January Progress Report (Battle Code Revamp)

This month's main priority has been an overhaul of the battle system on the code architecture side of things as we come up with better ways to implement something that lets us have fine-tuned customization over each of the 100 general effects/calculations and the 55 things we check for in order to trigger them. Plus double-checking the feasibility of the 360 different moves we have planned.

Basically, the way we have the battles programmed right now isn't flexible enough to account for many of the unique mechanics that can make this game's battles more interesting than people would expect from a little indie Pokémon wannabe project. Lots of synergies, strategy setups, and abstract variable manipulation that makes up this game's secret sauce that makes it feel special. Something we'd like to be available for playtesting once we go public with the game again for the first time since 2017.

In an effort to not post a bunch of technobabble here, I'll say it's been a difficult challenge and we've had some stressful nights over this one, even briefly considered scaling down bigtime with the combat system, but we're pulling through. Should have it all sorted out by the end of the month and we can focus on gameplay balance and polishing the animations for all the moves and effects in the 2 weeks after that. 

But in short this does mean we are once again behind schedule, and have therefore decided to hold off on the public playable demo we originally had planned for February 3rd. 

The Combat Demo, the YouTube Videos, the Grant Applications, the New Website, the Presskit, the YouTuber Outreach, and general hype and excitement of bringing the game out for the world to see...

That'll all be happening on March 3rd now. Giving us an extra month to make sure our first impression is a great one. It'll also insure the most difficult part of the game's development is behind us and no more major code restructure setbacks are necessary.

From March 2021 onward, every monthly update should be a very juicy one with tons of things you guys can actually see screenshots of!

Speaking from the bottom of our hearts, we wanna thank you (as in you specifically, dear Patron who's been incredibly patient with this growing development team). Your contributions have made 2020 survivable and is the main lifeline for our journey into 2021. 

Excitement continues to build for what is to come, and we can't wait to get a highly polished rock-solid game in your hands to really show the game's potential.

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Thank you for following its development all this time. Knowing people care makes us all feel a little less crazy for tending to these pixelated ponies every day.