I hate delays more than anything, especially since that means I have been put behind in production by a few days. Which, in turn, means I'll be adding a few more days' time to the alpha demo completion date. Thankfully, there isn't much more to finish before I send it off to my testers!

I would have been keeping to my schedule, if it weren't for the fact that I moved. I have been awake for nearly 42 hours now and while I know I should be settling down for the night, I have to fight the urge to work on my game instead of sleep. =P I will begin working on it again tomorrow morning, which is a relief!

Convincing the brain "you must go to bed soon, dumbass!" is another matter entirely.

Dervish

Just about everyone who has played an RPG has, at one point or another, heard mention of one "whirling dervish" or another. However, in Spira Mirabilis, the class is a bit different than what most people may be accustomed to. While they are still light-armored, agile fighters/dancers that hail from the desert, they do not use the traditional scimitars or fans. Each Dervish has their favored weapon, with Kashira favoring daggers. Yes, she dual-wields them, which does mean that she cannot use a shield- however, she will end up making up for the lack of that additional defense. At first, she has no special skills to speak of; however, before the end of the demo, she will learn a few of her own. (It is necessary for a certain plot point to trigger her abilities, rather than her starting out being able to unleash a slew of abilities.) Just as each Dervish has their favored weapons, each has their own particular abilities as well- and no two can call on the same skills.

Blight

A blight is a magic-user. However, they differ from traditional mages by what they do. Rather than harnessing traditional elemental or blood magic, their domain is over poison and disease. Another way that they differ from traditional mages is that they do not use aether to call on their magic; rather, they draw the energy from the plants and vermin around them and channel that to use their sorcery. Of course, the vermin -rats, mice, insects- whose energy they used do die and the plants they drew off of wither. Because of how their magic is used and what they can do, they, of course, are somewhat feared; as it is thought that an extremely powerful Blight can drain another living human to exchange that individual's life for magic- however, that is pure speculation.

Scourge

A scourge is a warrior, of sorts- however, one that uses whips instead of the more traditional swords, spears or axes. While they do not wear heavy armor, their defense does not suffer very much because of it. They can and do learn "tricks" that they can perform with their whips; tricks that can be rather helpful in battle. While many view them as being a "lesser" fighter due to their weapon choice, they are no less formiddable than a normal warrior.

Kashira Tvastri is a Dervish. The main protagonist, she is a fairly new mercenary in the employ of Tansley and Alandis Folmard. Normally serious and even tempered, she nevertheless has no problem speaking her mind. A promising and rather intelligent mercenary woman who has little patience for stupidity. Though she usually acts as a voice of reason, she is also fairly stubborn and opinionated. While, like any good mercenary, she has no problem using profanity when she sees fit and does, on occasion, argue with others, she is not a bad, unlikeable, or bitchy woman. She does not like to admit when she is wrong, though she is, indeed, wrong about some things.While Kashira is used to taking responsibility for those around her, she does know how to loosen up and have a good time, especially when drinking or gambling.

Tansley Folmard is an Archer. She and her brother, Alandis, are the heads of the mercenary encampent. Though she does not like to let anyone know about it, she and Alandis were originally nobles from the city of Haran. She is a truly caring, friendly woman; but unfortunately for her, she would much rather have a good time than actually get any real work done. She does have the habit of giving those that she cares about nicknames, which those people may not like. While she comes across as being laid back, irrelevant and somewhat ditzy, this is an act that she has cultivated as both a noblewoman and the figurehead of the mercenary troupe. She is not as carefree, irresponsible, or ditzy as she lets on. In fact, she is more perceptive than she lets on and has her own fair share of worries. She is a close friend of both Kashira and Fayne. She is responsible for teaching new recruits what they need to know.

Fayne Vithal is a Scourge (a whip-wielding fighter.) A childhood friend of Tansley's, he usually treats her like his somewhat incompetent little sister. However, he knows that the incompetency is a mask and wishes that she would forceably take the mercenary encampment from Alandis (who he has learned that he cannot stand.) He is far more level headed than Tansley is and at many times, acts like a foil for her bad judgement. Curious to a fault and fairly perceptive, he lacks patience for those that cannot uncover the same information or jump to the same conclusions that he can. Generally quite open and calm, he is good at figuring out the "how" and "why" about most situations, as well as encouraging trust in others; however, his sense of humor, poor impulse control and the need to do things his way, consequences be damned, can cause problems more often than not.

"Tempus Fugit" translates into "time flees." Which is rather true, when working on anything that is fun or interesting to work on.

Anyway, why does time flee? That is simple. I am getting very close to releasing an Alpha Demo for a few people to play (I already have three of the four people I want to test it when I am ready and am waiting to hear back from the fouth.) All that I have to do right now is work on the final room of the cave, make two more cutscenes, balance the items, weapons, armor and monsters, add the first boss to the cave and do the dialogue in the three populated areas.

The alpha demo should be finished by no later than the middle of next month. At that time, I will be sending the game to my testers. They will be bug and error testing, checking for things that need to be fixed or changed and generally doing their best to break the Alpha demo, so I can fix what they break, before continuing to work on the game, adding some things and releasing a Beta Demo for those same testers to try to break, so I can continue the cycle.

I would say that, no later than midwinter, I should have a playable, public demo released.

So, as a quick rundown, this is how the cycle will work.

Alpha Demo Testing (Almost There!)
Bug/Error Fixing, Adding and Changing Things
Beta Demo Testing
Bug/Error Fixing, Adding and Changing Things
Finishing making Spira Mirabilis
Final Beta Testing
Release



It might sound like there is a long way to go still, but there really isn't. Not considering everything that I am working on and planning right now.