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Brief Progress/Life Update and Showcasing the Jukebox!

Howdy, ya'll!

Brief Progress Report

Firstly, I'd like to give a brief update on the game itself. Chapter Five is still very much on track to hit my target of being out to my beta testers by the middle of June. In fact, I'd say it might be done and ready towards the end of May. More on that later. Going into the specifics, Chapter Five's daily life and its investigation are completely, one-hundred percent finished. Furthermore, I've already made a decent bit of headway into the trial. I currently have approximately half of the second rebuttal finished. Taking into account the trial's total number of rebuttals/cross-examinations/etc., this means the trial is approaching the 25% mark. Approximately. If it isn't there already. It's been a fun time making the trial so far. Chapter 5's trial really shakes things up in a variety of ways while still staying true to the foundation that's been laid out throughout the game up until that point. Not that the rest of the trials don't feel special in their own rights, but it feels a bit like a breath of fresh air.

Life Update

Now for something completely different. I have a full-time, 40 hours a week job that I do on top of making Forge:Re. Between the two, You can basically sum up my life for the past year and half. Actual work, work on Forge:Re, play a few hours of other games to unwind, eat, sleep, repeat. That's all about to change. Lately, work has been abysmal, and while I won't get into the details, it's only going to get worse. So, to make a long story short, I'm quitting my job. I would have had to drop down to part time anyways because I'm going back to school this Fall, so it's not actually all that big of a deal. However, for reasons I again don't really care to get into, I won't be going out and getting another job for about a month and a half after I leave my current one. And even when I do get one, I'll only be working two or three days a week as opposed to five.

This isn't the most positive news for my wallet, but it's exceptionally good news for Forge:Re. Essentially, I'm going to have limitless time to work on Forge:Re starting on May 4th, my first day of freedom. Now, do not misinterpret this. I am not a robot. This does not mean I am going to sit down for eight hours every day working on Forge:Re. A lot of days, I can barely get myself to write for three or four hours. However, this does mean that the speed at which Chapter Five is finished and the entire game gets edited should noticeably speed up.

That's all I'm going to say. I'm not going to make any hard promises for fear of breaking them. This is going to be the first time I've worked on the game while jobless/not in school since... since I first started working on the game almost three years ago during my summer vacation! I don't know how it's going to go. But, hopefully, with the strong work ethic I've maintained ever since picking Forge:Re back up a year and a half ago, development will proceed at a healthier pace than ever.

Jukebox

This is a little something I wasn't originally planning on including in the main game. Originally, this was a feature meant to show up solely in School Mode. However, now that the main game and School Mode are two separate beasts that are releasing independently of one another, I figured there's no reason not to stick it in the main game as well.

I know I've mentioned it in the past, but Forge:Re uses a hell of a lot of music, and from all different places. The main game's soundtrack has grown to a pretty lofty number of ~175 songs. Some are one-time affairs. Some play several or many times throughout the game. It's probably about half and half between those that play only a single time and those that don't. Anywho, music is a huge part of Forge:Re. It's influenced me and Forge:Re itself in many ways, and I use it throughout the game in various ways for various effects.

So, imagine yourself sitting there, playing Forge:Re. A song starts playing and you go, "Huh. That's a weird song. Let me listen to it again." Or, "Wow! This song is great! I wonder where it came from!" Maybe even, "I wonder why Marche put this objective piece of trash in the game." That's where the jukebox comes in!


A snapshot of the Jukebox's main menu, which for the purposes of these screenshots has been called up in the middle of a trial.

The jukebox is a fancy little gadget you get access to very early on into Forge:Re. Right after the opening scenes, basically. You can call it up at almost any time in the game (keyword almost). Essentially, you'll be able to pull it up anytime during normal dialogue. You won't have access to it during animations or while choices are displayed on the screen for you to choose from for the most part. The animations because I don't think you should be able to interrupt animations in the first place. And the choices because I'm afraid things may get a bit glitchy if I do.


A snippet of the songs introduced in the Prologue.

Songs in the jukebox will only become available for listening after reaching the end of the scene they first appear in. Until then, they will be marked as '???'. Now, you may notice in the screenshot above that some song titles are in yellow while others are in white. There's a reason for that. Titles colored in yellow come with developer commentary, where I explain why I chose a certain song, describe the feelings I intended for it to evoke, discuss recurring motifs, and so forth. Sometimes, I'll even talk about how a certain song replaced another song! Fun and insightful comments like that will hopefully make the jukebox an enlightening feature for those of you who share as much of a love for music and the philosophies behind it as I do.


A list of handy information is displayed whenever you play a song.

But of course, credit where credit is due. Any time you pull up a song, you'll be met with several helpful pieces of information. The title I gave each song (for Forge:Re's purposes), the song's original title, the work of origin, the composer (if a soundtrack was composed by a team, I make sure to look into the individual who composed a specific track, where possible), and a picture of the album art from the work of origin. In this way, the proper persons get the credit they're deserved and you, the player, are free to look a song up on Youtube or do some research on the work it came from.

Who knows! You might find a song you really like and want to listen to more! Or maybe you'll find your new favorite game through some of the music I utilize! However much or little you use the jukebox and whatever you take away from it, please enjoy its inclusion to your heart's content.




That's all I have to say for today's update! Tune in next month, where I'll very likely be reporting in that the trial is complete! And once the trial's finished, there will be relatively little left to accomplish before the chapter's ready for release (to my beta testers, of course). See you then!