(The following is (mostly) a copy-paste from our weekly public update post on Patreon! If you like what you see, consider supporting us!)

Hey everybody! Time for another CPE development update. This week (and honestly probably for most of this update), I focused mostly on area 5. Designing the levels, planning out progression, creating the art/visual effects, etc. We had a lot of plans but very few assets created before this update's development started, so there's a lot to be done if we want it to be in tip top shape by the time the update comes out next month! Anyway, enough rambling, let's look at some of the goodies.

First off, here's a nice short clip running through the area, showing off some of the new parallax background assets. Most parallax backgrounds in Crisis Point are handled as a global, looping background for each area, so aside from setting the initial parameters, I don't get much control over what each area's background looks like; the big mushroom-like structure in the background here, however, is a hand-placed object, so I'll be able to use it more sparingly and more carefully. This is a pretty small change from a user perspective, but it gives me more control over the visual design of areas. It also has some really nice visual effects that I'm super happy with to make it look more dynamic.

Second, another shot of the same background objects, but this time showing the interactivity of the smaller plants! They're not solid objects, so you can run through them as seen in the first gif, but you can also land on top of them and they'll shift under Alicia's weight. Really proud of this one, I love adding small details like this.

Next, a few screenshots showing off a recolored variant of the Edovex (along with their nest), and the WIP above-water parallax background. Just flat colors and simple shapes right now, but we wanted to figure out a general feeling and color scheme to go for, along with lining up everything with the parallax water, before designing any details. Let us know what you think of it! Also, regarding the Edovex, since I haven't mentioned it in a while, I want to state again that recolored enemies DO NOT get new H-scenes. They still have the original H-scenes but with their new colors, but they do not get unique scenes and they never will. The Poison Alraune is sort of an exception to this, as she will get unique scenes, but that's because she's considered a different enemy entirely and will eventually have unique attacks that the original Alraune doesn't have, once we can find the development time for it.

Anyway, that's it for the Area 5 work this week. Aside from that, I also worked on some writing for a few cutscenes that happen before Area 5, chronologically-speaking, and I'm also trying to hire some voice actors for a couple new NPCs I hope to introduce soon. Red is working on the Torguis CG, and Orexius is just about finished up with the regular Kertalus scene! After that, he'll probably get started on some H-scenes involving the new enemy. Things are going very well with v0.39 so far, and I'm super excited to see Area 5 in its finished state! Thank you all very much for reading, see you in next week's update!