Identity
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Identity: Version 0.3.9
🕑 Added 2023-04-21 18:44:12 +0000 UTCHello everybody,
We hope you made it through the bunny season with plenty of eggs~
Our last content update was in December and we are aware that four months between content releases isn't ideal. We are working on that, we in fact already have plans for the build 0.3.10 which should hopefully release in May, or at worst in June.
Between the next build and this one, we are planning to also release a dev diary post. Anyway… these things are still in the future, so what do we have for you now, in this very moment?
New Content
We are still in the works of refining existing content, and while the last update was about day 5, this one is about day 4, primarily.
We have reworked Corvolin for the most part, and their pronouns shifted to "they/them", but since they are masculine coded, "he/him" would also be fine when referring to them.
Their entire concept had been presented by former writer Blue Bishop to myself, Lone_Wanderer, as this ancient spirit who instead of being a monster actually has chilled for long periods of time.
It was a concept that had resonated with me so well that I accepted it right away. However, a good part of the problems with Corvolin (and also most other characters) arose from there not being much communication between us writers after the initial planning phase.
Concepts started to diverge and characters were left unrefined. In comparison, we did spend a lot of time working on Brym together all throughout every bit of content that was ever made for him. And he is also the most developed character as a result.
So, what changed with Corvolin? They are actually more in line with the original pitch of the character now after the rework. Their personality did come off as a bit impatient and rude beforehand and they are now way more patient while still hopefully keeping that mystic aura of being an otherworldly spirit.
These next paragraphs will contain some mild spoilers, so if you want to avoid any, feel free to skip down to the changelog or play the build first if you want to experience their new content fresh. The new content is on day 2 (Corvolin meeting you in your bedroom) and at the end of day 4.
Now… for the spoilery stuff: The original storytelling goal with Corvolin was a more abstract exploration of the concept of myth-weaving as a whole. Corvolin is a spirit who has been forgotten, and the idea was to imply that they had been worshipped by followers in the past. By spreading new myths around this entity, you were supposed to more or less be able to create your own new religion with them.
This of course might not fully represent the original intent of Blue Bishop, but the main goal was how talking about spirits themselves is a means of communication and also social bonding by itself.
The problem is that this doesn't really put that much of a focus on Corvolin themselves, so I had to redefine what our goals are with them. And not just them, but the spirits and otherworldly entities as a whole, how their bodies work and what their desires might be if they have any.
The new design direction for this hybrid spirit will now be a more intimate interest of the characters in one another. For what goals or what reasons I will leave open here, but the intent is to explore a more "weird" type of relationship which isn't conventionally romantic, but rather involving the very question of identity itself. You know, what our game is named after.
Corvolin is not a mortal being, so becoming intimate with them is a bit of a problem in and of itself. I had to ask myself the question what a spirit is and what making out or having sex with one really means. Spirits and supernatural entities in fiction but also myths of old tend to be allegorical, and even reflect parts of the characters themselves who they interact with.
Corvolin is still "real" in one regard or another, but the intimate content with them is a bit more… existential. You can form a far deeper connection with them than any other character so far in this game. To get there, you also have to somewhat pressure them into it.
In another update we will probably add alternate ways to achieve this intimate content, but for now, this bit should also reveal a bit more about Nyrok himself.
For the future, we have already laid out the foundation of spirit content itself, and we will probably also go further into the route of portraying abstract intimate moments with them in general.
Your feedback is important to us in this regard, as we don't want interactions with them to come off as confusing.
Artworks
We did intend to release this build with no new artwork yet, but we have faced so many delays that Rauch actually was able to produce all of them, and we are also experimenting here with more abstract backgrounds and how they flow into the story itself.
There are four new backgrounds on day 4 at the moment, which we had originally added as work-in-progress images... but with the several delays we faced, Rauch was able to finish them with this build's release.
Aside from the backgrounds for day 4, we also added some new ones to day 6, a variant showing the trail of dirt.
Folsky meanwhile is currently in the process of reworking Cedrik's sprites, and we added the first batch of sprites that have been finished so far.
Closing Words
We are still in the process of figuring out how to keep a decent production pipeline going, but so far the next date for Cedrik has been finished writing-wise, and we hope to keep a decent pace for the next build. We are aiming to release it hopefully next month in May.
We will be seeing you in another dev diary hopefully soon, and we hope that you enjoy the new content that we have created for you in this build.
Changelog
- Reworked Corvolin segment on Day 2
- Added new Corvolin segment to end of Day 4
- Added new images for the Corvolin content on Day 4
- Added new CG for Lucra Date 1
- Remastered Cedrik Neutral Sprites
Appended Changes for 0.3.9a
- Fixed Azorin's sprite not disappearing after he left the scene
Direct Download Links (Adult Content Warning):
Windows: (Google Drive) (MEGA) (MediaFire)
Windows (32bit): (Google Drive) (MEGA) (MediaFire)
Mac: (Google Drive) (MEGA) (MediaFire)
Linux: (Google Drive) (MEGA) (MediaFire)
Android: (Google Drive) (MEGA) (MediaFire)
