Imaginings

21/09/2025

Hellooo~oooo! Time for an update here. 

When was my last update? I don't know. My calendars got their dates crossed and it's been a while. That's all I know. 

What have I done? What am I working on now?

Let's discuss

Summary

??? Idk

Sprites and expressions and flowcharts and recaps and glossaries and all the things are done for Chapter 10/Episode 7

I'm working on CGs 

Thornewood!?

Art

So I am working on CGs for chapter 10.

The CGs are a lot of work. Wil is in them. They involve complicated character interactions - IE the characters are kissing or embracing which is much harder to draw than two characters sitting side by side.

A lot of the complexity comes from not just the poses but how Wil's different customization features have to be layered to work in the game. 

I have Daaz and Asher's CGs lined, flatted, and ready for rendering. 

I'm also going to try to do a mini CG for each scene - similar to what I did for Gilded Shadows.

So I have two of those ready for rendering as well.

And getting the CGs done is kind of my main focus.

Writing

I haven't really done anything particularly creative writing wise but I have had to write up the new glossary entries for the environments. Chapter 10 has something like 20 new locations and all of those need a descriptive glossary entry so I've written all of those up which is always really exhausting

I also wrote up the recap for Chapters 8 and 9 which is always annoying but...that is now done.

No *interesting* writing for this project.

Coding and Other Stuff

First off, I got the flowchart for Chapter 10 all set up and coded.

I've had a lot going on in real life the last few weeks and that's probably going to continue for a while. There are some days where it's really hard to work on art because I'm getting interrupted constantly throughout the day. So it's easier for me to do something like coding that I can leave and come back to without it being so annoying. 

I don't want to deal with interruptions when I'm trying to draw a hand or a face...but if it's just coding, that's often easier to pause in the middle of something.

So on those days where drawing was impractical I worked on staging sprites for the final episode. 

The final episode comprises Chapters 11-13 for all the characters. There is a full split after chapter 10. No more shared scenes. I've just been going through and setting up the sprite positions and entrances/exits on days I can't really work on CGs without going mad.

It's always nice to get a headstart on that inevitably tedious process. 

Upcoming Week

In the upcoming weeks I will be focusing on CGs. They are going to take a while this time. So it's just going to be CGs for the foreseeable future. When I'm not able to work on CGs, I will be working on things like guides or sprite staging for the finale.

And yeah. There are only two episodes left. Chapter 10 and then the finale.

Amazing.

Which brings me to the final thing I want to talk about.

Thornewood

So in the process of making a game, when I hit a certain point in the latter half of development, I always hit this point of asking...."What's next?"  Now I had decided back in 2023 that the next project was definitely going to be Thornewood but it wasn't until earlier this year that I started doing more than general poking at this project.

Earlier this year (Feb-March) I started working on things like UI designs or having someone do character design sheets for the sprites....and working on outlines. 

And now I've officially started drafting.

When I'm in this state of being in kind of the last ⅓ or maybe last ¼ of developing one project, I tend to shift to working on my next project late at night and on weekends. Since writing and art are my two main hobbies in addition to work, I'm probably going to be writing or drawing during these times anyway (nights/weekends) so writing and drawing on my next project is just kind of the natural thing to do.

I will give more information about Thornewood at a future date but just know that the word count is about 124,000 words. The common route is drafted and mostly edited. And...I've started drafting the first of the character routes. 

Oh, and I've drawn two sprites. And have design sheets for four of the six (....probably six??) LIs. 

So yeah. That's a thing that is happening.

Some background information:

You guys remember the Clammy Lady, right? She's a member of a cult. I've always wanted Herotome's MC to have a mission that involves infiltrating this cult.

Naturally, the primary antagonist of this cult is its leader.

This mission is meant to be pretty straightforward: the cult is bad, its leader must be defeated, the end. The cult leader should be a pretty obvious bad guy - and he should have a design to reflect that.

So, here he is! This is where his design is at as of a few days ago.

My journey with him began last year, when I saw some graffiti of a cool purple skeleton on a wall... I wanted my cult leader to evoke the same impression that the graffiti skeleton evoked for me: super old, but fabulous. Yzma from Emperor's New Groove was also an incredible blueprint for that vibe.

Around that same time, I was seeing some posts making comparisons between Preminger (from Barbie's Princess and the Pauper) Astarion (Baldur's Gate 3) - which kinda gave me brain worms and made me think "Hey, I could borrow some genetics from them and give them a brother."

By this point I was set on designing a "lich in designer clothes"

... But I wasn't too happy with my sketches. His outfits felt old-fashioned - yeah, he's old and it makes sense that he'd be old-fashioned, but it wasn't doing it for me. The peacock pattern especially felt too on-the-nose. He felt flat and uninteresting. Yes I want him to be uncomplicatedly evil, but he still needs to be interesting.

That's when Aunt Gladys from Weapons came to my rescue. Look at her! Oh my god?? Her face is insane, but her outfits genuinely look expensive, modern, and iconic. The contrast WORKS.

Once I had that direction in mind, I was able to pull smaller details (like hairstyle and eye design) from some other media and finally cobble together a design I'm quite happy with.

This whole process of doing being inspired by different things and drawing concept sketches took about... a year. But I was actively writing and drawing and coding for the game during that year, okay?! I wasn't ONLY designing this one dude.

Stay safe and keep warm,

Wudge.

PS. Fun fact. Many years ago I was thinking that MC's mom could be the cult leader.... but uh, the ramifications of idea were pretty weird. Why would MC's own mother send Clammy Lady to grab MC at a job fair? Did MC go no-contact or something? I don't want to force my players to have a no-contact relationship with their Herotome mom...

A Simple Twist of Fae: A Shoujo Ecchi

Release date (Windows, Mac OS, Linux) English: April 26th, 2025

"Caught between two very competitive lovers, learning divination from a demon, and only six moons to figure it out? 

That's exactly what happens when anxious Kalaira breaks the orb of fate at the last matchmaking event of the year! 

A romantic comedy manga come to life! Behind the shenanigans and lessons of desire, there just might be a story unfolding about learning to open one's heart!

This game is intended for mature audiences. Though there is no sex on screen, there are strong sexual themes present throughout the game."