Dungeon Days [v0.09]

Alright everyone, and with that, the Public Release of v0.09 is READY! And with it, a lot of new stuff to stew on and a lot of stuff I can finally talk about :V

Firstly, sorry about the date issue… it was always meant for the 7th. I’m just a derp, so sorry about that for the last devlog! And while I’m talking about scheduling, I want to reiterate that the next update won’t be until JANUARY! I want to get through the holidays with not as much stress so taking a little bit longer to give me some leeway. I’ll still be doing Devlogs like I have been on the 20th of each month, so I’ll still be keeping in touch :V

Second, let’s talk about the update itself! We have 5 (albeit, one pretty small) scenes that are wrapping up the first little hump of Arc 2. Yes, that’s right, Arc 2. While I was making this update, I have also done something absolutely incredible (for me)… I have planned out and outlined every single scene for Dungeon Days 1! Honestly, this has relieved so much for me and I can now say that I have an actual (rough) timeline for how long the first Dungeon Days is going to be! And let’s just say, that it’s a MUCH more manageable amount than the first planned out 20 years lol With this, I have a clear goal and set sections to look at and do for the rest of the development process! And may I say that I feel relieved to finally get this figured out.

With this in mind, for the next month or so, I’m also going to try and take an extra step forward and do (what I consider) light work and write the rest of Dungeon Days’s script out. Even though I love to write, this will still be a huge task, one that will probably be ever changing as I work on the VN but clearing out an entire part of the game will make this so much easier in the long run! I’m also going to catch up on a few things that have either been requested or that I haven’t had enough time to get through, so along with the writing, I’m hoping to get a lot of QoL stuff done :V

Lastly, I’m going to be changing up the Patreon and Subscribestar rewards pretty soon. I’m still toying with the Goblin Tier idea, but besides that, there will be some minor changes to the rewards. I haven’t quite figured it entirely out yet, but I wanted to let you all know in advance and will let you know in a short devlog if/when it happens.

Well, besides that, I really hope that you keep enjoying Dungeon Days! I have a wonderful community and friends that help me out every day and appreciate wholeheartedly! Without a doubt, the last two years have been a wild ride but I wouldn’t dare have it any other way! All I can ask is for your support and promotion of Dungeon Days to fellow AVN lovers and let them also be a part of this adventure with us for another year!

Now, there isn’t too much to the update, a whole two scenes, but the new sprite system has allow me to try out some new avenues that I wasn’t able to use before! Despite it being my first time, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, but of course if you have any helpful insights about it, please let me know! So now, hopefully, it’ll be easier for me to set up scenes and make a fraction of the renders but with just as much content as before since I’ll be using these sprites to help divvy the work!

Of course, this is still in the works and I’m learning new code to make it work for everything. I’m also looking into other VNs that have had good sprite work done for them to try and see if any of their strategies and ideas might be good to use in Dungeon Days! With hope, as always, I’m looking forward to seeing this speed up my process with the limited time frame that I have to work on DD.

First, I want to apologize for the length of the update. One scene isn’t very much to add on and isn’t in my usual style of things. I’m not very happy with my progress and I’m sure you all want more than just one scene. However, I made a promise that two months would be my limiting factor and, hell or high water, I would release what I had no matter what and I stuck to it.
I could give you the sob story of my recent IRL issues that almost burned me out of not doing Dungeon Days AT ALL anymore, but I have already talked with the people who need to know about it and done my soul searching to continue on. Yes, I was in a bad state mentally recently. No, I will not elaborate more than that. Just know that it was a large reason why only one scene was done.
Now, what does this mean for Dungeon Days in the future? Will all updates just turn into one scene? Of course NOT! That isn’t the plan whatsoever and never will be. What I have figured out is that doing this, along with balancing real life situations AND a full time job is more than I’m capable of doing with the current setup that I’m doing it in. After long discussions with peers in the VN sphere, we came up with a few ideas that might work out, but settled on one overall big change to how the story will be presented…
Essentially, with this style of VN presentation, I will have to worry about far less renders than before while still being able to produce as much content for you as I possibly can! I’ve looked at how much story I want to say and with the current amount of renders needed to get there… it’s just not going to be feasible. So, instead, I’m going to use a sprite-based style for most of the conversations for now on. HOWEVER, this does NOT mean I’m going to do EVERYTHING in sprites… when it comes to cool action shots or big establishing shots, I’ll be making sure to do excellent, much more focused on, renders on those moments for readers to enjoy! As for the sexy stuff, I’m still deciding on an exact format for that, but I might just do it normally like I’ve been for the last two, we shall see. I’m also going to probably start more traditional and then, over time, see what I can do that can shake things up a bit and make it more unique for Dungeon Days.
I think with that being said, I’ve caught you all up with what I’m hoping will be a good turning point for Dungeon Days. I was really struggling with everything before but with luck, this will allow me to do more for the VN and for you guys while not stressing me out to the point of breakdown. Hopefully, the next Devlog is going to be something much more positive and, if all goes well, I might even start doing the updates one month apart instead of two :V That, and it is looming on the horizon, that dreaded thing all VN devs hate doing but know must be done at some point…

As promised, we (Wallace and I) went through and revamped as much as we possibly could in terms of SFX and music! While I didn’t get into doing more SFX in the earlier sections as much as I wanted to, we really tried our best to find more unique and fitting music for every scene and moment in the game! Better mood music, better fighting music, betting timing on it, and better sexy time music even :V So with any hope, the long promised dream will satisfy you all with what we’ve chosen! I really hope you all enjoy it!
Along with that, I also was able to get most of the stuff I wanted to done. There are new animations for the main menu now and as the VN gets along, they will grow in numbers and steadily become a stream of animations at the main menu! For now though, you’ll just have to enjoy our main two peeps, Wes and Pah!

New Modes of play have been added as well. Very simply put, you can now choose All Sex, No Sex, or Choice Sex very quickly at the start of a new game just to simplify and speed up the process. Nothing terribly big, but more of a QoL thing.

The new social media content has also been implemented as you can see, like above with the Koko gif. Not new news, but something that I set up as a goal :V
Everyone was asking for it, so I provided it… Translations for the Italian and Thieves Cant sections for some QoL stuff :V It was something I could provide. I had a misstep and thought it would be better for like, mysterious purposes, but I guess not lol. I’ll be sure to translate sections like that in the future :V
I’m still working on the new Goblin Tier for Subscribestar and Patreon and just need to round out a few more details before getting more into it, so that may be a little bit more, but should be cool for those interested! Keep checking my Patreon/Subscribestar out for more details!
And obviously, I’ve done a bunch of miscellaneous background improvements, such as writing, coding, some odd errors, organizing, etc etc. I’ve been doing all kinds of stuff to help myself for future versions of Dungeon Days along with more organizational stuff to keep Dungeon Days floating well for you to play.
Oh, and, of course, there is an Easter Egg in Dungeon Days now. Find it if ya can :V
With that though, our regularly scheduled content is immediately starting and I can’t wait to show you guys the upcoming story! I’m far more prepared for things now and know exactly what I’ll be doing and, with hope due to new strategies, I won’t need the 2 month stretch to release the next update :V So with that, if you haven’t enjoyed v0.06 yet, you’ll be really enjoying it with all new music and SFX in this one!