The title is perhaps more energy than I truly feel right now, but I am indeed excited about this, it's mostly just that things have been ess-eich-ai-tee in my life lately so it's been hard to get a lot of energy going about much of anything. HOWEVER, I am very happy I was able to get this finished up and ready to go for June and pride month and all that like I had hoped I would. It's been a good chunk of work diving into both game dev work and comic work at the same time, particularly with some extra obligations I've had with my RL work this month, so I'm honestly just relieved I was able to finish it.

Listen to me ramble away without even explaining anything hahahaaaaa...

Yes, so, the remaster. Arc 2. Everything is finished. That means I can release a new alpha version that contains all the new content up through the end of Arc 2! It also means the two biggest chunks of the remaster are done, which does feel pretty good from my end. There is still plenty of work left to do, but I knew going in that Arcs 1 and 2 would be like... 75% of the work just by themselves because there's been so much art to redo and new art to add (as opposed to, like, Arc 5, which I only just finished up last year, that won't require much at all in the way of art updates).

Let's start with just some basic specs of what I've done with this update so you know what to expect:

• Iggy sprite implemented up through the end of Arc 2
• 24 brand-new CGs
• 30 completely (or mostly) redrawn CGs
• 13 tweaked CGs (just minor consistency updates)
• 4 completely redrawn sprites (as well as a bunch of small cosmetic updates/tweaks to other sprites)
• Updated titles screens for Arcs 1-4
• Scripting updates and polishes up through the end of Arc 2 (tweaks to sprite sizes, updates to animations to make them more fluid and immersive, updates to some scenes to help them flow better and feel more polished)
• Weirdly enough, 2 new pieces of music (this goes hand-in-hand with my scripting polish, because as I was going through scenes, there were parts I just wasn't as happy with anymore, so I tweaked them a bit; one is a piece replacing the repeated use of a different piece to give it more weight and emotion, another completely replaces a piece that I had never been that happy with in the first place)
• Some bug fixes and further menu polish (fixed some issues with censored mode that had been reported as well as more I found myself particularly in the gallery; fixed issues in replay gallery where the new menu wasn't working, and other small fixes)
• I tried to fix the playtime calculation issues with some new code, but I don't think it actually fixed it; it seemed to work at first, but after a bit I noticed the same issues happening where the playtime would reset after saving or after a Game Over, etc.; it seems to be just the way that built-in Ren'Py variable works (`get_game_runtime`), so at this point, I'm not sure if I can fix it... so I may end up having to completely rethink how I calculate playtime (e.g., just setting a timer at the start of the game?) or get rid of it entirely... unsure

So overall, quite a bit of stuff! My gosh. No wonder it's taken me a little while lol.

This brings the updated CG count for Arcs 1 and 2 of the remaster combined to:

• 43 brand-new CGs
• 52 completely (or mostly) redrawn CGs
• 35 tweaked CGs (actually it's a bit more than this, but some of the tweaks felt incredibly minor, so I only included them in the count if it felt like a relatively significant tweak)

The Iggy sprite work in this arc was particularly extensive. Tbh it might be the arc that will require the most Iggy sprite variations??? Because poor Iggy just gets so bunged up in this arc. And it's not even all at once either, it's all gradual, so it required a lot of separately updated sprites with a lot of different variations. Also to help improve the immersion in uh... a particular scene... near the end... I ended up drawing a whole new version with its own variations. Also this is the first arc with a high school flashback, so I had to make the high school sprite version and after-prom outfit, though at least that one will get reused a lot in future arcs, too.

It's actually surprising how much work it is implementing that silly little guy in the corner LOL Even beyond having to make all the updated versions whenever something about him changes, just adding in all the code and setting his little expressions and animations takes a while and really requires me to dive back into and replay scenes and scroll rapidly through possible expressions so I can refresh myself on what's available and make the best choice (his normal sprite alone has 144 expressions now; and adding in all the different versions, it's up to 360, so I often forget what's all available and have to flip through them a lot to find the vibe I want, even if there are some I use more than others).

At the very least, I don't think Arcs 3 and 4 will require a lot more variations to his sprite... he'll need a suit and possibly a king version... a few new outfits for his kid sprite for some of the flashbacks... a new pajamas sprite... but he doesn't get bunged up much in those arcs, so no new injuries to worry about. Arc 5 will have a bit more though as he'll need a new sprite for his shoulder injury, though he doesn't have any outfit changes that I can remember off the top of my head. Though I'll probably give his sprite a little blanket for the rabbit burrow scenes.

Ahhhh... anyway lol. I really love how he looks down there and I feel like he adds a lot to the immersion and overall look and feel, so I don't mind, but dang!!

This arc comes with a lot of new CGs, too. And a lot of CG "scenes"? For lack of a better word. Maybe "sequences" is better. Anyway, scenes with multiple CGs in a row to give it kind of a cinematic feel I guess. I started doing this quite a bit more in later arcs, so it was my way to hopefully bring Arc 2 up to a bit more of the same cinematic polish as those arcs. Arc 2 had the least amount of unique CGs of all the arcs before I started working on the remaster, so for that reason alone, I felt it was important to add some more and give it some more weight. But also because Arc 2 is the most similar to Arc 1, I felt it was important to add more unique CGs to help it feel like less of a repeat. Like obviously it still is partly a repeat, because it's the first loop, so things change the least, which makes sense, but I've always just kinda worried about that when it comes to Arc 2, especially the first half. So I tried to add in some new unique CGs in particular parts where small bits changed to further highlight those changes and really give it is own identity, even in those parts that are similar.

Arc 2 also happens to have some of my favorite scenes in the game. Well, I have many favorite scenes LOL So maybe that doesn't mean much. But I'll just say some scenes that are very important to me. So I wanted to give them some more weight and hopefully make them more emotional (and cute).

I'm starting to ramble a little bit but I don't care. Arc 2 hmmm... I have a lot of feelings about it. For many different reasons! I remember being quite nervous to release Arc 2 at the time. For one, I hadn't really gone all the way in presenting this game as a queer game before that. I think the game page when I released Arc 1 was kind of just like... standard horror VN fare, and though Arc 1 does hint at some stuff, nothing is stated outright. But with Arc 2, everything changed, and it was a bit of a nerve-racking step for me. I've always had a hard time figuring out where OW stands when it comes to audience. Like it's no secret that the majority of, for instance, horror game streamers, are cis het men, who would probably not want to play a horror game with any kind of gay scenes, especially between two men. But at the same time, OW doesn't match the aesthetics of any of the mainstream gay media and genres. It's not really yaoi or BL as it doesn't mesh well with the art style and more mainstream character types and body dynamics that are part of the main draw to those genres. While at the same time, it doesn't fit into the geikomi/bara genre either, because none of my characters are very muscular (quite the opposite tbh...). Not to mention, it's not NSFW/sexually explicit, which is another common element of both yaoi and bara. So I went into Arc 2 just feeling really lost about how to even talk about my game or where I could find an audience for it, knowing that it didn't fit into the main audiences for horror OR the common gay subgenres.

I remember it was just a bit after I released Arc 2 that this survey from @blgamesworld with a question on "favorite character body type" in gay games was released, which only reinforced my feeling even more... because... well... what can I say.

Hence, my building despair...

And........ indeed. The Arc 2 release ended up being my worst release of all. I think I got 13 downloads when I released it... which was even less than the 33 I got when I released Arc 1... I just felt horrible. And it was the moment where I almost gave up on the game completely. I was so profoundly depressed lol. Because it seemed it just didn't have an audience. Who would want to play my weird gay horror game with its weird art and its unattractive characters??? Hahahaaa...

Sooooooo... I guess it just means a lot to me to return to it now after I've not only finished the game but have found people who enjoy my game for what it is. I'm really happy to give it some more love as a piece of the game that's really important to me. ALSO THE ACE SCENES I DIDN'T EVEN TALK ABOUT THOSE LMAO. Ahhh... Arc 2 has the first scene that made me cry while working on it because it was such a personal scene to me. Like. Getting to write a scene that directly takes back some of what happened to me in real life. To give me some solace even if only in a fictional environment. I've said this before I think but this in particular is one of the reasons I think why the Genzou/Iggy pairing has become such a big part of my soul, because it's what helped me finally work past some of the memories I'd been struggling with and is just a big ol' outlet for my ace heart. It's literally everything I could ever want for myself. So thinking about it, drawing it, writing it, brings me so much comfort and calm, especially in these recent years when my anxiety has risen to astronomical levels and my mental health has just gone down the drain.

Anyway...

...mmm I fixed some bugs in censored mode and I apologize to anyone who ran into anything they weren't expecting while playing the first alpha version. Hopefully those are all ironed out now. Actually it's a bit funny because after redoing all the CGs in this arc, there is actually less to censor for this arc than before. I didn't mean to do it, but somehow when I redrew some of the CGs that had censored parts, I redrew them in a way where the censored part was no longer visible. Like the Iggy eye scene, I completely redrew the angle, which lead to the blood splatters covering up anything that was shown before. Also I didn't like how I originally drew Iggy's burn lesions as they just felt too overly detailed compared to everything else around them, so now they mostly just look like red splotches, which I didn't feel was necessary to censor as they're no real different than any of the other wounds I already show. I think now there's only one normal CG that I still censor (the spear death one) and then a few that are censored in the final cutscene (the frames of Genzou obviously, and a few of the frames of Bucks). I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing??? LOL Maybe it's just neutral. Either way, it was something I noticed after I had already redrawn a lot of CGs.

This devlog is getting ridiculously long. Classic Carrot, going in thinking I would just write a quick little write-up of the new things added, and here instead I go on long rambly tangents about My Feelings™.

I guess I'll finish this up by musing a bit on the next stuff to tackle for the remaster. I already talked about this a bit on Tumblr, but Arcs 3-5 will have less done to them as part of the remaster. This makes sense because a huge part of the need for the remaster and the redone art is because some of the art in the early parts of the game was very old and I improved quite a bit in the almost 3 years that I worked on this game. So the early parts of the game have required the most rework, with my basically redoing nearly all of the early CGs, updating all of the original sprites, etc. Also, the further I got into the game, the more CGs I started drawing, the better I got with cinematography and composition, etc. So there's also less and less I need to do in terms of adding new CGs, because they're already chock-full lol. SO. There just isn't as much that I need to do art-wise when it comes to the later arcs. Arc 5 in particular I feel like I'll barely need to do anything besides implement the Iggy sprite.

That's not to say that there won't be any new art updates for the next arcs. Arc 3 already has a lot of CGs; however, it's kinda on the cusp of where I was starting to make things more consistent and my art was improving. So while I don't think there will be much in the form of brand-new CGs, there will be stuff to redraw and tweak. By Arc 4 I was already really going off the rails in terms of CGs, but I can already think of a few CGS in particular I felt turned out kinda weird, so there'll be a few redraws and consistency updates there, as well. And who knows, as I'm going through them to polish up the scripting and implement the Iggy sprite, I may randomly think of a new CG I want to draw here and there, too. So there will definitely still be some art updates in these arcs, it just won't be nearly to the same extent as it was for Arcs 1 and 2. I say this because I don't want people to have super high expectations and potentially get disappointed when not as much is done to those arcs overall. Having said that, I do still think the updates that do happen, as well as the Iggy sprite getting added, will still do a lot to help improve the overall polish and feel of those arcs, too.

I was originally thinking of having the next alpha update be once I finished all the work on Arcs 3-5 for this reason. However, I may end up still releasing them individually, if only because I can never be sure of my own schedule, especially with my rapidly deteriorating RL stuff, and also because despite them being not as much work as Arcs 1-2, I will still be putting a lot of time and effort into them with the things that need doing, and going one arc at a time somehow eases some of that pressure I feel in getting things done and being able to release new stuff for people to play. So... probably I will end up releasing a new alpha version each time I finish up a new arc. We shall see. And then ofc once I finish up all the arcs, I will work on the brand-new content for the After Stories. These will be, for lack of a better word, short stories unique to each LI, that take place between them and Iggy at some point in the post-timeline, kinda acting as a final cute little look at their dynamic and a special moment between them (you'll unlock each LI's after story by completing their in-game epilogue). I'm thinking that these will probably be in NVL-style but with some CGs/illustrations, kinda like little illustrated stories, but I haven't fully decided yet. At any rate, I still need to finish the other remaster updates first before I can get to those!!!

Grrraaargh Carrot stop rambling! I'm very anxious right now because of my job situation, so it's quite hard for me to give estimates on much of anything. Because I'm very scared and stressed. And sometimes when I'm like that, I find it hard to work on anything productive. And instead I just draw self-indulgent Genzy stuff or generally wallow. So I have no idea what this summer will look like in terms of my project progress. Like if I lose my job I don't know what kind of state I will be in. Maybe I will become too depressed to do much at all. Or maybe it will prompt me to somehow be productive as a distraction. It could go either way. Hence, why I can't say for sure!! LOL I guess we'll just have to see. I'm also still working on the comic of course. Though I'm even worried about that if I really do spiral horribly. So we'll see about that too!! LOL!!!!! I'd also love to do Art Fight again this year but... I guess we'll just have to see. I'm on the verge of becoming a wreck!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, enjoy the Arc 2 remaster!! I'm really excited and happy for people to play it! I'd love to know your thoughts! As always, if you run into any bugs or oddities, please let me know, either here or on Tumblr or something. The alpha versions are always untested lol, even though I do play through it hundreds of times myself, stuff still slips through.

And with that I'm out!