Greetings friends! :)

Today we're releasing Build #2-D!

This major release brings almost an hour of voiceover content for the game's areas! The main purpose of this release is to test stability and gather feedback from players before we commit to further VO work with the current setup... as well as let you enjoy the new voice-overs! :)

We wanna hear your opinion, so let us know what you think!

As always, you can grab the latest release from the game's Itch.io page!

Here's the changelog for this build:

• added full voiceovers to the intro section (Captain's Quarters) for the Storyteller & Captain Hale & Meredith
• added full voiceovers to the barks and banter between Hale and Meredith in the prologue area (Ninevus South)
• added full voiceovers for the Hale & Meredith orc-pursuit talk, down near the Legionnaire's Lodge
• added full voiceovers to the orc-tracking mini events that Hale comments on within Ninevus South
• added partial voiceover for the initial post-cabin talk (only Lady Crimson's VO for now)
• corrected a couple of overlooked typos in various scripting events and text messages
• tweaked NPC dialogue events to prevent firing while Player is seeing & hearing banter
  

This endeavor has been a massive undertaking for us not just from a sound design but also a scripting perspective. RPGMV (the dev suite ToLLA is being develop in) doesn't really lend itself to incorporating voice-over content. There aren't any specialized controls or settings which give us the ability to fine-tune these files or sync them with the text on screen, so it all had to be done painstakingly by hand, line by line, with a ton of testing and tweaking to achieve the desired effect...

We've also had to dip our toes into sound design and editing. Mixing the sound files took more time and effort than we anticipated, and there's still ways to improve. There's an old saying in game dev that players will somewhat tolerate poor graphics if the story is gripping and the gameplay loop fun, but they won't extend the same courtesy to the game's sound design... This is 100% true, because low quality audio can absolutely wreck a game, whether due to it being poorly mixed or just badly designed and composited.

Audacity was a godsend in our work here, letting us make tweaks, and reformat files on the fly...

Please note that the "SFX Volume" setting has to be set to at least 20% in the main menu, otherwise you won't hear the VO files ingame. We recommend not lowering it below 60% (this is the default we've set it to when you unpack and run the game). RPGMV doesn't have a dedicated sound channel for VO files, so we've had to make due with this setup. In the future we'll probably remix the VO files one final time once we gather enough feedback from players regarding overall volume and balancing.

Right now only select segments are voiced, but we have plans to fully dub all the plot-critical events and convos... And maybe if things go well, the entire game at some point. We'll roll out more VO work in the coming updates as we implement new characters, questlines, banter events, and locations.

Anyway, give Build #2-D a spin and let us know what you think! :)

And if you haven't already, please consider buying the game (it's currently on a 30% sale). All funds go directly towards content development, mostly new art and lewds. If you can't spare a few bucks then at least consider wishlisting the game on Steam (it costs nothing, and it helps us a lot with visibility).

Anyway, that's all for now. Hope you've had fun reading this development log...

The next update will bring new gameplay content, including a lewd scene.

Until then, take care and stay safe out there...

~ Crimson Delight Games