Welcome in! I hope you guys are being safe this summer and enjoying the weather.

I am currently enjoying some sake on a Sunday afternoon and wanted to write this anyway XD.

I have been hard at work with my team to get things prepared, and have been stuck in a Dev Basement working on a very crucial part of the Game. Now that its mechanics are finished. I feel like I can give you the run down of what we have been doing the past four months!

There is a lot of cover so let's get into it!

Overall since February, I have been planning out the PDA, updating and optimizing code in the game to maximize performance across all platforms and languages. Updates in code, and software has been a big one in our priorities across the board.

We are working the long game. I am planning to use the Spank Engine for many types of Visual Novels in the future. Also, with the code being open source once the game is released, I always keep in mind the use cases for many devs that may use our systems.

1. Save States Updates:

Serializer is updated for better adaptability across multiple game types. The update added better reliability across platforms. This also includes tweaks to performance overall to increase overall speed and efficiency across the board. (Yes, we are refactoring as we go XD. Not a ton but we have been organizing code as we move forward)

2. Unity Updates:

We added Rich text to the globalizer. It means Profiles in the PDA will have rich text formats across languages.

With keeping up with current fixes in code, we have remained on the 2022 LTS, and have kept up with updates that provide bug fixes. Sometimes this introduces minor bugs that we have to fix, which take almost no time. I know the code well enough now to know where the issues lie and how to fix them promptly.

3. Live 2D Updates:

This is a big one. Currently, our SDK is reliant on Cubism 4.2, and in the next month or so, we will be upgrading to cubism 5.0. This will require a minor rework of some reference work, but will pay off in the future. 5.0 came with some very large feature sets for creators to add to their models, and we want them to be able to utilize them. This update will be done on the backend as we put the story into the game engine, so it will only add a touch of time into the overall progress of the project.

4. Writers Script Updates:

The writers script is the core way a writer can control models, backgrounds, music, audio effect, voices, and scene changes. We have added unlock functionality to the whole system. This will be covered in the Unity Section.

5. UI Blur:

UI Blur has been something I really wanted since Aug 2020. And it's finally in the game! It took a lot of research to ensure it didn't add any load on the gpu, but we managed to do it! Now all UI Elements look like panes of glass without any additional resource grabbing.

6. Story:

I am adding a ton of lore and exposition in the PDA as I progress forward. It will be timed based on when YOU discover things inside the game. This will allow me to focus on mostly dialogue in the chat box and only minor descriptive details.

The effort is for realism and immersion. I may be throwing a ton of memes and fun in, but I also want to drive home some grounded reality in.

Lockdown for Cast will be very soon as well. I have a few things I need to confirm before we finalize the final cast. Please be patient in that regard.

Animations and Unity covers several things. And we will go through them one by one.

PDA:

The PDA is your immersive hub for information in the B1NARY Universe.

Locations, Background Information, Profiles of NPCS, Waifus, Husbandos, and Cameos, and your Notifications on Unlocks!

The UI is a two tier design, full immersion (PDA), and fourth wall (Options and Chat Box).

These can also be video clips, Gif's, and other media. We put a lot of work into the compatibility.

Once you unlock something, it will carry over across saves. And, as long as you don't mess with your Game Config file, it will remain unlocked.

It will be your companion and your main source of information. Going down certain decision trees will unlock sections of information that may help you later on in the game. However, I don't want to cuck any players that skip it. It will just be more difficult to make the right decisions.

I want the player to be able to focus and stay in the story as much as humanly possible. With these design decisions in mind, I altered the code of the PDA to focus on more realistic unlocks as you play through the game.

You will even have hyperlinks to the Cast's twitch, YouTube, and Twitter accounts!

The PDA will also allow you track your unlocks in the gallery, which will contain Fan Art (Including Fan fictions) that you can look at in the Options Panel at any time.

Notifications will cover:

• Profiles (NPCS, Cameos, Waifus, Husbandos)
• Gallery Pics
• Fan Fics
• Location Unlocks
• Domain Unlocks
•  Background Lore Unlocks
• And Future Steam Achievements. 

Prologue currently is being touched up a bit to integrate the addition of Lore as you progress. This will ease up on any exposition dumps in the dialogue.

Animation Tweaks:

We use a lot of animations in our UI, and plan to add a bit more. I did some clean up and added a ton of newer animations to the PDA, and will mirror those changes in the Save / Load, Character Route Panels, and the binary / non-binary selection panels.

Additional camera tweaks are in the works and the frame work is set up. It allows for camera zooms, shakes, ect, to add more spice to the narration. It will be WIP as we progress forward.

New Backgrounds Start Next Week! We have a ton to jump on.

With Taku creating the Art, and myself doing the animations, it should be relatively quick once we get rolling.

The Main Focus will be:

• Male MC's Home Domain
• Female MC's Home Domain
•  The Train Station (In the MC's Domain, and at the Twitch Server )
• Asterella Star's Domain (Start)

The Next Focus will be on:

• Comrade Del's Domain
• Fefe, the punk rocker's Domain
• Kota the Demon's Domain

Character Art is a key part of our game. I try to pick Artists that vibe well with the route they will be working on. From Edgy to softer and light, we try to make the seperation of art styles to our advantage.

Fefe :

Reference Commission is ready to go! We have all the info we need and just need to draw out the reference art before the live 2D Model is ordered. We will try and push this in August.

Comrade Del:

Del's Reference art is complete. We are looking into Prepping his commission for the actual Live 2D Art for the game.

Female MC:

Some Recolor and some adjustments prior to rigging is required. I am doing this myself. However, I will have time end of July to tackle this.

Aoi Miyuki:

The AI involved with the Train station. Her Model is almost 100 percent and ready to rig. This one will be on the list in the next few months, if funds allow it.

Kota the Demon:

His rigging will be finished and ready for August! A small video clip below is the WIP of his model. I have lots of plans for his world, so be ready!

Rigging is very fund intensive and we plan on getting the two support models finished (Female MC, and Aoi Mikyuki) next in our list.

With the addition of Cubism 5.0 in Unity for us, it will open up several new techniques and drastically improve overall performance and efficiency of the models, allowing even a toaster to play our project.

I will be working closely with Taku from here on out to get the backgrounds in as I write the story into game.

We are done with the majority of the mechanics, minus a touch of polish here and there. So from here on out it will be:

1. Writing the story into game.

2. Adding Music, effects, and animations for each section.

3. Commissioning the Backgrounds and Animating them.

4. Lore Updates and Interviews with Cast to ensure the stories are up to date. (Things change often XD.)

My Goal for End of August is to be inputting the First stages of all the routes into game, with the Male and Female Route Domain Sections ready for commissions. We already have translators working on the material as I speak.

Future Updates:

I will have a more streamlined way of updating you guys! I am terribly sorry for the lack of information. I am soloing a big chunk of the workload and some stuff in real life is trying to take me away from my work.

So it came down to choice of get things done or spend the time to update when things are not complete. The most detailed updates will be on Patreon, with day to day small tidbits on our Twitter and Discord accounts.

I still work daily on the project, and writing is a big passion of mine. I have already started mapping out the decision trees for all the routes. I will keep you up to date!

I appreciate your support! Thank you all!

Project Manager

TherinWhittten