- Posted:January 3, 2021
![HERO: Week of 01.03 HERO: Week of 01.03](../img/21-01-03-status_header.png)
Status Report - HERO: Week of 01.03
![Prepare to spend a lot of time here.](../img/21-01-03-status_img01.png)
Hi travelers! It's 2021. Sasuga Studios has now just turned ten years old. The time really has flown by. I mark January first, 2011 as the start of both Sasuga Studios and HERO. It's been a decade and I'm still working on it. That's a long time for development, particularily a game. A person can spend that much time working on a book, and it will still come out as a book, but in game development a lot can change in a decade's time. The tools, the technology, and so on. I'm still pushing on, though, because getting this done is important to me. I wasn't as focused in the early days of preproduction, but I've gotten a lot better at that.
![Your top stop for appliances and home goods.](../img/21-01-03-status_img02.png)
First, the script. I'm on Act 3, with four chapters written and eleven left to go. The target is to be done by September of this year. I started in September of 2017, and it's taken me an average of one month to write a chapter. Since there are forty-nine chapters total, that works out to four years spent writing. I'm currently sitting at 6,500,000 words, and will likely end up with somewhere around eight to nine million total. A single playthrough will see about one million words, and there are seven routes, so the numbers work out there too.
![Fresh bread daily.](../img/21-01-03-status_img03.png)
Next, art assets. Nearly all the 3D work for the backgrounds is complete, with a handful of interiors still left to do. Those will be rendered into finished backgrounds with all the details and lighting and so on. I also need to do 3D for the HERO mecha, which will be similarly rendered. I also have to draw character sprites, which will be made mostly as vector art.
![The museum's best feature.](../img/21-01-03-status_img04.png)
Finally, I need to put all those assets together with code for the game itself. Once i finish the script, I'll be working on the macro that will automatically format it into script code, with a round of tweaking necessary to get it working right.
![Two shows running.](../img/21-01-03-status_img05.png)
Please pay attention to twitter @sasuganick and @sasugastudios for smaller status updates.
There's still a long way to go, but the finish line is closer than the start line was a decade ago. I look forward to the day when I can finally share the story that's been living inside me for so long with you all. You have my thanks!
Nick