Monthly progress update #3 - "Slowly getting there but let me ramble first"

Hello and welcome to another monthly update! This update is divided into several named parts so that you may easily read only what you think is worth your attention.

1) The actual update
Since I proved to be a failure as a programmer (aka the skill that is supposed to pay my bills), most of the things I am currently doing that are related to the game are drawing and writing. The scenario folder as of now contains 46.6 kB of text. That's about twice as much than two months ago. The sprites for the new character were slightly redone and are about to receive finishing touches before being added to the graphic assets folder. I also tried redrawing the last cutscene from the early demo and drawing a couple of new ones. That is it. I'm considering releasing an updated demo that only features refactored dialogue system and the complete assets I currently have, but I'd still like to implement a very simple overworld mechanic and at least some sort of a mini-game first. What do you think I should do for the next ROM update - move on with the story or code some new and awesome features? Please leave a comment with your thoughts!

2) The part where I tell you what else I've been doing
Yes, aside from kinda sorta occasionally doing game-related things I also participate as a guest artist in other projects (that usually don't have any requirements for one's art skills, haha). This year I've made an adoptable fennec fox (that is a reference to something no-one will get) for a neat cyberpunk pet sim titled "Do Androids Dream Of Virtual Pet?" that a good friend of mine made and also drew a cute picture for the final episode of the hot popular cult classic fanime fanmade sequel series "Nyan~ Neko Sugar Girls Mayonaka". Other non-collab things I've made include a foray into animated videos along with primitive coding in BASIC, and detailed birthday illustrations for my favorite gacha game's characters, but I won't be sharing any links to those. If you know, you know.

3) Something that is both related to the game and not
Because I snoozed on the vaccination reward money that I wanted to spend on dance classes (that I highly doubt anyone is holding locally during w-word), I am currently teaching myself how to jumpstyle so I can later create various dance routines, record myself doing them and use the recordings as references for the animated sprites for the rhythm mini-game I am planning to include in the game. I'd also like to learn how to Melbourne shuffle so have some doodles of Nyra Hanajima sporting shuffle pants.

Hope these skills will allow me to move on to something more complex with ease later.

4) A written promise
Something quite sad had happened to me a couple of weeks ago that prompted me to state the following: I, kva64, hereby promise to add a playable Asteroids-like mini-game in the game's final version. There will be an in-game chapter where the Math & Logic club gang hits the local arcades to do research and have fun hanging out together, which is why a tiny shmup will not only be an excellent addition to the game, but it will also make me work on some actual game design. Should I not fulfill my promise... oh, I don't know. Inform me about this or something. Written threats will be accepted in this case as well.

僕から僕にうぽつです。