Reteaching a sparrow how to fly.

Sorry for being quiet lately. We've been busy.

As I'm sure some of you have seen by now. We've been releasing chapters of WS to a couple of YouTubers/streamers, to help us get the word out about our passion project.
We released the first five chapters and got tons of feedback regarding how the first opinions of the game are. So far, it was all pretty positive. We couldn't be happier with the response.
However, there were problems...
As well-received as these released chapters were, I felt as if the designs and many other things were lacking behind what should be expected of a monetized project.
So, we made the choice to strip it all down, and start (mostly) over.
This is why you haven't heard from us in a couple of months. We've been hard at work building everything back up from scratch.
What you see in those past videos of WS floating around isn't what the game looks like now.
Not even close.

Change is only good when it's better

We've made changes to virtually every aspect of WS. The main menu has been redesigned (Gone is that ugly orange box) and we actually have proper SFX. We've also updated the text box to look much more professional and added a few extra features to the game as well.
That big sparrow icon that took up space on the text box before?
Well, now it has a purpose!

One of the problems facing the original build was that the game is heavily influenced by the reputation system.
Do good things for your partner, good things happen to you. Do bad things, you know the rest.
However, there was no way to really know if the choice you made was a positive one or a negative one.
Now, there is.
The sparrow icon on the text box now functions as a "rep-check" button. Clicking it will start a conversation with Ayumi that will allow the player to get a feel about how positive of a light they are being seen in.
It's purposely vague, however, as we didn't want to simply display a bunch of numbers. You have to figure out by the conversation itself if your rep is positive, or negative.

Another change that (hopefully) will be featured in this new build is the addition of BG animations!
Things like birds flying in the sky, airplanes taking off, sunlight beaming off of the sidewalk. These animations help breathe life in the still images you'll be looking at for hours on end. There are several of these animations planned for this new build of the game. Many of the backgrounds getting their own, unique ones.

Another thing that will be featured in this new build of the game are CG's! Yes, those little still images that function as semi-cutscenes will now also be in WS. We have a list of four currently. These will help add depth to certain scenes of the game and make them more impactful to the player. I poured over the script and I think we hit the best possible scenes to turn into CG's. Hopefully, they portray them in a more engaging manner than it would be if sprites were used.
Speaking of sprites...

Spritework is a work in progress.

Along with all these other new features, new outfits will be added to certain characters. Now, they won't just have two outfits, but some will even have three and others four.
As some people have pointed out, some of our sprites behave in an odd way when switching poses.
For now, we currently don't have a fix for this.
The system we use to display the emotions of the sprites requires the head to be roughly the same position at all times.
What we do is take the expressions we have, chop up all the pieces, and use those pieces to create even more expressions.
The head itself is used as a blank canvas for these expressions, forming them on the go.
Changing the head movements affect the whole system at the present time.
Editing head placement limits our emotions back down to the regular five-six.
We've simply settled on the odd transitions the sprites make over dialing back our expression list.
Hopefully, this little issue will be fixed before the game fully releases.

What's to come

Although the official release at this time is still just the beginning demo. We are just days away from releasing the first chapter of the game using our new overhauled system. This will hopefully include the BG animations, rep check system, and the redesigned graphics.
From then on, we'll be releasing chapters as they are finished for our network of Youtubers/streamers to play and give feedback.
If you're interested in seeing more of WS before the full release of the game, please have a look at the influencers that will be playing these chapters as they release.

Spaghetto: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2r8uA9uDUvpTmgtAGPma1A
FlyKunai:  https://www.twitch.tv/flykunai31
Illyriah Rose: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPnjNzokRO0FXyBiUoKGf-g

We're always looking for more people to help us get the word out.
If you have a YouTuber/streamer that might be interested in playing WS, please let us know!
We'd love to contact them!

Please consider joining our discord!
It's our main form of communication to our fans, and those expecting news about WS
https://discord.gg/7CGdsJc