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2021 - An Announcement

  • narcodis
  • 09/20/2021 11:50 PM
  • 1248 views
In 2019, I declared "FINISH. THE. GAME.", a bold statement detailing how I would either finish this game by the end of 2019, or not at all.

Obviously the game didn't get finished in that timeframe. In a tale as old as time (or as old as this gamepage perhaps), real life took some turns and I couldn't prioritize this weird hobby game dev project. The following year+ was obviously tumultuous for reasons I'm sure everyone can relate to, but especially so for my family as I had to both find a new job and take care of a brand new baby! And thus, the Looming Spire as a project fell to the wayside for the better part of two years.

So why am I posting this blog? For most of my life at this point, I've had a dream of being a game developer -- that is to say, being someone who has made a video game -- and it has thus far been a dream I've failed to live up to. I've grown up, I'm actually a real-life programmer now. I've dabbled in gamedev projects as a way to learn things, and could feasibly begin using a real engine like Unity or Godot or something to create a brand new game.

However, despite my best efforts (well, "best") this project, this god damn RPG Maker 2003 adventure puzzle RPG video game that I aspired to make and created a gamepage over ten ELEVEN years ago for, STILL sits at the forefront of the game-making part of my brain. The Looming Spire, living up to its name, stands tall as an eternal paragon of incompleteness -- that poisonous mineral, ever-shedding its sickness: every time I try to start something new, I always see this project sitting on my hard drive, just screaming at me, begging to be released from its unfinished purgatory.

Well, I'm making very large strides in recent weeks. I'm really trying my hardest to make it to the finish line this time. Yes, that means...

The Looming Spire is officially in development once again.

This game, this project has a lot of heart poured into it. There's a lot I want to show you all, but I need to stop myself and hold out for now. There's a very real phenomenon where showing off your progress activates the same parts of your pleasure center as releasing a finished product, and I can't do that anymore. I don't need people to see screenshots, I need people to see the "new game" option when they start the game up for the first time. I don't need validation that this looks cool, I need actual players telling me they think it sucks. I don't NEED the comments, but I love getting them, so I need to hold out and use that desire to fuel development of this thing.

So, a big blog to say, I'm working on this again. And it's a lot closer than its ever been to being finished. I don't want to break down exactly whats needed, but lets just say I've hit some pretty significant milestones lately. Also with the help of the RPG2k3 "Maniac" Patch, development is going WAY faster than ever before. Kinda wild what something as simple as being able to draw text to the screen can do.

The end result will be an admittedly fairly light-on-story, puzzle/exploration-heavy game, featuring fast-paced turn-based combat with some positioning and timing elements thrown in.

I really appreciate the kind words of encouragement and people looking forward to this game, even after all these years. It really does mean a lot, so thank you. Please keep looking forward to it, I'll let you know when it gets close.


Also, uhhh if people would like to volunteer to test this thing, feel free to drop a line.

Posts

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Sounds like someone I know. But yeah don't sweat it, I think that's the new hip trend lately anyway is seeing games announced back in 2005 come out of nowhere as a finished thing one way or another. I don't know if posting updates online once in awhile or not helps with motivation, sometimes it gives a momentum boost and other times it can feel like an obligation to just post something. So idk probably depends on the personality/development style.
author=Darken
I don't know if posting updates online once in awhile or not helps with motivation, sometimes it gives a momentum boost and other times it can feel like an obligation to just post something. So idk probably depends on the personality/development style.

Yo Darken! Yeah I'm not sure where I fall on that spectrum. I really do enjoy providing updates in blog form. Making gifs, explaining game mechanics, deep-diving into stuff, that all feels great. But it also does feel like maybe it takes something away from the game itself, for me. Like I'm getting away with showing off the game without having actually released it. You understand what I mean, I'm sure. Hard to strike a balance, so I'm trying to stay away from the small updates, and wait until I have something big to show.

(But I of course am going to check this one blog post and its replies for the next week or two, because!!! I have a problem, maybe!!)
Hello!
I drop a line (to be a tester). If what you're saying is true, it should be an easy test. How many time do you expect to complete a run of this baby?
Great to see this back in development.
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