After SHINRAI's release in 2016, I immediately started working on GENBA and WWH. One year later, however, I realized that working on two murder mysteries simultaneously maybe wasn't the smartest idea. Not only did it drag out development for both of them, it also complicated things as I was trying to craft two different murder cases, filled with dozens of mysteries, at the same time.

So, I eventually decided to put WWH aside and fully commit myself to GENBA, as this title sets up quite a few things for WWH.

And in the end, it turned out to be a really good idea, because working on GENBA, along with the recent SHINRAI update, has really helped me in shaping the story for WWH into something much better than it was three years ago.

I'm really excited about it and, with GENBA's story fully set in stone now, can't wait to finally do the same with WWH's!

Plans:

For the next week, there is still some post-update stuff to take care of, which I'll probably talk about in next week's blog post. However, in general, I'm going to get back to GENBA now. As mentioned in the update announcement post, I have the perfect release date for it in mind, and I will do everything I can to get it done by then.

Before I make any promises, however, I want to see how the remainder of the year goes and if I can actually accomplish all of my goals. So you'll have to wait until our New Year's post before I will elaborate on any of this (sorry).

Anyway, with GENBA's story planned out and vast chunks of the script written, it's mostly asset work that's left. So that will be my main focus until the end of 2020. Although the first big goal is to get the first chapter fully done (the extended demo only contains about 70% of it), so that will include some script revisions, too.

At the same time, I also want to get a full outline done for WWH, so that next year, I can write its actual script!

As you can see, there's still a lot to be done, but I'm feeling very motivated. I'll further detail some of our plans in our next few blog posts, but for now, I guess I'll wrap this up! As always, please enjoy the rest of your weekend and, until next Saturday, take care! :3