State of the Game - November 2022

October saw a new version and a lot of developments that were exciting to me as a developer and creator for the game. It makes me think about the visibility as a player, and that it probably wasn't very much. I got to see new art assets for blueberry content, but it's not unlocked for players (yet). I got to see new art assets for NPCs, which unlocked a lot of plans that I didn't think were possible, and even planed around because of that. All supporters got to see was a quick cutscene to introduce them, and introduction of some new encounters on the maps after. 

In the meantime, I'm still getting feedback that some of my fixes for some puzzles, and access to some special endings are not working. So I'm circling back to those, because of how much it means to me that players are enjoying the story, something in which I wasn't expecting when I started making this game. Plus I've been learning more and more about not just the engine (RPGMaker MZ) but in game design in general. Which means that I've been able to find much better, practical solutions to the creative ones I came up with prior to find how to make the engine behave differently to make how I wanted the game to work possible.

So October feels more like a humbling month to me than a productive one. Lessons to be learned are to remember to find ways to balance the progress made with visibility so that players can benefit from it just as much as I've enjoyed it. Also, creative solutions may feel cooler than practical, durable, and extendable solutions; the latter just has more far reaching value than the former does. 

So enough reflection. Current work continues on v0.10. The three main goals are:

1) Unlock Blueberry content (Everything but a special ending, for now)

2) Add the new NPCs and at least an introduction to their story in. 

3) Revamp the encounter battle system since I now have more enemies than rocks and signals (And aliens, if you're enjoying the Pregnancy gameplay)

As stated above, I am back to testing and trying to make sure that the puzzles are working, that the objectives and progress for them are better explained, and that the special endings are reachable since that is story and art content that is done already and only locked by the soft gates (puzzles) that should be passable. That can be an unofficial goal 4. I am working on that, I appreciate everyone's patience with my first game ever.

Now for looking forward, we're getting down to the announced line here. November, December, and then the projected release of the final version of the game. I'm really motivated to get to this point. Mainly, so that I can have the first of hopefully many completed games under my belt. So that I can start fresh with all of the new things I've learned so far to make something better. So that I can be ready to use RPG Maker Unite when it comes out, most likely to make a remaster of this game. The only challenge is the new NPC storyline, which again points to the excitement that players have been enjoying the story so far. This is pushing against the deadline, but only by a little.

As for releases, I'll need to come up with something that balances out that I will put a price on the final version. I've come up with a plan to include keys for supporters, but the final protection for supporters' value is that there is still a delayed version for free. For all of this, I'm going to make a separate post that talks about this specifically. 

You guys are awesome; I appreciate your patience. Your feedback not only motivates me, but also helps to find issues that I can improve for the entire player base. Keep it coming!

Thanks!