Status Update 002: Upcoming Milestones, Explaining the Base HQ

Now that the first version of the demo is out and development is moving, I thought this would be a good time to explain what our plans are for the next couple months.

I thought the best way to do this is to list out our upcoming milestones. For the non-software developers reading, milestones are short-term goals we're working towards, and they have a list of features or content associated with them that must be met for the milestone to be considered done. It's difficult to work on the entire game at once, so milestones help us focus on the things that are important for the stage of development we are on.

Before that though, let me give a brief overview of what the gameplay loop of Mahou Arms will be like, so that you can understand why the current milestones are what they are:

If you've read the Design Document, this shouldn't be new to you. It's not the full list of things you can do, but I hope it helps you understand the gameplay loop slightly better. Demo001 is a super condensed, skeletal version of this loop.

The idea is that when you're in the base, you are receiving various objectives - things like "take over this zone," "Beat up the boss in Mission 002," "Talk to Amelia, she really wants it right now." Those tasks glue the missions together on a higher level so that what you are doing feels cohesive and is advancing the plot. You might receive a task like, "Build the armor for Girl B so that she can become a magical girl." The armor requires 2 Vespene Gas. You can then deploy Amelia on a mission to collect the 2 Vespene Gas, return, and craft that armor. I'm aware it reads like fetch quests right now, but most of the missions should feel unique and will be uniquely designed.

In a sense, the Base HQ plays the role of the Mission Select screen in a game like Devil May Cry, but there's also the Dating Sim bits in it. It shouldn't feel like an MMORPG NPC giving you endless fetch quests.

To that, you might say: "But wait! that sounds like a lot of work! How long will we have to wait for this?"

And to that, I respond with good news: it's already mostly coded! Just needs a little more hookup code-wise,  a bunch of actual art and UI, and a cute girl somewhere. It can be arted up in 2-4 weeks once work on it continues. Here's a super early prototype video of the crafting system. 

Since the Base HQ is where most of the Dating Sim events and Missions are made available, it is important for it to be finished before we can shift to producing content, as there is no way of accessing Missions, Dates, and H-scenes otherwise. So please be patient while that is being finished.

With that, I can now talk about our milestones for the next 2-4 months. If you want to track our progress towards a particular milestone, here is the document that gets updated as milestone requirements are met. 

- Milestone 1/3: Complete Amelia Moveset.

This milestone's most time consuming tasks are Amelia's casual (non-magical girl) skin, the attacks associated with Amelia's casual mode, a couple of animation assets for additional attacks, and animation polish. The current combat system lacks depth and the piece that makes it unique, so this milestone addresses that.

-Milestone 2/3: Base Mode Art Pass and Mechanic Hookup

This one's most time consuming tasks are adding the enemies and the art pass for the base. After this milestone is done, the core gameplay loop will be available. We can then start producing Dating Sim Events, additional HScenes, and Missions.

-Milestone 3/3: Finished Vertical Slice, Finish (most) Global Mechanics 

This is the part when it should start to feel like a game with content, and not just a demo for one. The first set of missions will be playable. The most time consuming tasks for this milestone are the second part of greyboxing / level design for the Manhattan map, the environment art for it, and the assets for the area's final boss.

As mentioned earlier, this is the document to check out if you want to track our progress. 

Immediately after those milestones are met, development will shift gears to creating new content, the first of which is the next girl for Mahou Arms. :)

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading! Leave a comment if you have any questions.