Pledger's Update

Hello everyone! Hope everyone is doing well!

I have finally recovered from my illness and I used that time to relax and think about my plans and objectives for this project. I've been working on many things, along with upgrading the current engine from Godot 3.5 to Godot 4.0.

Along with that, I've reprogrammed many of the features, and have optimized and fixed many of the original bugs and issues I had previously. I have already almost finished reprogramming most of the original systems!

I have also made the call to remove one of the largest scope creeps on the project; the 3D overworld. Despite it being an ambitious and amazing idea, it created a massive work sinkhole which we were not equipped to handle between 1-2 people at the time. Along with that major scope increase, there were many issues with the Lighting, the textures and the scenes lagging due to the materials and the inefficient 3D system in the old Godot Engine.

You may ask, why remove all that work? Well there are other issues like the time it takes to create a full 3D level and all of the bugs, optimization and other fundamental skills and time needed just to make them functional. It would take at least 2-3 months per zone and at that rate the game will take significantly longer than the intended scope. Along with extra 2D sprites, and all of the time it takes to make a single 3D object just for a 3D overworld, which served only as navigational and explorative functionality.

So in place of that, I've implemented and designed the 2D Manor Foyer, which I drew in a matter of a day and a half, in comparison to designing the 3D version of the Foyer, which took around 3-4 weeks. I will be using the 3D objects to assist me in the perspective and keep the original vision of each of the rooms as I draw each of the scenes.

The backgrounds are animated and interactable! You can click on objects and things will have dialog, along with the characters hanging out in the rooms. You will be able to move between these areas and rooms like a point and click adventure! I wanted to have something unique about the game so I thought for quite a long time of what I could replace the overworld with, to get a similar effect of exploring. 

Additionally, the 2D backgrounds will have unique animations and will be a higher quality than the 3D assets. They are also reusable in scenes throughout the story, and they only add to the style and theme of the game, something I had difficulty doing in 3D. So overall, I believe this was a great change, and I hope when I am able to show the results, perhaps you'll enjoy it as well!

And finally, as a closing statement, I believe this will be very achievable with completing the project within the time frame. I may release the introduction by itself which is a very short part of the game, likely less than 1 hour of content to have people check out the game. There would only be 1 ero scene but its a good slice of the project. This was something that has always been very close to completing, but I did saw I wanted to at least give everyone up to the end of Chapter 1 since there is at least 2-3+ hours of reading and content and many more scenes to show off. We will see what ends up happening. 

As for the workload, I will be focusing on programming, assets and the final touches of the writing this month (Dialog and Chapter 3 Completion). Progress has actually been well, and I believe I can still achieve the demo within a few months as planned! I will update my progress in a few weeks so I will see you soon! Take care and thank you for your constant support! I appreciate everyone of you who has been around for as long as you have, thank you!

PS: I may have living situation changes relatively soon, so I may have 1-2 weeks where I will be resolving that, so I hope it is settled quickly so I can return working on the project! 

- Miz