Hey, it's been a while! Methinks its high time for an update, don't you?

After a good three months or so in development, Chapter Four is finally finished. And let me tell you, that chapter was a nightmare. Chapter Three is a tipping point in a lot of ways in the plot, and while it's a critical chapter in the story in its own right, Chapter Four is where things really come to a head. Suffice to say, Chapter Four was really hard to write. And the murder was the most challenging one to write yet. As it's Chapter Four we're talking about here, the chapter features the traditional out-of-the-box murder. It really requires you think out of the box. At least, I think it does. Kind of hard to tell when I know the answers to all the mysteries before I even test it. Still, definitely the hardest chapter to write thus far.

Another difficulty I had with Chapter Four was the sheer length of it. Chapter Four is above and beyond any of the chapters I've written thus far. Don't believe me? Here are the stats:

Prologue + Chapter 1: 87k words
Chapter 2: 106k words
Chapter 3: 139k words
Chapter 4: 191k words
Running Total: 523k words (Guess that means we broke 1000 pages. Woo.)

Yeah. And I wrote it in the same span of time as Chapter 2/3, giving myself a deadline of approximately three months to write it. I failed to meet that deadline, taking a week longer than I wanted to in order to finish it up, but still... It's hard to believe I wrote all that in the same amount of time as the previous chapter or two. That's not to say it's anywhere near perfect. I handed it off to my beta testers and the one who's already started it pointed out a bunch of mistakes in the first scene alone. But considering this last chapter was such a behemoth, I'm not surprised there are a bunch of things I missed or neglected to take into account.

That all being said, I'm going to dial it back quite a bit with Chapter Five. While I'm relatively happy with how Chapter Four turned out and think it's a good chapter on numerous fronts, it was simply too much. I can't keep making chapters this long, or else I will burn out. Granted, Chapter Six will be inherently shorter than the others considering it has no daily life, but... I want to reel it in a little with Chapter Five as well.

I know Chapter Five tends to have the craziest murder in the entire game. That's how it's been since Danganronpa 2, at least (I think it's kind of debatable whether or not that's the case with the first game, since none of the cases in that one were particularly convoluted). Chapter Five may or may not be the craziest in this game. We'll have to wait and see, I suppose. As I haven't written the murder yet (I'll be rewriting it from the ground up), it's up in the air. But I'm going to make a conscientious effort to not go overboard with the murder and the chapter as a whole. I want the daily and the trial to both be shorter than Chapter 4's (and maybe even Chapter 3's) were.

But like I said, as I haven't written anything yet, everything is up in the air. I have some vague ideas, but nothing concrete yet. As is tradition, I'll be spending the next week or two brainstorming and trying to hammer out the details while I'm at work. In the meantime, I'll be taking a very well-deserved break while I'm at home. I can't stress enough how Chapter Four very nearly broke me. It was rough. I want Chapter Five to deliver on the type of quality you'll have come to expect by that point in the game, but at the same time I want it to be more manageable than Chapter Four was. So, we'll just have to see how it goes.

I swear I said the same thing when I finished Chapter Three, though, and Chapter Four ended up being longer regardless, so... I swear if the same thing happens with Chapter Five... Actually, I'll probably be dead if that happens, so if you don't hear another update within the next four months, you can safely assume I (and by extension Danganronpa Team) are dead and buried.

I'm joking, of course. Failing to finish Danganronpa Team isn't an option at this stage in development. Whatever happens with Chapter Five's development, it'll get finished. One way or another, I'll get 'er done.

And by this point, it's safe to say I'm just rambling. So, let's switch gears a bit and talk about some other things. First of all, I've added in some new general-purpose animations since Chapter Three was finished. Basic stuff. Just some little animations when it switches from one speaker to another so the new speaker's sprite doesn't immediately pop up and replace the previous speaker's sprite. Makes things look a little more fluid.

Also, Danganronpa Team is getting a rebranding at some point. By which I mean, I'm changing the title of the game. I mulled this over for a long time, and I think 'Danganronpa Team' simply doesn't work as well as it once did. It's too easy to confuse with the team that makes the official Danganronpa games as well as 'Team Danganronpa'. I already have a new title in mind. It's just a matter of when I'm going to reveal it. I'll probably do so closer to release. Possibly when the artist I've enlisted the help of makes the cover art for the game. That seems like a good time to reveal it. You get some cover art and a name change all in one.

On top of that, I've made a Discord server for the game. No one is allowed in it as of yet. No one will be allowed in until we get closer to release. The game's download link will be hosted on said Discord server, and there are a few other points of interest regarding the server that I think bear mentioning. For instance, I have it set up so you get access to new text channels depending on how far you are in the game. Some of those channels contain fun facts about each of the chapters. So, as you go through the game, you'll unlock a bit of developer's commentary in the form of said fun facts.

That's all I think I'm willing to share this time around. I will likely open up said Discord server once the main game is finished and I'm working on School Mode, as that will kind of sort of (not really) be the final stretch of development. The game will still be a ways off at that point, but at least by then there'll be a light at the end of the tunnel. So, might as well open it up around that time.

See you in a few months, and wish me luck with writing Chapter Five! I'm both very excited and very nervous about it! Send me all the hope you can spare that it turns out well and lives up to expectations!