Devlog: March Report (2022)

Hey guys, it's been a while!

First thing first, I'm sorry for such a long delay. When I was writing my last post back in February, I was certain that even in the worst case scenario, I will be able to release the new build around 3rd, maybe 4th March max.

Unfortunately, it didn't happen, and the reason behind such a big delay is, as you can probably already guess, the current situation in Europe.

I have to clarify right away - while I wasn't directly affected by the Russian invasion, as a resident of Poland (which borders both Ukraine and Belarus), I'm still shocked by what happens only a few hundred kilometers away from my home.

The longest three weeks

The first week (starting 25 February) was the worst, because the lost sense of security absolutely tore me apart and even though I tried not to, all I could think of were the darkest scenarios of what might happen to my country, if this conflict escalates further. With the beginning of the new month, I finally stopped reading the news (as I came to realize how bad it is for my mental health), and thankfully, it wasn't long before I resumed my normal daily life, and by extension, my work on the game...

...Which turned out to be one big frustration, because what I previously thought was a good script, after coding it in, turned out to be a mediocre experience at best - the dialogues didn’t hit the way they should, and there was something off about the general flow of the scene.

And so, the rewrite-fest started, and oh boy, I have no idea how it’s possible, but it lasted for over ten days. The thing is, I've never had this difficulty to complete the build - usually the closer I am to finish it, I feel more invigorated and hyped up for the release, but this time it's different. This time, for some reason, I feel so burned out that I can't even look at RPG Maker UI anymore. What’s worse, I have serious difficulty immersing myself into the scene to feel the characters and write more of their thoughts, so working on that last part of this build is also a slog.

It’s not that bad, though

Okay, but enough of this self-pity. Despite everything I keep my head up and continue working hard - if things will go as planned, tomorrow I will have the script for the last scene ready, and so, I will only have to code the last 10% of the game and prepare placeholder CGs. Everything I worked on before that is already coded-in and polished, so it shouldn’t be long before the next Patreon update.

The current plan is to:

• test play the game with my proofreading team this weekend,
• release the next Patreon demo around 22th March,
• post Bonus Content for Tier3 patreons (around 25th March),
• post Bonus Content for both Tier2 and Tier3 (in exchange for the lack of the demo last month), by the end of the month,
• open a poll for Tier3 patrons in which we’ll decide for the next batch of updates (Angus or Rowley).

...And that will be all for now.

Once more I'm sorry for the delay and for such a gloom-and-doom post.

Hopefully it won't be long before things get back to the way they used to be.

See you guys soon, and as always, thank you for your support!