Hello, fans of Element-174! This is Knotty here to provide another update on how things are coming along regarding Element-174 Part 2. Work continues on the next installment of the game so here's what's new.
First off, since the last dev update here, I've managed to finish all of in-game day 19 with work continuing on day 20. Day 20 is about half way done, with another load of content featured in it. Each of these days contains about as much content as several days in the original Element-174 as the branches get more elaborate with multiple possibilities depending on which relationships the player has active. There are a few days which are even entirely different based certain factors. As a reminder, Part 2 will go up to in-game day 21 when the player will decide which character they want as their primary love interest. After that, Part 3 will be entirely focused on that character's story and choices they've made up to that point. Any secondary partners will still be present, so don't think they're going anywhere!
The next piece of news is the fact that I've acquired all new hardware in order to speed up all future development. It's been almost a month since I've migrated everything I need to continue work and the results are impressive. For example, a single still image previously took 5 minutes (such as the one above) to render on average. Now, that same image can be rendered in about 1.75 minutes. A major upgrade for sure and was extremely necessary to meet the guidelines I set for myself.
Which brings us to the estimated released date. I previously stated that Part 2 would be released around end of Q4 this year. That date still holds up with a more honed in time frame of November being probable. However, with this new hardware, October is even possible. I'm going to pause work on finishing day 20 to begin work on animating the trailer for Part 2, so that I can get the Steam store page up as soon as possible. I would like to have the Steam page up for about 2-3 months before the official release and taking care of that now allows me to focus on the game during that timeline. So expect the Steam page and trailer to be released soon as the next part of development!