Hello once again, everyone!

It's been a tumultuous few months, and as a result, Chapter Five has seen a few delays. Long story short, I decided to split the chapter in half. The latest release covers almost the entirety of Chapter Five's daily life and ends on a really nasty cliffhanger. The next release, which is currently scheduled for March 5th, will contain the rest of the chapter. As this is an odd-numbered chapter, this begins the final arc of Forge:Re's story, which is titled...



As always, you can find the download link for the game in the Discord server, which you can find right under the "About" section of the game's page here on RMN. One other thing I want to touch on, which I spoke about in the Discord server just the other week, is that Chapter 6's development is very much so up in the air at this point in time. In working towards carving out a career in writing for myself, I've been accepted onto a project that will likely eat up a substantial portion of my time. That, mixed with other happenings in my life, puts Chapter Six in a very odd position. While I'll work on it as my other work allows, I can't even begin to fathom when it'll be done and ready anymore. As such, I wouldn't allow myself to get too antsy over it. It's going to be a looong ways off.

That's all I have to say this time around, so with that, I'll see you all next month for Forge:Re's final "monthly" release!

Hello, everyone!

A bit late with this announcement, as Chapter Three was released yesterday, but in a way, I'm kind of glad I waited to make it. There was a bit of a game-breaking bug in Chapter Three that's since been fixed, so I can now make this announcement in good conscience. As stated in previous blog posts, this chapter begins the second arc in Forge:Re's story. This arc is titled...



Indeed, the Wayward Antiquity arc is upon us. This chapter's where things really start going off the rails, so I hope everyone enjoys it. As stated previously, Chapter Four will release on the first of December, so I beg your patience until then.

See you next month!

Hello, everyone!

It's been over four years since Danganronpa Forge:Re's development began, and the long-awaited day of release has finally arrived! Normally, this would be the part where I launch into a mushy, emotional speech about how much work I poured into Forge:Re and about how much the project means to me, but I'm not going to do that here. Instead, you'll find a letter bundled in with each copy of the game titled "A Letter to You, The Player!" I feel this letter lays out my feelings on Forge:Re and the journey it's taken to get to this point better than any ramblings in a blog post ever could.

(Before moving into other topics, just a reminder that the download link to the Chapter One release is hosted on Forge:Re's discord server and nowhere else. In case you missed it, the link to the server is right here.)

I'd like to use the rest of this blog post to address a few other topics. First and foremost, there's been a bit of a setback in regard to the final pass of the game. To make a long story short, this final pass has largely served to address text wrapping issues. I won't get into the details, but the way I was handling this before was way too stressful, work-intensive, and inconsistent. To put it another way, I was working hard rather than working smart. As such, I made the difficult decision to change gears and start over from the very beginning. This might sound insane, and to some extent it is, but hear me out.

The original 'final pass' of Chapter One took me approximately a month. When I went back through Chapter One with this new approach I'd developed, it took less than two weeks. In other words, this new approach I've adopted is at least twice as fast as the one I was using before. Additionally, it's far more consistent and far less stressful. What does this all mean? In the short term, yes, I'm not as far along with the final passes as I would have liked. By now, I intended to be done with Chapter Two, whereas I just started going over it anew yesterday. However, in the long-term, this will help me meet the release dates for Chapters Three, Four, and (hopefully) Five. I've said this on many occasions in the past, but Chapters One and Two are literally nothing compared to the behemoths that are Chapters Four and Five. If I was struggling with Chapters One and Two, I almost certainly wouldn't have met the release dates for Chapters Four and Five. So, in the long-term, this new approach will make it possible to keep everything on schedule.

There's one final thing I'd like to touch on in this blog post, that being Forge:Re's story arcs. I don't believe I've ever spoken about this publicly before, but I realized some time ago that Forge:Re's story can be split into three story arcs, each comprising of two chapters apiece. After discovering this, how could I not run with the idea? If you'll take a look at the image below...



Chapter One makes up the first half of the 'Illusory Paradise' arc. I debated over whether or not I should reveal the names of the second and third arcs in this blog post, but I ultimately decided to wait to reveal them until the release of Chapters Three and Five respectively. Now, these story arcs may not be clearly defined in-game, but once you reach Chapter Five, it should be fairly obvious why they're split up like this and how each arc differs from the rest.

That's more or less all I have to say in this blog post! Please, enjoy Chapter One of Forge:Re, and I'll see you next month for the release of Chapter Two!

Hello, everyone!

I'm not going to mince words with this update, seeing as it concerns the long-awaited and very exciting topic of Forge:Re's release date. But of course, I'll be saving that for the end, so I'll quickly go over some of the happenings since the last progress report. As of right now, I still have two and a half scenes to edit in Chapter Five's daily life. Just to give you a frame of reference, Chapter Five's daily life is so absurdly long that it comprises of literally half the chapter. In other words, I'm getting on towards the halfway point. Very exciting, but it's a very dense chapter, so I don't expect to finish editing it until mid-August.

Also in exciting news, I just received a private message yesterday from a lovely person who was digging through Forge:Re's old blog posts. I once expressed my disappointment over Okabe's lack of sprites, and apparently he has a ton of them in the Steins;Gate spin-off Linear Bounded Phenogram, so they ripped them for me. Of course, I've long since made my own edits to Okabe's sprite (giving him a much wider range of expressions), but with these new sprites in hand, I can make him more emotive than ever before. I'm very happy about this and very thankful that this person approached me, so I hope it gives you all just one more thing to look forward to.

Now then... What have I decided upon as the Prologue and Chapter One's release date? They will be released in approximately two months on...

September 1st, 2020.

This release date is tentative ONLY in the sense that if I'm somehow ahead of schedule, I may release it early. There will be no delays or cancellations of this release date. If I'm busy working on some other facet of Forge:Re by late-August, I'll drop everything to get the Prologue and Chapter One prepped for release. There will be no compromises nor need for any silly apologies. September 1st will be release day.

Just to reiterate, Forge:Re will follow a monthly release schedule. As such the release day for each of the chapters will be as follows:

Prologue + Chapter One: September 1st, 2020
Chapter Two: October 1st, 2020
Chapter Three: November 1st, 2020
Chapter Four: December 1st, 2020
Chapter Five: January 1st, 2021
Chapter Six + Epilogue: ???, 2021

You'll notice Chapter Six is the only chapter without a release date. That is, of course, because I've yet to write it. I have no estimate in mind for when it'll be ready, but ideally I'd like to have it done sometime within the March-May window. Regardless of how long it takes, you shouldn't have to wait more than few months, giving you plenty of time to theory-craft and new players plenty of time to get caught up.

There's one more thing I need to speak on before I can close this blog post out. Here is a link to Forge:Re's Discord server:

https://discord.gg/G8kY6nD

Simply put, join the Discord server. Why? Because that's the only place Forge:Re's download link is going to be posted. I will not be hosting Forge:Re's download link through RPGMaker.net for a number of reasons. I won't get into that whole spiel here, but to say the least, I'm the kind of developer who likes to interact with his players and see their reactions, and Discord provides a great platform for that. So I not only implore you but welcome you to join the Discord server. I will, of course, be there to answer any questions you might have, and you're more than welcome to interact with Forge:Re's beta testers as well as those in early access to hear their opinions on the game.

With that all said, I don't think I have anything else to cover, so I will see you all next month for the final progress report before Forge:Re's (first) big release!

Hello once again, everyone!

Before getting into this month's progress report, I'd just like to clarify something. Earlier this month, I uploaded Forge:Re's "first official release" and received some comments from people who were confused over the fact that it kicks you back to the title screen shortly after hitting 'New Game.' This was an April Fool's joke which was suggested to me by one of my beta testers, so if you want someone to blame, blame them. Ha-ha. As we're now nearing the end of April, I've removed the download. I figure most people who would've seen it have now seen it and received a nice dose of despair.

Moving on to the actual progress report, a remarkable amount has happened within the past month. First and foremost, Chapter Three has finally been released to those in early access, and feedback remains glowing. I'm really happy with how Chapter Three turned out, and while I do think it could do with a few minor tweaks, it's nothing I can't handle with ease. As far as Chapter Four is concerned, I'm currently in the middle of editing the trial, so my hope is to wrap this chapter up either by the end of May or within the first week or two of June. However it turns out, Forge:Re is still very much on schedule, to my continued surprise. I honestly thought we'd be way behind at this point, so I'm very happy with how progress continues to meet my expectations.

Now there is one development that initially troubled me but does so no longer. You may recall that I brought a friend of mine onto the QA team to speed things up a bit. Apparently, there was some sort of miscommunication, because I thought they'd volunteered to work for free, and they thought I'd be paying them for their work. Trying to salvage the situation, I asked about their rates, and they named a price which would have ended up costing me hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. Suffice to say, I let them go on the spot. If they had given me a more reasonable price, I might have considered it, but Forge:Re wasn't benefiting terribly much from their assistance to begin with (they were doing far more work than necessary, and only a fraction of it was usable), so I think I made the right choice in having us go our separate ways.

This initially worried me, because I'm now left with a single QA person, and not only do I hate to load so much work on her, but I was afraid we may not meet future deadlines. Then it hit me. Chapter Five doesn't need to be finished before Forge:Re begins its monthly releases. In other words, consider this: September rolls around and I'm waiting my QA person to hand me the corrections before I can put the final touches on Chapter Five. By that point, the brunt of my work on Chapters One through Five will be over. In other words, I'm free to focus on Chapter Six while my QA person continues working on Chapter Five. And since Chapter Five won't be slated to release until four months after Chapter One, we'll be in no danger of Chapter Five releasing late.

In short, Chapter Five does not need to be 100% done in order for us to release on schedule. As long as I finish my editing work by the end of August, Forge:Re will begin officially releasing in September.

I don't know why I didn't have this revelation sooner, but it's a huge load off my shoulders. There's now virtually no chance that Forge:Re's release will be delayed any more than it's already been, which is very exciting. I hope this comes as comfort to those of you who've been eagerly anticipating Forge:Re's release, as it certainly comes as a comfort to me. That said, though the light at the end of the tunnel is almost within sight, there's still a good amount of work ahead of us, so we can't afford to slow down now. We'll continue working hard to deliver you the best experience possible.

That's all I have to say this month, so I'll see you all next time, hopefully with news of Chapter Four's completion (or near-completion) in hand!