Hi, everybody! Case 4 has been going smoothly, and I wanted to share some of the progress in the form of a deep-ish dive into one of the new characters debuting in this upcoming entry. The subject of this Devlog was chosen by popular vote in the One Thousand Acts of Decency Discord server, so without further ado, here's Rosello Greene.

Rosello Greene 

Rosello Greene is an asthmatic rat living in Cleveland, though, he didn't always go by Rosello Greene. Certain events forced him to drop his old life and take on a new identity, and that's something that weighs on him, even years later. That being said, he'd hate to be pitied, which is part of the reason why he'd never ever tell anyone about his past, not unless they were someone he really trusted. As far as most people know, he's a cool, tough greaser with a devil-may-care attitude, and that suits him fine.

What's someone like that doing at a film screening? To get to the bottom of that, you'd have to ask his friend, Melanie. The debut of a student film of Melanie's was what got Rosello to show up in the first place. You'd never guess it from looking at the two of them, but he and Melanie are quite close, despite Melanie's objections to his love of cars, and despite Rosello's occasionally-chauvinistic manner of speaking. As her friend, Rosello decided to swing by the Sundown Theater and show support. Considering only a handful of other animals attended Melanie's Q&A, his support was both noticed and appreciated.

When the film screening ends, and Rosello, Chive, Jerry, and the others discover a dead body where there hadn't been one before, Rosello is quick to spring into action, whipping out his knives and vowing to make the killer pay. He's... The emotional center of the group, we can say. (In other words, he offers very little tangible benefit as far as investigating goes.) As the case drags on, though, Chive will be forced to ask some difficult questions about Rosello. Is he really the brutish-yet-gold-hearted rat he claims to be, or is there a darkness lurking beneath his bright red exterior?

A Peek Behind the Curtain

Without giving too much away about Rosello's role in the fourth case, I thought it might be a nice change of pace to explain some of the design choices behind the character, looking at him through a more meta lens. Like I had mentioned in some of my previous Devlogs, a prototype of Case 4 was what I built as a proof of concept for OTAoD before moving on to the actual first case. As you can imagine, that means Rosello was conceptualized, and a lot of his design, poses, mannerisms, and speaking quirks were developed then, too.

Rosello was first created in September of '22, not too long before the proof of concept began development. The idea for a skinless rat came from a r/thatsinteresting post someone reposted on Discord. In the name of -decency- tact, I won't go into great detail, but it's probably more-or-less what you're thinking, given the context. That's part of a pun that defines his character in a major way, too- he puts on the persona of a 'greaser,' after he wound up in a barrel of 'degreaser.'

Similarly, a lot of his design decisions where informed by his lack of skin. I imagine that without skin, touching anything would be rather excruciating, which is why he'd want to cover up his hands with bandages- that way he could still touch and manipulate objects (such as his trusty switchblades) without necessitating direct skin contact. His hat's 'tag' (I don't even know what to call that) is meant to be reminiscent of Safety Data Sheet for a chemical, further connecting him to industrial cleaning agents. The "PEACE" bandana is similarly linked to his chemical motif, referencing the, uh... Okay, that one's just a reference to Metal Max Returns for the Super Famicom, but the rest of his design makes sense, I swear.

The Best Case One Case One Can Be (Pt. 3)

In light of One Thousand Acts of Decency's first case receiving a full translation (look forward to more on that, later,) and thus being able to reach a new audience, I thought it would be a good opportunity to give the introductory case a new coat of paint to help ensure it makes a good first impression. This update includes a complete remake of four CGs and 29 character sprites, and I'm very pleased with the results. (Oh, and I also tweaked one of RJ's lines so he'll now say, "that'd really put the 'baka' in 'sussy baka.'") While the changes are all aesthetic in nature, if you're curious, you can see most of them by playing through some of the third debate of the first case.

I also made two miniscule changes to Case 3. The first is a new shout animation in a certain section during the third debate (for those of you who have played through it, it's probably the section you're thinking of,) as well as a new item Four a certain character to hold.

Closing Thoughts 

That's all for this time, but I'm really happy with the progress made on Case 4 so far, and testing should begin on the first third (I break it up into thirds during development- the first third is invariably the longest) of the case within a few weeks. This one probably spent the longest time in the pre-production stage as far as writing goes, but I'm confident that now all of the obtuse puzzles and weird logic has been ironed out, leaving what should be a fun, challenging, yet sensible experience. Until next time, take care, everybody!