Hi everybody! I'm very happy to see that a lot of people seem to be enjoying Case Three- thank you so much for all the wonderful feedback! I was very anxious to release it so I'm relieved that none of my worst-case-scenario worries actually came to fruition. Now that hopefully all of the issues with Case Three have been patched out, I'm going to be working on Case Four, which has a very weird story attached to its development.

The First Fourth Case

Waaaaaay back in the Fall of 2023, I began working on One Thousand Acts of Decency. (Well, the game sort of goes back a year or so before that, but that's a story for another day.) The first case I made was naturally... Case Four. Yes, not the actual first case. My thought process was twofold: firstly, by making a different case first, it would help mean that when I make the actual first case, I would have some experience about what does and doesn't work. That way, the initial impression people have wouldn't be my absolute first, least-polished attempt at a OTAOD case. Secondly, I also wanted to be able to dive right into the gameplay and general flow of the VN without needing to also try to incorporate background information and worldbuilding stuff- explaining who Chive and Shallot were, what the Dome was, things of that nature. By not needing to delegate time and resources to establishing that, I could jump into the more standard gameplay loop for the VN.

This initial draft of Case 4 (hereafter referred to as Case 4.0, with the new one being 4.1 so I don't have a brain attack,) was actually completely finished. Like I predicted, though, it being the very first case I made is extremely apparent, with really rough assets, editing, writing, and some rather nonsensical puzzles. It's for that reason that I figured I need to rework it from the ground up. I'm going to be keeping a lot of the elements in tact (mostly the characters, some of the twists, and the general concept of the setting,) but remaking all of it to work better together, as well as to have a stronger connection to the overarching story and themes of OTAOD.

I thought it'd be fun to show you all some before-and-after comparisons as I work through Case 4.1, so here we go.

The Convention Hall 

The Sundown Theater where the majority of Case 4 takes place is a rustic playhouse that was converted into a movie theater. Despite this shift in usage, the underlying architecture was kept the same, paying homage to the building's history. While this room was originally intended for balls, it's not been converted into a room more along the lines of a convention hall or meeting room used for meet and greets, Q&A's, and other events. A sprawling, two story room, this hall connects to the Lobby, as well as to the Hall of Lost Media and Trash Rooms (with both doors behind that privacy curtain.)

The original draft of this room looks really, really plain. While the layout was kept pretty similar, the actual design was totally reworked. I had the privilege to see Chicago at the Colonial Emerson Theater in Boston a few months back, and the theater itself was stunning and ended up informing the direction I wanted to take the Sundown Theater's design. Working through all those architectural details was very difficult, but I'm happy with how they turned out, and I think they make the room feel far more ornate and purposeful than it did in the original version.

In case you're wondering, a lot of those ornamentations on the walls were drawn by myself, converted into SVG files (vector images,) and then made into 3D meshes via Blender. I think that workflow served me pretty well, as it helps the detailing look a lot less blocky and more handcrafted.

The Lobby

The Lobby (along with the Auditorium,) have probably seen the biggest changes between 4.0 and 4.1. As the original shows, the initial draft was a lot more like a contemporary cinema, with dark colors, carpeting, neon lights, and a snack bar. While you can't really see it from here, the entrance to he auditorium is just up the stairs in the back (though the player rarely gets to see that.)

The newer, 4.1 version of the Lobby is obviously a lot different, really embracing the old playhouse look of the theater. One thing I noticed while perusing pictures from the Emerson Colonial Theater is that there are a ton of mirrors. I'm not sure exactly why- maybe it was to help keep the rooms bright, or to make them seem larger... Either way, I think it really ups the fanciness factor, so I made sure to incorporate some. (I'm sure some of you have probably realized, but these mirrors are actually just holes that lead to a flipped copy of the lobby, as that's a lot less taxing for the game to render than a real reflection.)

Oh, and you can also see the redone sprite for Jerry Periander! The inverse of what happened to Oscar, he started with no suspenders but ended up gaining some during a redesign. Of all the initial drafts, his sprites were probably the least bad, but even so, they were way overdue for a facelift.

That's all for now, thank you again for all the support, everyone! I look forward to sharing more of Case Four's development going forward. The next update will be in around two weeks, where I'll share more of the premise for Case Four, as well as its title.