Hello all! It's been a little while so I'm going to jump in to the next update. 

Writing

The writing is going a little slower than I'd hoped, but I'm still on track to finish one route by the Kickstarter, as per the original schedule. I will be doing the first drafts only, so I can keep everything consistent between drafts. 

Aalam's route currently has a little over 10,000 words, meaning it's about 1/5 of the way done. Exciting! I can't wait to write some of the more romantic parts, at this stage Terra and Aalam are still butting heads and while that's fun I just want them to kiss already.

Here is a tiny tiny peek at a scene you could unlock under very specific conditions:

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a = Aalam

t = Terra

"Aalam puts his spoon down, and the clink makes me lift my eyes again." 

 a "Is there something on my face?" 

 t "What?" 

 "Flustered at being caught staring, I drop my gaze back to the remaining broth in my bowl." 

 a "My beard, then? You'll have to excuse me. Even the most well-trimmed facial hair catches things it shouldn't sometimes." 

 t "No, not at all, you are perfectly in order." 

 a "I see..." 

 "For some reason, he sounds pleased." 

 a "So you simply find me attractive."

 "I drop my spoon. Broth slips from the corners of my mouth as I try to stutter out a refutation. I hear Aalam's hearty laugh at my expense." 

 a "Do not be embarrassed. Lesser [men] than you have fallen prey to my charms. You may look all you like, we are soon to be married." 

 "Would it be rude to tell him he's wrong at this point? Should I just agree? I mean, I suppose I don't {i}not{/i} find him attractive, but I certainly wasn't \"entranced\" or whatever he seems to think—" 

 a "You are fetching when you blush." 

 "I lift a hand to cover my face." 

 t "Is it—you shouldn't say things like that." 

 a "And why not? Is it inappropriate for a man to flirt with his fiancé?" 

 t "It's—I suppose not, but I—I'm eating, you're going to make me choke." 

 "It's the first thing I think of, and I'm aware how silly it sounds as soon as I leave my mouth. I struggle to calm the heat in my cheeks, squeezing them between my hand as if that will make them cool faster." 

 a "I understand. I will save the flirtation for after lunch." 

 t "If you might spare me, I'd be grateful. I appreciate your efforts, but let us not forget what this is. I am pleased that you feel comfortable enough to erm...flirt, but it's not necessary. I would just like if we could be cordial with one another." 

 a "And why should we not aim for more?" 

 t "What do you mean?" 

 a "Are you capable of experiencing romantic attraction?" 

 t "I suppose, but—" 

 a "Sexual?" 

 "I have never met so blunt a person." 

 t "Well—yes, but—" 

 a "Then who is to say we cannot have a relationship that is more than cordial? I want a marriage full of passion. I believe we can certainly have it, one way or another."

t "I don't understand. We don't love each other, how can there be passion?" 

 "Aalam sits back in his seat." 

 a "You mean to say you have not...shared passions with anyone?" 

 t "Shared..." 

 "His meaning clicks, and I regret asking. In a bout of bad manners, I rest my elbows on the table so I might hold my head in my hands." 

 t "This is {i}highly{/i} inappropriate. Of course I haven't, I'm only just to be married!" 

 a "I see...perhaps things are different in Lauté. No matter. I can assure you passion will be no issue on my end. You are stunning." 

 "I want to melt into my seat. I hope none of the servants can hear him." 

 t "Please, may we speak of something else." 

 a "If you insist. But I will address one more thing. We do not love each other yet. Who's to say we never will?" 

 "Thankfully, he does not seem to need a response. I focus all my attention back on my soup, and try not to think about the pulsing heat in my stomach."

~~END SPOILER  ALERT~~END SPOILER  ALERT~~END SPOILER  ALERT~~

I am quite enjoying writing Aalam, if you couldn't tell. I've written flirty characters before but there's something about the mix of flirty with unflappable confidence that just makes me giggle. 

I will try to proceed at my usual pace of 1 scene a day, to finish half of the route by the end of January. I will only be doing the "best" end, and then I'll move on to Sahi's route. 

Each route will have 3 endings, a "Bad" end, a "Good" end, and a "Best" end. So you have 2/3 chance of getting a happily ever after! Do not expect any sudden death ends. I tend to write games the way I like to play them, which means lots of happy endings.

BGs

Our BG artist has been hard at work making some AMAZING backgrounds! Already there are way more than I anticipated for the demo, including day/night and location variations! We now have:

Terra's study

The front hall

The ballroom

Terra's bedroom

Terra's bathroom

Here is a tiny peek at the most recent one, can you guess what it is?

CGs

I know what you all want to see! And our CG artist delivered! The third and final CG for the demo is in the works, and it is a doozy! So much so that it has Terra all flustered...

What are they blushing about? You'll just have to wait and find out!

Kickstarter

The Kickstarter planning is about where anticipated! I have artists for most of the assets, which include:

• Keychains  ✅
• Posters ✅
• Stickers ✅
• T-shirts
• Illustrated manuscript ✅

I'm still trying to nail down an idea for the t-shirts. I can't wait to show off more of these! In the meantime, take a look at the finished version of  one of the stickers:

Conclusion

Let's just check our handy-dandy schedule.

Look at that! We're practically done! Every time I feel like I'm falling behind, I just look at this. I was originally going to have one chapter from an LI's route be in the demo as well, but since the demo ended up being nearly 60K I decided to nix that idea. Gotta save some stuff for the full game! 

So in short, we are WAY ahead of schedule! I might not get all the route's done by the Kickstarter like I'd hoped, but that's fine, I don't want to rush anything. Overall I'm happy with the pace of things.

What's coming next

Next, we should see the CG finish and start on the Kickstarter posters, as well as finally get a background for the main kingdom in the game, Lauté! I will be working on Aalam's route and will continue to share tidbits as I go.

Exciting things in the new year!