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    Hey there! I'm Caz and every now and then, the others and I post updates here regarding the progress of Pokemon Desolation!
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    Posty

    Drinkin Buddies

    By Posty, in Records,

    ~ Excerpts from Patreon ~ 
     
    Yeehaw partners! It’s your local cowboy Posty here with your monthly installment of Desolation development update 🤠. Okay you can see the theme of this post, but I will get into that momentarily, first a little life update on my side.
     
     Firstly, I have started a new job recently (we don’t talk about what happened to the last one)! If you don’t know, I’ve been really diving into content creation and digital marketing, and that is basically my job lol. It’s been going really well so far and I find myself in a better environment than I was with my previous position. On top of that with this job set up, I have more time to dedicate to Desolation (mainly since I’m not travelling an hour there and back 5 days a week… I’m working 3 days hybrid, happy days) With that said, I’ve been focusing on my job and had other bits to do outside of development, so the last month has been just taking time to adjust from having all the free time in the world, to working a nice little 9-5. Also, I’ve started to dive into other forms of content creation as well, involving TCGs (yes I like shiny cardboard), I started an Instagram for my content so if you wish to see what I’m getting up to outside of Deso, you can check it out here! 
     
    Anyways, enough about all that side of things, let's get to some Deso content shall we? So today’s post is focused around a little gaff that has spawned outta the blue. We streamed mapping this new place on a recent Patreon Stream, but for more context… Fairbale has gotten a new attraction that the locals can go to spend some time to unwind after a long day of farming, or being run outta town by the Black Foxes.
     

    An interesting sign, what’s this place called?
     

    Ah, there we go
     
    Welcome to Drifblim’s Drinkery! A nice saloon that the locals can swing by, grab a drink and take the time to relax, it’s a hard life being a farmer… or a cowboy… yeehaw. So for a little bit of backstory as to why all of a sudden Fairbale has gained a saloon, uh, yeah. Darius felt like making a track that utilised Drifblim’s cry, I told him to do it, we initially thought about this for another area, but then I said “fudge it we ball, I’m adding a saloon to Fairbale”, so yeah. These things tend to happen on the Desolation team. I have many silly ideas (or others give me silly ideas) and I make them happen… I was given too much power when I was handed over the reins for leading the project. Moving on! The saloon has been closed due to the recent Black Fox attack that took place in Fairbale, but after the cleanup crew got to work, it has now reopened and will be available from the beginning of EP7, but that begs the question, what is so special about this place?
     

     
    There will be a sidequest, wow more sidequests! But more importantly, you will be able to buy a few drinks here. These drinks may come with some special effects, but we will reveal that in a later update. But these effects are unique to the Drinkery, so make sure to check it out!
     


    And that’s all I have for you for this monthly instalment of yeehawsolation, I mean Desolation. Things are progressing smoothly and I’ve been getting myself into a new rhythm balancing my new job, content creation and Desolation, and I’m really excited for how things are looking! I hope that you continue to join us on this ride of the EP7 train, coming to you… at some point eventually!
     
    But since I only really showed off the Drinkery, I guess I should give you all one more little teaser as a treat, and yes this one is an EP7 story spoiler…
     

    More to come in the upcoming months, so stay tuned! Anyways, thanks for reading and I will see you next month. 
     
    Take care folks!
     
    Posty 
    Posty

    Electrifying Momentum

    By Posty, in Records,

    ~ Excerpts from Patreon ~
     
    Happy Year of the Snake folks! Posty here with your monthly installment of “what has the development team been cooking?” And we have been, well, cooking in certain departments to say the least. As I have now taken over as lead for the project, I am the one who is now focusing on tackling the majority of the EP7 eventing. What this means is that some of the areas and questlines that I would have been looking to work on this Episode, are now being delegated to other members on the Deso team to work on. With that said, the main part of this blog will be showcasing some of their work with you all, so let's jump into it shall we?
     
    I will not be going fully into details about what this area is and where you can find it (you will have to play EP7 to find out…), but it will be unlockable at some point as you continue your adventures through Ayrith. You are more than welcome to take a guess in the comments down below, but we will not be revealing any information at all (or well, at least for the time being), anyways take a look!
     

    Where have we seen crystals like that before
     

    A giant rock of crystals?
     

    Maybe there’s a puzzle instore for you here?
     
    So a quick note, this area has not been finalised and things will be updated as we continue to progress with development (the boulders may be placeholders… or are they? Yes they are placeholders), but this is just a sneak peek of a new area that is coming with EP7, so it’s best to get exploring when it releases!
     
    Before I close out this month’s post, our music men have been at it again and have provided you all with a little teaser for another new original track coming with the next update, check it out below!
     

    Axel's Theme Patreon Snippit.wav  
    Yes, this is quite a shorter post than normal, the main reason for that is a lot of the content we have been working on lately is quite spoiler heavy, you can probably guess why. We aren’t ready to begin showing off some of the content we have been working on, but down the line you can expect that to be revealed, so stay tuned on that front. Next month’s blog post will be a little bit of fun that I’ve been working on as a little break from EP7 content (and from a recent Patreon Stream), all I will say as a hint is… yeehaw.
     
    And with that, I bid you adieu, hope you all have a wonderful year and… don’t get bitten by any snakes, hiss.
     
    Posty
     
    Posty

    Festive Reflections and Shrooms

    By Posty, in Records,

    Twas’ the weekend before Christmas, when all through the woods, not a soul was chirping, not even a mushroom… wait no that’s not how it goes.
     
    Happy Holidays folks! Posty here with your monthly dose regarding all things Desolation, so what has happened since last time? First things first, thank you to everyone who swung by to watch the Public Development Stream! It was a lot of fun interacting with a bunch of you, and I hope you all enjoyed it as well. For those who missed out, the VOD for the stream is up on my twitch channel which you can find here!
     
    For the stream, I was mapping an area that is found just shy of Astraciel Town, Astraciel Wildwood! So how is it looking? Well, take a look for yourselves.
     

    If you’re a fan of pretty colours, and mushrooms, then this is the place to be. Astraciel Wildwood will not be fully unlocked in EP7, however you can still spend some time here exploring and just, vibe y'know?
     
    I am looking to stream more again in the New Year (shameless twitch plug), which will mainly not be Deso related, but feel free to pop by and say hi if you’re interested! Would be a good space to answer any questions you all have… (unless I’m in the middle of a Dota match, then you may have to wait until after that’s finished).
     
    Secondly, it’s been about a month since we introduced our new team members into the fray, and development as a whole has definitely picked up a good amount! Progress is being made and with some new creative heads at the table, I am happy with how things are going, but what does that mean moving forward? Let’s have a quick little end of Year Q&A shall we. 
     
    Will you do more Public Development Streams in the future?
     
    I would absolutely love to! A lot of the stuff we are currently working on is extreme spoiler territory, so I will need to have a think and look into what we could do, but this will be quite a bit down the line.
     
    How is development going for Desolation?
     
    Considering how the first half of the year went, the second half has been far more productive as we sat down and discussed how we wanted to progress with the story. When you’re creating your own story, it’s very easy to decide how you want to go about specific elements that lead into a final outcome, but when you’re taking someone else’s story in which you don’t have every single detail to go off, it can be a lot more challenging. This is a hurdle that we as a team have been actively discussing and getting over, and we are hopeful that the end product will showcase that hard work to its fullest. 
     
    When will EP7 release?
     
    As it is coming up to nearly 2 years (how) since we released EP6, if our circumstances were not as they are right now then we would have hoped EP7 to already be in your hands. But as we went on a hiatus due to Caz’ absence and then spending a good amount of time getting back into the groove of development, EP7 release is still a good bit into the future. As of right now, I do not wish to get people’s hopes up and give an estimated time when it will drop. I would love to get it out sometime near the end of next year, but for the time being, we are working hard and it will come when it’s ready! 
     
    What is a fun fact you can share with us?
     
    Omens loves birds.
     
    …
     
    I wanted to end off this development blog with just an overall thank you to the community for the massive amount of support this year. Our current situation has not been ideal in the slightest, and there have been points throughout the year that I have been frustrated at how things were and feeling unable to do much about it. But the amount of love and support people have given us towards Desolation is a consistent reminder about why myself and the rest of the team are developing the game to begin with. So again, thank you for sticking with us and being patient, we have big things in the pipeline and I can’t wait to showcase more next year.
     
    I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas and are able to spend time with those important to you during the holiday season. And a Happy New Year, from us here on the Desolation Team!
     
    And with that, I will see you all next time, have a good one.
     
    Posty
    Posty

    Riding Waves and Announcements

    By Posty, in Records,

    God, how is it November already… Hey everyone! Hope you all are keeping warm during these colder months. Today’s blog post will go over some Sidequest content I have been working on during some Development Streams we have been doing over on our Patreon Discord! But before I go over that, I have a couple of announcements to make.
     
    Firstly, If you saw our previous dev blog, then you would know that we have been looking to recruit some new members to the team. We had a lot of interest, so thank you to everyone who showed interest, shared the post around and applied! Myself and the rest of the team truly appreciate it. On that note…
     
    Please give a warm welcome to our new Team Members!
     
    @Dred
    Twitter
     
    @IronicOmens
    They don't have social media...

    @Rust_
    Twitter
     
    Dred and Omens you may recognise from their work on the Overseers Mod for Rejuvenation (which you can find here!), they also have been working on Project Vanguard (you may have already seen some of Omens’ Spritework for Vanguard on Twitter!). They will be joining us in the Mapping and Artwork department, and what they have been cooking up so far has been really exciting to see, and I can’t wait to showcase some of their work to you all soon.
     
    Rust on the other hand will be joining us in the Music department. He has expertise in compositions working on projects such as Azure and Garticmon. Working already on tracks alongside Darius in Azure, we are really excited to see what this duo will be able to cook up for our soundtrack for EP7 and future versions, so look forward to some new banger tracks! If I get their permission, I may be able to give you all another little teaser for a track in a future development blog, but we will have to wait and see.
     
    Once again, thank you to all that applied, we were impressed with the quality of work people within the community had to offer and ultimately, we were really overjoyed with the interest people have for the project!

    Moving on, for the second announcement! So if you remember from the previous development blog, I mentioned potentially about hosting a dev stream if there was interest. So with that said, I am happy to announce that we will be looking to host a Public Development Stream on Saturday 7th December at 8:30pm GMT! I will be looking to go live on my Twitch channel, which you can find here below!
     
    https://www.twitch.tv/postyhd
     
    For a little bit of insight, during this Stream, I will be doing some mapping on a new area coming to EP7, Astraciel Wildwood! So come along and hang out, myself and a bunch of the other developers will be there to chat and have a good time! Also we can do a little Q&A if people have some questions. We are looking forward to it! 
     
    That’s about it for the announcements, time to move onto the main topic of the dev blog, Keneph Resort!
     
    ~ Excerpts from Patreon ~
     
    Ah... Keneph Resort, it’s been a while… You may remember this area being mentioned previously, since we’ve made a few dev blogs about it now, but for a quick rundown if you have forgotten, Keneph Resort was going to be my main focus for EP7 when we begun this development cycle, however due to unforeseen circumstances and becoming temp lead of the project, I decided to put this on the backburner to focus on other aspects of development. This is why there hasn’t been many updates regarding this area from me… until now! 
     

     
    I’ve already gone over Keneph Resort in previous dev blogs and hinted at some things which will be coming to the area, but it’s been a good while since then so I think I can mention a couple things I have planned. One thing that Desolation has lacked has been… Move Tutors, guess where they will be going? Might be worth going back to invest into the Resort now during EP7. The resort will also act as a hub for trainers across Ayrith to come down and spend some time to unwind, maybe you will see familiar faces turn up? Maybe even itching for a fight, but there’s a rule about keeping shut about fights. And maybe even some new faces. 
     
    So with construction beginning in EP7, how do you play a role in the development of the Resort? The construction team is a little bit behind due to the delay of some shipments, you can see where I'm going with this. 
     


    One part of the quest requires you to head down to Cellia North to try and come to a deal on the materials needed for Keneph Resort, trying to potentially haggle the additional funds needed for one of the shipments. And when I say I was having fun writing this quest…
     

    I was having fun
     


    Another part of the quest will see you heading down to Sunshell to check up on another shipment of Sandstone. Which you may need to help out the Miners down near Fairbale to gather the remaining materials needed. It’s safe to say you will be working hard to get this Resort up and running!
     
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     
    Before I close out this blog, I will leave you all with one last thing. Our new member Omens has already been hard at work when it comes to graphics and sprite work, and well, I will just drop this here and not elaborate.
     
     
    That wraps up for this month, hope to see you at the Development Stream on the 7th of December!
     
    Posty
    Posty

    Help Wanted - Join the Team!

    By Posty, in Records,

    We are recruiting!
     
     Hello hello, Posty here with a little bit of a different post, yes if you have read the title (or saw the post on Twitter), we are looking for new members to join the Desolation Development Team! 
     
     After having an internal discussion with the other devs, we came to the conclusion that considering the circumstances and changes with some of our current situations, that we could use an extra pair of hands on the team. With that said, we are looking for a Spriter (Primarily Tileset work) and a Mapper (RPG Maker XP experience is required), or someone who can handle both, to work alongside us in developing Desolation. 
     
     If this is something that you would be interested in, then please look to apply through the application form below! But before you do, like any sort of “application”, please read the following few points.
     
    If you are looking to apply for the Spriter position, then do note that we need someone with experience creating tiles for tilesets (Rebornverse Style Graphics), and examples will need to be provided.  
    If you are looking to apply for the Mapper position, then do note that we need someone with experience in RPG Maker XP, as that is the program we currently use (like other fangames) for development, and examples will need to be provided.  
    Please make sure you have the time to actually contribute to Desolation, we understand and appreciate everyone has personal responsibilities, but we need people who are consistently able to help out with development. Periods before Episode Releases and Alpha/Beta Testing will require everyone’s ongoing assistance.  
    Knowledge of Desolation is required (Bonus Points for playing Reborn/Rejuvenation! We love our fellow developer friends)  
    Discord is required, all forms of communication will be done here!  
    I will not be reaching out to everyone who has applied, I will only be looking to reach out to the few that I wish to have a further chat about before making a decision.  
     The deadline is Tuesday 12th November at 8pm GMT, exactly one week from now! So please make sure you get your applications in before then. I may extend the deadline, and if I do then it will be made in the form of a Twitter post to our page, so keep an eye out (I will edit it here as well).
    Application Form
     
     Thank you everyone for the continued support on the project, for those who are looking to apply, myself and the rest of the team look forward to reading through your applications! There will still be a development blog later on this month, in which I will be making an announcement, so stay tuned!
     
     Also it’s election day in the US and despite me being a Brit and not American, go vote! It is your right to vote and you should most definitely do it, make the time to go out to the polls and do so, especially as this is probably one of the most important elections in current times.
     
    And with that, I bid you adieu.
     
    Posty
    Posty

    A Town of Colour and Mushrooms

    By Posty, in Records,

    ~ Excerpts from Patreon ~
     
     It’s that time of the month again, hey everyone! Posty here once again to deliver you your monthly updates regarding all things Desolation! So let’s get into it shall we?
     
    Before I jump into the main focus of this blog, if you haven’t had the chance to check it out yet, last month we made a detailed development blog regarding Chryseum Canyon! You can find that here. The amount of engagement and reactions we received on that blog post and recently in general has been amazing to see, so thank you all! It really helps us to weigh up how you, the players, feel about the work we are producing, and keeps us motivated to continue developing Desolation. 
     
    As I mentioned at the end of our previous blog, development as a whole has been improving a lot, given that I have a little bit more free time as of right now, I’ve been able to dedicate a lot more time to the project as a whole, so Episode 7 is progressing at a better pace than it was a couple months back. With that said, we will hopefully be able to share a bit more than just new areas. It might mean that future blogs will be a bit shorter, but we will cross that bridge when we get to it. But firstly, how about a new location reveal? (I’m such a joker).
     
    Today’s development blog will be highlighting the town that’s north of Chryseum Canyon; Astraciel!
     

     
    Arcanius is truly an island with many wonders, from the farming town that’s known as Fairbale, to a vibrant remote town, home to mushrooms that grow to the size of trees, Astraciel is a must visit!
     

    If… you don’t mind mushrooms that is.
     

     

     
    It appears that there is a Gym situated in this town as well? During your visit to Astraciel, you will meet a brand new character coming to Episode 7, but who are they? Well you might have heard of them already during your adventures. However, we will save the reveal for another time, but feel free to take your guesses (we will not confirm nor deny…).
     
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     
    Like I mentioned at the start, the upcoming blog posts will be highlighting other aspects of development that are not just new locations coming to Episode 7. Recently over on our Patreon, we hosted our first development stream in a good while, which gave our Patrons an exclusive first look into a questline that I was working on before I took over as temporary lead of the project. Spoiler alert! This will be the focus of next month’s development blog. In light of this, I have been thinking about hosting a public development stream sometime near the end of the year. If this is something people would be interested in then let us know, and we can then look to decide on a time and date!
     
    And with that, I bid you adieu.
     
    Posty
     

    Posty
    Chryseum Canyon, one of the many attractions Arcanius and the whole of Ayrith has to offer. A famous landmark that serves as the main trade route for farmers and locals between Fairbale and Astraciel, it is a place that contains a lot of history and mysteries…
     
    Hey everyone! Postyman Pat here, once again to deliver the latest development news from the team here at Desolation Corp™. This one has been a long time coming, and we are excited to finally share one of the main areas you will be venturing through in Episode 7; Chryseum Canyon!
     
    As one of the areas we have been the most excited about working on since coming back to active development with Episode 5, a lot of time went into concepts and coming to a finalised design. From the layout to the choice of colours, the Canyon presents a sense of tranquillity. Once a river flowing all the way through that eroded the cliffs, now a bright and colourful forest path has grown in its place, with the remnants of the river still present in a stream that passes through the cliff sides instead.
     

     
    Those who look to export goods between the two towns make their way through a path littered with cherry blossoms, taking in the landscape surrounding them. With the locals from both Fairbale and Astraciel working together to maintain the trade route to ensure there is always a safe path to travel along, numerous repairs have been made to the main bridge over the years.
     

    On a long, tiring journey, it’s good to take a step back and take in the scenery you find yourself in.
     
    When the forest path is undergoing repairs, travellers will have to venture through one of the two mountain paths if they wish to make their way to Astraciel. With one path a little more dangerous and longer than the other, it’s important to take extra caution when proceeding through the mountain caves.
     

     

    The water currents from the stream are especially dangerous.
     
    Despite the dangers that may lurk taking one of these paths, the caves within the canyons are spectacles to behold! Filled to the brim with crystals and unique rocks, anyone looking for a hike will not be disappointed venturing through the cliff sides.
     

     

     
    As you progress through these mountain paths, you’ll notice a change in the landscape, the colours of the caves will reflect how far you have travelled, helping to be a clear indicator for those who begin to find themselves lost. One of these paths connects directly to Kanzen Cliffs, an area in which you will look to explore if you want to find and check out the famous Kanzen Temple! A well-known place of worship amongst the locals who make the trek to go and pay their respects. This is something we revealed in a previous development blog, if you haven’t checked it out yet then you can find out more here!
     

     

    Make sure to watch your step!
     
    Chryseum Canyon is a place of a lot of wonders and also hidden secrets, maybe there is more than meets the eye? You’ll have to explore and find out in Episode 7!
     
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     
     Well, how does it look? We’re incredibly happy to finally be able to showcase this to you all and we look forward to seeing you all eventually explore the vast terrain that Chryseum Canyon has to offer!
     
    Before I close out this blog, I just wanted to be transparent regarding development as a whole. We know that this development cycle as a whole has been… a lot slower than we would have ever imagined and hoped, a good amount of mapping has now been completed for Episode 7 but we are still a long way from being even remotely done. Which is why there hasn’t been any form of those “Percentage of Completion” updates from us this cycle thus far, because we do not want to get hopes up with the current state of things. But just know that we are still chugging along and have been making adjustments that have helped improve development for Desolation as a whole. We have a lot of exciting things in the works right now, and we can’t wait to slowly showcase that to you all.
     
    Until next time folks!
     
    Posty
     

     
    Posty

    Announcements and Progress

    By Posty, in Records,

    Hello there! Posty here. Today’s post will be on the shorter side of things but still quite important as we have an announcement and some progress to share. So let’s just get straight to the main point.
     
    The Patreon is Back!
     
    That’s right, after some internal discussions with the development team, we have decided to officially bring back the Patreon. We are extremely grateful for all the support you all have given us, and if you wish to support us on Patreon, then now you can! again. Some of you would have already known this as it's been back for about 3 weeks now, but nothing was mentioned completely publicly outside of the Reborn Server. With that said, there are a few things I would like to note.
     
    Firstly, when Caz officially comes back to active development, then the Patreon will most likely look to move back to him to host, that is if he wants to continue it on his end. Currently, Darius is kind enough to host it for us (Thanks Darius!), so this is a bridge we will cross once we get there. We ended up having to make a brand new one since the previous one is currently unpublished on the site. 
     
    Secondly, until Caz does come back, Crown Tier will not be available for purchase. This is just mainly due to the additional work we are taking on while he is away, and we will not be able to properly commit to the main perks of that tier until we are a full team again. We hope to bring this back in the future though so keep an eye out for that announcement!
     
     And finally, even though Darius will be hosting it, unless specified I will be the one mainly writing up the posts, similar to these development blogs, so if you want to see the sort of shenanigans we get up to, then check out our Patreon below! There will be exclusive content that is only shared there, in which will be cut from our development blogs, including this one! 
     
    🎉 Patreon 🎉
     
    Okay, announcement done! Now let's talk about progress.
     
    ~ Excerpts from Patreon ~ 
    The Canyon
     
     As mentioned in several development blogs, in EP7 you will be heading north of Fairbale towards the Chryseum Canyon. This is an area in which Caz was going to be taking on while I focused on Keneph Resort, but as you can imagine, these plans have changed. This has now become my main focus point for development while working on other things in the background (if you’ve seen the sidebar, then you could tell I’ve been losing it a bit). As something we as a team have been really excited about developing, the overall progress on it has been slower than I would have liked. 
     
    Why is this? A couple of reasons really, one being job hunting! As many of you are aware, I have been trying to secure full-time employment for a long time now, interviews here and there but no major breakthroughs. For those who don’t really know me outside of Deso, I do a lot of creative stuff as a whole, from Photography, Social Media and Digital Marketing, and getting into that industry is… hell. So a lot of my focus most days is on getting a bloody job. Another reason is as a creative, I work on a few other projects as well, so as you can imagine, trying to juggle and balance multiple projects, and my personal life, can be a bit much.
     
    …
     
    So… I wrote this for Patreon two weeks ago, and in those two weeks I finally managed to land a job! Hilarious how life works sometimes. Now I can stress less on that and get organised into a routine to get cracking more with Deso. And with that said, the next blog post will be a big update regarding the Canyon. That is a promise. 
     
     On the brighter side, the rest of the team has really been hard at work discussing and working on other elements of the game, some you have already seen in the previous development blogs. One of those things… is something that we have shared on our Patreon. A new Mega Evolution coming to EP7! We mentioned about a new Mega on a previous development blog, but didn't specify what it is... And that is something that will stay exclusive for Patreon eyes only for the time being. We may look to reveal this later publicly in a future development blog... as a treat. So keep an eye out!
     
    Although we can not publicly share this with you at this current time, we can instead share with you this! 
     
     
    The Music Corner
     
     As we have been doing with a lot of our blogs lately, we have another snippet of a track Darius has been whipping up for EP7, our soundtrack is only getting better and better, check this out!
     
     

    Kanzen_Temple_2.mp3  
    Working with Darius over the last few years has really helped elevate the sound design for Desolation to a whole new level. Like with EP6, EP7 will continue to add to our original soundtrack, we have a lot in the works in the music department, and it's been fun to be able to share little extracts with you all!
     
    Filing the Cabinet: Season 3?
     
     Another post, another official art reveal! Once again, thank you to aGoodCabinet for working on these.
     
     
    As normal, here are his links, so please do go check them out!
     
    Twitter
    Instagram
    Ko-fi
     
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     
    Cheers for sticking with us during this quite difficult period as a whole, things are starting to be a lot more smooth sailing now moving forward. And with the Patreon now up and running, expect monthly blogs to return! 
     
    I look forward to sharing more with you all next month!
     
    Posty
    Ruby Red

    Mountains and Beaches

    By Ruby Red, in Records,

    Hi all! Surprised to see me here instead of The Postman™, huh? Well he’s slid this devblog over to me to talk about a certain something mentioned before. Besides that, Caz still isn’t around, but that’s alright. At least in the art department there isn’t anything to worry about since he almost always let me do whatever I thought looked nice LMAO
     
    But firstly, how’re you all doing? We’ve mentioned to the moon and back how we’ve been busy with this and that, but I recently graduated and got my Bachelors degree! As of posting this I still have a month left in my internship, but it’s pretty smooth sailing now lol. Besides life, I’ve actually been doing a ton of work for Deso on the side.
     
    And I mean, a ton.
     
    Unfortunately, most of which I can’t really show due to spoilers, but today, we’ll be talking about…
     
    Kanzen Temple
     
    Ya girl has started mapping. Be afraid.
     
    Jokes aside, in EP6 I was just starting to learn how to map properly. It was mostly indoor rooms and just some reskins of older tiles to get the hang of it. Kanzen Temple has been entirely my baby, as are a few other Large areas of EP7.
     
    To give a small progress update on my side of map things, for example, I finished the Kanzen Temple map, as well as Astraciel Town, another area you will be exploring in EP7! and I’m currently working on another bigger area that’s around half done~ That’s not even to mention all the non-map stuff that’s being worked on! There’s so much stuff done now that I’m starting to run out of things to do. help 😭
    So don’t worry, progress is still being made! Dev blogs are kinda inconsistent lately due to the spoilery nature of everything right now, so we’re trying okie 🥺 As long as I’m alive on this planet, Deso will continue until the end >:)
     
    But moving on, let’s actually show you something lmao
     
     

    I hope the trees didn’t spook you! The layout in the Kanzen Temple area is fairly straightforward hehe.
     

    The main entrance of the Temple is what greets you at the top of the mountain. Pretty scenic, huh?
     

    A courtyard! Though it’s looking mad empty right now since we haven’t put NPC’s down yet ^^;
     

    An exit leading to further up. Kanzen Temple is a major tourist destination in Arcanius, so it’s a bit more than just a Temple now.
     

    And here’s one of the indoor areas. This isn’t the Temple, but one of the buildings surrounding the area. Currently devoid of any life besides one of our protagonists 😔
     
    I had a lot of fun working on this area! It’s a place with a Temple (woah shocker), so I tried to keep the vibes serene and breezy. I also kept the palette warm and comfortable with the soft pastels, so I hope you enjoy exploring the area! It was reference image hell while working on this tho, but what’s an artist without references and hell haha.
     
    Even though I’ve been doing a lot of mapping lately, I’m still at baby level lol. There’s still some minor adjustments I’ll make to the maps later on down the line, but you get the jist of it! Whenever EP7 comes out, I hope you enjoy all the new things I and the team have worked on! <3
     
    Since I’m feeling particularly Silly today, I’ll end my segment off with the silhouette of a new character you’ll meet in EP7~
     

     
    Filing the Cabinet: Season 2
     
    If you’ve read the past dev blog, you probably already know what this means.
     
    A while ago we commissioned some art of our custom megas for Desolation (because i’m not a fan of drawing pokémon. what am I doing here. anyway,) aGoodCabinet has nailed the Sugimori style for his pokémon art and we were familiar with him being in the fangame spaces, so it was a no brainer. He was open to it, too!
     
    So here’s more official art of one of our custom megas! 🐸
     
     
    Thanks to aGoodCabinet for taking on these commissions for us! Speaking of his comms, they’re still open, so feel free to check out his socials!
     
    Twitter
    Instagram
    Ko-fi
     
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     
    Now onto our final segment for today! We take a turn to go from Kanzen Temple alllll the way down to Keneph Beach, where our musician is taking a little break and breaking out the tunes for the area as well! He also has some words about it~
     
    Descend from the Mountain
     
    Hey Guys! Darius here, I had a lot of fun writing this theme! Keneph Beach is a super relaxing location in Deso where every player gets to see its transformation from the wastelands of the opening scenes to the new Resort! This theme took a lot of back and forth with the team before we got it sounding the way we like, and it takes a lot from Jazz harmony especially, surprisingly, gospel choir. 
     
    Hope you enjoy!
     

    Kenneph_Beach_Snippit.mp3  
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     
    That sure does sound like a lovely stroll down the beach, doesn’t it? Makes me want to go outside and touch some grass………………..…… moving on!
     
    Darius has been going crazy lately with all the themes he’s churning out for us! Looking forward to what you all think of the custom soundtracks he’s made for EP7! Since they’re… haha… music to my ears >:)
     
    Idk what to call this closing segment so it’ll be called this instead of anything good
     
    As said in our previous development blog, we mentioned our Patreon being down. We are looking into bringing it back soon enough, so keep an eye out for an announcement regarding that. It’s been a tricky situation, especially without the man himself… We’ve had occasional contact with him here and there so I hope… I hope!!!!!! he’ll come back to continue working on this with us eventually! I miss him :( But we have to make do with whatever situation we’ve been dealt.
     
    Thanks for sticking around with us so far!
     
    Ruby
     

     
     
    Posty

    Passion and Battles

    By Posty, in Records,

    Hey Guys! It's me, your friendly temporary lead postman delivering you the latest news regarding Desolation’s development. In this blog post… we’re back in business. (Insert “wooo” sound effect here) I’ll be going into a bit more details regarding what this means for us moving forward, alongside what we have been up to, a little teaser, and some more goodies! So let’s get cracking.
     
    Reigniting the Passion
     
     In the last development blog, I mentioned how we would be going on an “indefinite hiatus” until further notice as without Caz at the helm, development couldn’t continue in its current state. Since then, after a brief discussion with the man himself who at the time of writing this, is still absent from the team, we as a team will now be continuing development of the overall story until he returns. So what does this mean? When it comes down to developing Desolation, like with other story-heavy fangames, the lead dev will know the story like the back of their hand, whereas the team will have a good understanding of course, but not the full picture. This was one of the main reasons why we went on a hiatus as progressing with the game without a clear indication of the story would lead to something that wasn’t in line with the original vision. But after a brief conversation, myself and the rest of the Desolation Crew will be developing the story with our current knowledge. Don’t worry, we know how the main story will play out, and we are confident that we can deliver. With this in mind, even though we are “back”, development will be a bit on the slower side, so please bear with us! The creative heads are working in unison here at Deso HQ, putting our own thoughts and ideas into the game, so we look forward to sharing more details with you all soon enough!
     
     With that said, as mentioned in previous development blogs (a little reminder for those who forgot), you will begin your travels in EP7 exploring the mysteries of the Chryseum Canyon, located north of Fairbale Town, which is currently blocked off by some darn logs. You will encounter some familiar faces, as well as some new faces… Who are these faces? Is it Jarred making a return?? You’ll have to wait and find out! Chryseum Canyon has been something we as a team have been extremely excited to work on for a long time now, even way back during EP5 development. The different areas and landscapes you will be exploring throughout EP7 will be some of the most ambitious places we have worked on to date. Lots of time, effort and thought have and will be put into this area, and like Chef Quackington once said… “Quack. Quack!” (If you can somehow translate Psyduckian then congrats but he basically said “A storm is being cooked as we speak”).
     
     With the Canyon being the main focus of current development, what have some of the other members of the team been up to? Well moving onto this next section, Yumil has some details he wants to share with you all regarding some updates that have been made to the Battle Logger found in the Cellia Manor!
     
    Logging the Battles
     
     Dear Diary, Caz still hasn’t come back well after a year. Although I understand his circumstances, I find it hard to continue being invested in this project. Nevertheless, the team has resolved to make an earnest attempt at pulling it off ourselves, and I’m going to see it through.
     
     
    Today I’m going to talk about the Battle Simulator. 
     
    You may remember that computer in the Cellia Manor that let you refight some past trainers. This thing?
     

     
    I also don’t blame you if you forgot about it. It’s okay. I think it’s fair to say the thing as it is currently is a neat novelty that is quickly forgotten because, well, there’s not much of a point. Trainers were fought on a neutral field so it’s rarely a good recreation of their battle. Not every major story trainer was available. In fact, not even all of the Gym Leaders were in there! Well, Tristan has an excuse. Sort of. I think?
     
    Reeve’s not in there, Rosetta’s not in there either... Though, we think Caz had a reason about that, but since he’s not around to ask him again, I’m officially going to run with the idea Rosetta simply didn’t want her challengers to lab her before officially fighting her. I’m sorry that y’all live in a world where I get more involved with writing. 
     
    It's actually quite a bit of busywork for Posty to keep the Sim up to date. First is that it would ideally need to be updated every episode to include level-updated teams and all the new trainers. That’s annoying to do once, but doing it every episode for something that doesn’t currently have much of a point just eventually slides out of the priority list. The other reason is that it was also an eventing nightmare. Every iteration of the Battle Sim was a 500+ lines abomination of an RPGMaker event.
     
    Note the emphasis on the past tense.
     
    I took a hatchet to the whole thing and reworked the thing from the ground up to be far easier to work with, more interesting to use, and more rewarding.
     
    First up, the Battle Sim now automatically scales up the trainers to the current level cap. Bam, that’s a lot less teams for Posty to duplicate. (hi Posty here, thank god)
     

    Hi Rudolph, everyone say hello to an old friend now at the exact level cap
     
    Second, the Battle Sim now actually recreates a field fitting for the Trainer you’re fighting. The objective is to recreate the various boss fights of the game brought up to the current level.
     
    And lastly… the rewards.
     
    We’re gonna need to take a little detour for this. Some of you might know I wrote some code to make the NPCs able to comment on how your battle with them went. I, uh, I think this is technically advertised on the page for the game? Truth be told, I’m not super happy with how it got implemented in EP6. Felt very underbaked and surface level compared to all the things I wrote it to be able to do. I mean, I get it. This was all around beneath every other priority for EP6, which were something along the lines of, rework pre-EP5 content, make sure EP6 content is good, and, uh, make sure the migration to the new scripts hasn’t set the entire game on fire. Or frozen over the entire game. While still having Flash Fire as its ability. I’m getting side tracked. Still.
     
    One of the things that did take off quite a bit about the feature was the 6-0. The thing where you manage to beat a major trainer without having a single one of your Mons fainting, and while using no items from the bag. I didn’t exactly make the feature to be an unconventional challenge mode, but hey, might as well lean into it.
     
    We had plans in EP6 to have some rewards for managing to 6-0 the Gym Leaders, but we couldn’t figure out something good for it, so we just made a bunch of switches to keep track of your achievements and put it on the backburner.
     
    It's the good old dilemma of “We should probably give something neat enough to get some people interested in it, but it can’t be anything genuinely good either because it’d be missable content.”
     
    Enter This Guy
     

    What sweet deal do you have for us?
     
    This Guy’s taken up residence in the Cellia manor. His name is Luke and he’s going to be monitoring the data of the Battle Sim. For every trainer in there that you manage to 6-0, he will have a reward for you. And if you managed to 6-0 them back in the story? That’s okay. He knows. He’ll have your rewards waiting for you.
     

     
    The idea I want for those is to reward the players who put in the extra efforts with some cool shit early. We’ll probably make those rewards available in other places in the game later, but if you managed to 6-0 the final boss of EP5 back in the story, well, you deserve to go and do some crimes early. And if you didn’t, well, maybe your EP7 team can actually win more easily now? That’s cool by me.
     
    Well. There’s just a teeny tiny issue that I fucked up the way I register battle data in your saves and it basically compares the opponent’s fainted team against, uh, your current team… yeah

    Listen, this was the first thing I ever made for Ruby (The coding language, not our artist) and I didn’t know what a shallow copy was. Anyway, It’ll be fixed for fresh saves, and I’ve figured a workaround for EP6 saves.
     
    I hope this little thing will add some spice to the game. It’s an opportunity for us to give you more things without creeping up the scope of the game too much, to be a neat side-activity, and to encourage some of the challenges the community seems to enjoy.
     
    That’s all I got for you for today. I’ve got more things I hope to do, maybe I’ll get to talk about them again in another Dev Blog. I wanna try my hand at doing some bits of writing here and there, I hope y’all will like it if it comes to be.
     
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     I hope this is quite appealing for those who enjoy a bit of a challenge! Yumil has been working hard on adding some additional features to the game, despite being close to complete burnout with the project, so I do hope that you all look forward to and enjoy the content he is creating! I wanted to add a few things in regard to the Battle Sim. Firstly, when it comes down to certain trainers, I will be adjusting teams specifically for the Sim. What this means is like, do you really want to keep fighting Amelia on Forest Field? I don’t either. Some teams will be slightly altered compared to the story while others will be exactly as they were when you faced them. Secondly, the rewards. We don’t just plan on them being items that are either given a bit earlier, maybe you will receive some “trophies” that can be displayed? If we all learnt something from the Lockdown Days of playing Animal Crossing, we love having the ability to get optional decor for our islands.
     
    Rebuilding the Homes
     
     Over in the artist department here at Deso HQ, our artists have been getting back into the groove of development. A lot of the content that has been produced/in the process of being worked on is sadly spoiler territory which we may cover in a future post, but for now there are a few things I can share with you all. Recently, Ruby looked at some of the houses that the local residents on Amaria and thought “hmm, makeover time.” and she did just that!
     
     Below are a few things she has been working on, revamping and bringing new life into areas such as Redcliff Town and Addenfall Town!
     

    No, this does not mean door animations are making a return. (I'm not sorry)
     

     
     

    Even a certain Gym Leader got a brand new home makeover!
     
     She has also been working on a new area coming to EP7… Kanzen Temple. This is something we revealed in one of our development blogs last year, having major links and ties to the history of Chryseum Canyon, but we aren’t ready yet to showcase this to you, but maybe sometime down the line? You’ll have to keep an eye on our blogs to find out!
     
    Setting the Mood
     
     Story and gameplay aside, our musician man of many talents, Darius, has been working on some new tracks for EP7! Having him join us during EP6 has really elevated major scenes throughout the game and helped grasp different types of atmospheres to fully immerse the player in the world of Desolation. We thought that we would treat you all to a little teaser of a new track that’ll be played somewhere during EP7, you hopefully will get a feel and understanding of the sort of tension that you may experience as you continue the story.
     
     

    EP7 Teaser Snippet Fade.mp3        Yeah that's all you're getting, lucky you! 
     
      You may be treated to more little snippets here and there, or even fully blown tracks, who knows? It depends on how generous I am feeling…
     
    Filing the Cabinet
     
     Before I conclude this post, I have one more thing to share with you all. We recently decided that we wanted to properly create some “official” artwork for our unique Megas and Forms, though our artists are not the biggest fans of drawing pocket monsters, so what do we do? Who do we call? No, not ghostbusters, god.
     
     We called upon a fellow artist who you might recognise in the community and commission their services, we’re talking about aGoodCabinet! Over the next few development blogs, I will adding a little spice by posting them one by one, in which they will be added to our Art Gallery down the line. For this post, meet our cute little meech but in their Mega form!
     
     
     Thanks again to aGoodCabinet for creating these for us! If you wish to see more of their work, please check them out below, his commissions are also currently open!
     
    Twitter
    Instagram
     
    Closing the Blog out
     
     Before I close this development blog out, there are a few things I wanted to note.
     
     Firstly, our Patreon page was nuked a couple months ago! We don’t know how this happened, might be due to inactivity, but for the time being it is down and we will currently not be putting it back up anytime soon. This is due to two main reasons, one being that it was run by Caz who is currently missing in action and the other is that, it was on pause for a while anyways due to lack of development, and until we are all back together, it will still be on pause until then. Apologies to those who may have been looking to support us through our Patreon, we will hopefully have it back up later on down the line. 
     
     Secondly, despite us returning to development, Development Blogs will currently not be returning to a monthly format, we will look to post content when we have content ready to post. A lot of stuff we have been working on and will be working on is extremely spoiler heavy, so even if you don’t hear from us for a little bit, we are back to actively working on the game. I look forward to sharing more with you all soon enough!
     
    Until next time folks!
     
    Posty
     
     

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    Yeehaw

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