Hello, everyone! It's been a while since the last devlog, hasn't it?

I have some BIG news. After thinking about it for MONTHS I have decided to re-design Crowe. Let's make a little trip down memory lane, shall we? 

Warning: this has a loooot of rambling and is very emotional at certain parts.

As I mentioned a few times over the past year, Where Winter Crows Go is a project that was born as an experiment (the irony, right? with Crowe being a researcher) for the Winter VN Jam in 2022. I had written a number of games that year as the writer for Fable Novel, but was itching for creating something else. That's when the idea came for me to give it a go at being a solo dev once again. Of course, since I'm not really much of an artist and I didn't have much budget at the time, my only choice was to buy ready made assets and make a project with a relatively small scope. That's when I came in contact with the stock sprite I used for Crowe, which is a stock sprite that I bought from an artist who sells sprites on their website. 

And then... something completely unexpected happened. The game got around 1000 downloads IN 3 DAYS which was a first for me. I NEVER experienced something like that before and it left me overjoyed that so many people enjoyed the little DEMO I had created in the span of a month. Due to the great support it received, this motivated me to want to add more content and art to the game! 

Unfortunately, this came with a few bumps along the way. For the first version of the demo, I had accidentally bought assets that used AI without realizing. I HATE AI WITH A FIERY PASSION and wanted to have nothing to do with it, so that's when I hired VicAlen to make some of the backgrounds (the others were bought from Minikle, a very well known background artist in the VN community) and my friend and fellow dev, Flor, to make the food art. So far so good, right?  This was possible because both Vic and Flor are artists from Argentina, where I'm from, so my budget in pesos allowed me to hire artists from my own country. Now, with CG art, it was a little different.

Most of the CG artists I knew, who have anime style, were from overseas and used PayPal, which was something I had no real access to at that time. I mean, sure, I had a PayPal, but 0 cash, so I wouldn't really have been able to hire anyone. That's when my friend and fellow dev Ant (aka Anta or Antares) offered to make CGs! I was overjoyed about this and really grateful; not to mention her art is beautiful and it would make the game even more charming! Together, we planned the CGs for the game and she ended up making CGs from day 1 to day 6 in the story. Around that time, I also tried my luck opening a Patreon and, thanks to the support of my patrons, I was also able to commission a new logo and a new cover art for WWCG. 

The problem... arised when I asked Ant to make a coat for Crowe (since it wouldn't have made sense for him to go outside only with his lab coat on). I checked the TOS from the sprite artist again, which I hadn't done for a few months, and realized that I had made a huge mistake. While making new clothes for the stock sprite was allowed, it wasn't allowed to request other artists to make illustrations that were based on the stock sprites (meaning, no CGs, no cover art). I went into a huge panic about this, felt awful, cried a lot because of the stress. My friend Carrot was very sweet and kind to me during this time and helped me contact the japanese artist. Unfortunately, the artist told me that, indeed, I had broken their TOS but, since the art had already been made, they didn't want it to go to waste so they made an exception and gave me permission to use the cover art and CGs that had already been finished, but told me not to do it anymore. I was very grateful that they allowed me to use them despite my mistake, of course, but deep inside I was also devastated. It was an honest mistake, yes, but I still felt awful, I felt like a failure... it was not a happy time.

Although things calmed down quite a lot after that, there was still stuff weighting me down. I felt trapped. This project means a lot to me yet, at the same time, it has brought me a lot of stress and I wasn't as happy to develop it as I initially was. Every time a fan would ask me if they could do this or that with Crowe (the stock sprite Crowe) I was internally sweating bullets because I didn't want to contact the artist after the last time I talked with them. They were kind enough to let me know that fanart was allowed, but I just... I felt so sad. Crowe's written character was something I took the time to create on my own. Sure, the stock sprite gave me inspiration, but the work I put creating the story, Crowe's personality and the whole association with crows in the first place was all my own hard work. And yet... I couldn't fully call him my character 100%. A part of him still belonged to the japanese artist who made the stock sprite.

That's why, after many months of pondering what to do, I finally, FINALLY, decided to redesign Crowe's appearance. I know some people will probably be disappointed by this since the stock sprite has already become very iconic, but I just don't want to make a game where I can't call the characters 100% my own. I just don't want to. It doesn't feel good AT ALL. It interferes with my creativity. It ties me down. I want creative freedom. I want to feel good about having created my characters. I want to be able to decide what to do with them and not have to ask for permission to anyone about whether it's okay to add CGs or make an icon or whatever I may think about. 

I talked to some dear friends in the VN community and everyone was super supportive and sweet (thank you so much!!!). They gave me the final push I needed to make my decision. I hired Ant, who made the initial CGs for WWCG, and now Crowe Lynn looks like this:

Pretty different, right? And yet the "Crowe vibe" is still there, wouldn't you say? 

Though a tad darker, his iconic "lettuce-colored hair" is there, as well as his red eyes and lab coat. But there a lot of differences too! For one, he looks much more like an adult now, his hair is longer and braided, his bangs are messier, he has dark bags under his eyes, he has a feather necklace, he has fangs instead of shark teeth, the mole is gone, his lab coat looks more worn out and his clothes in general are different (he's using green and blue, for one, which are among his favorite colors; and one of the pieces of clothing is a turtle-neck sweater). 

This is a quick concept sketch that Ant made, he'll have a proper rendered sprite once it's finished ❤️❤️❤️

Of course, this also means that his CGs will be updated with his newer look and, YES, the game will now have ENDING CGs!!!! I'm not sure if I'll have enough budget to add even MORE CGs but we'll see! I'm estimating around 9 CGs and 1 chibi CG. Whatever I decide to do in the end, it's now something that is completely open to be done since the design is now my own. 

I CAN FINALLY SAY IT, CROWE IS NOW 100% MY CHARACTER!!! 😭😭😭

It feels so, SO good to finally be able to get all of this out of my chest. Seriously. The last few months I was NOT happy with the project because of this whole stock sprite issue. I was feeling massive impostor syndrome. I wasn't looking forward to writing it. I was burned out. 

But now, NOW that I have full control over my character, I can finally rest assured. NOW I can finally do more stuff with him. NOW I can add CGs of him if I want to. NOW I can commission other artists to make Crowe drawings. NOW I can make merch of Crowe if I so wish for at some point. NOW, I AM FREE. I AM FREE AND SO HAPPY ABOUT IT.

What does this mean for the game? Well, for one, as I mentioned above, all of the sprites and CGs will be replaced with Crowe's new design. The endings will now also have CGs!! Of course, this means that the project might come out a little later than intended. Hopefully, it's still released this year, but just keep in mind that, if it takes a little longer, it's because of this change. 

(NOTE: The script's length will remain the same, though. Still 7 in-day games + the prologue and still 3 endings in total).

Will the game still be name your own price? YES. I still intend for this game to be name your own price. The extended demo covers quite a big part of the game too, so it'd also be kind of pointless to charge for it now 😂 though, of course, donations are always appreciated if you want/can 😊

I'll have to update a few things regarding asks I received on Crowe, the game itself and even his character interview (thankfully, in this case, the change would be pretty minimal), but I'm honestly happy to do so cause now I finally feel like the whole project is my own 🥹🥹🥹💘💘💘

Many of you will probably be wondering about Killer Trait as well, since Oz, Arthur and Aslan ALSO happen to have stock sprites. Although the artist for those sprites allowed me to make CGs of the characters for the game, I still want to redesign them at some point. It'll be a little while since I first have to finish WWCG and later I'm going to focus more on another game of mine, Potion Pleasing, but I have already contacted an artist and friend to let her know that I'd love to work with her in order to redesign these characters as well. This also means that Carl would be able to get a sprite too, since now the art would be more cohesive 💪.

To sum everything up, Crowe's sprite and CGs will be replaced because he has been redesigned for the reasons mentioned above. This will allow me to add ending CGs too and eventually do more things with Crowe and not have to worry about any copyright issues. However, it also means that the game will possibly take a little longer to be finished since I first need to replace all of Crowe's character art.

Thank you so much for reading and for your understanding!!

PS: You can now also check the revised post for FAQ (frequently asked questions).