log 10: business as usual~~~

may 22nd, 2026

greetings and salutations~~~ whoa, where the hell have you been?! it's been a sooooolid while. like, several months, as a matter of fact. girl, what the hell?!?! you can't just tease a demo release and drop off the face of the earth?!?!?!? hahahaha.

so, the demo's been released about a month or two at this point. that's sick as hell!! my last devlog was literally me just complaining about not having anything to do while waiting around for the release date, but um..... so... what ended up happening was that i realized exactly 7 business days before the release date that you were supposed to submit the build for review to steam.. 7 business days in advance.... and my VAs hadn't delivered the sfx i needed yet.... and wouldn't respond to my panicked dms.... so......... i had to rush that... like really badly...... i literally jinxed it... oh? you're bored? you're bored with everything done? ha. hahahahahahaha

that disaster aside though, i successfully released the demo on the planned date. then i had three mental breakdowns and took a spontaneous trip outside town. stuff's going really good now, though! i apologize for leaving the devlog high and dry, but i've been busy managing a community, basically... you heard that right!! no, um, wait, read? whatever. no but, we have a discord community!! yeah!! despite the warnings of a former acquaintance against this, i set up a discord server and made it public. we've got a small community of fans and voice talent now, it's been really fun interacting with people who like my game!! like, that's insane!!!

it's been pretty crazy having people acknowledge my work. i even wrote a poem about it. i feel like i'm the last person you'd think writes poetry, and i'm sure as hell not sharing it, because my poetry is cringe and people who share their poetry are fucking pretentious. but the gist of it is that i've been performing to an empty theatre for so long, i feel a bit nervous yet excited now that the auditorium is filling in and people are applauding. only the first act is complete, and i'm gearing up for one hell of a finale, but people are applauding. that's never happened before, and i'm not sure how to react. i'm very thankful and appreciative to no end, i hope people know that... i'm just not used to praise.. let alone being showered with it... like... huh?! you like this thing i made!?!? so much you even made fanart?!!???!? THIS IS AN ATTEMPT ON MY LIFE

basically, i've just been chatting instead of running this devlog. that, and i've also been working on the game. and also school. i graduate next december, so it's been busy! we also have the steam next fest next month, and i've been running casting calls...

yikes, there's a lot to catch up on. so um, LIGHNING ROUND!!!!!!!!

the discord server for this project is now public and fostering a community related to all my software projects (incl. altair and suhail, not just paranormal research society, though i don't think anyone knows what altair or suhail are... huh...)
got started on the remaining two bosses for the game (concepts/scripts for both, finished programming the enemy AI for one)
got started on the hospital level map model
blocked out the basement level map
written the script for all of the cutscenes for the game
storyboarded all of the cutscenes for the game
modelled the final boss arena in blender from scratch by hand. this was a feat i am so proud
opened casting calls for felix hargrove, the unnamed homicidal nurse, and the occultists
i've been managing social media
implemented power up mechanics and a store system!?
finalized store UI :-)
implemented achievements (i might scrap this though. distracting and immersion-breaking, but might work for steam? ahhhh..)
finalized the social media mechanic
shitposted like there's no tomorrow
a buuuuuuunch of hotfixes. wow.

and as a little treat, i'll give you this clip of the boss arena i finished.

a lot of work was put into that fucking swing stage scaffolding.
seriously, i don't know why i decided to model these from scratch...!!!
took me like two days for the whole map, sigh.

so TL;DR: I'VE DONE A LOT! currently my focus in development is cutscenes and finding voice talent. as of writing this, there's 261 auditions for my game. that is a lot of fucking auditions i'm going to have to go through. the deadline's june 1st, so there's still time for submissions too, but even if i were to move the deadline up, i'd be swamped... maybe i'll write a devlog introducing the entire voice cast when we're through with casting. really though, it's not like anyone reads these, but it'd be cute, i think!! especially once the whole thing is finalized.

a whole lot of attention this game is getting!!! and this is before next fest!!! GYAAAHHHHHHH I CAN'T DO THIS

just kidding! of course i can. and i will. i'm just whining. really, i'm unimaginably grateful for the humble amount of love i've been shown so far... i'm excited... people like the game and they want to see more... they want to help me, too. while i'm a hopeless soloist, just the mere offer makes me very happy!! i've met a bunch of new voice talent and learned an incredible amount of new things about voice acting and the audition process. genuinely, advice for everyone -- and this applies to everything, not just game dev or even creative projects -- ask for help. if you're unsure how to do something, be it picking up a prescription or whether it's a faux pas to move up an audition deadline, ask someone older and more experienced.

not only do i keep asking every voice actor about every little thing (I'M SO GRATEFUL FOR YOUR HELP, GUYS...) but when i had to go to the bank right after turning 18 to get some stuff sorted, i sat down and the first thing i told the bank lady was "i have no idea what i'm supposed to do. can you help me out here?" and she was really nice and patient, explaining everything necessary to me! this works astoundingly well at pharmacies, banks, etc... presumably because i look like a scared, confused and anxious young lady easily clockable as an assburger. in truth, i'm just confused. and i do have aspergers

i'm a lot more confident in my work now too! i'm more comfortable sharing stuff about my game, and i feel less apprehensive about working with people who know what they're doing... but still... we've gotten auditions from like, relatively well-established people, which scares me to no end. because what the hell do you mean these talented people with careers and fanbases and previous roles in actually good and/or well-known games want to work on... this???? paranormal fucking research society?!??! dear fucking god people where are your standards?!?!?!

no but, to be fair, i really shouldn't put myself down like that, yeah??? all these people want to work on my game. surely, that has to count for something, right? even if there aren't too many fans just yet, this proves there's potential, right? i don't know who i'm asking here. you can't answer. i can't answer, either! maybe that's for the better. i can't know anything for sure, so the only option is to make the game and trust myself, yeah?

enough rhetorical questions, though. as for the next fest, i'm planning on hosting a developer commentary steam with miguel, the voice actor for conrad! hopefully we could get some other people to join as well, most notably clover's VA, reese, as well as my dearest confidant. not sure if this'll bring in more interested players, but i'm still excited!! i'm not a performer by any means, so i doubt i'll be interesting enough to entertain anyone, but i am the developer, and this game is full of secrets only i seem to be aware of...

basically, a lot of stuff is going on. i'm working myself tirelessly, tirelessly, tirelessly!!! burnout is fucking afraid of me!! i thought i was burnt out but turns out i just didn't like what i was working on, so then i got drunk and got a really good idea and now i'm working day and night to bring you a... game. yeah. thank you for your continued support~~~~

best regrets,
ellen alias catskulls

(seriously, i recently learned that a shocking amount of people didn't know my name was ellen, miguel included?!? WE'VE BEEN WORKING TOGETHER SINCE LAST DECEMBER, HOW'D YOU MISS THAT?!? i haven't gone by "cat" in like, years, huh... i guess i haven't really put much emphasis on my real name in game dev stuff, but the credits do list me as "ellen alt"... did they think this game was like, created by some strange ellen working from behind the scenes? is catskulls just a front for marketing?! huuuuuh!?!?)