Hi spooky friends! It's been a while.

I've been working hard on the game these past few months, but life has also happened (as it tends to do), so I'm sorry about not posting a lengthy update until now! I'm happy to write that I'm at a point where progress is going steady, and a new and improved demo release is on the horizon!

Since deciding to do a rework I've basically rebuilt the game from scratch, thrown out the spaghetti point-and-click code, updated the UI and many of the visuals, and most important of all, dug deep into the rewrite for the story. 

So, let me tell you what I've been working on, what you can find in the new demo, and: Why a rework at all?

Story

There was one major issue with the original story. It was a fairy tale--and no, not like the other fairy tales I've made. 

A fairy tale in the way we think of today: A simple story too neat and perfect and white and black to be true. It wasn't a bad story; it just didn't fit the what the characters had grown into. They wouldn't act that way any more in the world they inhabited now.

If you've played Trail of Stars, (a side story, and sort of prequel, made for a game jam) you might have seen a peek already at how they've shifted. That game feels very much like a fairy tale, but it's not a kind one. While the characters find some happiness, it's clear they have many struggles ahead of them, and that their innocence won't last forever.

(That's not to say The Last Winter Knight will suddenly become dark and miserable. You can find peace and lay your regrets to rest in the end. )

From first person to second.

A major change you'll notice immediately is a change in perspective. (Yes, I did go and rewrite the entire story in second person.)

Nameless Knight is not the most pleasant character's head to be stuck in. He's a little bitter, a little dry, rather sombre and perhaps not a good person. He's also the protagonist of a point-and-click game, narrating everything you click on in the original game in his sombre, dry, ghostly little voice. A great writer could work with that; alas, I am not.

So now there's a separate narrator, and that narrator addresses you.

Nameless Knight still has plenty to say, of course, but now there's a little distance, a little room for you to step in and him to step back and be less pretentious.

Choices

With a new perspective comes more choices for you to play with. Nameless Knight is a set character, but with his memories wiped clean, you can now nudge his perception and personality a bit more. You can be as grumpy as he originally was or someone a bit softer behind that metal shell.

The main purpose this gives is flavour text: Narration may be altered and relationships changed depending on how you see things. But at certain key points, they might lead to something more drastic...

Relationships and Romance

The Last Winter Knight has always been a game about family, and it still is. Some families are formed from romantic bonds, however, and here it's grown beyond subtext to playing a larger role in the story. I wouldn't necessarily call Winter Knight a romance visual novel; there's no love interest for you to pursue. There's only a relationship that existed, long before you donned your armour, that affected you and the people around you.

Art and Visuals

My art style has changed a lot since I first started the game, enough that I definitely do not feel happy leaving the original sprites as is LOL. So, most sprites have gotten a rework to not only have updated art, but to better reflect the characters' personalities and be more consistent.

Some in game art has also been updated to look like I spent more than 5 minutes on it.

As you can see from screenshots throughout this post, the UI has gotten an update as well (and thanks to coding improvements, the textbox no longer blinks in and out, huzzah!)

I announced the new cover art in December (which you can see if you scroll up), but it's been changed to reflect the character-driven focus of the story and fit the new art style.

CG Graphics

Important scenes and memories now have lovely little illustrations instead of character silhouettes just standing around. I hope you enjoy them. 

Sound and Music

The sound and music should remain basically unchanged from before. There was a bug in the previous build however, where audio would go out of sync, so I am looking for a cleaner way to add the dynamic layers to hopefully fix it. Two new character motifs will also be added in the new demo.

The Demo

So when will the demo come out?

I initially wanted to release it in early June, but there are two reasons I'm hesitant to now: One is a new feature, the codex, and the other is testing, testing, testing.

The Codex

The new story comes with more characters, details and dates as well as personality stats and items. To make it easier on the player, I feel that having a compendium for it all is a necessary feature. But programming it? That's going to be a lot of work. 

An option might be to just not include the codex and hope it won't be too much of a problem, since the demo is a fairly short experience. Or, I could have a very simplified one that's basically an inventory screen...

Mockup for the codex.

Variables, variables, variables

Variables for the knight's personality, as well as what objects you have and haven't seen, play a bigger role than in the previous version, and more variables always means more testing. The flow of the story itself? That also needs testing. Do items disappear and appear in your inventory when they should? Better test that too.

So when will the demo come out? Probably somewhere in June, and definitely this summer.

Full Game Features:

Some things that I want to include in the final game likely won't be in the demo. These include:

Controller Support

The game can really only be completed with a mouse right now. You can hover over objects and hit <enter> or a button instead of clicking, but Ren'py's out-of-box controller scheme is... not great, and not able to support selecting every object you need. 

I do plan to tackle full controller support for the final game, but finagling with features is something that kills motivation and momentum for me, so I'll sadly be saving it for later down the line. 

Voice over???

Most of my games don't have voice acting for (mostly logistical) reasons. It's a very big time and cost investment (and I am one very tired dev with many plates to juggle who pays for everything out of pocket haha... ). I'm seriously considering investing in it for The Last Winter Knight, however, just because I consider sound such an important aspect of the game.

This game deals heavily with memory. Nameless Knight doesn't have a voice anymore; he can only recall what he sounded like, and what the people around him did. What would the game be like if it reflected that feeling?

I'll have to see what the final script ends up like, and whether I can find someone to potentially handle casting, for it to be a possibility. Feel free to let me know how you feel about it, however, and if you would (or wouldn't) enjoy it.