Progress Update

happy i found this on parton.. i just need to download and test >.>

I think everyone hit the nail on the head regarding the finishing work on a demo. I am not a game designer but I agree mechanics and function should be a more important development priority then looks and fine details. I became a supporter to see how this game is devolving and will be willing to donate more but only if the development is progessing. My current opinion is the game is awesome. I can't wait to see a more finished product and am willing to wait a little longer for a more finished product.

Whitefangz

I'm looking forward to release, man. My body is ready.

McSpazz

thanks. trying to find the middleground here for everyone.

ViperV

Yeah, man. noted. As I said in another reply, I'll release the stage demo next monday with whatever i accomplish. finished or not.

ViperV

yeah, that's actually a wise decision and i'm glad and thankful you're still with us despite the setbacks. as for adding stuff, they're more like adjusting to the current limitations of the game i'm trying to present. Despite it looking as if a polished addition this is actually what you say about establishing the core parts of the game. That is what I am doing right now because development will always have these hurdles. If I meet this thing again midway development, it will cause bigger problems so I am dealing with it now.

ViperV

Have to agree with most everyone here. All the progress I've been seeing is from Chris. With you it's one redesign after another. Nobody is expecting this to be the perfect game, and no game will ever be perfect. Please understand your limitations as a single developer and work on actually finishing the core of the game before going off on a thousand tangents, none of which seem to amount to anything. Nobody cares if there are pits or walls. Nobody cares if there is a label for bullets. Not when there isn't even a working demo. Polish can wait for the final release, the demo is to show us what you and chris have done now. And in this day and age, nothing is forever. The saying should be "a bad game can eventually be patched. A perfect game will die in development hell."

Ghost

Looking good so far. And I understand when you get a new idea in your head, you have to follow it. It's best to delay a good game than release a bad game that lasts forever.

Totally agree, I've been a patron for over a year now I believe. Brought down my patron number when i realize the pace of the production would go over my donation budget xD I don't regret donating to this fund, but I do feel like u keep adding stuff. Ur LITERALLY not seeing the forest through the trees with the addition of this wall tile set. I love the idea, but this is something u add when u have more of the core game figured out. An extra layer of of polish that will make the experience "feel" better. Not something thrown on top of a workload that could already be seen as behind schedule :/

Also, on my previous comment that disappeared, user <a href="https://www.patreon.com/user/creators?u=2621089">Matt</a> replied: "This is exactly how I've been feeling as well, as someone who has been a patron for over a year. The entire thing seems like it could be summed with as "Feature creep" "

MartinX

*OK, I think I keep breaking Patreon's comment system with my long comment, but here's another try: (Long post incoming, so just as a note, I'm not trying to pointlessly rant at you or bash you with this comment or anything - I simply want to express some thoughts. After all, I wouldn't be supporting this game in the first place if I was actually unsatisfied with what I was seeing) This demo really feels like a mirage in a desert - every time you think it is just around the corner, it turns out it's somewhere far in the distance (I'm sure the other old patrons who've been supporting Divine Arms since the beginning, ~1.5 years ago, can relate). I remember seeing other posts in the past which also had a clear list with bullet points showing tasks to be completed before the demo is "finished" (plus the graphical roadmap most recently), but some new tasks or redesigns always seem to appear every time, even though the scale of the next demo has gone down from the originally planned one to the "raw demo" with raw scenes and the new minigame, to the stage demo with 5 stages and no scenes or minigame, to "1 - 2 Crystal Stages" as mentioned in the last post. And yeah, I know that whole engine rework that was made was probably the main culprit responsible for most of this. So about this new list (+ some links of past lists): - I thought the glory beam graphics and animation were finished and tested long ago, since I remember you talking about them last July and you even showed this picture: <a href="http://i.imgur.com/GbdjBx3.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://i.imgur.com/GbdjBx3.jpg</a> from this post: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/update-news-6063714">https://www.patreon.com/posts/update-news-6063714</a> Still, this doesn't sound like a big obstacle to overcome. - As for the Halocopters, I also believed you were done with them since you mentioned that their rework was complete last September: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/poll-results-and-6890888">https://www.patreon.com/posts/poll-results-and-6890888</a> Now I hope I'm not oversimplifying things, but the thing about putting a UI label which displays some already implemented bullet-count variable sounds really simple to do. - Enemy roam AI actually does sound complicated, but apparently you're saying it will be "easy" lol, so I hope it doesn't cause trouble. - From the post above I understand that the new tilesets are finished, but you now need to redesign the actual stages with them, so again, hopefully it doesn't prove too time-consuming. And now for the million-dollar question! How long will all this actually take? A few days? A week? A month? Half a year? Another 1.5 years lol? In any case, after this demo I really hope we can see a proper schedule regarding future Divine Arms releases, even if it means smaller, more frequent game updates (something you yourself said in the past would be appropriate). And yeah, Chris' animations in the post above are stunning as always. If you actually had to do them by yourself as well, I would have to seriously wonder whether I would ever live to see Divine Arms completed haha.

MartinX

That last gif was absolutely beautiful. Keep up the good work!

Jason Liu