Hello, this is Garrett Thompson, sole member of Act-Novel. 

It's been a little while since the last Development Notes entry, but rest assured I've been hard at work on Reality Layer Zero's second act-- the "Second Layer", as I've been calling it. 

I expect it to be completed roughly around the time I estimated back in late February-- that is, somewhere in the range of October to December, later this year. That's still far-enough away that delays might happen... But, one way or another, probably not very significant ones. Unless something terrible happens! (hit by a bus, maybe?)

In terms of already-completed work, the Second Layer is roughly 95% "art complete"-- with the majority of new environments, characters, and UI elements finished or nearly-finished. This was actually the case back in early July. Actually, I originally intended to post this update back in early July, but... I was just... so sleepy... So I basically just didn't feel like it! I'm gonna blame that one on the summer heat.

I've included some secret "work in progress" images here, as a glimpse of what things you might see on the Second Layer.

The Second Layer mainly takes place in the Scholar's District, in the easternmost portion of Liere. This part of the city was built very close to the water's edge, so it's much foggier here than in the Justice District.

Central to the Scholar's District is Cordelia University.

The grand, castle-like architecture here was inspired in-part by Georgetown University, in Washington D.C. Doesn't gazing upon those grandiose spires just fill you with motivation to learn how to wield the dark arts? By which I mean, of course, law and medicine.

Certain recent events in the Scholar's District may be of particular relevance to the Second Layer-- events of a particularly supernatural inclination, perhaps? I can neither confirm nor deny...

The Second Layer will pick up shortly after the conclusion of the first. There will be some returning characters, as well as a handful of new ones. Several months ago, I published some production materials detailing the creation of a dialog sprite for one in the latter category. I hope you look forward to meeting her, and the rest of the new cast members!

That's about all I have to show for now-- to see the rest, you'll just have to stick around until the Second Layer is complete. 

With regards to other accomplishments, I've fixed several bugs from the most recent update, only to introduce a handful more by porting the project into GameMaker LTS. With any luck, I'll have those new issues all sniffed out and cleaned up by the time the next release rolls around. Things haven't been too bad so far... Which makes me feel like I've only just scratched the surface of what's potentially wrong!

Finally, with respect to improvements made from the first release, I've taken the feedback a number of players have provided regarding the slow pace of debates into account, and am currently in the process of adjusting argument weight values, generally, upwards-- primarily to make debates reach conclusions faster. I've also made some more "lower-level" adjustments with this goal in mind. These more fundamental changes are subtle, and probably warrant their own Development Notes entry to explain, but I'm confident that they've made debates both faster and more consistent from the player's perspective. Please look forward to trying them out!

That's everything to speak of spoken of, more or less. As far as what's currently going on, as well as what's left to do, I am, at-present, writing the script and scripting the main story events-- a process I expect to take another 2-3 months to reach full completion. Then, I'll need to do a pass on music and audio, which will take between 2 weeks and 1 month. Add in another 2 weeks to 1 month of polish and QA, and at the end of that whole span, the Second Layer will be complete. So, while there's still certainly a lot of work left to do, things are definitely still moving along at a pretty good clip.

Thank you for reading. Feedback is welcome, as always, and if you have any questions, feel free to comment below or send me an email at developer@realitylayerzero.com.