Hello Everyone!
We are a week off from valentines day, and it has been almost 4 months since chapter 1 alpha launched. Chapter 2 is still in development, game development just takes a long time (especially for one inexperienced person)
Before I get into the meat of this post, here's a progress report estimate for several factors of chapter 2
Abilities: 100%
Map Layouts: 95%
Map Polishing: 55%
Enemy Programming: 70%
Enemy Polishing: 0% (This hasn't really been started yet)
Models/Animations: 0% (See enemy polishing)
Music: 100%
Cutscenes: 25%
Dialogue Writing: 20%
Dialogue: 2%
The main hurdles regarding Chapter 2 involve human models and voices, which is why this list may seem a bit surprising, but once they're conquered for chapter 2, chapters 3, 4, and 5 should be much easier to make.
Now, the info you are really here for...
Even though Everlife is quite small, and doesn't receive as much feedback as other games, I have been paying hefty attention to the feedback I do get, and I have noticed a few people who have identified some problems with the current state of Everlife. Primarily, some people feel the game is unplayable as it is right now.
Of course, this opinion isn't shared by everyone, and an easy mode does exist, but there should be almost no one saying that about the first level of a game.
So as such, Murky Mansion will receive the following changes on Chapter 2's release.
-Ghost speed reduced from 1350 units to 1200 units (UE4 units, the player moves at a speed of 1500 units)
-Ghost numbers reduced from 8 to 6
For easy mode...
-Ghost speed reduced from 900 units to 800 units
-Ghost numbers reduced from 6 to 4
These changes should allow Murky Mansion to become more suitable as an introductory level, along with the variety of graphical improvements the environment has gone through.
Another common complaint is that the game is currently way to short, due to only one level being in the game. This will of course be addressed in chapter 2, which will increase the level count to 3/13 of the levels planned for the game, which begs the question...
What's going on with the chapter 2 levels?
The concept of Everlife is each level should be bigger and more difficult than the one before it, so Ideally, Tsundere Terror (Level 2) should be more difficult than Murky Mansion, and Game Grievance (Level 3) should be more difficult than Tsundere Terror (additionally, the art for this post is from that 3rd level, though it's still a Work In Progress)
The chapter 2 levels introduce doors and traps into Everlife's set of mechanics, and it has been a challenge to find the right balance of how they should fit into the levels, hopefully when the game releases, you'll feel the traps are well balanced and not to overwhelming for levels 2 and 3 (Murky Mansion of course, has no traps)
Additionally, both The High School and The Arcade are much more detailed environments than the mansion (even post-upgrades), meaning they'll take a bit longer to create. The High School's environment is practically finished (minus balance changes and necessary polish that still needs to get underway), though the arcade is taking much longer to create (due to it being bigger than Murky Mansion and Tsundere Terror combined)
And finally, there is one last topic I would like to address, which has also been addressed in the early access page.
Chapter 2 will be a paid DLC, likely costing about 99 cents to purchase (Or about 1 dollar), and I would like to address the reasoning behind this.
The full version of Everlife of course, will have 5 chapters, just like several other games you may be familiar with (Dark Deception, Bendy and the ink machine, etc.), and will likely be about 10 dollars, though the full version will likely have a bundle that's a bit cheaper.
The way I hope you'll see this is that you'll be able to play a small piece of the game for free (like a demo) and then will be able to decide about purchasing future content for the game, that way you'll know what the game is like before you buy the rest of it.
With that said, I am certainly nervous about Chapter 2 being a paid DLC. Chapter 2 will have much more content than chapter 1 (tripling the level count and at least quintupling the playtime), though it still won't be that big. I want to ensure I can create a (piece of a) product that is worth paying a dollar for, and I don't want players to feel like they aren't getting their potential money's worth out of my game. As such, I intend to work to create an enjoyable experience that will leave players excited for other future updates (notably, chapters 3, 4, and 5)
That concludes all the information I have to share with you, if you have any other questions, feel free to ask in the comments or email [email protected]
Thanks for reading! :)