About 2025 and Future Plans

Yesterday I mentioned the Castle rebuild. Today I want to talk about what happened in 2025 and the future.

Several reasons and circumstances have led to less than smooth progress in 2025.

This post mainly focuses on this issue and may contain quite a few complaints, so I will summarize it here first:

My future projects will likely involve collaborating with other programmers, or I'll do them myself.

I have to start with the vampire survivors, because this is a project I worked on with that programmer.

On the one hand, I want to train him to be proficient in using Unity, and on the other hand, I want to work with him to prepare for the next project.

Actually, I brought up this project with him in July 2024, and I prepared many proposals, hoping that he would prepare first and understand what this project actually requires.

Sorry, all the images are in Chinese. Please refer to the dates and the number of my proposals.

Each document basically explains what the project requires.

Initially, I estimated that the game should be completed within a year.

However, six months quickly passed, and by February 2025, the project had made no significant progress.

At that time, I assumed he was still getting familiar with Unity.

And during this period, he spent almost all his time working on the compiler.

Considering we would be reusing those compilers later, and that this was probably the amount of time he needed, I didn't say anything.

Several months later, in June 2025, the compiler had everything it needed, and it was time for implementation.

However, the implementation process clearly became extremely difficult.

He can deliver the requirements I've listed, but whether he can do it within the timeframe? I don't know.

Did he encounter any difficulties during the actual implementation? He doesn't discuss these with me.

Can the features he creates work with other features? Unless I specifically ask him to test them, he won't do it.

I'm not denying his programming ability; he can execute any function I ask him to.

In a large project with a dozen or so programmers, where he only needs to focus on a few specific functions, then his approach is indeed acceptable.

The problem is that we're on a small two-person project.

If he has no idea how to proceed with the features we're working on now, or what else might be needed, and I have to give him orders, then the communication costs will become extremely high.

He needs commands to continue; otherwise, he'll just stand there, and we'll make no progress.

I presented a detailed game plan at the very beginning of the project so he wouldn't be clueless about what he should be doing or what the game should look like.

Clearly, he hasn't grasped what the game actually needs.

We changed our approach in mid-December last year.

Previously, he would report back to me after completing a feature; now, he had to report back weekly, regardless of the situation.

But overall, I was just spending more time ordering him to do things I had already written in the project proposal.

I don't even think we can finish Vampire Survivor this year, because he's on three projects simultaneously, which naturally means he has even less time to focus on this project.

A lot of ineffective communication has made me lose patience with this project, which is why I've been working on materials for the next project.

Until January 9th of this year, when I received news that the distributor had successfully resubmit the game which is got banned, I decided to resubmit the Castle in its original form, too.

If the rebuild Castle is rejected by Steam again, I will abandon the Vampire Survivors and move directly to the development of the next project.

But before that, I'll probably need some time to heal my shattered emotions.

While distributors have successfully resubmit some games, there have been failures.

So, unfortunately, I have to assume the worst-case scenario.

That's a summary of my situation from last year to now.

I really, really want Castle to be on Steam, so as soon as I heard the news yesterday, I immediately contacted the distributor to discuss how to proceed.

Since there's an opportunity, I will try; I must try, without a doubt, even though the chances are slim.

All I can do is try my best.

Thank you all again for your help; I wouldn't have made it this far without you.

From my first prototype, "Witch Isis," in late 2014, to the completion of Castle of Temptation, a full 11 years have passed.

As a creator, I think that's quite a long time.

My production speed might not be as fast as before, but I still have games I want to make.

I don't have many other skills; my biggest interest is playing and making games, so I'll probably continue.

As for my desired quality of life, that's still a long way off. If Castle could be on Steam, it would make things much better.

Yes, quality of life—such a basic thing—is prohibitively expensive in Taiwan.

However, I don't want to spend the time moving to another place or country. I guess I just like making things difficult for myself.

I hope 2026 will be a brand new and wonderful year.

Thank you for reading this entire article.

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昨天提到關於Castle重製的事，今天要提在2025年的事，以及未來的情況。

一些原因、情況，導致2025年的進展並不順利。

這篇基本上是提這件事為主，可能有不少抱怨的地方，所以這邊我會先做總結：

我之後的作品很可能會找其他程式合作，或者自己做。

這邊就得先從吸血鬼倖存者這邊說起，因為這是我跟那個程式合作的專案。

一方面要訓練他使用Unity的熟練度，一方面跟他進行磨合來準備下一作的專案。

其實這專案在2024年7月就跟他提了，並準備了許多的企劃案，希望他先做準備並了解這個專案到底需要甚麼。

這邊就看日期跟我提案的數量就好。

基本上每個文案都說明了這個專案需要甚麼。

一開始我預估，這個遊戲應該一年就能完成了。

不過很快半年就過去、到了2025年的2月，這個專案沒有明顯進展。

在那時候我是認為，他可能還在熟悉Unity。

而這段時間他幾乎都在弄編譯器。

考慮到後面可能會重複使用那些編譯器，所以可能就是需要這麼多時間來做，我就沒特別說什麼。

很快又過幾個月到2025年6月，編譯器該有的都有了，也是時候該實做了。

但在實作部分，很明顯進度變的窒礙難行。

我列的需求他是可以做出來，但能不能在時間內做出來？不知道。

在實作時有沒有遇到甚麼困難？他不會找我討論。

做出來的功能能不能跟其他功能運行？除非我主動提出該去測，不然他不會去做。

我不是否認他寫程式的能力，我要求他做什麼功能他是做得出來的。

如果在一個大型專案，程式員有十幾個，而他只需要專注於做某幾個功能的情況下，那他的做法確實沒問題。

只是問題在於，我們是兩個人的小型專案。

如果他對於現在做的功能之後該怎麼做、可能還需要什麼東西這方面沒有概念，都需要我來命令的話，那溝通成本會變得非常高。

他需要命令才有辦法繼續動作，不然他就會停在那，然後我們什麼進展都沒有。

我在遊戲專案一開始就提出關於遊戲詳細的企劃案，就是不希望他不知道自己該做什麼，又或者這個遊戲該是什麼樣子。

很明顯的他並沒有去理解這個遊戲到底需要什麼。

我們直到去年12月中才改變了做法，原本是他做完功能就回報我，變成每個禮拜不管情況如何都要回報一次。

但就整體來說，我只是又多花了時間去命令他去做這些我早就寫在企劃書上的事而已。

我甚至不認為今年有辦法完成吸血鬼倖存者，因為他同時接了3個專案，那他能專注工作於這款遊戲上的時間自然又更少了。

許多的無效溝通讓我對這個專案失去耐性，所以才一直在做下一作的素材。

直到今年的1月9日我收到代理商重新上架遊戲成功的消息，我就決定要讓Castle以它原本的遊戲方式重新上架。

如果重製版的Castle又被steam拒絕，那我會放棄吸血鬼倖存者的專案，直接進行下一作的製作。

不過在那之前，我可能得先花一段時間收拾我碎裂的心情。

代理商雖然有成功讓一些遊戲重新上架，但還是有失敗的例子。

所以沒辦法，我必須得先假設最壞的情況。

以上就我去年到現在的情況。

我是真的非常非常想讓Castle上steam，所以在昨天我一得知那個訊息時，我就立刻找代理商洽談並討論該怎麼做。

既然有機會，那我就會去嘗試，我必須去嘗試，這點無庸置疑，儘管希望不大。

那我能做的只有盡力而為。

再次感謝各位的幫助，靠各位的幫助我才能走到這邊。

從第一個試作品、2014年底的"魔女艾希絲"到現在Castle of Temptation完成，已經過了整整11年了。

以創作者的身分來說，我覺得這個時間算滿長的。

現在製作速度可能沒辦法像之前那麼快，不過我還有想做的遊戲。

我沒其他技能，最大的興趣就是玩遊戲做遊戲，所以應該會繼續做下去。

而離我所想要的生活品質的目標，這個應該還有很遠的距離，如果Castle可以上steam那我會輕鬆不少。

是的，生活品質，這麼基礎的東西，在台灣是貴的遙不可及。

然而我又不想花時間搬家到其他地方或國家居住，就當我喜歡找自己麻煩吧。

總之，期望2026年是一個嶄新美好的一年，感謝各位看完這整篇。