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Wow. Is it 2013 already?

  • fredo
  • 08/04/2013 06:21 AM
  • 1370 views
So this might be a surprise to some (all?) of you, but I am still working on this. My hectic work schedule limits my time, but progress is still happening. One of the main reasons that I haven't show off much work is the fact that I have been working in a non-linear fashion. As a motivation booster, I have been working on whatever I'm interested in at the moment, so I have a lot of work done, but not all of it fits in linear way conducive to a demo. Still, I thought it was time to do a status update. I've revamped some of the pages. You can check out some character sprites and descriptions in the revamped Characters section and see some screens and a shot of the new world map in the World section. Expect some other new shots soon as I continue to revamp the page.

In the meantime, for those of you who are interested, here is where things are at...

The game is divided into Part 1 and Part 2. All of my work has been on Part 1 (though Part 2 reuses almost all of Part 1's maps, so that when Part 1 is done, about 70% of the maps for Part 2 will be done). Part 1 is 6 Chapters long and probably about... 10 hours of gameplay or so? All percentages are obviously estimates, but still:
Chapter 1: All done
Chapter 2: 80% of cutscenes, 90% of maps, but only 10% of optional content/sidequests done
Chapter 3: 30% of cutscenes, 75% of maps
Chapter 4: 10% of maps
Chapter 5: 40% of maps
Chapter 6: 80% of maps, 40% of cutscenes

Pretty much all of the gameplay (chests, monsters, etc) is set up in all working maps, subject to rebalance. No NPCs are done for towns (ugh, not looking forward to THAT day)

So, yes, things are happening but no, I'm still not releasing anything yet. One day, though... In the meantime, I'll try to resume regular updates.

Posts

Pages: 1
mellytan
995
08/04/2013 11:18 PM
wow keep fighting the good fight my rm brother

can i ask why you wont release chapter 1 yet though
fredo
170
08/04/2013 11:56 PM
Good question! My current plan is to release all of Part 1, and then hopefully one day all of Part 2. I guess I am still somewhat open to having a smaller demo first, but here is my thought process:

1. Chapter 1 is not a great reflection of the rest of the game. That's not to say that the quality is lower, but it's a bit disjointed and mostly serves to introduce some characters, situations and concepts that are used in later chapters. It introduces some of the gameplay concepts, but it's short and doesn't have a ton of narrative drive.
2. Chapter 2 is VERY different than Chapter 1. There are sort of two plot threads that run at the same time and the more political one doesn't get started until Chapter 2. I don't like the idea of getting fans (or haters?) with Chapter 1 and then having them feel like I pulled a switcharoo on them by changing the very nature of the game on them in later chapters. I think that playing multiple chapters together gives the player a better sense of what the game is.
3. I want players to get a sense for what the game is before they start tearing it apart with criticism. If they don't like it, that's fine but I don't want to have to play the "It all comes together in later chapters, trust me!" card over and over again.
4. I don't want criticism from a Chapter 1 demo to slow down my momentum on the other chapters. The game is what it is. I am all about listening to constructive criticism, but the game is ultimately for me. If I open it up to the public so soon, I am afraid that the criticism will just make me doubt myself and compromise my vision of what I want my game to be.

Then again... Maybe I should just release something for the sake of doing it, to see how people might react. If I'm being realistic... Well, at this rate, this game will likely never see the light of day.
Pages: 1