<1/12/2025, 5:10 PM>

As of today, it has officially been one full year since the start of Outpatient’s development. Well, give or take the added time since November 2nd & 18th, I initially wanted to post this around that time frame but I didn’t get the chance to do so. Regardless, it’s honestly amazing to see this game continue to get built up over time :D, I really can’t wait for this game to get 100% completed.

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Anyways, before starting, even though that this is like a really big devlog for today, I’m still gonna start off with promoting a few other things I’ve worked on since the last update:

Out Of Order
I worked on this game for a game jam back in early October. Do go check it out, it's a game based off of playing various arcade machines and stuff (we only had time for one but it's still cool). I worked on some of the artwork and the music for it. This was a lot of fun working on it with the rest of the team so please check it out. :D

Crawmeleon OST
The full OST for Crawmeleon has been released and uploaded onto my YouTube channel. Feel free to check that out alongside the game itself. :)

Doggo Game
Another short game jam game I worked on back in November 2024. We had like a week or two to work on it but we basically started working on it like one or two days prior the due date lol. Check it out pls, it was honestly fun working on it. Side note: I might upload the music for that later on, idk when but ye.

p5.js Class Projects (Something to look out for…)
So during my Fall 2024 semester, I took a class where I had the chance to work on a bunch of games in the p5.js website engine. I haven’t had the chance to upload all of them here on itch.io yet; but be on the lookout in the near future for approximately 9 total game projects from me eventually, hopefully before the month is over I can get it out (before the end of January).

Anyways, that’s everything that I wanted to share with y’all, here we go with the update.

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DO NOT REPOST ANY ARTWORK SHOWN UNTIL RELEASE

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TEST FOOTAGE 4

Starting with the test footage. With school happening and my break only just starting more or less, I haven’t really had much time to do much on the programming side of things. However, since this is like the 1 year development update, I ended up trying to compensate with a bunch of concept art. We’ll start off with the test footage and then we will get onto the artwork.

0:00 - Showing off alternate textbox positions.

• Yea this is definitely the shortest test footage I’ve done. It was so short that I literally just reuploaded the clip I recorded without any further editing by itself, it’s just a single video.
• Anyways, yea here, I’m basically just showing off the alternate textbox positions for each one. The way I coded this also allows for me to force the position without it being affected by the camera so that’s cool.
• For the sake of testing:
  • The camera movement was unlocked to make sure it works.
  • The boxes are transparent since I had to handle various positions for the parts of the textboxes. Unless people like that these are transparent, this will be reverted later on.
• Also, literally while I was typing this, I had just uploaded the video and realized that I hadn’t shown off another textbox related thing, that having to do with different sized options based on the string height. Since I needed to get the alternate positions working for this, that was something I wanted to get complete. Unfortunately, I have already uploaded the video and cannot be bothered with recording it again and reuploading it so you’ll probably have to see that by the next update. Sorry lol

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ART CONCEPTS

Alright, here’s the real meat of this update, while there may not be much in terms of programming, I’ve had some time to do a bunch of concept art for Outpatient. Let’s get right into it.

CHARACTER CONCEPTS

To start, a whole bunch of new faces with these several character designs. I haven’t had the chance to draw out proper renders for all of them but here’s the sketches and sprite art at least. There were a few characters I did fully draw out in the other concept art just after these character designs.
NOTE: None of these designs or character details are final and may be subject to change.

Alright so we got eleven total characters here (excluding Costel & Rianne, two extras in the sprite art) so let’s go down the list here (going from left to right):

• Bearded Vulture
  • First up is the Bearded Vulture, also known as Bartgeier in German. The species has another name, that being “Lammergeier” which literally translates to “lamb vulture,” having been believed to have killed lamb and children according to the myth. However, as the majority of other vultures, they diet on dead carrion and bones, they don’t actually hunt or kill animals. They are, unfortunately, a near threatened to extinction species after years of them being hunted or poisoned. As a bonus fun fact about this particular species is that they apparently coat themselves in iron-rich soil/mud, giving them the red ochre colors they possess.
    • https://peregrinefund.org/explore-raptors-species/vultures/bearded-vulture
    • https://4vultures.org/vultures/bearded-vulture/
      
  • As for the character, she is the boss & director of where Rianne works at. I’m still currently trying to figure out a name for her – one idea I had being something like “Erika” or “Engal” – but nothing’s definitive at the moment. In terms of story, she will appear briefly at the start of the game to transition into Rianne’s gameplay. And just as the following rest of the cast, she will get her own dedicated section outside of just a single appearance for the intro.

• Panther / Cat
  • Fun fact about Black Panthers is that they are just called that despite the fact that they are actually just black leopards. The genus, Panthera, does include leopards, jaguars, lions, etc., yet it's often just the ones that are melanistic that are considered as “black panthers.”
    • https://bigcatrescue.org/conservation-news/black-panthers
      
  • This cat works mainly in pharmaceuticals. In the story, you get to learn about her drug addiction they’re struggling with (story still working on). I think here, it's a good time to mention that this character, alongside the bearded vulture and one of the other wolves, were thought of as being candidates for multiplayer co-op. As of right now, I have no plans to focus on multiplayer, yet in the case that I have time for it, two of those three characters will likely be playable alongside Costel and Rianne.

• Wolf
  • Not really any wolf species in particular, he also works in pharmaceuticals. I kinda just made them after the fact of the Panther, mainly because I wasn’t too certain about the Panther’s design, but then I didn’t really like they’re design all too much to be a 2nd character to play as so I tried again with the other wolf. Regardless, I am going to use him somewhere in the game.
• Deer
  • No deer species in particular, he’s probably a white-tailed deer, this character was more or less referenced off of this one other character I’ve already had in store. Note that I have yet to name either of them and the character this one was based off of was made back in like 2022 or so. Both characters take on security roles though. Ngl this deer is just literally that same character lol. Will I show off the initial artwork? Probably later.
• Fluffy Wolf
  • My second attempt at a wolf character, this time trying to aim for someone fluffier than the previous one. By the design, I intended for her to be some sort of black wolf, kinda having a similar vibe like what I was aiming for with the panther and the prior wolf, but also different entirely in the case if I were to just have them as a regular character entirely. At this point, I will say that in terms of lore, I’m likely to make her and the other wolf both siblings.
• Beau The Komodo Dragon
  • Beau is the janitor. He’s cool.
  • Gonna be so real, I barely got much lore written down for this lad yet. As for how I got the name Beau for him, I’ve kinda just wanted to give someone that name since like August 2024 and had only definitively given that name by like 3 months later.
  • Ig I will say that the reason I went for a Komodo Dragon is that it was sorta the one IRL species I could use that sorta offsets the idea that straight up dragons (like Costel) exist in this world. Idk, it's that and also just the fact that I’ve got another reptile for use for interactions with Costel. Idk lore is kinda iffy rn.

• Elevator Bird (Crow)
  • Moving on from all of the clinical staff, now to move into the various other patients that have been here. These first three are all of the ones I dreamt of during the dream I had for Outpatient to get created. For the majority of these 3 designs, I more or less strayed heavily from how they all looked in the dream, both because their dream designs all felt way too similar to one another and also I was already starting to forget how they looked, that or they already felt too abstract from how I tried remembering them all in the dream.
  • Anyways, yea, old crow. He’s blind in one eye. He’s doing okay, you’ll be able to interact with him as Costel in the game.

• Elevator Dragon
  • This character design is probably the most accurate to the dream. Just as with the rest of these 3 characters, I definitely freestyled the clothing – but the colors and vibe was kinda still kept the same.
  • The one detail I honestly like the most from this character was giving her the animal ears. In the sketch art, I wanted to try drawing her horns but at the same time tried to make them look different enough that she wouldn’t seem like she was Costel’s sibling or something (note that the sketch art was before I actually colored her in). Regardless, I was struggling to draw the horns on so I kinda started to just vibe with the lack of horns this character would have, then I randomly just felt like drawing on ears out of boredom and I immediately liked the concept.

• Elevator Octopus
  • My goodness, their design was the hardest for me to work with. In the dream, it was already too complex of a design for me to even try to imagine, then of course I had to try to figure out how to anthropomorphize an aquatic animal in a way that they would still fit into the rest of the design philosophy I’m working with. As such, from the few prior ideas I had on the species (cuttlefish, nautilus, squid), I landed on just using an octopus, which was still kinda hard to draw out. Not to mention how hard it was for me to do the pixel art design of them since octopi can apparently change colors and what not. The pixel art was way harder to do especially since I just randomly decided to give them red stripes in one of the concept art photos and I did the pixel art after the fact.
  • Aside from my character design troubles with this guy, I gave them a sort of water breathing pack which almost doubles as looking like headphones so that was a cool idea I had.

• Beckett The Horse
  • Alright these last two I hadn’t had the chance to draw actual sketch art of them so y’all are gonna just need to stick to the sprite art and the concept art that these two appear in.
  • So Beckett here is another one of Costel’s friends. Regarding the story, he is to act as a parallel to Rianne. While I was working on the sprite art for Beckett I was literally referencing Rianne’s design to the point that I just made this as a result:
    
  • They’ll appear early in the game needing help, then after doing so, he’ll appear more often throughout the game.
  • As for how I got the name Beckett, I sorta just randomly thought of the name back in October 2024 and it just stuck just like that. I swear whenever I name a character, it’s either that I nail the bullseye on the first attempt or I just keep on throwing darts till I get it eventually.
• “Hydra” (Dragon)
  • Alright so this last guy, I actually had the design created back in October 2022. It was only until later on that I decided to put this character to use in Outpatient.
  • There isn’t much to speak about him but I will say that as Costel, you get to become friends with him as you see him through various parts of the game, almost like a travelling questline you can go through for each area.
  • As for his lore, all I will say are the following: “hydra” and “hold together.”

CUTSCENES & ENVIRONMENT CONCEPTS

With the character concepts out of the way, now it’s time to show off a whole bunch of concept art and sketches I’ve got. Some of these are more lore relevant than others, some were made more or less for some plain old fun. I’ll explain some of them while also including the date for when I made each one.

Costel & Rianne Back To Back (8/15/2024)
I kinda just randomly made this sketch sorta just thinking of one of those cover art photos where you have some duo of these 2 characters at the forefront of the artwork, back to back from each other.

Costel Holding Rianne (8/24/2024)
I made this one after just trying to come up with some interactions between these two, I then looked online and just randomly found a reference image on Google of ways you can draw some characters together (the image I referenced). For this image in particular, I sorta thought of Costel unexpectedly catching Rianne after they just jump into his arms and poses to the camera. I was thinking of drawing another photo where Costel just awkwardly asks to put Rianne down but I didn’t get the time to do so.

Costel Sitting Beneath The New Logo (9/6/2024)
These next few were drawn after I redesigned the Outpatient logo. This one is simply just Costel sitting beneath it. Might finish this one later, might not.

Rianne & Costel Beside The New Logo (9/6/2024)
Same explanation as the above image.

Costel Headphones – Redacted Version (9/16/2024)
Costel with headphones on him. For what I want to do with this scene in-game, I want to keep this one mostly redacted for now. If anything I’ll post the unredacted version of this later on when we get closer to release I guess.

“Boiler” (9/24/2024)
A frame for one of the cutscenes at the start of the game. Text reads as follows:

• Light comes from the boiler starting up.
• Rianne’s Hair flows from the boiler’s air, revealing their orange eyes.
• Lighting is like in the cover art.
• The Boiler is subject to change.

DJ Costel & Rapper Rianne (10/10/2024)
Here’s a note I made on this image on the same day:
“Had this idea to draw this while i was listening to phonk music, with the already present idea of having Costel associated with music stuff – i felt like this was pretty fitting, also i kinda like the idea of Rianne rapping their heart out lol”
The phonk music in question: BACK2BACK – STRLGHT

Yellow Fields (10/22/2024)
The idea of exploring an area of just yellow vegetation, taking in the calmness of it all, has been an idea I’ve had for a while now, I want to say ever since 2023. So I’m honestly glad to get the chance to do something like that here in Outpatient.

The Crow & The Gravestone (10/22/2024)
This piece was made directly for the Elevator Crow character. Immediately after I made this, I only had just realized that the time that I had the dream for Outpatient (and as a result as to when this game takes place) was during Día De Muertos. While I don’t celebrate the holiday myself, there’s a chance that I might represent this somewhere in game (of course with feedback from any friends who do happen to celebrate it). My only issue is that I’m not having the holiday as the entire focus for the game’s story itself, so if I were to represent it, I wouldn’t want to just shoehorn it in. We’ll see as the writing progresses though. If anything though, if I were to include it, it will most likely be dedicated to the crow’s section of the game the very least.

The City & The Hydra (10/23/2024)
One of the major areas of the game, you’ll be able to explore an entire city. In this photo, Costel is waving at his hydra friend. As said prior, this character will be someone who you’ll find on various parts of the game as you explore, having some bits of info or quests he will ask of you.

Beckett (10/23/2024)
Here’s Costel patching up Beckett’s injured leg. While there will be some other various areas you can go to, there will always be the primary hospital/clinic building you start in. After helping out Beckett, he’ll start appearing in various other areas kinda like the hydra character. Not gonna say much else more about Beckett in particular here though.

Costel & The Wolf (10/23/2024)
Even if some of these characters have the chance of being used for co-op (if I even do it), I do still plan on giving each of them their own stories you can explore through. Involving the environment here, I kinda realized that I might need more abstract visuals or locations, so my solution for this concept was just BLUE. It works though since the contrast from the constant orange theme I’m going for.

Intro Scene Concept (10/26/2024)
Here’s a concept I had for how the game will start. Simply put Rianne is left by their boss to close up for the night, being told what they need to do before leaving. For this image specifically, I struggled a bit with trying to make it seem like Rianne was looking at their boss, as if they’re also responding back to her. I ended up with a Rianne looking kinda like they have a bit too big of a smile here personally.

Bathroom Stall (10/31/2024)
The perspective on this was kinda difficult too but I kinda just hid the fact with the shading lol. But yea, this is the panther character in the bathroom. I will honestly say that this character isn’t the only one I plan on portraying with an addiction.

The Dream 182C Elevator (11/2/2024)
Finished this one exactly a year when I initially had the dream, perfect timing. This picture is pretty much what was happening during that dream I had, of course it’s not exact since I can barely recall it one for one, but the positions for all of the characters is probably as accurate as I could get with the artwork.

Storage Room (11/9/2024)
Here’s Rianne working as they close up everything for the night. It’s getting late.

The Bridge (11/9/2024)
Here’s Costel and [...] visiting each other at a place they knew years back. Yes, the bridge is based off of the Brooklyn Bridge in NYC. And yes, the city area itself is most likely to take a lot of inspiration off of New York’s architecture.

A Horse & A Dragon Go To A Museum (11/23/2024)
Here’s Beckett & Costel looking at an exhibition display of a large skeleton of… something.

Confrontation (12/25/2024)
Costel meets himself.

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MUSIC CONCEPT

Did I forget to mention that I have a song concept to show off? I guess I did. ;)

No clue where in-game I'll use this or if I'll likely update the song later on. Regardless, it's got no name to go with it as of typing this (1/7/2025). I'll figure it out eventually.
There isn’t much else to say about this track other than that I took inspiration from this one song I found: Boogie Woogie Phase – Andrew Bernstein. I actually have a playlist that I’m using for songs to take inspiration from to try and get a certain feel for Outpatient’s OST. I’ll likely post the link in a future update when I’m more focused on the music.

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MY OVERALL PROGRESS

So, with all of the artwork, music, and test footage out of the way, I think it’s time to talk about my overall progress on the game. Despite anything I have already worked on, I cannot guarantee percentages or estimates of how much more I need to work on other than just what I know I need to do, so yea:

PROGRAMMING PROGRESS
So, in general, all of the test footage I’ve shared already is what I have done so far. Since there isn’t much to talk about outside of what’s already there, aside from bugs that need to get fixed, here’s a list of stuff that I know still needs to be worked on:

• Collectable Documents GUI (working on as of writing)
• Save Menus
• Cutscene Implementation (in-game, panels, & animations)
• Lighting & Shaders System

Literally, after these 4 things are handled, the majority of the programming work would be complete since everything else would just be chalked up to stuff like item actions, puzzles, etc. Of course, this isn’t to also mention the work I need to do to rework the font so it can also include all available scripts from Latin. The font itself is complete, it’s simply just a matter of needing to adjust a bunch of variables for stuff like text boxes and whatnot. Speaking of fonts, aside from a full Latin implementation, I will be giving support for other scripts such as Cyrillic or Katakana. Until then, however, the Latin font just needs to be finalized.

ARTWORK & SPRITES PROGRESS
As with the programming, the artwork sorta follows the same pace as the programming side of things. Aside from the stuff I have already shown, I have been making artwork of general environmental objects and detail. I won’t be showing those until I have made headway with stuff like shaders and whatnot. Same goes for any player sprites also (including in-game animated cutscene sprites). Speaking of the player, I still need to do the up and down looking around sprites.

MUSIC & SFX PROGRESS
Other than that one song I showed off, I haven’t done much of anything on music or sound design in general. When it comes to sounds, I typically leave them for the last parts of the development process. Unless I have a mechanic that needs sound then I would have worked on it more. In general, the programming and artwork will typically be your main priorities with game development since music doesn’t have a huge importance to how your game functions (unless you're doing something like a rhythm game then it will be at a higher priority for you). If anything though, I’m likely to handle stuff like footstep sounds first, that or just basic menu GUI sounds.

STORY PROGRESS
In general, the overall structure is there, like the foundation for the building is set up. It’s just the smaller materials and details that need to be figured out. Right now, my main thing I still need to work on is the justification for the endings I have planned. Eh, it's more so just needing to flesh out the character aspects and actions for both Rianne and Costel. Regardless, though, I have the main focus and themes I want to tackle. If you’ve seen the artwork, I’m sure you could probably guess a few of those themes I wanna do.
I will honestly just say that, yes, I’m planning on using a lot of dream imagery. Since this entire idea came from a dream, I think it’s pretty fitting in general. Considering that I’ve already shown that I’m going to use that one dream idea of Hell Costel, I think I can show what few other dreams I’ve had that I might use for the story. No spoilers but here’s a few listed with the dates I had them below:

• Dream #182 (11/2/2023) – Keyword: Outpatient
• Dream #279 (6/28/2024) – Keyword: Hell
• Dream #311 (9/5/2024) – Keyword: [REDACTED]
• Dream #341 (11/15/2024) – Keyword: [TOO MANY]
• Dream #347 (12/12/2024) – Keyword: Snow
• Dream #348 (12/24/2024) – Keyword: Exploding
• Dream #350 (1/7/2025) – Keyword: Keychain

OVERALL PROGRESS
Overall, it’s still in very early development. In general, there’s no telling how long it may take me to complete this game entirely; let alone an estimate as to when I could get a demo out. With school still happening, the times where I can get the most amount of progress completed will usually be during the summer. Otherwise, the progress will be at a slow pace as it continues. Slow and steady nonetheless. It will be complete once it’s complete.

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Anyways that’s basically everything for this update. Insane that we’re a year into this project. I don’t plan on stopping one bit, I very much want to see this game completed.

As for when the next devlog comes out, that likely won’t be until the summer, so expect one by then.

Here’s the stuff I’ll likely be doing for the future devlogs:

1. In-Depth Cover Art Process
2. Environment Assets & Design
3. Other Ingame GUI (Saves, Documents)
4. Dialog Portraits??
5. More Music??

Take care everyone, wishing the best for y’all. :)

Bonus Characters
Some extra characters. Since these 5 are extras, I will only mention their names, species, and nothing more:

1. Xavier – ??? Dragon
2. F… [the rest is redacted] – ???
3. Xo – ???
4. Orion – Snowy Owl
5. Sunny – Snake (None In Particular)