Welcome to another monthly review post. There's a fair bit this time, so let's jump right in.
Release Dates
The big one first: it is in the best interest of the game to push the planned release date back.
I have been pushing hard for a release on May 13th. In order to do launch right, there are a number of things that need to be in place which just aren't right now. Moreover as the date approached, more and more game content also ended up on the cutting room floor. If I had forged ahead anyway, I'm almost certain it would have ended badly.
I also considered doing an early access release on that day. Some people were strongly in favor of this. Others were considerably less enthusiastic. Ultimately what tipped the balance for me was seeing a YouTuber talking about a different early access game. He said something to the effect of it being a game that they played briefly but then decided to ignore because they didn't want to ruin the experience of playing the finished game. For a game like Dei Gratia Rex, I feel like there is real risk of ruining the final experience by playing an incomplete version, both for content creators and players alike.
This deadline was a hard, external deadline with some consequences attached. It's not the end of the world, but please know that I did not take this decision lightly. That said, the silver lining is that I can now do what's needed for the game without arbitrary deadlines hanging over my head. I still very much want to launch sooner rather than later though.
New Art
In more positive news, most of the new art is in and integrated with the game. The line-fillers I wrote about a while ago now use real art instead of placeholders!
There are new miniatures!
Also those large, uncomfortable stretches of empty space that appeared on some pages tend to get illustrated with weird marginalia now.
Other Stuff
There has been a lot of behind the scenes work. However, now that I can, I have taken the opportunity to add some new utility features. Specifically there's better bug logging, more comfortable unique game IDs (base32 instead of hex), and the player portrait is now a clickable shortcut to the player's character information. Also, as a result of early playtesting, I found that the game wasn't forceful enough when mentioning things that aught to be done, like addressing unfilled council positions or making a big deal about Lent. Notifications of this sort have been improved.
What's Next
More work on the game of course. However, also look for an improved store presence soon-ish. The store page was put up a long time ago, and the game has definitely improved in the interim. I'm not exactly good at making buttons and such either. There is some new branding artwork to tie everything together, and I'll have some help with the redesign. I think it is going to be much better!
More to come next time!