Blog 2025-03-31
Welcome to another update of How To Date A Gorgon... I mean, Sable's Grimoire 2.
It's been 3 months since the last update. A shorter timeframe between updates does mean less has happened in the meantime, so don't get your hopes up too much.
Also, I was going to wait until after NanoReno ends before posting this update, but... oh well. This is close enough.
Anyway! Let's start with the usual housekeeping.
Website
The software used to build this website has been updated from Ghost v5.105.0 to v5.115.0.
Like usual, there shouldn't be any notable changes, and hopefully nothing has broken.
Google Play removal
The removal of my games from Google Play, as mentioned in the last blog post, has now occurred. The links have also been disabled on this site.
As a reminder, only my free games (and demos) were ever available on Google Play in the first place. The best place to find the Android versions of my games (including non-free games) is on itch.io.
Diamond Rose 2 (NanoReno)
Diamond Rose is a short, free, comedic VN / RPG developed by Sendo for NanoReno. I worked with Sendo as the scriptwriter for the original Diamond Rose. And now, 9 years later, we're working on the sequel for this year's NanoReno.
For those unfamiliar, NanoReno is a month-long game jam. Developers try to sprint through the development of a game from start to finish within one month. You can find more details here.
Diamond Rose 2 hasn't been released yet. This year's NanoReno is still underway, after all, and it's always possible that we'll miss the deadline (we started a week late). But hopefully it'll be finished and released shortly.
In the meantime, you can play (or replay) the original. It's short, free, and the RPG elements are optional.
Sable's Grimoire 2 progress
Now, onto the part you've probably been waiting for. Let's start with the bad news.
I mentioned in the last update that I'd be unexpectedly busy IRL in January and February. I also wound up participating in NanoReno during March. It didn't eat up the whole month, but it did still take a chunk out of my free time during that period.
Since it's only been 3 months since the last update, you shouldn't be surprised to hear that this has resulted in little progress being made over that time. And what progress has been made was more along the lines of planning out what's left to do, rather than actually doing it.
ETAs
While we're on the negatives, let's talk about ETAs.
Every update I give a cagey answer as to when the game will be released. "Maybe next quarter", "it depends on if this route gets added", "hopefully next update I'll know", and so on.
Rather than keep stringing you along and not providing a clear answer, I've decided to simply not provide an ETA at all. When I do provide a release date, it will mean the game is already done and just needs some finishing touches.
I know that isn't what you wanted to hear. But the ETAs I've given for previous games have always been wrong, and this time would be no exception. Too much can (and does) happen during the development of a game to impact its timeline, especially for indie developers who aren't working on game development full-time. I'd rather give no ETA than another inaccurate one, so that's what I've decided to do.
Keep in mind that not knowing my estimate for a hypothetical release date doesn't mean that the game will come out any quicker or slower. It will take as long as it was always going to. But I don't know how long that is, and I don't want to give false hope by making arbitrary guesses.
Instead, I'll just report on progress: what's been done, and what's left to do.
Routes
Now then, enough doom & gloom. Let's move on to the positives.
In case you haven't seen my posts on social media, the routes for the initial release of Sable's Grimoire 2 have been announced, which I'll recap below.
First up is the route of our kobold heroine, Koko!
Next up is the route of Narm, Amadronia Academy's resident... fisherman?
He has a reputation around the academy for hating demi-humans, and for being a human supremacist.
But his relationship with demi-humans might not be so simple.
Our favorite gorgon has slithered up from the underground facilities and into a route of her own.
Friendly and sociable, Meara's the smiling face of Amadronia Academy's library. Just as long as you don't ask about her age!
Sharing a route with Rei can be tough. But if it means getting a route in both games, then that's a sacrifice Eth's willing to make.
The dynamic duo are at it again, ready to drive Sable up the wall one more time.
The final route for the initial release of Sable's Grimoire 2 is a bit different than the others.
It doesn't feature a single specific heroine. Instead, it focuses on Sable himself!
Disclaimer: shoujo villainess Lisha not included.
Progress
This month I've spent some time going over what's already been done, and trying to get a clearer picture of what's left. Here's a rough idea of what needs to be done:
- 6 music tracks
- 2 CGs
- 62 scenes to write / finalize. These are in various stages of completion. Some have been fully written, but need polishing. Others haven't been started at all yet. Most are somewhere in between.
With the initial routes being announced, we can dive into that a little deeper.
- Narm's route: done
- Meara's route: 6 scenes remaining
- Koko's route: 6 scenes, 2 CGs remaining
- Eth's route: 3 scenes remaining
- Sable's route + common make up the rest
Currently Sable's route and the common route aren't cleanly split, so I've grouped those together. But Sable's route should be in a similar state to the others, and most of the remaining work is the common route. (By "the common route" I mean the entire rest of the game which leads up to the individual routes.)
In spite of having the same number of scenes remaining, Koko's route needs a lot more work than Meara's. It's also the only route with incomplete artwork. So I'll be focusing on Koko's route for a bit.
Once it's in a similar state to the other routes, I'll go back to the common route. None of the other routes can really be finished until the common route is. Even Narm's route isn't totally done, since the lead-up and the introduction to his route start in the common route.
So the plan for now is to get Koko's route up to a similar stage as the others (ie. nearing completion, but not quite there yet), then leave them in that state until after the common route is done.
Future progress
Fortunately(?) the hours I work IRL are being reduced this year. I plan on dedicating that extra free time to game development, rather than finding extra work. That's on the provision that my hours aren't reduced too heavily, of course. I do still have bills to pay.
I don't know when that'll happen exactly. But once it does, I'm hopeful that dedicating a couple of days each week to game development will make the whole process more consistent and predictable.
In the meantime it's business as usual. I'll gradually work through the remaining scenes and post another progress update in the coming months.