Hi everyone!  Long time no speak, so let's get to the nitty gritty of what's up with Made Marion. It's been a while, so this might be a long one!

On Project Pace:

So it's been two months since I had a very mild case of Covid, and unfortunately it appears that it left me with a case of long Covid that's way worse than my original infection. I've been struggling on and off with extreme exhaustion and brain fog, so writing has been difficult.

We are all super dedicated to this project, never fear!  It will get done, but depending on how things go over the next few months, it just might be slower than anticipated as I adjust to my new health reality. I'm going to keep our anticipated release date at Q4 2022 for now; we'll see how things are going by the summer.  I think I'm slowly improving, but I've also had some setbacks and unfortunately in-person medical care isn't very accessible to me at the moment.  It's been a rough few years, y'all.

Works In Progress:

We're at an awkward development phase where we have a lot of work in progress that isn't fully polished for the final game. So please keep in mind that other than the backgrounds, the art I'm showing here is not final!

Here's a cool example of our BG artist Sandra's excellent background variant work.

This is a tavern in the higher-social-class part of Nottingham. It'll be the background for where Robin holds secret meetings with rebellion-friendly representatives of the guilds and merchants... and probably for some shenanigans in other routes as well.

And here is a variant for a tavern in the Brambles, Nottingham's poorest district, where Alanna takes Marion for a wild night out on her route. It'll also be seen in Meissa's route, and maybe Will's too!  Gotta make the most of those backgrounds!

I love the subtle changes Sandra made to give this background a very different feel despite it having the same base design. The straw on the floor is great - it's a traditional, low-budget way to sop up spilled drinks, after all, and I didn't even think to request it! Our artists' imaginations and their dedication to detail and quality continues to blow me away.

Cut-ins and Silhouettes:

Meanwhile, Lawrichai has finished the main cut-ins for our prologue and is spending some time developing two silhouette art styles. The first will be used to illustrate love scenes, adding extra visual interest and spice rather than our scenes just being text over a blank background.

Here's a test image imported into the game.  The final silhouette image will be done on higher-quality watercolour paper and if there is visible texture, it'll be reflected against the entire cut-in background.

I am once again thankful for Ren'py's new MatrixColor system that lets me easily darken the background for these scenes!

I'm not about to spoil a major love interest scene - this is from an optional scene in the prologue. If you've  been paying attention or participated in our prologue beta, you can guess who you have the chance to make sexy bad decisions with - and no, it's not a bad decision because it's a casual encounter - it's a bad decision because it's only a casual encounter for one of the participants and they both know it. 

The player won't be punished with a bad end for making this decision (or any sexy decision), but it might have some consequences for Marion later on in one of the game's routes. I encourage folks to go with whatever they'd like when it comes to decisions like this. Do you want to play a more idealized Marion or do you like a little trouble along the way? It's up to you!

The other silhouette art style is what we're calling "Storytime."  It will be an inkier silhouette style and will be used in our animated lore intro (see below for more details) and occasional scenes during the game. Thanks to our prologue beta testers for inspiring this style! There's a scene early on in which Marion talks a bit about her past, and one tester noted that it was a bit awkward having Marion just stand there talking to herself for so long. I agreed, so instead that scene will be illustrated with a cut-in and silhouettes.  I think it's going to look neat!

Character Sprites:

As I mentioned in our last non-update, our lead artist Arrapso also dealt with Covid early in the year, but is now back to completing our character sprites. There are a bunch that are nearing completion but need some changes and/or need their expression sets.  So here's some unfinished art to show progress:

As one of our older characters, Layton is one of the few sprites with visible chest hair. I know not everybody likes chest hair, but some of us do! We like to provide a lil' something for everyone. However, this version of his sprite has been digitally altered to conceal certain (non-chest hair-related) spoilers.

Those hands in the second pose? Man! I may be a terrible visual artist but even I know how difficult it is to draw hands that well!

"Lady Anne" and Gui are looking good so far!  Yes, Gui's hair is even more lush and lovely now. How does he do it? Portable wind machine? Invisible fae buddy blowing his hair back? Fantasy artistic license? (It's that last one, and we love it.)

Animated Lore Intro Progress:

I have written and recorded the narration for the animated lore intro. I handed it over to Alexander, who wrote a super spiffy background track that matches the tone of the narration. This was made possible by our Beyond Stretch 1 set of goals, as y'all voted for the animated lore intro as a top priority for those funds.

Once Lawrichai has inked our lore intro graphics, I'll be putting them together with our narration/music track, adding some simple animations in-engine, bringing in some sound effects, and timing it all so it looks and sounds spiffy.

The lore intro is about 4 minutes long and because of the timing between the subtitles and the audio file, you can't speed through it. However, once you've seen it, the game will give you the option to skip it in subsequent playthroughs (you can choose to skip just the lore intro or to also skip to a choice near the end of the prologue).

That's where we are for our March Madness. See you next month!