Why the updates have been taking longer lately + about the next update

~Long read ahead, get a coffee or some snack before you start~

Hello everyone !

For those who’ve played the new update, how have you been liking it so far?

So no PoL for this week because I’ve got nothing to say on HC3. I haven’t started working on the new update yet, as I’m taking a little bit of time off. I’ll go back to working very soon though.

Instead, I’I’ll be taking this opportunity to explain why the updates have been taking longer lately. Back in the day, I could release one every 30 days. Now it can take up to six weeks. Long story short, it requires more work than before. Nothing too extraordinary, but more details below (skip till after the "---" if you're not interested).

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Personally, I don’t think I’ve been working less than before, but that’s easy to say when no one can verify. On the contrary, ever since I came to Japan, I’ve had more time to dedicate to the game, so I might be working more than I used to a year ago.

So, why are the updates taking more time? Well, basically, the length and overall complexity of each update has been slowly going up.

1) I’ve been taking a lot of feedback from players, and I try my best to incorporate it within the game, which means the amount of stuff that I try to add in each new update grows exponentially. It could be some more depth in the story-telling part, a few gameplay improvements, or more complexity in the visuals department. The thing is, if I add it in one update, I’ll try to add it in all subsequent updates, which means more and more work as time passes.

For example, you might have noticed the freeroam events getting more and more complex over the last few updates, to the point of turning into mini-scenes? Well, since people liked those, I plan on keep rolling with this concept, but it obviously takes more time to implement.

2) As I try to implement new ideas and expand on already existing ones to spice things up, restricting myself only to the already existing maps is often impossible, which means I need to make new maps. It’s been especially true in the last two updates.

Back during HC2, I used to make those maps in the built-in map editor, but now they’re made by hand in GIMP/Photoshop to make them look better and more “organic”, which is a lot more time-consuming.

3) Recently, for some reason, I always try to go one update = one quest, except that, similar to point (1), they’ve been growing in size and length a lot.

To explain it with numbers, I need to do a bit of explaining on how RPGMaker works. RPGMaker uses a system called “switches”, which could fulfill a lot of functions, like trigger an event or a scene, make a freeroam event or a character appear, change the speed of an animation, or even a character’s expression. About a year ago, one update took around 300 switches to make. Update 14’s quest took ~590 in total.

4) Visuals have improved. A lot. I don’t mean the new character design, but simply that I’ve been commissioning 2 artists (sometimes up to 5 at a time during busy periods) to either make custom animations or standalone sprites constantly lately, while back in the days I commissioned one artist from time to time when I needed an extra animation. You’d be forgiven to think that it should make development faster, but it’s the contrary actually.

For each artist I commission, I need to write a detailed explanation + scour the internet for references, or make them myself with stick figures. It’s a lot longer than just sticking a character’s head onto a bald animation like I used to before ; )

There, that’s about all I had to say. Please, don’t think of this as a rant or anything, because it’s not. I barely had anyone complain about the extra time it took for the new updates honestly. All I wanted was to keep you guys in the loop and up-to-date on what’s going on and how I develop the game you’re enjoying.

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About the upcoming update:

I was hesitating on whether I should make the next update about the main quest or make it about Haylen. I wanted to make a poll and ask you guys, but I’ve decided to go with Haylen for Update 15 instead.

I know this will rub some people the wrong way, and I’m sorry, but I thought this was the best way to go about it. I don’t want to focus too much on the main quest and then have to add a bunch of side-quests before the endings to make up for how far behind the side-girls are. I might try to make Haylen’s quest shorter so I can squeeze the beginning of the new main quest in Update 15 as well, we’ll see.

Thank you for reading, and have a wonderful week!

N_Taii

PS: the new update will be released for the Grunt Tier on Thursday : )