Hello, happy September!

I apologize for missing last month’s devlog! I was going to post one, but after some considerations I decided to wait for the first of September…for reasons that I’ll go into a bit later!

First, Actala updates! The code refactor has been moving along at a steady pace; I’ve updated the codebase with all the changes that I made for Karamu, and now I’m working on implementing sprites. I’ve also been experimenting with the rendering style that I would want to use for those and working on incorporating animations.

Next, I’d like to announce a new project: The Deepwater Witch! Like with Karamu, I will be working on this one concurrently with Actala.

In a world ravaged by pollution and climate change, a “prince” has an encounter with a “mermaid.” 

This will be a slightly dark retelling of the Little Mermaid set in a post-apocalyptic future, where you play from the perspective of the “prince.” In reality, the POV character, Ramil, isn’t a prince at all; he’s a down-on-his-luck scavenger, struggling to survive while facing crippling debt to the Somnatan Syndicate, the local criminal gang. After an incident in which he nearly drowns, he has a fated meeting with a mysterious girl on a beach. As the girl’s identity unravels, will Ramil’s story end with the happily ever after…or tragedy?

I plan to release the Deepwater Witch for the Once Upon a Time VN Jam, so expect to see it released around the end of the year! Like Karamu, it will be a dark romance with a couple of twists, featuring one LI with a defined MC. However, the scope is quite a bit larger (currently estimated to be about 3 hours of playtime). Quite a bit of progress has been made on this project already, and I’m excited to share the details!

Lastly, I’d like to talk about my socials! In the past, I’ve mainly used Twitter (or X, as it is now called) to talk about my projects! However, X is in a bit of rough spot at the moment, and I’ve been looking for alternatives.

After a lot of deliberation, I’ve decided to…open a Patreon! I thought that Patreon would be a good place to talk about my WIPs while also giving anyone who’s interested an opportunity to support me. Any proceeds will go towards supporting my projects (commissioning artists, hiring VAs, buying sound assets, etc.) As a solo, self-funded dev, any support is greatly appreciated! 

(This is actually why I decided to postpone August’s devlog to September - since Patreon works on a monthly cycle, so I wanted any potential patrons to get the full month!)

I’ll still be making regular announcements on X and Tumblr, but if you like what I do and want to look at what’s going on under the hood, I’ll be posting a lot of content on Patreon that I won’t share anywhere else: sketches, writing snippets, high-resolution artwork, etc. I already have a lot of content about the Deepwater Witch queued up, and there are also many excerpts from Actala’s script that I can’t wait to share ;) 

Thank you to everyone who’s interested in my stories, and see you next month!

Chattercap