Today finished writing the last dream for Heileen 2. There will be 3 dreams for each of the 7 sin/virtues, so 21 dreams in total. That alone probably makes the game longer than the original Heileen already. But now starts the fun, the final part with pirates 🙂 In this part, what you did in the previous dreams comes out. Based on previous choices the game builds up a sort of “profile”, so that the final endings matches what you’ve done, the action you did in the past. Beware if you were a sinner 😉

It’s also a relief to finally be able to write a part not in episodes. As I was with Spirited Heart, I’m quite tired and I ran out of ideas about the dreams. Writing small stories that are immediately interesting and not boring is probably one of the hardest tasks for any writer, IMHO. When I wrote Bionic Heart instead, since it was a long story with so many different outcomes, it was easier for me. Each decision would split the plot, but was connected with the story I had already written so far. With the dreams or the Spirited Heart events instead, since they could happen in any order, I couldn’t put any actual references to other characters/event happened in the past!

Anyway, going to have some relaxing time now with my cats 🙂

Yesterday I sent the PR to the websites (some have already published it). There’s no turning back now 🙂 To stay safe I put November as expected release date. The current situation is:

– story: I should be able to finish the last 3 dreams this week. Then there’s the last part with the pirates, and also the other endings (there are a few ones already written)
– proofread/edit: I still need to get the whole part2 proofreaded/edited, and then send the part3 and the final epilogue with pirates and all the endings!
– art: mid-October I should get all the remaining art for the game!
– voices: I have some voices ready, but there’s still a lot to be done. I have yet to select the male voice actors. Luckily, based on my experience with Bionic Heart, they’re usually quite fast to voice, so I think I can wait until I finish the story completely before asking the voice actors to start their job

I’m also currently thinking if to do a pre-order thing. It would work like that: people could pre-order the game and have it immediately without the voices. The game would be tested of course, there might be some slight bug but nothing serious left. In any case, anyone who preordered could then get the fully voiced game once the voices are all done (and any bug fixed of course).

I’m not yet sure if I’ll go this route, but is something I’m considering…