Made Marion Development Update: May 2024
about 2 years ago – Fri, May 17, 2024 at 01:59:37 PM

The Halfway Mark

Will's route is now halfway written, which is when my writing speed really picks up steam. As of the end of chapter 2 we're at 37.5k words.  There's a lot happening in chapter 3 and of course the two chapter 4s, so Will's route may be slightly shorter than Robins, but not by much. And I believe the main culprit is the fact that Robin just spits out so many more words than Will. As for who spits out the most meaningful content, well.

Our script and coding should be ready in time to launch Will's route during the summer. I will give more specific dates once I'm more sure of the exact completion time and the readiness of our visual assets.

And in good news, my new doctor is doing a great job helping to narrow down the exact causes of my long Covid symptoms. I should also be referred to a specialist by the summer. Future route production will definitely be faster if I can manage Normal and Necessary Human Activities(tm) without spending the next day dead asleep.

Patch Incoming

Having received the graphical assets I've been waiting for, I have completed a small patch to the existing game client. We were very proud to see that Robin's route launched relatively bug-free!  There were a few dialogue tag issues that we missed during Beta (no wonder, with so much dialogue in there!) and some other minor typos and anachronism issues.

The patch is ready to go but since I'll be out of town this weekend, I'm going to launch it on Monday just in case anything catastrophic happens. That's highly unlikely considering the changes made, but never say never in game dev. :-p  You should see the patch announcement on Itch (if you're following us) and Steam when it happens.

I also replaced the enchanted arrow graphic with an improvement and replaced Alvin's sexy silhouette with our new style. The new style better matches the game's overall style and IMO it's a fair bit sexier, as well. Here's the new image!

Will is getting two sexy silhouettes (this should be our number for every route going forward; we'll get a second one for Robin at some point as well), and one of them contains a neat scenario that will let Lawrichai do something a little different with the silhouette forms.  I'm excited about it.

See y'all next month!

Made Marion Development Update: March 2024
over 2 years ago – Fri, Mar 22, 2024 at 01:09:14 PM

Hello everyone!

We're continuing writing Will's Chapter 2 this month. I went back this past week and wrote the final action scene in Will Chapter 1, so now that chapter is entirely complete.

Writing isn't going as quickly as I'd hoped, but I'm doing as best I can with my health limitations. I have a new lap desk so I can write on the couch more often, and I have a new doctor who is being much more attentive in trying to get me help for my lingering long Covid symptoms.

Since we're largely just writing and sketching art right now, I'm going to take April off from major development updates and send out the next big one in May. I will still be posting our weekly mini-updates on Tumblr if you're interested in more granular progress.

In the meantime, enjoy this sketch I approved of Will's common route CG (I approved two Will CG sketches, but the other one is spoilers), and my silly little contribution to Tumblr's Ides of March-o-Rama.

Made Marion Development Update: February 2024
over 2 years ago – Sun, Feb 18, 2024 at 10:28:23 AM

Hello everyone, and happy belated Valentine's Day!  Will took a moment of his time to make everyone a very special Valentine.

Darn it, Will.

The Writing Desk

I am moving into Will Chapter 2!  These first couple months of Will route development have been challenged by some unavoidable IRL issues, but those are all cleared up now and I am devoting the rest of February and March fully to writing Will's route.

Chapter 1, as predicted, will be around 20,000 words. I still have one more Chapter 1 scene to finish, but it's a big action scene, and those tend to take me forever as I figure out all the logistics. I decided that rather than delaying the rest of the adventure, I'll slowly add to that action scene while writing Chapter 2.

Will Preview Video:

In case you missed it, we created a preview stream featuring the beginning of Will's route for the Steam Storyteller's Festival in early February.  Here it is!

Art Roundup

Some backers have been curious as to the completion status of our art, so here's the roundup:

Sprites and CGs (Arrapso)

All main character sprites are complete, save for a ??? variant sprite that will only be seen in the DLC.

We have 3.5 major NPC sprites yet to be completed: Hugh, leader of the Grey Wolves (backer sprite); Issa, Lord Geoffrey's cousin in from Nibiru (backer sprite); Kafeel, leader of Nottingham's Sunjati Merchant association and Will's friend; and the final version of Thomas, a character who is only seen in Alanna's route. I will need Kafeel for Will's EA release and am hoping to have Hugh and Issa for it as well, although they are more important on the Nottingham side.

After those are complete, Arrapso's main job will be CGs. I have ordered 4/5 Will CGs and am still deciding on the design for the final one. We also still need to design the backer wallpapers (which will be available in PC and phone formats).

Backgrounds & Creature Sprites (Sandra)

Backgrounds are almost entirely finished. I have one more major background to commission and then it'll just be the occasional variation as needed or maaaaybe one or two more major backgrounds later on to add more variation to the Nottingham Town exteriors.

All major creature sprites are complete.  I may commission one of Geoff's beloved hunting hounds during his route, but haven't decided yet. Meissa's bird friend will likely be a cut-in like our messenger doves.

Lore Intro and Cut-Ins (Lawrichai)

Lawri has been having some IRL challenges but should be back with us soon. Her main jobs right now are sexy silhouettes and the lore intro animation. We may be transforming the lore intro graphics into a full .webm animation instead of using Ren'py's built in Animation and Transition Language, as this might actually be easier for Lawri, as well as looking a lot smoother and making me pound my head against my desk less. It's a win/win/win! We'll have more on this next time.

Otherwise, Lawri's work is ongoing depending on budget and how much she is able to complete from route to route (I can always add in more cut-ins, but for now we're focusing on more critical ones as we have time after the sexy sils are complete per route).

So that's where we are with art right now!  We're in pretty good shape overall, there just might need to be some more intense art production while I complete the second half of Will's script.

See you next month!

Made Marion Development Update: January 2024
over 2 years ago – Wed, Jan 17, 2024 at 05:38:42 PM

Happy New Year!

We're now in the thick of things with Will.

Just a quick update this month!  I'm finishing up the script on Will Chapter 1. It's on track to be about 20k words, on par with Robin's route.

This week I'm coding in the first few scenes of Chapter 1. On Sunday a few of us on the team will be recording a playthrough of these scenes to broadcast during an event at the end of the month. I can't announce it yet, so we'll send out a quick announcement before the event so you can watch.

Here's the title card for Chapter 1!  Marion and Will are in for a bit of a rough ride at first. With a highly reluctant Will and a Marion who refuses to let him put her aside, can their partnership last past their first rocky assignment?

Stay tuned for news of our Will Route Preview!

Made Marion Development Update, December 2023
over 2 years ago – Wed, Dec 20, 2023 at 03:55:12 PM

Happy Holidays!

Will's more of a "Bah Humbug" kind of guy than a Happy Holidays one, but he's what we've got.

Thanks to everyone who has played through Robin's route and left lovely reviews and feedback!  I'm so happy about the response we received to our first Early Access release, and will be doing my best to make sure all our routes are up to that standard.

All backers (at the game level and up) who filled out their Backerkit surveys should have received a game key at the email they used when they backed Made Marion. It appears that the key emails did skip the occasional inbox. If you haven't received a key, please contact me via Kickstarter Message. That's the fastest way to get ahold of me, quickly shows me that you are indeed a backer, and lets me look you up on Backerkit so I can send you the link to your code.

Development Progress

We're settling in to creating Will's route now!  Unfortunately, shortly after Robin's route launched I contracted Covid for the second time. I was down for a few weeks between the virus and the Paxlovid I took to beat up the virus. But now that I'm feeling better, it appears the Paxlovid also helped beat up some of my long Covid symptoms.  I'm feeling close to normal for the first time since Dec. 2021!

Since recovering, I have finished writing 3.5/6 major scenes in Will Chapter 1.  I'm hoping to finish Chapter 1 by the new year. Writing Will is quite different from Robin.  It's not difficult to know what he's thinking at any given moment!  As you might be able to guess from the end of Sherwood Common, Will and Marion don't exactly get off on the right foot. It's pretty fun to write their awkward attempts to work together and the bickering that ensues.

For those of you who follow our weekly Tuesday Tidbits updates on Tumblr, I'll be taking a week or two off of those as I celebrate the holidays (though I'll still be writing, just taking a social media break), so I'll see you all in the new year!