Hello again, everyone!
I'm so sorry for the lack of updates on this project this year and the non-release of my other game, StarS. This year managed to be weirdly busy for me in ways that I could never predict, so I didn't get as much done as I had planned to. I sincerely apologize for that.

I'm making efforts to work harder this year, although some of the things that previously had me not working on the game has a chance of slowing me down again. This is why I've broken up my  to-do list for the middle of the year and the end of the year. I don't see this project getting released by the end of the year. I think that's too optimistic given the things going on in the background of my daily life at the moment. However, I do plan to give ample time to this project and have broken it up into bite sized goals for me to target this year in order to get close enough to think about releasing it next year.

That doesn't mean you won't be able to play some of the changes I have planned, though! But I will get to that in due time in this post. First I want to outline some of the goals I have and the time frames and talk about what I got done in the last year that I hadn't devlogged about.

The number one change I want to talk about for this devlog is all of the artistic changes!
I have drawn up new sprites, which was needed after 4 years of development. I know I mentioned in last year's progress report that I was working on them. Some of the character sprites didn't align with my vision for them and that made it difficult to get inspired to write about them.

I struggled a lot with Yumemi, for example. I mentioned feeling better about her sprite in last year's progress report but it still lacked something- the same sort of uniqueness that the other main characters had. She felt like she was permanently stuck in looking like a background character. I decided to take her storyline into account when I started redesigning her, but I have to admit that the new design also further inspired her character development for her story in the game.  As of this moment, I couldn't be more happy with her design. 

All of the sprites have been redrawn and their designs reconsidered. Most of their designs remained the same aside from some details. Some of them, like Yumemi and Mitsu, changed a lot from their 2020 counterparts. I hope that everyone enjoys these changes as much as I do. 

Aside from their Pose_B sprites and alternate outfits, I don't currently have any plans to work any further on them. It's easy to get caught up in redrawing sprites every time I learn a new technique, but this was already a massive undertaking that I know I need to let them stay as they are and work on the CGs and story line now. 

Every sprite is 4k now, which may not seem like it matters since I'm keeping the resolution of the game the same, but it is so that I can bring a little more movement to the characters regarding the space they take up on the screen. I'd like to be able to bring them closer for conversations at a table or zoom out for conversations while they're walking, for example.

And thanks to everyone who donated for me to purchase some pre-made backgrounds, I will be using those in the game as well. I previously drew all of the backgrounds, but I'm not a background artist at all. It takes me weeks just to finish one, and for a project this big, the only way I wasn't compromising my vision with the amount of time and money I had, it just made sense to do it this way. 

There's a lot said there, but it leads me to my next topic: 
I want to release a revamped demo using all of the new images, a very slightly adjusted story, and the new techniques for making the scenes feel more lively. In fact, the plan is to release this demo update by the middle of this year.

As far as the writing goes, I'm sure that's what everyone is wondering about since that's the most important thing about releasing this game, I've been diligently working on it, but it's a somewhat long story line. 

I have the rough draft written into the beginning of Gwynn's route now, meaning the rough draft is halfway through the story. The second draft is closing in on the beginning of Blanche's route. My hope is to have the rough draft finished by the end of the year and the second draft up to Gwynn's route by the same time. 

And finally, there are a lot of changes already taking place on the itch.io page regarding the new sprites and it will continue to change until the revamped demo has been released. I just don't want to misrepresent what is being offered in the demo right now, so a lot of the old stuff will be staying up until that has been released. 

I appreciate everyone's patience with me as I've been working on this game. This game means so much to me and I underestimated how much time it would take for me to complete it, but I am determined to bring it to you in full. Thank you for all of the support and I hope you will still trust me to work diligently on it.

And Happy 2024~! May the year be kind to you in all ways.

tldr; New sprites have been made, new backgrounds acquired. Rough draft is halfway done, second draft is 1/4th of the way done. Updated demo probably around the middle of the year and rough draft plans to be done by the end of the year.