MEGA Devlog
There have been no updates on the progress of Princess Hunter for a long time. Many of you have been asking what's happening with the game, and some have unsubscribed because they've grown tired of waiting. I had planned to release another devlog back in May, but the plan never c
There have been no updates on the progress of Princess Hunter for a long time. Many of you have been asking what's happening with the game, and some have unsubscribed because they've grown tired of waiting. I had planned to release another devlog back in May, but the plan never came about. However, those who ask shall receive, those who wait shall be rewarded and those who rock shall roll. Today, the most patient among you will finally find out what's going on with PH right now and what to expect in the future. Make yourself comfortable and prepare for an honest account of the ins and outs of game development, with all the intimate details you won't find in other devlogs!
Silent Mode
Our PH social media pages have been inactive since late spring, which has understandably caused concern among our subscribers. There have been no new posts about our progress, no new characters or game lore and no comic strips… Dang it, even regular reposts of works by our dedicated fan artists have stopped! Could it be that Princess Hunter joined the ranks of abandonware that will never see the light of day?..
No way! On the contrary, we have scaled back our public activity to the bare minimum in order to focus entirely on finishing a playable demo. Earlier on, when the artwork and game design were much further along than the coding, we had time for comics and social media. Now that our programmer can work on Princess Hunter full time however, this part has been gaining momentum. The downside is that until the demo is released, all our resources will be focused on development. Our team is small, and this project is a labor of love, so it requires all the effort, time and money we have. In the future, we'll try to strike a balance between working on the project and interacting with the community, like providing regular updates. For now, we hope for your support and understanding.
Another reason for our digital silence, during which there were no reposts of fan art even, is that we have been constantly on the move. Due to the vagaries of life, the writer of the game and this devlog has had to spend a lot of time on the road. Often, without any internet access. However, the most active period of travel is behind us. That means, I'll start catching up on everything our staunch followers have been creating during this time. In fact, I'd like to express my HUGE gratitude to everyone who creates fan art for PH. Thanks to you, our entire team stays motivated to continue working on the project. Thanks to you, others can learn about our pretty monstergirls. You're great!
Global Changes
After conducting some closed playtests and analyzing their results, we concluded that one of the game's core mechanics requires a complete overhaul. That mechanic is exploration, specifically how the player moves around the game world.
As you may remember, the initial idea was as follows: Each level consisted of a number of "clearings" that were connected by paths for the Gunslinger to traverse. In each clearing, he could encounter enemy mobs or find useful items, interactive objects, and so on. Although there were no movement points, this node-based concept made the game appear turn-based.
There are no good or bad mechanics in the abstract; each one must be considered in the context of the actual game along with all its other mechanics and factors. In the case of Princess Hunter, the node-based movement just proved to be the wrong choice.
First, the discrete movement slowed down the game's pace. Although this feature was intended to provide contrast with the actual turn-based combat, it actually felt even slower.
Second, this mechanic limited the player's freedom and prevented the implementation of secret nooks and crannies. Although the game itself was not linear, and the Gunslinger could return to the clearings he had visited earlier and take a different route, progress felt railroaded.
Third, the combination of this movement model (the so-called legacy map) and turn-based card battles created the wrong expectations when we showed early screenshots to people. Most of them thought our game was yet another card roguelike similar to Slay the Spire. So many StS clones have been released in recent years that players have developed a stereotype. Seeing the two mechanics side by side, players have grown to expect short gaming sessions comprised of discrete runs. And because Princess Hunter is in fact a story-heavy RPG coupled with a dating sim, such players would have been very disappointed.
And although we put a lot of effort into making the clearings, we unanimously decided to discard that idea in favor of free movement around large open-world locations, Zelda-style. The 2.5D perspective and the level art won't change significantly. Basically, instead of moving from one clearing to another along predetermined paths, the Gunslinger will be able to walk around in any direction. Mobs will become more MOBile and will sometimes attack the player… and some of them will even have to be chased down! Thanks to many new interaction mechanics, level exploration will be at least 20% cooler.
And these are not just abstract reflections. In fact, many of the things I just described have already been implemented! The first rough tests have shown that this is the right direction. Right now we're working on a large open-world level that you'll see in the demo. Building this level takes more time compared to older, smaller ones, but we're not scrapping the previous groundwork. Everything that has been done will be incorporated into the new location.
Failures and Setbacks
I don't want to dazzle you with all these innovations and make you believe that the project is nearing completion at full speed and that everything we do is a complete success. As with any artistic endeavor, developing a game involves many experiments, but not all of them are successful or at least bring the project closer to release. Developing a game is always a search. For approaches. For solutions. For people, even.
I've long dreamed of including visually impressive cutscenes in the game. And when fate brought me together with a novice yet promising stop-motion artist, I knew I couldn't pass up the opportunity.
Unfortunately, as soon as we shook hands, that talented animator started experiencing one misfortune after another: evading the draft, moving homes, blackouts, and health issues. I'm not superstitious, but I decided that it would be better to end our collaboration, out of fear of causing a tsunami or earthquake that would harm many innocent people. After this short-lived experiment, all that remains is a hole in our budget and a couple of rough GIF animations.
There will definitely be cool cutscenes someday, as soon as we find an animator, or animators, who isn't (so) cursed!
However, after years of daily efforts put into the project, even the most determined and tested members of the developing team (basically, its backbone) can burn out and lose enthusiasm. It can be hard to wait for the release of your favorite game (hello, Silksong!), but imagine the feeling when you are making your favorite game, day after day… only to open the comments section and see messages like "What's taking so long?" or "Are them devs even planning on delivering the game?". Before posting something like that, ask yourselves: What exactly do you want to achieve? If your aim is to hurt the developer and kill yet another spark of motivation in him, then by all means do post it! That works great, even if you get no reply. If, on the other hand, you want to encourage the developers, then comments like "It's been a while, but I still believe in you and I'm looking forward to playing the game! Thank you for all your efforts!" would be a better option.
Don't worry, our core team is still the same. We have rested and are ready to dive back into the development routine with renewed vigor. Hopefully, that will be enough so that you can all eventually enjoy Princess Hunter!
Investment and Finances
Developing a large-scale project like PH requires a lot of resources. Even with regular cutting of various features, such as certain mechanics, plot arcs and content, it's impossible to make a good enough game if one only has free time to work on it. Currently, only the game's writer/team lead/narrative designer and lead artist can do it full time, and recently, like I mentioned above, the programmer has joined us as well. Other than that, we have to rely on outsourced animators, composers, artists, and marketing specialists. We have to pay for everything ourselves because we sincerely love and believe in our project. However, one doesn't have to be a development genius to understand that we would finish the work much faster if we could expand our team and avoid getting sidetracked by odd jobs. That's why I regularly reach out to publishers to raise investments.
The sad truth is that, with over 60k wishlists but no solid demo, our prospects in negotiations with investors and publishers are extremely weak. The Covid days of being able to secure large sums of money having nothing but a snazzy pitch are long gone. Today you need much, much more than that before they will even consider speaking with you. And to obtain remotely acceptable terms, you must have not just an ace up your sleeve, but a whole deck of trumps.
Some time ago, PH caught the attention of a major investor. After several meetings to discuss the budget and project roadmap, we agreed on a sum that would enable us to complete the game within a year. It seemed like a long-awaited victory, but in the end, I rejected that generous offer. It wasn't an easy decision, but I found the proposed terms to be unacceptable. The publisher's percentage was high, but manageable. The problem was that they were also asking for the rights to the entire Princess Hunter franchise, as well as a stake in our company. To me, PH is more than just a game and I cherish ambitious plans to develop this universe; that's why I see any outside interference as an attack on my personal boundaries. Besides, I know too many sad stories from the gaming industry about creators being deprived of the rights to their own creations, from Jon Van Caneghem of Might & Magic fame to Robert Kurvitz, who was swindled out of Disco Elisium. Therefore, I have decided that I would rather spend several more years making the game or look for more favorable terms once we have a working demo. What I don't want is to visit some gaming store one day and see a Princess Hunter Odyssey 7, which I had nothing to do with.
Bottom Line
It was a long read, but it's also been a while since our last devlog. Nevertheless, I provided you with an unadulterated account of how things are going. And from my perspective, they are going quite well.
To sum up:
The project is still on.
The game will have an open world with free movement.
Being an animator is tough.
We were offered to sell out, but we chose to stay poor and free instead.
If you like PH, stay with us. After all, we're making it exactly for people like you ;)
