Oh boy, the time is now for the 4th build of Pulled by Strings, this is by the far the biggest (and messiest) update yet in terms of new content and overall improvements made to the game. 

This devlog will also talk about some… Thoughts I've been having about the game proper, mainly in regards to Chase’s characterisation and Route and how this will be affecting the future of PbS's development. 

(Also join the discord server if you haven’t yet.)

I'm gonna keep the actual build related devlog short this time: 23k words of Raphael route content and is the largest route update yet. This build marks many important milestones in the game’s story and will set the tone for the story from this point onwards.

This build also introduces two characters and overhauls the attack scene at the start of the game, complete with introducing Max, who will also be a li for Stephen's route. Don't expect too much from him this build, but do expect to see more of him soon.

Art wise, this update starts my efforts to overhaul the game's artstyle. You can currently see it with Eric, Raphael, Lloyd, Morten, Archie, Robin & Max. Hopefully, the game will begin to look much nicer from this point onwards, though do be warned that there will be some art quality inconsistency problems for the time being, downsides of being a WIP vn.

Lloyd, Morten, Archie & Robin all had new art made for them this build, and I think they are among my best yet. Morten and Archie also both had old art that was made before the game was released, so I'm glad to finally see that art rendered obsolete.

Also a new UI. I know the loss of side icons will probably suck for some - and I do agree to an extent, the unfortunate reality is that these icons had a lot of issues and were just much better off scrapped. At least the file size will be much smaller now.

Next build will focus on finishing Stephen’s chapter 2. And expect Orlando and Stephen to receive new sprites next build.

That is all I'm gonna say about this for now, though. See the changelog at the bottom for the full list of changes, but otherwise. The rest of this devlog will be focused on what will be happening to Chase and his route in the future.

For those who just want the TLDR, as this section is very wordy: Chase's route was, internally, a huge fuck up on my end, his character wasn't fun to write for with a lot of things being poorly thought out and as I have been working on improving the game, have been increasingly unsatisfied with it - his design will be scrapped and redone. And his character and story will be overhauled with some things being kept and some removed. - Fergus, William and Archie will all be largely kept intact.

I am going to be upfront about the behind the scenes and my thought process here, so be warned.

The in depth behind the scenes of PBS is largely a mess, like most games. A lot of things got scrapped or redone many times before being put into the game. Hell, PbS was initially a very different game before being scrapped entirely and redone from scratch save for the base concept and some of the cast.

Most of these ideas didn't get into PbS, obviously. 

But, some things did - Chase being one of them. And while many of these characters were integrated well into what exists of PBS. In my opinion: Chase… Wasn't. 

The idea behind him was rather interesting - his design and power gimmick having existed well before the game even began development, and with only Stephen and Vincent only dating his concept.

Yet, he wasn't made for PBS. And unlike many other characters, his inclusion into PbS was pretty forced and has been a bit of a rocky road. He had received the most rewrites of any character, period. Initial scripts and plans for the game had no greater vision for his character outside of what he talks about at the end of ch1 - and he had no strong plot hook unlike the other 3 routes. (Which, by the way - any new vn developers out there, don't do this! Make sure you have a rough vision for ALL of your routes, learn from my mistakes.) He was so bland and uninteresting until the scene with Vincent later on I had to literally force a personality and story hook into him early on to avoid him being an exposition fairy with the whole ‘Oh Eric doesn't remember me and I'm sad and angsty about it’ thing. Which both, is pretty lacklustre compared to the other routes and wasn't even a sound concept to begin with. It isn't even unique, as I more than noticed - it has a massive amount of overlap with Raphael, and has often felt like a worse take of Raphael's story and character. Who, by the way, was also made to be the main Li for this game.

Raphael, Stephen and Vincent had a clear vision for their characters and routes, yet his… Simply didn't. Hell the side characters and pseudo lis felt better to write way more than be than he did.

A lot of things about him were just simply put… Very poorly thought out. With me just banking on pants it as I go. 

His design also… Just, isn't hitting it for me. He has my least favourite design in the game now. It's rather plain and every revision of his sprite felt half baked. Even his v4 sprite still feels so lacklustre compared to the rest. His art was always lagging behind the other mcs (IMO), and his v4 respite went through an insulting amount of revisions and I still just didn’t think it came out all too great. 

The next big issue: was Archie. Now, Archie’s character and arc was always fairly well planned out. And with the only hurdle being his… Really bad early art. However, I finally got around to addressing his art - and well, his new art being a huge step up both quality and design wise, I'm more than happy with him now. But here's the problem: I now like him way more than I like Chase. And most plans for Chase's route now actually focused less on Chase and more on Archie. You probably could have noticed this already with what little there is. The central plot point of the route was going to be that Chase got sidelined with Eric spending more time getting to know Archie. I won't say much more than that, just know that I've realised these plans sucked after toying with them for a bit.

Now, I don't know how popular Archie is at the moment, probably not very given how… (generously put) rough his old art was and it being very early in dev. Most people haven't expressed opinions on him either way, but let’s just say it has gotten to the point where I wish I had made this an Archie route and not a Chase route.

Which Is a huge problem if you ask me. I'm not happy with either his design, character or story to the point of wanting to make a side character the main li instead. 

If there is something PbS has taught me as both a beginner artist and writer, is that if something isn't hitting it for you, you gotta start over and try a different approach to it. While I could sit here trying to spend more time trying to salvage something I'm less than happy with, I'm going to instead cut my losses early and rethink ‘Chase’ from scratch.

‘Chase’ will be redesigned from the ground up. With traces of his old personality being carried over into the new character. (Current plans will probably have him as a whole new species, probably a Non-chubby Polar Bear.)

Now as for what will be staying and what will be going? I don’t know for sure yet - I have some ideas for a proper major story hook, and at a minimum, his power concept and toxic relationship with Vincent will need to be kept, just updated a bit. Everything else? Haven’t decided yet. And will give it some time to truly cook something I am happy with.

Otherwise, pretty much everything related to him will need to be redone from his scenes and other character's comments about him. 

As for Fergus, William and Archie. Their core design, lore and personalities will be kept intact (Though Fergus and William will receive new sprites like everyone else). The scene in the bar will also be largely kept - I don't really have a lot of beef with it as it serves to introduce Archie and William well enough, it will just need some recontextualization to fit a new narrative. I'm thankful the story Is still in its early stages, so I don't have to massively redo most of what I have, Which is a huge plus.

I know this series of devlogs has been a pretty drastic turn of events for what is still a small vn in early development, especially with this build also coming with a new art style. But I've simply come to realise things while working on this build and that game development is hard - and there will be bumps along the way, if the vn will be better off for it in my mind then so it.

Next build will largely remain unchanged for ‘Chase’ (Save for his design, hopefully), and I want to make sure I have a good plan ready going into it.  ‘Chase’ thankfully has no relevance whatsoever to Stephen’s route and as I want to also focus on introducing Max and getting the next story arc for Stephen done properly anyways, now is a good time to do so. The build after that will put things in motion to begin redoing ‘Chase's’ character and route.

Also, rest assured that Raphael, Stephen and Vincent's routes will all be left largely intact, I have no plans to make any changes to their characters or stories - and anything changed related to ‘Chase’ will be insignificant to their routes. The overarching story for the early parts of ch1 won’t be changed too much either, though I have received some criticism about it in the past, so I’ll use this as an opportunity to address some of that criticism now.

Otherwise, that is all. Sorry for the huge text dump, I just want to make sure I'm being completely honest about my thought process for the game's development. Even as a small niche vn dev.

Join the discord or message me on discord @final_bear if you find any typos, have any questions or just want to chat. Otherwise, enjoy Raphael's ch2 and see you in hopefully 2 weeks for the next devlog, farewell!

New stuff:

• Finished Ch2 for Raphael. With roughly ~23k works being the longest individual chapter update yet.
• New UI
• New sprites for the attack sequence during the prologue.
• 2 new characters introduced (Max and Kristoffer.) Max will be a li in Stephen’s route.
• Whole new sprites for Chase* (don't get too attached to this Chase design.), Lloyd, Robin, Morten & Archie.
• New artstyle. Current characters who've had their sprites updated in this artstyle: Eric, Raphael, Lloyd, Robin, Morten and the new character, Max. The rest will follow eventually.

Writing:

• Redid most of the writing during the attack scene during the prologue.
• Eric now asks what happened to Max during the scene with him at the park.
• Eric’s internal monologue about almost being a stabbing Victim mid way during ch1 has been rewritten to better lead into Max’s eventual introduction. 
• During Raphael’s chapter 2. Eric no longer implies they are trying to cover up something with his resignation. Instead just making a joke and then moving on with the conversation. 
• Updated some wording on the scene with Raphael in the hotel. Also removed the comment about Raphael’s self realisation due to it not being relevant to the direction the story is going in.
• Eric's descriptions of Morten & Robin have been updated to match their new sprites.
• The Bear is no longer the one who accuses_____of being a Murderer at the start of the game. 
• Eric now comments on Lloyd's 'I'm too much of a fag for that.' remark.

Art changelog: (aka, characters who have had their sprites updated but didn't have it fully redone.)

Eric & Raphael:

• Both had their upper bodies redone, Eric received no design changes.
• Raphael has the suspenders added to his casual clothing.

Vincent, Pierce, Noland, Darren and Stephen also received some small adjustments to their sprites, but most of these are outdated and will be redone in the new artstyle soon enough, so don't get too attached to any of these.

Misc Changes and Fixes:

• Removed the side icons, hopefully the file size is much smaller now.
• Updated the textbox.
• Changed the pre-introduction names of Morten, Raphael and Theodore.
• Changed the Colour of Morten’s display tag.
• Made the name display centralised.
• Fixed many typos from b3.
• Fixed an error where an outdated description of Noland was kept in the game by mistake, this has been deleted.