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

It's been a few months since the last Development Notes entry, and since we're currently right in the heart of the period where I previously alleged the second layer might come out, I figure it's a fine time to provide a little progress update related to how that's going. Don't worry, I'm pretty sure it'll be a mostly boring one.

At the present time of writing, I'm slightly under halfway in the implementation of all main story events for the Second Layer. The "script" (as in, the words intended to display on your screen) for the main story is effectively "complete" (although details change all the time), but the translation of that script into something that a computer can render is still a work-in-progress. A lot of work has been accomplished so far-- I've currently implemented comfortably over 13,000 words of the raw script-- but by total percentage, I'm still a little less than halfway to completion. 

I wasn't initially sure that this would be the case, but it seems that the Second Layer will be not-insubstantially larger than the first by, at the very least, total word count (and probably other things, too). That's mainly because there's a lot more exposition! Not to worry if you're not particularly fond of that sort of thing, though-- there's also more gameplay. There's just more "stuff", in general, in the Second Layer than there was in the first. ... Assuming my accounting is correct, anyway.

... That being said, when I was writing the previous update, I had kind of hoped that I'd be "done" with the main story events at this point. So, suffice to say, I'm a little bit behind schedule. Adjusting my earlier prediction, I now expect to be finished with the implementation of all main story events roughly by the end of November. Then, there's side-story events still to implement (e.g. the next optional episode with Adventure Kid) and miscellaneous UI text to write (for instance, new item descriptions, "current objective" blurbs, new book contents, etc). Additionally, I need to add a nonstandard game-over for when you run out of time during your investigation (which will be possible starting on the Second Layer-- watch out for that!) 

I also want to revamp the game over screen, since it's a little drab right now... But, maybe that update can wait until the chapter *after* the Second Layer!

I expect all of the above-described implementation work to be done by, roughly, the middle of December-- far less time than required for the main story events since, for one thing, there's just a lot less of it to do, and for another that all of that work is mostly *just* text, rather than text, art, sound design-- the works-- as is required for many (most?) main story events.

Once that's done, I'll switch to music and QA, as stated previously. I expect this part of development will take... Oh, as long as it takes, really. Probably 2 months, combined. Perhaps a bit more, perhaps a bit less. I've got a little notepad file with 6 new tunes listed as to-do. I'd like to write all 6-- maybe more, if time allows. We'll see how that goes!

All of this is to say that the Second Layer will probably take closer to a year to complete, end-to-end, than my previously-anticipated 8-10 months. In other words, it will probably be finished around the end of February. Or maybe the middle of March. I'll let you know! 

With that out of the way... That's all the bad news I have! 

The *not bad* news is that the second layer is coming along pretty well, I think! It's hard to really judge without any distance from it, but there are a lot of things about it that I'm rather looking forward to sharing. Here's just a few interesting things (mild spoilers):

The first is that, as suggested by a player on the SAGE 2023 demo, I'm experimenting with 2D hand-pixeled backgrounds in addition to the 3D rendered backgrounds seen in the First Layer. You can see one of these below.

I'm also experimenting with a gaussian blur effect during cutscenes for the rendered backgrounds, as opposed to the linear blur in the game currently. I'm hoping this will soften the blocky geometry somewhat and reduce the impression of "Minecraft graphics" that some people get.  Not that I'm mad about the comparison or anything.

In contrast to my methodology for the First Layer, this time, I'm creating most "story event" art assets during the first implementation pass for each scene. This makes the initial implementation of each scene take a bit longer, but also stretches out the intervals between when I have to draw big, important pieces. Recovery time is important! Anyway, here's one of them:

Additionally, for the Second Layer, I've started to experiment with intermingling "horror" elements into the more familiar "supernatural mystery" aesthetic. This is likely a motif that will only be particularly *strong* in the Second Layer, due to various story details that I won't get into, but... I'd be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying this dalliance with just a little bit of tasteful cliche.

Ooky and spooky! Hey, wait, what day is it?

There are other things to mention-- like, for instance, back in August, I updated the game's water rendering capabilities to enable more complex effects, like this one:

Adding this effect actually prompted a reworking of one of the main areas of the Second Layer--, which is probably one of the reasons I'm a bit behind schedule right now-- but I think you'll agree that the result is really something!

I *could* keep going-- for instance, by talking about the cool new "panic" shader effect, or by showing off some of the new debate backgrounds, but... Well, I'll be honest, I didn't prepare GIFs or screenshots of those, so, uh... Maybe next time!

In closing-- while the Second Layer is taking a little bit longer than I would have originally liked, I'm still undeniably making consistent progress on it, and I'm rather happy about the work that's already been done. I hope that, when it eventually comes out and you're able to play it, you agree it was worth a little extra wait. As was suggested previously, I'm taking my time and making it as good as I can! That's just about all I can do.

Anyway, thanks for reading. As always, I can be reached at developer@realitylayerzero.com with any questions, concerns, and general feedback-- or, you can drop me a comment below! You have my guarantee, I'll read it.

I'll see you in the next update.