Plus, they’re also focusing and working on Arya, so it is inevitable that Forks updates will slow down to a crawl.
But yeah, I too miss the days when Tron would pop in with teasers and artwork for Forks.
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Hey
I been wondering if we asked. Could we use the sprites for rps??
Just asking
Yeah it’s obvious their concentrating on Magical aria, which i can understand from their perspective and with tron being a parent now, so it could be a while until we get another update to the demo of forks
It’s been another month! I’d normally be surprised, but the baby’s wonking with my time so much I should be glad it’s not 2022 
Let’s tackle replies then get to news!
@SolitaryBlade55 Thanks! I’m so thankful for yours everyone else’s patience, I just wish I could give you all more in return for it 
. Baby’s taking up just about all of my time, between work and keeping my zombie of a wife afloat (seriously, this baby doesn’t sleep much) I’ve got just enough to coordinate with Toro to keep Aria coming along. I’ll post a Patreon update today for anyone watching there too!
@TheCosmicSquid I’m so happy Forks inspired you to post, hi 
! First, I hope your own journey’s going well! Learning who you are can be an evolving lifetime search that’s just as important as any academia, and I wanted to reflect that in Alex’s story. She’s got to balance and integrate gaining with the rest of her life, just as anyone else looking to make a profound change in themselves. Hope you’re finding that balance, learning more about yourself, and making progress towards the person you want to be!
Second, it was fun putting Alex in the Hill Country. It’s a unique place that many don’t expect to see when they think of “Texas”. I wanted to take the influence much further and set the whole game there. Red Glen was originally modeled after Regents School of Austin, but Toro convinced me that such a setting wouldn’t be relatable enough. Fair point!
Last, thanks for the kid wishes! Watching this guy’s like another full job, yesterday alone he was up for ~16 hours and I had to keep leaving my remote work to soothe him. I thought babies were supposed to sleep!
@unit_135 Thank you so much for the kind words! I hope that any other content can reach the same high mark, and I’d certainly like to continue it!
@Urudif Isn’t it crazy how time flies? I started Forks shortly after graduating college, and now I’m married with a kid! Like, how long exactly have I been doing this 
? Hope college is going well!
@RandomRedditUser98 I am busy, unfortunately 
. I do have new Forks content that could be ready to post with some polishing, but it’s so hard to get some solid focus time. I’ll cover that here in a bit!
@Awildrando Believe me, I’d love to go back to posting updates every week! I really enjoy interacting with everyone, it’s just I always want to make sure I have something to bring with me! By now, you’ve seen glimpses of just about everything we’ve done. Toro’s got the character portraits finished and a lot of backgrounds, but is still missing a few other characters and backgrounds, not to mention CGs. Once Toro’s done with more of Aria I’m going to try steering some of his project time back to Forks.
@ThisAnon I’m having a lot of fun with Aria, we’re getting to try stuff that’s way beyond anything we wanted to do in Forks. The nice thing for Aria is that several characters do get bigger (for a couple it’s their whole story), but I understand Forks’s hook of that being the whole story. If I could write full-time, we’d all have a lot more Forks to enjoy by now 
@Bobbyandhobbies Sure! You’re welcome to use the portraits for casual rps. The only thing I ask is that if you’re somehow monetizing it (like a rp podcast or commission or something, I dunno ) to please credit us. Otherwise, go for it!
@maldy Hi! It’s still so weird to think of myself as a parent. I lived with my parents through and after college, then immediately moved in with my gf (now wife) once I finally moved out of my old bedroom. I missed the whole “bachelor life”, and now we’ve got a kid 
. I’m doing what I can for Aria and Forks, and honestly they’re both still a lot of fun, but time’s tyranny has hit hard.
Like with this message, I’m so sorry I’ve ghosted everyone here for a whole month! Again, I’m so thankful for everyone’s kindness and patience, but that brings me to my next point…
Waiting for more Forks! If you skipped to this part, I’ll recap:
The last public release of Forks was back in January, so it’s been a while! I hate that it’s been a while, but there’s been many things keeping me busy.
-
My day job’s weird hours. Before Covid I’d go to the office all day, and actually wrote most of Forks during my downtime. It offered a fairly quiet environment where I could focus on writing between professional projects. Since Covid (mid-February 2020) I’ve been working from home side-by-side with my wife. In a sense it’s been a blessing, as I don’t have to worry about my office’s faulty fire alarm going off at random times, and I’m always at home for whenever someone has to come fix something.
But now my job’s hours are irregular as my boss realized he can instead call me 24/7 (he’s always kept weird hours) to work on whatever small task he needs. On top of this, my wife needs a lot more social time than I do and has struggled with depression for years (though it is thankfully now controlled). I’ve had to push ever since last year to support her and give her the love and attention she’s hasn’t been able to get elsewhere, and so I’ve been no more than ~20 ft away from her ever since (including right now!) -
Baby’s taking up a lot of time too, as my wife works full-time so we’re sharing the burden while we’re both still at home (she may going back to her office in November, then we really won’t know what to do with childcare
). As I said above, this baby will not sleep and needs constant attention. It’s worth it because he’s a happy and healthy kid, but yesterday I clocked in 16 hours with him over the day. It runs me ragged, and even if I could sneak some writing time in, I wouldn’t be in the best state of mind. I really enjoy how positive and organic Forks’s dialogue is, and I don’t want to lose that. -
Aria’s ended up taking whatever quality writing time I do have, and those of you following my Patreon may’ve noticed how it’s fallen behind. The nice thing about that is that we really are close to releasing our first build! I’m having a lot of fun and the support’s helped so much, I just need 1 or 2 more good days
I think these are the big ones? My memory’s day-by-day as everything’s centered on keeping the baby alive, but these should cover it. The point of this isn’t to try and fish for more patience, I’m hoping this helps paint a clearer picture of what I’ve been doing, along with what I can do right now to help everyone who’s been looking forward to this.
So, is there anything I can do for anyone right now? Post a future portrait? I can only create so much right now, and while I absolutely want to continue Forks, I can’t guarantee when the next update will release. Because of that, would anyone like me to just release it for anyone to finish? I get the feeling most of you would rather see my version of the completed story, but at the same time I hate keeping everyone waiting.
I’m a pleaser like Alex (it’s why she’s easy to write!), so let me know if there’s anything I can do for anyone between now and the next update.
Okie doke, those on Patreon will be seeing an Aria update soon!
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Nice one again to see you tron, though as for releasing it for anyone else to finish it remark i would say add a scenario function then with all the art assets you have for now and allow people to also able to add their own custom sprites so people can make their own non-cannon version of the story of forks if they want to, Student-Transfer a body swapping Visual novel does this and scenario developers around that community do some amazing custom work but if you want to release what you have right now go ahead doesn’t hurt to find bugs that you might of missed.
and i wouldn’t mind a cheeky preview of size 6 and upwards alex aswell as some other characters since it has been quite some time after alll
As an uncle i can sort of relate in a much lesser sense so do what you need to prioritize dude.
Can do! Will do that shortly. I’ll add that a sliver could be that whenever I go back to the office, I should have a lot more time for writing again. That will happen eventually, but until then I’ll keep doing what I can!
I think the scenario for others to toy with might be good to tide some over, but personally, I think a lot of the appeal in the game comes from your writing. This isn’t to say the art isn’t phenomenal for this sort of game, but the characters and writing are a large part of what makes the game click for me. I will add to the voices saying you should take your time and have about the best reason in the world to take it slow right now, and although some people might have some interesting ideas about how to continue the story, the only one I’m actively interested in right now is yours, and you’ve done such a good job in the demo that I’ll still be interested in the next release even if it somehow takes months or even a year plus. This is, after all, a hobby project, and you’ve got a kid to watch now.
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Exactly what dedekind said, I agree with them 100%. Scenario idea is good for some people, but personally your writing (in combination with the art and coding also being high class) is what hooked me for forks. I’m not in any rush for a release; it takes as long as it takes, and job hours + significant other + baby + second project is a heck of a storm to deal with.
Excited for more forks from team spoon, whenever that may be!
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The most important thing for me is that your take care of you and your family first Tron, I’ll wait 'til retirement if I have to 
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You do you mr tron
Treasure your family and your time, for in the blink of an eye your little ones all grown up and suddenly find yourself having to wave them off as they continue their journey through their stories and you must continue your own or find yourself running out of time to say I love you before your parents or uncles or whoever departs on their epilogue
So spend your time wisely and spoil that child silly for this hound please
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Not gonna lie, what I mostly wanna see is the Forks girls at their absolute biggest. But that goes way past into spoiler territory, and I’m pretty sure a lotta folks here don’t want that posted too soon.
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Huh I didn’t expect to get mentioned here. So uh thanks for responding.
As for my 2 cents on whether or not you should release it for anyone to finish. I mixed, on one hand I bet a lot of people wouldn’t mind that. But on the other hand another part me wants to see your gang vision on the game before releasing a open version for the public. If that makes any sense. But then again do whatever makes your heart feel right.
As for anything you could do for the time being. As of right now for me at least, there’s nothing all that important or that I need. As for stuff I wouldn’t mind seeing, I guess some more content relating to Morgan would be neat. But that’s just something I just want to see, so take your time or don’t post them at all.
And as always the best of luck for your projects and any hardships that happens in your life.
I hope that your life settles down a little and you get time to really enjoy your kid and your projects. You’ve done some amazing work with Forks and you should be proud of it. As far as releasing it to the public, I guess that it would really depend on how much of a plan you have for it. If you have a good idea of what you want to do, how you want to do it, and when you might be able to do it then by all means wait until you are ready.
On the other hand, it doesn’t seem like Forks is high on your priority list. You have other more important things to do and I am certainly not blaming you for a lack of updates, but Forks has taken a backseat to other things in your life. With that in mind, I would have to recommend releasing what you have right now. After all, that wouldn’t mean that you couldn’t finish the official story later down the road, and anyone who wants to see your vision completed wouldn’t have to interact with the unfinished version. There is a large, passionate community that would love to have access to whatever they can get, and you (hopefully) wouldn’t feel as pressured to release more Forks content.
That’s just my two cents. You do what you feel is right and I hope that your son continues to be healthy and happy.
It’s great to see you respond with your limited time, I really appreciate that. Anyways, I’d personally wish for you to release what you have at the moment so that you won’t feel pressured to release another demo in the coming months. With that being said, I think the majority of this community would love to see you continue your writing work on the game, even if it takes a few months to a year. I would also greatly appreciate it if you could release the portraits of the characters. That is ultimately your decision to make, and I’ll support whatever you think is best for game.
I think releasing all the portraits might be a bad idea. For one it might lose the incentive to get it done if its just dumped here, and two the anticipation of seeing the girls get bigger is huge to the experience and spoiling it will ruin it. Maybe if you change how you approach the release of forks would be beneficial, instead of building up to a big demo or release, just piecemeal it out as you go along writing it. Like splitting it up in chapters and just releasing a couple scenes a month. Another good compromise would be releasing the stories with the portraits and holding off on the cgs until after toro is down with Aria. I think waiting a bit for the cgs to be added is a good compromise because the writing and the portraits is already a lot. Doing this will get the portraits in our hands faster without spoiling and ruining the experience.
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I’m of the same of similar opinion. I totally get that people are wanting to see more forks content. I would be fine waiting whatever amount of time it took to finish it or at least put into released parts. I’m not a huge fan of the idea of it being put into the public space for others to finish it. What the team has shown so far is great, and one of the games I’m most looking forward to seeing it complete. I for one will definitely be waiting Tron and team’s version.
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Right. Forks story is a slowburn experience anyways which is what makes it stand out against the rest. I think a monthly release schedule of maybe even just a handful of scenes written out with the cgs held off for later will work well with the storys format. Even if it ultimately takes a while to be finished, it will be enjoyable to get something to check out every once in a while. Plus adding the cgs down the line will have a replay factor to it. It works for growthacademy and i think it will work here too.
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Another vote to wait. Don’t dump it because you’re not sure - unless the project is EOL, we’ll wait.
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Thanks for the information! I would vote for your team’s continuation of Forks as and when and no pressure. It’s a brilliant game and I’d love to see it continue on its path rather than be interfered with by a third party, if you see what I mean. No rush at all - I remember babies, though a long time ago for me!
Hey, everyone! Thanks for all of your input, I’d respond to everyone but time’s precious today and I didn’t want to keep you all waiting even longer!
I’m going to compromise for now and show what @Maldy asked for: a Stage 6 Alex. This is her winter outfit, so it doesn’t spoil everything. This is larger than she’s on track to be for the next Forks update, but you may be able to fill the gaps between her current Stage 3 to this
Hope you like it! There is a lot done, but more to do to finalize it and actually put it together into the working game. I think what I’m going to do from here is try to continue balancing life with Forks and Aria (the first Aria demo is seriously close), and revisit things come this Winter. If truly nothing has still been done with Forks, I’ll bring up making it public again. I want to have more for you before then, but I also don’t want to keep everyone waiting forever!
Okie doke, that’s it for now. I’ll be back, but until then I hope everyone’s doing well 
!
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