Hello all, a bit later this time but it's for the first pre build 4 devlog. Like always there's plenty of cool stuff to share so let's get into it.

(Also, join the discord if you haven't yet: https://discord.gg/nVZ8czVf)

(Edit: Pierce was using an outdated version of his sprite in this image, this was an error and has been fixed.)

Writing wise, progress is going really well - I'd say I'm around 60% done with Raphael’s ch2 nearing completion - this'll be a big milestone for his story so I'd suggest looking forward to it. It'll be muuuch longer than any other route update so far.

Art wise, big stuff is coming - and I'm super excited to share what I have cooking.

Firstly, a Chase respite, marking the last of the main characters to receive one - you may have noticed that Chase has a much differently drawn body than what I used to do  - well, this is part of me finally getting rid of those ugly blocky trapezoid bodies I used to draw for non-chubs after being deeply unsatisfied with them for a while. I probably should've realised the issue sooner but - better late than never.

I've attached Noland and Stephen’s updates here too (though given 85% of Stephen's sprite was redrawn for this, you could make a ship of Theseus argument on if it is even the same sprite as the one I made for b2.) and expect to see everyone else's adjusted within the coming builds. Robin, Lloyd and Morten if I get his resprite done in time are my current aims for b4. Archie & Fergus both have really old sprites and will be updated with their resprites later on.

Now onto the 2 new characters: 

Kristoffer finally has a sprite - and you'll be meeting him this build. Is he as bad as Raphael made him out to be? Uh… We'll see… Kristoffer's design and character has existed for a loooong time, well before PBS even began development - so I am really excited to finally introduce him to the story.

The other new character: Max. He is our first Cougar, and a pretty big addition to the cast.

He is the person who attacked Eric at the start of the game, who previously didn't have a sprite and was only identifiable by a generic description.

And well, Max has a bit of a story behind him - originally he was just going to be that - a face to put onto the person who attacks Eric at the start of the game, with him only having small roles outside of Vincent's route.

However, as I was designing him, well I kind of realised I made him waayyy too good looking for someone who was just going to be a minor character. So, he'll be showing up as the 2nd li for Stephen's route. Since I have tons of room to work with due to the restructuring of the lis for Stephen's route around b2 and the story not really focusing too much on Eric compared to the others.

He won't be too relevant to this build due to this being a Raphael centric update, but expect to see much more of him in the other routes, especially Stephen's.

Otherwise, I also plan on redoing that part of the game now that Max has a sprite - and some parts later on will be adjusted to acknowledge Max's existence better.

This won't change the real plot at all, just setting up for when he shows up in the story later on.

One last thing I wanted to touch on is that I'm considering altering/retiring the side icons for everyone not named Eric. There are many reasons for this, from them being a pain in the butt to prepare, to them usually looking rather tacky and inconsistent, to file size concerns and lastly, they limit how many expressions I can make per character, There's a lot of reasons in favour of cutting them. The only downside is that for scenes where the pov isn't Eric, this will be an issue, but for these I'd probably just display the POV character's sprite normally. Even if it'll be a little jarring.

That is all I have to share for now, though.

As always if you have any questions, find any errors or just want to chat: message me on discord @final_bear or join the PbS server.

Otherwise, this is farewell for now. See you in a bit over a week for the next devlog!