Yaho! Hello my itch.io folk, this is the first update I'll be posting here. I'ma post once a week, usually around Sunday or Monday. Maybe later, or earlier but usually one of those 2 days.

What I did this week was combining maps together to save map count. RPGMaker MV, the engine of my game, has a limit of 999 maps. I realised that at some point I reached 187 maps in just the 1st/3rd of the 1st chapter. Going by calculations and by planning, I could put out 4 chapters, so... I'm going to settle for that... or 5 chapters.

Initially, I planned chapter 4 to be really big, like a large open world segment... like this:

This is the map of the country this game is taking place in. Xenakis. The blue arrows are supposed to represent sea routes.

The order of the chapters would go like this as I originally planned:

Chapter 1, Halvakross. Chapter 2, Bartholomeo. Chapter 3, Metropolykon.

The first 3 chapters have 3 acts.

Then Chapter 4 will be unique.

It will give access to all unexplored regions except Zireal. Those regions will have 1 act of content EACH.

Then Chapter 5 will be Zireal and the August Underground. The August Underground, lore wise.... well... I guess I have to explain for those who don't know.

A catastrophe once happened called "The Great Mutation", and so people lived under a bunker underground and across the years waiting for the chaos above to stop, they expanded the interior of the bunker to be big enough to rival a country. Soon, they resurfaced and the bunker in present day is known as "The August Underground". The castle of the August Family (which is sort of like the royal family) is the entirity of the August Underground.

The plan was to have some of the August Underground explorable....

However, after realising the limits of RPGMakerr, I cannot do that. The other islands and regions, will still be canonical and will be explorable in the prequel that I'll make after this first game. I did say I was planning to make a series.

I'll have to settle with:

Halvakross for Chapter 1, Bartholomeo for Chapter 2, Metropolykon for Chapter 3, and Zireal for Chapter 4.

Why those regions? Because the storylines of those are most clear in my mind.

Technically, Ethrann, Fechemicore,  Latae, Jestryle, and Lupukiss also have a somewhat clear image in my mind, but I recognise the contents of those locations as.... it's honestly probably filler.

Either way, to make sure that I COULD actually complete 4 chapters. I began combining maps to large maps with multiple locations within them. Most of them are interiors, but there are some exteriors within them.

EXTRA CONTENT FOR ITCH.IO:

My twidder/youtube/ and the subreddit already have seen these so here you go:

First,  have a look at all of the sprites of the enemy sprites and party members for Acts 1 and 2 of the Halvakross Chapter.

You can see some female fleshiis, some mutations, and stuff here. No, my game isn't a porn game but....sex DOES happen a few times but I never show anything explicit with Humans... and yeah, some designs may be lewder than in normal RPGs or EVEN HRPGs themselves, but! That's just my trademark. Being unashamed of my designs. Though I do seriously like how they look, I'm proud of my art at this time.

Next, have a look at some character concept art:

I always imagined Egor to be someone who towers over others. I try my best to make the in-field sprites somewhat accurate to their actual heights, but that is only possible to some extent. Say for example, Clifa and Eylo's sprite side by side, I do my best to make sure Eylo is taller because... as you can see Eylo is 5'4 and Clifa is only 4'4.

Speaking of which, Clifa. I always imagined her to be... like a ball of meat. Someone clearly overweight, and I always want her to look like a short adult. I think I succeeded in that.

Eylo's design, I think I nailed it. I know how pretentious it is to say that "Oh yeah, them exposing their skin in their character design represents how yada yada yada." But there was an intent with Eylo's design. In flashbacks, you will see Eylo with very a conservative designs. When a turning point happens and like she can't be a "Good girl" and turns to the bold and scummy dictator that she now is, her buttons pop and you get what you see here.

There's a motif in ALL my character designs in regards to how much skin is covered. Or more specifically, things like gloves.

Every character with gloves are hiding what they do, as if their hands are dirty. Showing a lot of skin are bold and fearless, those who hide a lot are always hiding in shadows.

I plan to have like a motif with Egor. Egor is wearing multiple layers of clothes. The idea is he's holding back, if he removes one glove, he's holding back less. Him at his full strength will be him without his gloves and his coat... a motif like that. You could see his scarred arms and hands and shit like that.

Hatso, is a religious leader. More or less this world's version of Buddhism is what he's leading, and he's kind of like Buddha where he's the example of who you want to be. Almost his full body is covered because.... well he was raised for something not very good, and that's how his strength has come to him. That's why his theme song is called "Lab Grown Godsend".  He's still trying to understand basic human interactions since he grew up in a very cold environment.