Bring the BEEF - BRING THE BEEF — DEVELOPMENT LOG #4

SO.

It’s November.

Scorpio season.

And as we all know, Scorpio is the best, most awesomest zodiac sign in the entire calendar.

Obviously.

I don’t make the rules.

It is also, completely coincidentally, my zodiac sign.

ANYWAY.

It’s time for this month’s dev update.

(If you don’t care, you can just skip to the next subtitle.)

SO.

My life has recently and rather abruptly been invaded and disrupted.

Very long story made very short-ish, just for context:

I’m currently in the process of moving to another country, but the paperwork involved takes... quite some time.

Bureaucracy.

My natural enemy.
...

I’m also the father of two dogs.

And the dogs wanted a garden.

...

So while I wait for the bureaucratic machinery to slowly advance, I thought it would be a great idea to temporarily move into what used to be a weekend house.

The house belongs to a very good friend of mine, so I started renting it from her at a VERY reasonable price.

She, meanwhile, met a handsome Italian man, fell in love, moved to Sicily and went off to live her happily-ever-after.

So really, the arrangement was perfect.

She had someone living in and taking care of the house.

I had a nice place to live while waiting for my paperwork.

The dogs got their garden.

Everybody wins.

Beautiful.

ANYWAY.

Surprise, surprise.

Last weekend, this friend suddenly appeared at the house.

Completely unannounced.

With approximately one thousand pieces of luggage.

And a broken heart.

Apparently, the Sicilian happily-ever-after has encountered...

technical difficulties.

Because, all men are the same,

men don’t understand anything,

and men are simply assholes.

Which, as a man, was very valuable information to receive.

And after surviving what can only be described as a female hurricane for the past couple of days, I have one thing to say:

Thank God I’m gay.

...

For a little more context:

I absolutely adore this friend.

She’s also a very renowned curator who runs a foundation helping struggling communities through art and cultural programs.

So professionally, she is this incredibly competent, intelligent, put-together woman who seems to have everything completely under control.

Her personal life, however...

Let’s just say...

she’s wild.

Very wild.

Which means I obviously feel terrible for her.

BUT.

From a dark-humor perspective, the entire situation is also objectively hilarious.

So my time management and development schedule have been slightly...

compromised.

On the other hand, living through somebody else’s spectacular romantic implosion is giving me a surprising amount of inspiration for chaotic relationship dynamics.

So I guess there is knowledge in everything.

Research.

Character development.

Very immersive.

ANYWAY.

Without further ado, let’s jump into the dev log.

So I’ve been working on a couple of things.

And some of these are probably not the most exciting things to show because they’re much more about structure than colorful screenshots, animations or videos showing game progress.

But they’re important.

First, and probably most importantly, I’ve been working on structuring the island, the story and figuring out exactly how progression will work during the beginning of the game.

That means deciding which characters you’ll meet first, what mechanics they’ll introduce, and how the island will progressively open up around you.

I want the story to make sense.

I want you to arrive and start meeting people organically instead of having 147 men thrown at your face within the first ten minutes.

There will be time for that.

I also want the beginning to be complete enough to function as a proper demo while still feeling iconic enough to actually introduce what BTB is.

So we need part of our main cast there from the beginning.

I won’t spoil too much.

We have a BIG character roster and a story that will continue growing as development progresses, so I don’t think every character story needs to be 100% completed from day one.

Some character arcs will be shorter than others.

Some will be directly connected to the main story.

Some will stop at certain points until you progress further.

And some characters may appear briefly before becoming properly relevant much later.

SO.

This is the overall structure I’m currently working with.

It’s already starting to be programmed into the game, although it is still far from finished.

The first characters you’ll meet will be:

You arrive at the island’s Inn, and Thorin will be your first real contact with one of its residents.

The Inn will basically become your home base.

You’ll return there every day, manage things, sleep to advance the calendar, and generally bother Thorin with your continued existence.

Completing missions and progressing through Thorin’s story will unlock upgrades for the Inn and the main story.

Soon after meeting Thorin, you’ll meet Percival.

He works with Thorin.

He will also be a nightmare to deal with.

Naturally.

Percival will introduce the island economy, materials and the administrative side of rebuilding the island.

Because apparently surviving a mysterious island is not enough.

There must also be paperwork.

A stranded sailor you’ll find after he shipwrecks near the bay.

Progressing through Ronnan’s story will eventually unlock the ability to explore other islands and upgrade your ship:

The Going Becky.

Yes.

That is still her name.

The lumberjack / carpenter who lives in the forest behind the Inn.

Progressing through Orion’s story will unlock building upgrades and other upgrades involving woodwork.

You’ll also be able to unlock upgrades for your axe through this part of the game.

The Guildmaster.

Progressing through Darius’ story will introduce and unlock combat-related progression, including sword and combat upgrades.

Arthur will be another character you’ll meet relatively early in the game.

You’ll find him connected to both the Museum and the Training Grounds, and progressing through his story will unlock and improve your lockpicking ability.

Lockpicking will allow you to access certain locked areas, containers, chests and other places that you definitely, absolutely, legally have permission to enter.

Probably.

Arthur will also be connected to Museum progression, so he’ll become especially relevant if you’re interested in exploring restricted areas, finding hidden items and getting into places where you were very clearly told not to go.

He is, after all, a gentleman thief.

Emphasis on gentleman.

The thief part is non-negotiable.

Our blacksmith duo.

Progressing through their stories will unlock upgrades for several tools, including things like your sword, axe, pickaxe, fishing rod, critter net, magic wand and other tools you’ll use throughout the game.

Some upgrades may also require certain affinity levels with other characters.

Because even upgrading a fishing rod requires networking.

Progressing through Bruno’s story will unlock the fishing mechanic and fishing rod progression.

So yes.

You WILL fish.

It was inevitable.

Viggo will unlock BEEFTUNES.

This is the music archive where you’ll collect, store and replay tracks you’ve heard throughout your adventure.

Every time you hear a new track in the game, it will permanently unlock there.

Viggo will also be connected to Tavern and Arena upgrades.

And also he’s awesome.

His story is currently one of my favorites, so I really want him to be part of the demo.

Cassian will probably appear briefly during the demo because he becomes necessary at one point during Viggo’s story.

But I honestly haven’t developed Cassian’s full story deeply enough yet.

He’s one of those characters you may see early but won’t properly get to know until much later in the game.

The poor farmer.

He has lost his five sheep.

Again.

You need to help him.

Again.

Progressing through Ivan’s story will unlock farm upgrades.

He’s a nosy monkey.

I’m sure he’ll make himself visible at some point.

Unfortunately.

And I think, so far, those will be the first major characters we focus on. (and then a couple more)

They’re the characters necessary to establish the beginning of the main story and unlock several of the game’s core mechanics.

After you meet them, I want the game to start opening up considerably.

You’ll gain more freedom to explore different areas, meet characters in different orders, unlock mechanics, and upgrade different parts of the island depending on what you feel like doing.

I really don’t want BTB to feel like a completely linear game.

There WILL obviously be a somewhat linear main story.

And individual characters will have their own stories.

But outside of those necessary story beats, I want you to be able to progress through the island at your own pace.

And, completely unrelated to progression but very important to me:

I also think this selection works REALLY well visually.

The colors, silhouettes, and character designs all look surprisingly good together. They’re all very different, but somehow they still feel like they belong in the same little starting cast.

Which is obviously the most important game design consideration.

Chromatic compatibility.

Also:

My Island Editor is basically ready.

Which is actually a pretty big deal because it means I can finally start properly structuring and assembling the exploration screens.

Up until now I’ve been building a lot of the individual pieces of the world.

Backgrounds.

Buildings.

Areas.

Props.

Paths.

Systems.

A suspicious amount of vegetation.

But now I’m getting to the point where I can actually start putting those pieces together into explorable spaces.

So I think that’s probably one of the things coming next.

Actually assembling the island.

Exploration screens.

Character art.

Sprites.

And seeing how all of these systems start looking when they actually exist together inside the game instead of living in seventeen different development folders.

At least that’s the plan.

Who knows.

Every time I say what I’m doing next I discover another system that apparently needed to exist three weeks ago.

SO.

We’ll see.

SO.

We have also been working on...

A LOT of items.

And when I say a lot, I mean I might have accidentally created an inventory management problem for myself.

But I really want BTB’s world and lore to be discovered not only through characters and conversations, but through the random objects you find scattered everywhere.

Some items might give you clues about where to find certain characters.

Some might lead to collectibles.

Some might be rare.

Some might be relevant to quests.

And some are just completely absurd objects that somehow became plot relevant.

SO FIRST.

I’ve been working a lot on the item menu.

It’s still not in its FINAL EVOLUTION FORM, but it’s starting to look much closer to what I want.

And it currently has TWO versions.

Day.

And night.

During the day the menus have this warm beige / pink filtered look.

At night they shift into a blue, starry palette.

I’m considering doing this across most of the game menus.

Golden Hour could probably use the daytime version because three completely different menu versions might start becoming visually messy.

But...

...

Maybe.

I don’t know.

Maybe not.

ANYWAY.

The current item categories are:

ALL
Where you will, obviously, see all of your currently stored items.

QUEST
Items directly related to quests.

KEYS
Anything used to unlock doors, chests, restricted areas, etc. Keys, access cards, passes, scans...

DOCUMENTS
There is a raccoon bureaucracy administrating the island.

There will be paperwork.

Lots of paperwork.

An unreasonable amount of paperwork.

Letters, notes and other written objects will also live here.

TOOLS
Axes, hammers, fishing rods and other usable tools.

This category may eventually move somewhere else in the UI.

SUPPLIES
Materials and resource bundles.

Things like hardwood crates, animal cracker jars and other things you’ll collect for crafting and upgrades.

CONSUMABLES
This category has gotten slightly out of hand.

These are items that can have some kind of gameplay effect on your stats and are currently divided into:

FOOD
DRINKS
POTIONS

KEEPSAKES
Important personal or story-related objects.

This category might eventually overlap slightly with Quest Items.

AWARDS
Various awards you’ll receive for completing specific milestones.

MISC
Everything that somehow survived categorization.

To start testing the inventory properly, I’ve already begun adding a lot of actual items into the game, each with its own artwork.

Here’s what we currently have.

IMPORTANT:

This does NOT mean every single one of these items will survive into the final game.

If something becomes redundant, doesn’t fit the vibe, has no gameplay purpose or simply starts annoying me...

It dies.

Natural selection.

Cracked Phone
Giant Olive
Golden Banana
Unripe Green Banana
Rotting Banana
Spotted Banana
Yellow Banana

Arthur’s Museum Staff Badge
Thorin’s Key
Gallery Vault Key
Going Becky Cabin Key
Golden Chest Key
Harbor Master Key
HR Complaint Box Key
Inventory Key
Museum Storage Key
VIP Card
Observatory Brass Key
Private Steam Room Pass
Room 2 Key
Royal Castle Pass
Royal Sea Sigil
Seven Dwarves Hut Key
Sylvain’s Terrarium Key
Vault Key

Bathhouse Guest Blacklist
Bathhouse Towel Liability Waiver
Beach Bonfire Containment Permit
Bruno’s Fish Scale Chart
Gossip Coaster
Cassian’s Sealed Letter
Cassian’s Unsent Apology
Coffee-Stained Sea Chart
Community Potluck Ingredient Disclosure Form
Critter Field Guide
Emergency Coconut Incident Report
Emotional Support Invoice
Annotation Note
Harbor Docking Pass
Gull Flag Loan Receipt
Island Resident Census
Lost Sandal Matching Worksheet
Mustache Grooming Standards Memo
Mermaid Sighting Witness Statement
Museum Security Floor Plan
Night Fishing Lantern Waiver
Notice of Eviction From Public Bench
Oversized Catch Declaration Form
Public Hammock Reservation Ticket
Queue Number Recovery Slip
Scenic View Blockage Complaint
Scenic View Reservation Ticket
Seaside Picnic Zoning Approval
Shared Bench Seating Agreement
Sheep Count Correction Form
Missing Sheep Poster
Stack of Paper
Temporary Activity Permit
Umbrella Courtesy Transfer Pass

Yes.

We have reached the point where there is paperwork regarding scenic views.

Percival is thriving.

I have several already coded.

They currently look like shit.

So we’re redoing them.

Moving on.

Okay.

This category has gotten VERY slightly out of hand.

We currently have things ranging from regular food to brunch dishes, island meals, desserts, seafood, Mexican dishes and whatever culinary crime I happened to think looked interesting that day.
And also, anime food is soooo pretty.
We need lots of it.

So far:

Pancake Stack
Matcha Soufflé Pancakes
Eggs Benedict
Ranchero Eggs
Shakshuka
Mushroom, Bacon & Egg Toast with Poached Egg
Serrano Ham & Pecorino Cheese Toast
Croque Madame in Homemade Brioche
Mushroom Toast
Normal Croissant
Sourdough Bread

Pambazo
Picadillo Sope
Beef Tostada
Seared Tuna Tostada
Tuna Tataki Tostada
Squash Blossom Tostada
Gourmet Lobster Tacos
Gourmet Cochinita Plate
Chile en Nogada
Adobo-Glazed Octopus
Braised Pork Belly Platter
Mole with Edible Blossoms
Mole Mushroom Plating
Lamb with Mole, Truffle Garnish & Baby Corn
Seared Fish with Corn & Microgreens

Nopal Quesadilla with Cheese
Vegan Chorizo Quesadilla with Non-Vegan Cheese
Blue Corn Squash Blossom Quesadilla with Cheese
Squash Blossom Quesadilla with Cheese
Mushroom Quesadilla with Cheese
Shredded Chicken Quesadilla with Cheese
Chorizo Quesadilla with Cheese
Charred Poblano Quesadilla with Cheese
Beef & Beans Quesadilla with Cheese
Mushroom & Corn Quesadilla with Cheese
Chicken Tinga Quesadilla with Cheese
Huitlacoche Quesadilla with Cheese

The vegan chorizo with non-vegan cheese situation is between the player and God.

Fish Sashimi
Seafood Crudo
Blue Masa Seafood Plating
Seared Fish with Green Adobo
Grilled Fish & Salad
Smoked Salmon Toast

Buñuelo with Sugar & Piloncillo Syrup
Sweet Potato Tamal with Tulip Sorbet
Marzipan Flan with Almond Sorbet
Corn Bread with Espresso Cream
Olive Oil Sorbet
Smoked Fig Praline over Pistachio Cream
Dragonfruit Sorbet
Sweet Corn Pudding with Ginger Foam & Mezcal
Rustic Chocolate Flan
Papaya & Sunflower Seed Tart
Blue Corn Tamale with Mint & Rosemary Foam
Mole Sorbet
Dragonfruit, Amaranth & Mandarin Dessert
Blue Tetela with Herb Oil
Sweet Corn Tamale with Red Mole
Concha Macaron Dessert
Gourmet Tamal with Mole
Strawberry
Red Apple

Classic Churro
Sparkhoof Glaze Churro
Goat Milk Caramel-Filled Churro
Matcha Glazed Churro
Caramel Drizzle & Marzipan Churro
Strawberry Glaze Churro Delight
Salted Caramel Churro
Blueberry Glaze Churro
Suspicious White Filling Churro
Matcha Cream-Filled Churro
Chocolate-Dipped Cinnamon Churro

No.

We will not elaborate on the suspicious white filling.

And apparently BTB also contains an aggressively unnecessary lettuce department.

Lettuce
Cabbage
Kale
Spinach
Arugula
Belgian Endive
Radicchio
Mizuna Lettuce
Romaine Lettuce
French Lettuce
Batavia Lettuce
Iceberg Lettuce
Purple Lettuce
Gem Lettuce
Green Oakleaf Lettuce
Lollo Rosso Lettuce
Lollo Bionda Lettuce
Sangria Butterhead Lettuce
Lamb’s Lettuce
Escarole Lettuce
Tatsoi Lettuce
Hoja Santa Lettuce

I don’t know when we became a lettuce simulator.

But here we are.

Astral Tonic
Astral Tonic — Starfruit & Moon Berry
ASK Energy Drink
Beef Season Fire Tonic
Beef Tonic — Harbor Blend
Beef Tonic — Island Energy Blend
Beef Tonic — Storm Brew
Beef Volt
BeefTunes Tonic
BTB Isotonic Energy Drink
Cassian’s Tidal Tonic No. 006
Cassian’s Tidal Tonic — Sea Salt & Lime
Defense Mineral Water
Ember Tonic — Orange & Wild Honey
Ember Tonic — Volcanic Citrus
Emotional Damage Booster
Emotional Damage Sparkling Water
Fortress Mineral Water
Golden Hour Tonic
Golden Hour Tonic — Citrus & Honey
Golden Hour Tonic — Sun & Moon
Heart Power Mineral Water
Heart Power Booster
Heart Power Sparkling Water
Hibiscus Guava Harbor Fizz
Island Region Tonic
Island Revival Tonic
Plastic Water Bottle
Beef Bubble
Sparkling Hibiscus Lime
Tidal Electrolyte Tonic
Tidal Sparkling Sea Salt & Lime
Tidal Tonic — Vitality Blend
Vitalis Mineral Water
Water Bottle

and they also have sound effects for when you consume them!

There is apparently an entire beverage industry on this island.

Economic reconstruction is going extremely well.

Small Red Potion
Vitalis HP Recovery Tonic

Very reasonable.

Very RPG.

Very suspiciously normal compared to everything immediately above it.

Architect’s Ruler
Arthur’s Silk Glove
Going Becky’s Bell
Cecil’s Red Pen
Cassian’s Royal Seal
Empty Antidepressant Bottle
Gaelic Glitch Demo Cassette
Grandpa’s Cartier Watch
The Dev’s Açaí Bowl
Thorin’s Good Plate
Trash Bag as Luggage

Some of these are sentimental.

Some are lore important.

Some should probably be discussed with a therapist.

Animal Cracker Hoarder Ribbon
Beefdex Ribbon
Fishing Ribbon
Mining Ribbon
Wood Cutting Ribbon
Island Developer Ribbon
Tag Collector Ribbon
BeefTunes Ribbon
Olive Gatherer Ribbon
Spellcaster Ribbon
Warrior Ribbon
Museum Collector Ribbon
Lockpicking Ribbon
Egg Collector Ribbon
Certified Bureaucrat Ribbon

I particularly enjoy the fact that surviving bureaucracy is now an achievement.

As it should be.

Bar of Soap
Blue Carrot
Lilac Carrot
Carrot
Green Carrot
Pink Carrot
Brass Frying Pan
Stevia Pack
Do Not Disturb Door Sign
Dry Martini
Expensive Napkin
Emergency Sunglasses
Fake Mustache
Half a Sandwich
Golden Statue
Forbidden Éclair
Hotel Bell
Low-Budget Firework
Heart-Crested Knight Helmet
Pack of Cigarettes
Paper Clip
Stapler
Ruler
Pencil
Plunger
Toilet Paper
Sponge
Taser
Tissue Box
Designer Shoe
White Towel

I have no explanation for this category.

That is why it is called Misc.

Okay.

So this is another one of those ideas that started because I saw something weird and immediately thought:

I can probably make this everybody else’s problem.

I don’t really watch much anime.

Or TV, honestly.

Sometimes I just turn it on because I like having background noise while I fall asleep.

But ever since I started working on BTB, the algorithm has apparently decided that isekai anime is now my entire personality.

Which is both scary and slightly concerning.

ANYWAY.

At some point, I came across this isekai anime about a guy who dies and reincarnates as...

A vending machine.

Yes.

A vending machine.

In another world.

It is an absolutely ridiculous premise.

And, to be completely fair, I didn’t even think the show itself was particularly amazing.

BUT.

I really loved the completely anachronistic image of this modern vending machine just existing in the middle of a medieval fantasy world.

It’s absurd.

And weird.

And visually wrong.

Which obviously means I love it.

So now BTB will have vending machines.

They’ll appear in unexpected places throughout the world.

Some might be sitting somewhere relatively reasonable.

Others might be glowing ominously in the middle of ancient ruins, forgotten islands, forests or places where absolutely nobody should have installed electrical infrastructure.

Each machine will have its own assortment of products.

Most of them will mainly be useful consumables: things that restore health, increase defense, give you temporary passive boosts, improve certain stats or generally help you survive whatever questionable decision brought you to that vending machine in the first place.

But every now and then...

You might find something stranger.

Something rare.

Something you weren’t expecting to come out of a vending machine at all.

Because obviously we cannot simply sell normal beverages and behave ourselves.

And, as we usually do when I come up with one of these ideas, we built a little Fizz Lab to test the mechanic.

That lets me adjust the products, probabilities, effects, animations, prices and all the other tiny things that will inevitably become unnecessarily complicated later.

There’s also another detail I’m weirdly excited about:

The music.

Since vending machines are already completely anachronistic to the rest of the world, I thought their music should be too.

So we’re making little 8-bit remixes of BTB songs that will only play while you’re using these machines.

The machines themselves will also have this slightly retro, neon, 80s-inspired glow.

Mostly white.

Pink light.

A glowing heart.

And the illumination will slowly pulse...

Almost like a heartbeat.

So somewhere in the middle of an ancient fantasy island, surrounded by ruins, monsters and centuries of forgotten history...

there might just be a glowing vending machine quietly playing an 8-bit version of a love song.

For absolutely no historically defensible reason.

And I think that’s beautiful.

Also I've been working on some 8bit remixes, but I'm still not sure yet...
I want them to be cute and annoying, but maybe they are coming out as TOO annoying.... what do you guys think?

Still We Sail [8 bit Vending Machine Remix]

Starlight And You (Gaelic Glitch) [8 bit Vending Machine Remix]

Children Of The Sea [8 bit Vending Machine Remix]

Romance and relationships with characters will NOT be mandatory.

The option to pursue a relationship will appear after you’ve maxed out that character’s affinity level and completed their story arc.

So yes.

You will only be able to steal someone’s boyfriend AFTER their story is completed.

This way you won’t accidentally destroy your save because you flirted with the wrong man seventeen hours earlier.

I really want players to have the ability to romance characters without constantly feeling like one dialogue choice permanently locked them out of content.

That feeling annoys me in games.

I don’t want BTB to punish you because you selected the slightly wrong sentence three seasons ago.

Affinity and relationships will matter.

But I want them to feel rewarding.

Not stressful.

I’ve been asked whether BTB will have a morality system.

I honestly hadn’t seriously considered one before.

And the more I think about it, the more I worry that it could unnecessarily complicate a game that is already...

Not exactly small.

A traditional morality system could also create progression walls that don’t necessarily need to exist, or turn choices into a constant game of “which answer gives me the good-boy points?”

And I don’t really know if we want that.

I’m not completely opposed to the idea.

But right now, I’m leaning toward NOT having a traditional morality system.

That doesn’t mean your choices won’t matter.

It just means I’m not particularly interested in putting a giant invisible GOOD PERSON / TERRIBLE PERSON meter behind everything you do.

We might make a poll about this one...

...

but you got me thinking...

Although we’ve clarified this several times already, this is still a question that comes up quite often:

Do you use AI?

The answer is:

Yes.

I use different AI tools throughout development, and I’ve talked about this before. I’ll continue being transparent about it whenever the subject comes up.

AI is part of my workflow.

So are drawing, writing, coding, editing, designing, testing, reworking, throwing things away, rebuilding them, and occasionally staring at something for four hours wondering why I thought it was a good idea.

There is still a ridiculous amount to build, redraw, write, code, assemble and inevitably break before BTB becomes the game I have in my head.

But every month it feels a little bit less theoretical and a little bit more like an actual place.

The systems are starting to connect.

The Island Editor is basically ready.

Which means I can finally start assembling exploration areas instead of just making hundreds of individual pieces and staring at them like some deranged IKEA catalog.

So exploration screens, character art and sprites are probably what you’ll start seeing more of next.

Probably.

Maybe.

Who knows.

Development has already taught me not to make confident predictions.

But the island is starting to make sense.

The characters are finding their place in it.

And apparently we now have more varieties of lettuce than any reasonable RPG should ever contain.

Progress.

Yes.

There currently aren’t any confirmed trans characters in BTB.

But there’s also absolutely no reason there couldn’t be.

The cast is already enormous, there are still plenty of characters being developed, and I don’t want to add a trans character just so I can point at them and say:

“Look! Representation achieved.”

If I introduce one, I want them to be an actual character first.

With a personality.

A story.

Probably several problems.

And, knowing this game, an unnecessarily complicated relationship with at least one other beefy man.

So: no confirmed trans characters right now, but the possibility is absolutely there.

Regardless, BTB is intended to be a welcoming game.

You’re welcome on the island.

And this is actually a really good point that I’d like to go a little deeper into.

When I was growing up, I almost never stopped to think about the gender identity or sexuality of the characters I was watching.

Most of the time, it simply wasn’t relevant to the story being told.

What mattered was whether the character was interesting.

Whether they were funny.

Whether they were an asshole.

Whether they made terrible decisions.

Whether they loved someone they shouldn’t.

Whether they were scared, lonely, arrogant, kind, jealous, brave, insecure, hopeful, or completely fucking stupid.

Those were the things that made me connect with them.

And I think sometimes, when we become too obsessed with defining every single aspect of a character’s identity, sexuality, labels, sub-labels and categories, we can accidentally lose track of the character underneath all of that.

That doesn’t mean those identities are unimportant.

For some characters, they might be extremely important.

Their gender, sexuality or relationship with those things could absolutely be part of their story.

But I don’t think they should automatically become the story.

A good story can connect with people far beyond the identity of the person experiencing it.

Because underneath all of those labels, we still share a ridiculous number of very human struggles.

Wanting to belong.

Being afraid of rejection.

Falling in love with the wrong person.

Trying to become someone better.

Running away from yourself.

Losing people.

Finding people.

Making mistakes.

Forgiving someone.

Not forgiving someone.

Being happy for five minutes before everything inevitably catches fire again.

That is much closer to what I want BTB to be about.

I don’t really think of BTB as an “LGBTQ game.”

Yes.

The cast is overwhelmingly men who like men.

There will be romance between men.

There will be different kinds of relationships.

And obviously that makes the game queer in a very literal sense.

But the story itself is not about:

LOOK HOW GAY EVERYONE IS.

There is no Gay Agenda questline.

...

or maybe....

But you do not unlock +10 Homosexuality after repairing the Inn.

Probably...

The characters are just people.

Well.

People, bears, oxen, lions, sheep, raccoons, celestial beings, questionable merchants and whatever the fuck else ends up living on this island.

And I want them to have actual stories.

Complicated ones.

Wholesome ones.

Stupid ones.

Painful ones.

Stories about mistakes, friendships, family, ambition, regret, loneliness, love, insecurity, responsibility, grief and occasionally being a complete idiot.

So if a character is gay, bi, trans, straight, cis, or anything else, I don’t want that label to be the thing doing all of the writing for me.

I want you to remember who they were.

What they wanted.

What they screwed up.

Who they loved.

What they were afraid of.

And hopefully, somewhere in their story, recognize a little bit of yourself.

That, to me, is much more meaningful representation than creating a character whose entire purpose is simply to represent a category.

So yes.

BTB will be trans-safe.

But more importantly, I want BTB to be a place where characters are allowed to be people first.

Messy, complicated, lovable, irritating, occasionally horny people.

And everybody is welcome on the island.

I’ve received so many comments asking about translations, especially Traditional Chinese.

And yes:

BTB is intended to launch in multiple languages.

How many exactly will depend heavily on development resources by the time we get closer to release.

I may initially need to rely on AI-assisted translation for some languages simply because translating a game with this much dialogue is an enormous undertaking.

However, if BTB has generated enough resources by then, I would absolutely prefer to hire professional translators and localization editors to review everything properly.

Because there is a very big difference between:

technically translated

and

actually sounding like something a human being would say.

And I don’t want the game filled with awkward, literal translations and localization mistakes.

English and Spanish are the two languages I can personally supervise very closely.

I’m fluent in both, so those should be...

Perfect.

Or at least as close to perfect as anything involving me writing thousands upon thousands of lines of dialogue can reasonably be.

I haven’t planned for BTB to be fully voice acted.

With 150+ characters, that would be a genuinely titanic undertaking.

And I would rather spend those resources making the game bigger and better than promise full voice acting and then discover that I accidentally need to manage the cast of a small country.

However...

I am working on ways to make conversations feel less static.

Every character will have their own unique talking blip.

Think something in the spirit of Animal Crossing’s Animalese: characters make little vocal sounds while their dialogue appears, giving them a recognizable “voice” without actually speaking every line.

Except in BTB, the official language is obviously:

Bovineese.

Different characters will sound different.

Big intimidating characters might have much deeper vocal blips.

Someone nervous might speak faster.

And Percival will presumably sound exactly as annoying as the island administration requires him to.

There will also be several songs with fully sung lyrics.

As for occasional fully voiced moments, special scenes or cutscenes?

Still possible.

But currently leaning toward probably not rather than yes.

So traditional voice acting auditions aren’t something I’m planning at the moment.

But never say never.

So.

I received quite a lot of feedback after asking whether choices should be capable of permanently fucking up your save.

And the answer seems to be:

Some of you absolutely do not want that.

Understandable.

But there are also quite a few people who do want choices to have consequences.

Also understandable.

Which leaves me standing in the middle holding two incompatible design philosophies and pretending I know exactly what I’m doing.

One possible solution is New Game+.

That could allow choices to have meaningful consequences during a playthrough without making players feel like one decision permanently locked them out of part of the game forever.

So I’m currently thinking about some form of semi-open choice system.

Certain decisions could lead to slightly different story outcomes, scenes, relationships or opportunities...

while New Game+ could make exploring the alternatives much easier.

Maybe.

I’m still figuring this one out.

The important part is that I want choices to feel meaningful without turning the game into:

You chose the soup instead of the salad in Chapter 2.
Arthur will now hate you until death.

So...

Still cooking.

But I promise I’m thinking about this one a lot.

I’ve been asked quite a few times whether BTB will have farming, cooking or crafting systems.

And this one is complicated.

Because I used to love these mechanics in games.

Then, somewhere along the way, they started feeling increasingly like...

chores.

Plant this.

Wait.

Harvest this.

Turn three pieces of this into one piece of that.

Now craft the other thing.

Repeat approximately fourteen thousand times.

At some point it stopped feeling like gameplay to me and started feeling like completing a checklist.

But maybe that’s just me.

The funny part is that none of these systems would be particularly difficult to implement technically.

So coding them isn’t really the concern.

The real question is:

Would they actually make BTB more fun?

If farming, cooking or crafting exists, I would want it to have an actual purpose and personality rather than simply being there because cozy games are apparently legally required to contain carrots.

We’ll probably do a poll about these mechanics eventually...

I’m genuinely curious what you guys think...

Someone asked about pets and little companions that follow you around.

And honestly...

I had not thought about this at all.

Narratively, BTB doesn’t really need a companion system.

So my immediate instinct is:

Probably not.

There are already more than enough creatures, characters, sheep, mysterious vendors, bureaucratic raccoons and emotionally complicated beefy men demanding your attention.

I’m not sure you also need a small chicken following you everywhere.

...

Actually, now that I’ve written that sentence, the chicken sounds kind of compelling.

But no.

Probably no pets.

Unless this turns out to be something you all really want.

In which case I reserve the right to completely contradict myself later.

This one is still a very big:

Maybe.

Right now, I really want to focus on making BTB an actually fun game to play with a couple of genuinely good stories.

That comes first.

Before expansions.

Before extra content.

Before I accidentally create another completely unnecessary development problem for myself.

If we manage to pull that off, if the game works, people enjoy it, and BTB eventually has the resources to keep growing...

Then maybe.

MAYBE.

An optional NSFW expansion, DLC, or something along those lines could happen someday.

But it’s absolutely not something I want to promise right now.

First we need to successfully make the game.

Then we can discuss taking everyone’s pants off.

SO.

I think that’s where I’ll leave you for this month.

There is still an absolutely unreasonable amount of work ahead, and every time I finish building one system, three more somehow crawl out from underneath it asking to be programmed.

But BTB is starting to feel less like a collection of ideas, screenshots, spreadsheets and questionable decisions...

and more like an actual world.

The characters are finding their places.

The mechanics are starting to connect.

The island is slowly becoming somewhere you can actually explore.

And that is honestly the part I’m most excited about.

We’re still very much building this thing piece by piece, breaking things, changing our minds, throwing things away and occasionally discovering that we apparently needed twenty-two varieties of lettuce.

But we’re getting there.

Thank you for continuing to follow this ridiculous little project, for giving me feedback, answering polls, asking questions, arguing with me about game mechanics, and generally helping make the island feel a little less empty while I build it.

More soon.

Probably.

Unless another emotionally devastated Italian-adjacent woman appears at my house with twelve suitcases.

In which case...

we adapt.

ok bye.