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OSAS Devlog #9: We have Patreon!

You can find the Demo Postmortem in Devlog #8 here.

This month has simply flown by, hasn't it?


As you may already have seen, we started the Forsythia Productions Patreon page at the beginning of September!


We've already shared exclusive sketches, early looks at sprites, short design logs, and our weekly studio schedules there, and we plan to bring you more great behind-the-scenes content as the months go by.


We won't get into the details of it here—for that, you can visit the page itself—but patrons in our higher tiers get customisable rewards such as naming poems, adding unique easter eggs, and working with us to create your own background characters.

We're very close to our first goal of 150USD a month!


If you want to help us raise funds for the development of Of Sense and Soul, you can join us on Patreon or send us a one-time donation at our paypal.me.

 

Life Updates


Elissa


My OSAS efforts in the past month have mostly involved getting inside Seamus’ head as I work on future scripts! It’s very exciting to dig more and more into the meat of the story and spend more time with both Seamus and Hugo… but I don’t want to get into spoiler territory, so I won’t say much more than that!


Outside of OSAS, I’m enjoying the fall season! Apple-picking, sweater-knitting (and sweater-wearing), bread-baking, stew-making weather is upon us, friends (at least in the northern-ish US, where I live). It’s my favorite time of year, and I’m trying to make the most of it, even though we’re still being very cautious in my neck of the woods re: COVID.


Ingrid


After taking a much-needed break in August following the demo's initial release, I've been, of course, working steadily (if slowly) on OSAS assets and marketing. Much of my September was spent in a trans-seasonal depression funk which has made me get very into sewing and getting to grips with my mom's sewing machine.


Ingrid's dog Twinkle being helpful(?) while she sews


Besides suddenly amassing a fabric stash I will surely be inching my way through for the next few months, I've also been trying to up the self-care portion of my day to try and combat the brain gremlins. I've already been making sure I sleep to a regular schedule and getting some active time each week, but tackling my diet is something I tend to struggle with, so I've been putting energy towards monitoring that. I am feeling better about my physical health thus far, which should boost my creative drive! Crossing my fingers that this ball keeps rolling.


 

Research Updates


Whenever Ingrid is creating new sprite art, there is inevitably information that is needed to supplement the design decisions she makes. This is especially true for background characters such as servants, and finding documentation of their uniforms is surprisingly difficult!


For Cornelius, Seamus' butler, there were a few key facts Ingrid already knew going in: the Victorian butler was clean-shaven, for one. But there is little documentation easily accessible online about the uniforms they wore. Illustrations and photographs (typically from the 1880s onwards) showed her what individual butlers wore, which might have changed depending on the household, but textual evidence specifically about a butler's uniform was hard to come by.


One website, citing a 1902 household manual, said that a butler would wear a morning coat and grey vest in the daytime and change into a black tailcoat and vest for the evening. At the same time, a book in her collection said butlers "did not wear livery; [a butler's] uniform was the ordinary clothing of a gentleman." (From Daily Life in Victorian England, 2nd Ed. by Sally Mitchell.)


This relative lack of information about a butler's uniform is likely because it was widely understood what a butler ought to wear—much like recipe books of the day, techniques or items that were commonplace might not have been written about in detail. It may also be that we don't have many of the resources available to academics who research the same topic. Relying on the internet and any commercial books accessible to us is one limitation of our research.


Reconciling these primary and secondary sources with a modern perception of a butler's appearance and duties is one challenge of creating for OSAS.


For now, Cornelius (in his current outfit) will sit on the back-burner as we marinate on what to do with his design.


 

Production Updates


After we wrote the demo post-mortem and consulted with our collaborators, we implemented a new task-tracking system that will help us all keep on task and make the schedule more transparent.


Writing


Seamus' first act is currently in progress! Scene 1 of his route is being edited, and the rest are to follow. Because the extended demo will feature the first act of both Seamus and Hugo's routes, Hugo's route will be developed further in the coming months.


Art


Primarily, the sprites for Cornelius and James have been worked on this month. One set of arms and the main body and face for both are lined and in the process of being coloured. Background art has been on standby as our background artist Nia has been moving.


Music


Our composer Martin has been working with us to develop the main theme to be the best it can be! It's shaping up to be a nostalgia-toned track, with the aim of having the feeling of a love-filled memory.


 

That's it for this month's devlog! Next month, we'll be covering our progress over the course of October.


To be notified about our latest updates and exclusive process insights, subscribe to our email list at the bottom of the page!




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