Entropic Float 2: Land Of The Witch

May Update: Progress Made and Hiatus Announcement
10 months ago – Sat, May 31, 2025 at 06:52:32 AM

Hello everybody! As per usual, what follows is the combination of both May updates made on other platforms. Let's jump right in with the list of goals we set back in April:

• Sketch all 7 primary backgrounds left for Area 4: Done! They’re alllll sketched. Yay!
• Add planned objekts into Area 3: Done!
• Write Objekt Reactions for Munya and Sharma in Area 4: Done!
• Finish at least 3 of those Area 4 Backgrounds: This one didn’t happen, the second half of the month was pretty exhausting and I ended up with a few commissions I had to focus on.
• Sketch some subprimary backgrounds for the areas already done: This one, however, did happen! I sketched all those subprimary backgrounds and even one of the backgrounds for Area 5. The wonders of the sketches being possible anywhere I bring my laptop…
• Maybe actually get those progress bars sorted out?: Done! And, here, let’s take a look at those right away!

Character Conversations: 10/590. These are the conversations between Ame, his allies, and other characters as experienced when choosing the dialogue option ‘Let’s Talk’. 590 may seem like a big number, but the ally conversations are counted twice- A convo between Ame, Bea, and Greta is listed once in Bea’s list and once in Greta’s list, it was just easier for tracking purposes to count them in both places than to weed out the duplicates.

Zones: 0/44. I haven’t made any strides in this regard yet. There are twenty-two zones total, each with separate tasks for the visual assets and the minigame implementation.

Backgrounds: 25/67. These are all the planned backgrounds for areas one through seven! What’s left includes most of Area 4, all of Areas 5 to 7, and a few secondary backgrounds for Area 1 and Area 2. Area 8 is excluded from the count, and will probably have its own progress bar down the line- While the majority of Pine Creek has some grounding in its map layout, Area 8’s necessary backgrounds will reveal themselves in the writing process.

Death Methods: 2/26. Have I even mentioned this mechanic before? There are thirteen ways Ame can die in the course of the game, and each one has an entry for its visual assets and for its code- The visual assets mainly being ‘achievement badges’ for a collection screen, though some will also include a CG! The two completed entries are for the code implementation of the two deaths in the demo: The bus crash, and provoking Veno.

Memory Segments:  14/20. I wrote a majority of these back in November! There’s a few left, some of which are already partially written. The rest of them aren’t a very high priority just yet, since we haven’t made it to the unlock conditions for most of them anyhow.

And to be perfectly clear- These bars only reflect specific factors with numbers I know so far- More bars will eventually be added, and I won’t include these progress bars during updates in which they have not changed. They don’t fully represent what’s been worked on up to now OR what will be included in the full game- For instance, not a single one of those ‘character conversations’ were included in the demo, conversation branches are a different and less-countable category. But they should give an idea of some part of progress and what’s being worked on at a given time moving forward!

And, when it comes to those progress bars- That’s what I’ll be focusing on very soon! The initial instances of running into each character are established for all but Area 4, and even those are coded in without assets yet. So, I’m in a very good position to shift focus to writing rather than asset creation for a while. And that’s exactly what I will be doing during…

~An Update Hiatus~

I know, I just switched from once-monthly to twice-monthly updates. And when I come back in either September or October (Depending on whether I decide to participate in the Spooktober Gamejam), that will resume. But truth be told, there’s a LOT happening this summer, including but not at all limited to tabling and paneling at conventions, moving to a different apartment, helping somebody ELSE move to a different apartment, and artfight of course. My attention… Is demanded in a lot of other places.

So, while I’ll 100% still be making progress on EF2 during this time, I’ve made the difficult decision for my sanity to let myself off the hooks involved in setting specific targets for specific timeframes. I’ll need to have the freedom to go two weeks without even looking in the direction of EF2 if I’m going to balance everything in the upcoming months. Official updates will be paused, though I’ll still be posting in the discord!

I’ll be back with plenty of good news when I do return from this break from structure, I can promise you that.

I’ll leave you with this Artfight attack of Sharma by SeaOrgRadio. Thank you, as always, for reading- And I’ll see you again by October!

April Update: Area 3 and Some Housekeeping!
11 months ago – Sat, Apr 26, 2025 at 05:34:57 AM

Hello everybody! As per usual, I made two updates on other platforms but, to spare your inbox, have condensed them into just this one for the Kickstarter page. So let's see what I've gotten done this month!

Let’s jump right into it with the last update’s goals:

• Sketch remaining 4 backgrounds for Area 3 : Done!
• Complete at least 2 of those Area 3 Backgrounds : Done!
• Create a map for Tony’s Rides : Map is made (Pictured below- Worry not, the blurry edges are covered by the GUI) and Tony’s Rides are fully functional!
• Implement all Objekt Reactions for Bea and Syoko in Area 2 : Done!

And the stretch goals for further in April, AKA the first update’s goal list:

• Complete Area 3 Backgrounds : Done!
• Make travel throughout Area 3 Possible : Done!
• Add characters into Area 3, if there’s still time: Also done!

That’s right, in a remarkable turn from the disappointments of March, I already completed all of the goals I had laid out for the month of April by the time of its first update~

So, I took the opportunity to work on tying up some loose ends for the rest of the month-

• Finally generate progress bars to use in future updates: Didn’t happen! I knew I’d be away from home for a chunk of this update, and thought this line item would work well for that. Turns out I needed a lot more info from my main machine and paper notes than I realized. Instead, I used that time to draw some refs for the remaining CGss Shoii is working on.
• Check in with any Kickstarter backer commissions left in the pipe: Done! Still working on figuring out the cameo backer tier with those individuals, but for all remaining commissions I either completed them or reached out for more information.
• Draw a cute EF doodle for Easter: Done! This was posted to socials, but I’ll also include it in this update after this list!
• Make a fun little character themes video for the cast of the Beloved Ghost DLC: Also done and posted to socials! This one will go at the end of the update.
• Add Objekt Reactions for Renfield, Maude, and Prim in Area 3: Done! In fact, I also jumped ahead and put in the reactions for Greta in Area 4 too.

To elaborate a bit more on the progress bars- I’ve determined which numeral metrics to count for each category, to be able to share X out of Y progress, but it turns out I need to dive back into what I’ve coded so far along with my paper notes to actually count up those metrics. Just a data entry task that will at some point get done!

May’s updates will come on the 17th and the 31st - This has an extra weekend between now and the next update again, but since I’ll be attending Anime Boston on the 24th, I’d rather update on the 3rd and 5th Saturdays than the 2nd and 4th. So, what are the goals I’ll be tackling for this upcoming month?

For the next 3 week period:

• Sketch all 7 primary backgrounds left for Area 4
• Add planned objekts into Area 3
• Write Objekt Reactions for Munya and Sharma in Area 4
• Maybe actually get those progress bars sorted out?

And for what’s left of May: (Considering that I have work and Anime Boston going on between the two updates)

• Finish at least 3 of those Area 4 Backgrounds
• Sketch some subprimary backgrounds for the areas already done (There are still locations locked behind puzzles as far back as Area 1 that need drawing!)

Taking it a little easy in the latter portion of the month, but big plans for the start! And who knows, maybe the same thing will happen as this month, and I’ll have all the stretch goals done by the first update? Anything can happen! Thank you, as always, for reading. See you soon!

March Update: Sorting out Area 2!
about 1 year ago – Sat, Mar 22, 2025 at 05:34:08 AM

Hello everybody! If you’re on Kickstarter, this is the March update- Everywhere else, it’s the second March update! And as for what’s in the update? Well…
 

Not a whole lot, sorry. I have not been having a normal time in this two week period. Not a bad time! But not a normal one! Today as I share this update, it’s… My first day off since the last update. I had 5 days of work across my day jobs, a table at CTGamercon, then another 5. I should have had yesterday to work on EF2, but work the day before ended up being a total of thirteen hours with one shift left incomplete- I had to go to work, then back out to run another unexpected errand, all in all just a busy time with no real opportunity to buckle down and get stuff done.
 

For that reason, I don’t have new official art to share, so let’s hear it for this piece of Maude from Vanitasium on ArtFight!
 

Even still, I was able to get a few things done in these four weeks. March has not been quite as excellent progress-wise as February ended up being, but every step gets us closer to release!
 

Here’s the goals from March:

• Create the assets for and implement a Zone (Character-Thematic Minigame) for Area 1, so a piece of Evidence can be acquired with which to open Area 2 : Not completed, postponed. Realized I could use the developer console to skip this for now, and wait to implement all Zones to the fullest of my vision for them.
• Make travel throughout Area 2 Possible : Done! You can traverse all of it!
• Add characters into Area 2 : Also done! They don’t have much to say yet, but Bea and Syoko have both been placed into the environments for their first appearances.
• Add Objekts into Area 2 : Did this! As per usual, there are a lot of Objekts that will probably end up being added later down the line, but everything that was definitely going into Area 2 is now implemented- Including the first objekt that goes through multiple iterations while taking up the same inventory slot! That might not sound like much, but I’m relieved it worked!
• Sketch backgrounds needed for Area 3 : Sketched 2 out of 6! That leaves 4 to sketch in April. Technically, I started a third, but a ‘completed sketch’ for me is one that’s ready to begin lineart, and that one’s not there yet.
• Create a map for the ‘Tony’s Rides’ function : Still haven’t gotten anywhere with this- I’ll carry the goal into April!
   

So, the goals before the next update on April 12th:

• Sketch remaining 4 backgrounds for Area 3
• Complete at least 2 of those Area 3 Backgrounds
• Create a map for Tony’s Rides
• Implement all Objekt Reactions for Bea and Syoko in Area 2

And some stretch goals for further in April:

• Complete Area 3 Backgrounds
• Make travel throughout Area 3 Possible
• Add characters into Area 3, if there’s still time.

Laying out the upcoming goals, even struggling a bit through March, it’s clear that development is coming along! The year ahead is still full of uncertainty, but by taking so much time to build a framework, the actual implementation process is pretty swift- Not so swift that I’m confident deciding on a release date just yet, though. Even so, things are moving along. I’ll update again soon, and thank you for reading!

February Update: Month's Targets Exceeded! Onto The Next!
about 1 year ago – Mon, Feb 24, 2025 at 12:19:04 PM

Hello! It’s time for the February update, and I’ve made lots of progress!

Let’s start things off by revisiting the goals I laid out a month ago:

Find the notebook where I wrote down location flowcharts. I somehow lost this in my apartment somewhere. I need to know the order of things! - I did, in fact, find this notebook! It was in a shelf, underneath my Kagamine Len Ita Bag.

^ Sketch the remaining BGs needed for Area 2, once I know exactly what I planned for those to be. - I sketched them! I then also lined, colored, and shaded them! All the backgrounds needed for Area 2 are ready to use!

Implement Area 1’s Pizzeria Minigame - This is the first place The Possum will appear~ - The minigame is implemented! You can make and receive a pepperoni pizza! You can also screw up making the pizza and get a consolation prize instead!

Add a GUI element showing which allies are currently recruited. - This is done! It only took about an hour!

So, as you can see, I didn’t just accomplish my goals for February- I exceeded them! Hurray! Area 2 is prepped to begin implementation. Besides this, I’ve also added another 7,000 words to the game since last time- Not even on writing full-blown scenes, just implementing more character reactions to being shown Objekts. There are currently 8 objekts fully implemented with methods to obtain them and inventory icons, and 9 more that are coded in with visuals in the works. Nowhere near all of them, but I’ll probably wait to add more to the list until I’ve written in the reactions for each character being added into Area 2. Best take things incrementally!

It won’t be very long till I update again, but here are the goals I have for the next couple weeks:

Create the assets for and implement a Zone (Character-Thematic Minigame) for Area 1, so a piece of Evidence can be acquired with which to open Area 2
Make travel throughout Area 2 Possible
Add characters into Area 2

And some further goals to have done by the second March update, but which I’ll get started on if I finish the above:
Add Objekts into Area 2
Sketch backgrounds needed for Area 3 (Six more than I already have prepped or sketched)
Create a map for the ‘Tony’s Rides’ function

And that’s about it! On other platforms, I'll be starting to update twice a month- To avoid clogging your emails and feed here, I'll still post just once a month, combining the contents of both updates. For more frequency, socials are the way! Thank you for reading!
 

January Update: Talksprites Completed! Back To Coding!
about 1 year ago – Fri, Jan 24, 2025 at 04:44:04 AM

Hello everybody!

It’s time for the January Update, and this month so far has definitely not been the greatest. On the fourth day of the year, I crashed my car in a parking lot because I pushed my limits too far work-wise, and I’ve had to spend a lot of time since then dealing with it. It’s pretty much sorted out now, but it’s been very stressful.

But even with that big complication in my daily life, I have some notable dev updates to share!

The talksprites are complete! You heard me- Every talksprite that I had planned now exists, and if any more end up needing to be drawn, I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. But the 77 sprites are here! That represents 5 unique talksprites for each main character and 3 for each notable side character. I actually finished drawing these before 2025 began~

So, what have I been up to since the year started, besides dealing with my personal life? A whole lot, actually!

I haven’t tackled any further visual assets since completing the talksprites, but I’ve been very busy. With every talksprite available to me, I’m finally able to write with clarity- That’s taken the form of about 10,000 words more than were included in the demo, just for a start! And those 10,000 words just come from flights of fancy, moments where I felt immediately inspired to fill in the contents of functional code. Because functional code is most of what I’ve added!

Why did I need the talksprites done before approaching these code frameworks fully…? Well, I’m not exactly sure, but it definitely has been helping. The randomization process and the ally system are both fully coded in now! That’s right, we’ve broken out of the demo’s focus on Loop One. It’s now entirely possible to bring a friend along with you, die, then get a different friend! And everybody else in Area 1 will acknowledge the friend, too~
 

I have decided to slightly postpone upgrading from monthly updates to biweekly ones until after February, mainly because February is a short month in which I will be spending very little time in my own home, and I need to spend a portion of it stepping off to the side to work on my other main artistic venture- I have commissions to complete and some designs to finalize over in the Fan Niche. That’s my online shop, if you didn’t know, and you can buy Entropic Float merch there among plenty of other things!
 

Basically, I don’t expect to have enough done at two separate points of February to warrant updating- I’ll just update around the 20th again. But March? March will bring updates on the 8th and on the 22nd! And in the meantime, it isn’t like I expect to get nothing done in February overall. Here’s the goals I’ve got for the month ahead!
 

Find the notebook where I wrote down location flowcharts. I somehow lost this in my apartment somewhere. I need to know the order of things!

^ Sketch the remaining BGs needed for Area 2, once I know exactly what I planned for those to be.

Implement Area 1’s Pizzeria Minigame - This is the first place The Possum will appear~

Add a GUI element showing which allies are currently recruited.
 

Let’s see how that goes! I’ll keep you posted. As usual, you can find more frequent updates in the discord server, and thank you for reading!