Development Update and Information

Hello everyone,

Time for an update on things. First and foremost, I've put the last pledge to use and gotten a number of commissions in progress:

Menus: There are currently three menus that need to be created. Equip Menu, Status Menu, and Achievements. The equip menu was pretty straightforward and is basically done. The Status Menu is in progress and the Achievements menu is in late stage planning. The status and achievements menus are the important ones. The status menu will contain useful information for tracking how Aylia is growing and for monitoring H-related stats. The achievements menu is tied to a perk system in the game that will unlock a number of Aylia's skills.

Gameplay: Commission work has begun on a world map and developing a fairly straightforward world-travel system. I've never intended for Aylia's Story to be a walking simulator, so when you leave an area like Zalran, you'll be taken to a world map and will travel to other areas around Talyron. If you've played the Kagura game Ambrosia, it used a similar system, although this one will be a bit more complex.

Music: I've ordered a few more songs to be commissioned.

Game Development: Now, I'd like to take a moment to talk about the game development itself. I've been steadily working on adding in-game content as well. Unlike the prologue, once you get to Chapter 1, things open up a bit more. The player is given the ability to basically travel around Zalran and the surrounding areas as they please. To achieve this, I had to spend some time setting up a foundation to build from. I wanted to tell you a little about that.

I'm aiming for a quality experience. Meaning, I'm trying to avoid the cookie-cutter gameplay you see in many game where there are set progression lines (e.g. work in the tavern stage 1/2/3, help the farmer stage 1/2/3). This type of system works, and I've enjoyed games that utilize it, but I'm really hoping to push the envelope a bit and create a slightly more organic experience.

For example, each day you'll find different Zalran residents in different areas, engaging in different conversations. If you helped Drake deal with munchkins the day prior, you might find him sitting in Voran's bar talking about that. Or, you might find Kira dealing with the annoying advances of Tian by the main square. I find this type of organic experience fascinating, and while I am well aware of the limitations in being a single developer, I believe I can also manage to incorporate some of this into the game. I bring up this last point though just to temper expectations somewhat. While I am excited about how things are coming together, it is still a RPG Maker game with a number of limitations.

The second aspect of this is in the quests themselves. I've played a lot of games in my time, and I'm plenty aware of what "filler quests" are. In that light, the quests I'm building are meant to be mini experiences, not a simple grind. That doesn't mean I won't use something like a "fetch quest" as a template, but it will be more involved and include experiences along the way. 

One of the first quests, Lida's Flowers, provides an example of what I mean. While the core of the quest is a fetch quest to obtain certain flowers for Lida to make dye, right from the onset, Aylia is given the option to allow Kira to accompany them. If she chooses to do so, this will unlock a number of interactions throughout all Zalran and around the way specific to Kira being in the group. Later, when unexpected things happen, Kira's presence drastically alters how the party deals with it. Also, if Kira doesn't accompany the group, the interactions change as well as later quest scenes. So, it's not a pointless choice where one option is clearly superior. In this regard, something as simple as going to fetch some flowers offers an actual experience.

Release Status: I say all this in part to give you all a window into what I am doing and why sometimes it takes time. The next release is not quite ready as I had to spend a good portion of my time the last two weeks planning the commissions and putting together the necessary materials to allow those commissions to be worked on. It's also taken a bit of time planning a coherent switch/variable system to build the dynamic foundation I'm aiming for. Some of this was in place in VX Ace and I was able to get a head start from there, but I've also learned a lot about what I can and can't do as a single developer. Meaning, what I'm building now in MV is more streamlined and manageable than the VX Ace game ever was. That said, this is the Year of the Tiger and I am REALLY going to try and get this release out the door as a holiday present to you all and myself. Development is continuing to get faster, and if I can get a substantial release out within 2 months of the last release, I'll consider that a pretty big win. Remember, this release is already paid for, so there will not be any more pledges coming up.

Thank you for your support!

P.S. I'll be posting a patron poll next week!