Hey all, it is May 2nd. Which means it is now time for yet another devlog.

This one will be focused entirely on Blood in the Water, since I am gearing up to release the first build of it soon, so let's get into it.

Writing and Editing update: It is almost done, more or less. Chapter one currently sits at just over 100k words after editing. Which is… A lot to say the least. As I said before, I was admittedly expecting this, but I don't think I'll release builds of this size for the future 2 chapters, I'll probably break them up into smaller pieces. 

Furthermore, the planning stages for day 2 are already well in the works. Currently I have about 60% of the chapter planned out fully and hopefully the rest follows suit soon. I don't think I'll have the time to begin work on chapter 2 until chapter 1 is fully released, but getting this all done in advance has never hurt anyone, has it?

Speaking of, coding for chapter 1 has begun. It shouldn't take too long since, as I said before… All of the backbend stuff was finished ages ago. The framework is already done and it just needs to be put in.

The biggest holdup I'm facing right now, and part of the reason things are taking much longer than I'd have liked is the art:

I've been experimenting a ton in an attempt to make my artstyle the best it could be for my skill level. Which is all fine and dandy, except for the fact that this has meant I've had to redo a lot of what I've already made before. 

Which is… Not ideal, obviously. The hard part is facing right now is deciding when enough is enough and to release the first build anyways, but I also don’t want to push out a bunch of unfinished art that I'm not fully satisfied with yet, especially on the first build. It's tricky to say the least. 

At the very least, I can show off the updated sprites for Theodore and Pierce. The latter of which received a bit of a redesign… Nothing significant, I just felt a different colour palette was needed to better match my intent for his character. I don't see these sprites needing much more work before the game releases.

Noland also had another new sprite made for him, and hopefully, his last.

Finally, I can also show off the WIP sprite for a brand new character with a very magnificent coat: Jakub. You'll learn more about him when the game releases. 

I'll still need a bit more time to finish up the remaining assets before the game releases, so I hope you can handle waiting a biit longer for this. Art takes time and unfortunately I can't pump out art at the speed I used to, but I'm trying my hardest.

One last thing is that the page for Blood in the Water is now officially ready to be released!: https://the-final-bear.itch.io/blood-in-the-water I'm still waiting on art assets to be ready for it, but for the time being, you can now read a proper synopsis on what the game will be about as well as some promotional screenshots for the game.

I wanted to set a proper release date, but unfortunately I'm not sure I have one. I don't want to give a release period for later this month, only for that time to come and the game isn't ready and I'll need to push the release day back again. So, all I'll say is: I'll let you know when the game is ready to release. Hopefully (fingers crossed) it isn't much longer from now.

Otherwise, If you have any questions or just want to chat, message me @final_bear or join the discord server (Which is still up), and farewell.