Good evening, everyone. Machida here. Lately, I’ve been fighting with myself just about every day.

It feels like New Year’s just happened yesterday, yet we’ve already passed Valentine’s Day (2/14). All I really remember about January is how painful my flu was… But this month I’ve got a proper Penny Blood development update for you all.

First, I’ll start with the walkthrough build, which the entire team has been working hard on. We finally succeeded in implementing a sequence where the player can control Matthew walking through a sample version of Golgotha Asylum, get into an encounter with a monster, use the Psycho Sigil to win the battle, and then return to the dungeon.

Watching the player use the lantern light as they make their way through this creepy building and only to run smack into a monster makes it feel like this is going to be quite the horror game! Hirota-san’s sound effects will also be present in this build, and they’re sure to make the experience feel even more immersive. We still need to work on the major adjustments, and will be continuing trial and error in order to perfect things as much as possible.

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been working on the overall structure for the story – from the beginning to the game’s two endings. While trying to summarize the long story, I’ve been placing important characters, dungeons, and monsters in their necessary spots as they come to me.

Despite putting my imagination on full overdrive, however, I don’t always get the right ideas, which has led me to bang my head against the wall many times. Actually, I’m surrounded by nothing but walls right now. I’ve been writhing in agony nonstop, always wondering if I can’t come up with any better developments for the story.

Kato-san is extremely busy with character designs. She’s adjusting the main characters now that the Double Kickstarter campaign is finished as well as designing new characters. Once you see all the Inheritors, you’ll be just as surprised and impressed as I was to see how they’ve all grown.

Hanya-san has been designing monsters as well as designing guest characters who will serve important roles during the main story. This is because I was worried that if all he ever did was design monsters, his SAN would drop into the negatives and he’d slip over to the dark side. Just kidding. Small spoiler, but he recently finished designing John Edgar Hoover, who will serve as Matthew’s co-worker as well as one of his rivals. That’s right… the man who was appointed as director of the Bureau of Investigation (which later became the FBI) in 1924. He’s a different brand of ‘cool guy’ from Matthew.

Watanabe-san has been creating an image board for the dungeon that will appear in the beginning. It’s fun to think about what monsters I should put in when looking at the rough drafts of these gloomy, dank ruins. Thinking about what categories of normal monsters would live there, what sort of horrible boss should lurk in its depths, etc. I spend a lot of energy searching for that perfect idea.

It seems like Hirota-san has also been busy planning a lot for the sound. I have so much to look forward to, but I hope you’re also excited for the events that Hiro-chan’s been planning!

That concludes this month’s update. See you next month!

Matsuzo Machida