Deprimerie

Hoo boy. It's been a while since I wrote a blog for this, so I'm going to cover as many grounds as I can with this one.

Let's address the big one first. Development on Deprimerie: STORM of the Future has slowly been slowing down ever since January, and it's at the point where I work on it maybe once a month if I can bring myself to. After finishing the freeware version of Deprimerie, I wanted to make a version of the game where I'd just stuff as many things as I could into it, and in trying to do that, I over-exerted myself. The reason I was even able to finish Deprimerie's original release is because it, from the very beginning, was planned to be a 5-6 hour game at the very most. But my vision for SotF was probably going to end up being closer to 10-12 hours, if you did all the things I stuffed into it. It wasn't fun working on so many different things in the same project, as opposed to making the original, fairly linear storyline from the freeware version. So, I put it lower on my priority list to focus on developing Spiral Flame, my current main project, as well as I could. And it went well. Spiral Flame's first chapter was fully completed just recently and is up for download. But what did this mean for Deprimerie: STORM of the Future?

Well, I took a good, hard, look at it. And I came to the realization of something: this didn't feel like the game I wanted to make anymore. Deprimerie will always be close to my heart as my first full game, and I sort of felt like releasing Deprimerie: STORM of the Future would be doing a disservice to the original vision I had for the game throughout it's entire development.

So, it's with a heavy heart that I must officially announce: STORM of the Future will not be released. It's being cancelled. I'm sorry for getting your hopes up, but I can't bring myself to work on this anymore. It's not enjoyable for me, and I want to make games people can enjoy playing, but I can also enjoy making.

Now, onto the less negative news. In light of this, I've decided to give the Deprimerie soundtrack a permanent price drop, as well as a temporary "pay-what-you-want" price! For the next short while, the soundtrack will be PWYW, so now's your chance to pick it up! But even after that, it'll remain at $2.

As well, in case you were unaware, I've been working on a much larger project, called Spiral Flame, which you can check out at https://rpgmaker.net/manage_games/11020/! It's been a blast making it so far, and there's a sizable demo released that's nearly as long as Deprimerie itself! I learned a lot in making Deprimerie, so I'm going to put everything I can into my future projects.

Also, I've decided to delist my Patreon page. Nobody was pledging and as I went on I started to like the idea of a paid reward system less and less.

Thank you for your support! I hope you enjoy what I have in store for all of you.

Wow, it's been a while since I've updated here, huh? Sorry about that.
Believe it or not, I'm still working on this! It's still goin' along smoothly!

To give an indicator of this, here's a handy little progress chart.


As you can see, I've mostly prioritized the rebalancing of the game over everything else first. I felt like there are a few problems with the balancing in the freeware version of the game, so I've decided to change things a bit in STORM of the Future.

After that, there's the Bonus Dungeons. SOTF will have two bonus dungeons, one that can be found during the main game, and one for postgame only. These have not been started on yet, as they're at the back of my priority list for work on the game.

The Boss Gauntlet is mostly complete, right now it's mostly just testing the boss fights and making sure they're hard enough.

I've barely started on the Epilogue, but you will be able to return to the world of Deprimerie after completing the main game, especially since there are a few postgame quests and that optional dungeon, as well as the Boss Gauntlet.

The Final Boss will be getting an upgrade from what exists currently, and a few new Bad Endings will be implemented for those who fail to seek out the Dream Fragments. Also new is an item that will tell you where you can find the Dream Fragments, if you're having trouble.

Lastly, the update for Out There Somewhere. I'm still on the fence about this, and I'm not sure if it'll end up being in STORM of the Future's final release. I'm still working on it on the side, but it's definitely low on the list.

I'm definitely still working on this, and I'm still aiming for a possible May release for STORM of the Future. Please look forward to what's to come!

-Starspire

Deprimerie is finally out! You can download it by clicking the big Download button at the top of the page.

Chapter 5 has been started! Progress has been started on the first area, which will be a sort of base camp for the exploration of the chasm area that Chapter 5 mostly takes place in. All testing up to Chapter 4's end has been done and is fully playable. I'll have to do some polishing of the game before release, but I'm going to finish Chapter 5 before I do that. I met most of my goals that I set at the beginning of last month, which included to finish testing, update some item and skill descriptions, and begin Chapter 5 development.

I've been spending more and more time exercising outside of development, which I've found increases my ability to come up with ideas for the ending of the game. I've got the major plot twists written down and ready for implementation, so that's good. At times I've been distracted and wanted to work on other projects, but I've already decided I'm committed to finishing this project.

I'll be posting more updates as Chapter 5 development continues.

I've now completed Chapter 4! Chapter 5 is going to most likely be the second shortest chapter behind Chapter 2, so I'm still aiming for the summer 2018 goal of completion!

I do feel the game will need some polishing done before the release. Some parts of the game are still buggy and some skills and items do the wrong things.