Hey everyone! It's been awhile since I posted an update here. The game's development is chugging along slowly but surely. Between work, graduate school, and other projects, things are gonna take awhile. But, this game has lived rent-free in my head for years at this point, I'm gonna make sure it comes to life.

Here, some updated portrait art for Brendan for your troubles!:

Yeah, wow, some alternative poses makes a world of difference, doesn't it? It's way more work, but definitely worth it.

Anyways, onto what this post's actually about...

If you've played previous builds of the game, you're probably familiar with the fact that the entire cast was united by one major thing: They all died from self-inflicted injuries. So, they all committed suicide. I did this on purpose because I wanted to write a story that didn't shy away from this heavy topic, hoping that it would resonate with people who were tired of suicide and self-harm being treated like a subject too 'delicate' to acknowledge. I also wanted to humanize victims of suicide and make the audience root for them.

However, in doing so, I ended up just messily tacking on themes of suicide onto characters where it didn't necessarily fit. Suicide was really only relevant to Brendan's story, and for everyone else, it was just forced on them in order to fit the theme. Suicide went from an important theme to a plot device. This was counter-productive to my aim, obviously, and not what I wanted to do.

The plot of the new build is roughly the same as the old build, with just polished-up dialogue, some added areas + characters to make the world more interesting to explore, and more cohesive storytelling. However, there is one major change I'd like to put out there: While the cast of Moribunderland is still made up of the undead, only Brendan has committed suicide. Everyone else has had different causes of death that are accidental, still fitting in with the original plot and characterization.

My hope is that I can still address the topic of mental health with the blunt honesty I was aiming for, while also not treating it as just a plot device.

Alright, that's all for now. Hopefully, I should have a demo out soon! Like the first demo, the gameplay will go up to the first boss battle at the end of the School dungeon. This may end up being the only pre-release demo, but I'll be sure to pack as much content into it as possible!

Have a good one, everybody!