Contents:
1) Interaction with community
2) The report about development progress
3) General conversation
Interaction with community
I’d like to hear your opinion about the combat system. Maybe you have any suggestions? I’m trying to figure out how to make this system more interesting.
The combat system both in the first/second episode is based on a pretty simple principle (rock, paper and scissors). There are enemies who dodge attacks, you have to use pierce attacks and build up your rage. There are regular and heavy enemies, those you have to crush using heavy blows.
I thought about making a few strikes available right from the start of the fight, i.e. they won’t depend on rage points. In order to avoid you spamming them, we’d add cooldown. Maybe some of you have any suggestions regarding how to make enemies more diverse? Leave your thoughts in the comments down below. Of course, not everything you want can be implemented but about that later.
Mind you, we’re not interested in hearing such things as: «Drop the combat system, focus on the story». We have scriptwriters who write the story, they’re only focused on the story and aren’t doing anything else.
For an upcoming intermediate release, we have the following stuff finished:
1) Meeting Mrisya in the inn
2) The apothecary. Three new random events, just to add to the atmosphere and one bonus scene (you have to unlock it). It’s unlocked just by visiting the apothecary a few times.
3) The armory. Three new random events, just to add to the atmosphere.
4) Ilga’s house. New events when visiting her.
5) River. Two new events upon going there.
6) The purification event (it starts automatically)
7) An alternative branch for Fuhrim
8) Alternative ways to start a quest line with vampires
9) Kilena’s branch is slightly rewritten (we’ve added more logic to her actions)
10) Progress of relationship with Fiona
11) A lot of new ways to spend time in the brothel. (Lillina)
12) A few more small random events.
We decided to cut out a completely finished event in the forest. There are so many events happening one after another in the span of these three playable days that we decided to leave it for the third episode.
Events which are rendered and written but not in the code yet:
1) Elana.
2) Four new small events with Sarah.
3) Dreams.
4) A small event with Higrith
5) The first day of investigation is almost done. (aside from a few text edits)
Quests that aren’t ready yet
1) The second day of the investigation. The text’s almost ready, it’s being proofread now. We won’t need that many renders there, it’s going to be mostly dialogues. Therefore, the renders can be reused sometimes.
2) The alternative branch for Sarah. It’s mostly different only in terms of text, but I’ll have to remake some of the renders to fit this new story.
3) Some more small events are possible.
4) The finale of the episode.
The technical stuff:
1) We made QTE sequences two times simpler for the easy difficulty. I tested it myself, there’s enough time to get your hand out of your pants and kick Fuhrim’s ass.
2) The MC is stronger now when you play on easy difficulty
3) We’ve nerfed the last mercenary you fight at the barge for all difficulties (he was way too strong), but we’ve significantly boosted Fuhrim. If someone’s scared of Fuhrim, you can just let him go. It’s not necessary to fight him.
Overall, the easy difficulty now means you can play the game without leveling up.
4) We’ll add some practical use to the already existing items in the game. Kagera’s amulet, Melora’s ring (I still haven’t come up with a buff that this ring might give to a player), and a vial with blood. You’ll be able to equip these items using a slot for amulet (via your inventory)
To be added in the third episode:
1) Perks
2) The option to sell amulets in the temple.
As for questions like:
- You promise the implementation of perks for so long, is it really that hard to make them?
The answer is yes. The Ren’Py engine is made for visual novels. It’s not built for games like ours. Our coder is trying to squeeze everything he can out of that engine using all his knowledge and skills.
- Then why do you make a game like yours using the engine which isn’t built for these purposes?
Simply because our coder knows this engine. When we started making games, we would do visual novels for the lack of experience in making any other games.
General conversation.
As usual, let’s analyze comments about the game:
1) You got rid of grinding, micromanagement and that basically useless leveling up system – that’s good!
2) You made a good Russian translation right at the release without any bugs – that’s good!
3) You added exclamation and question marks where they’re needed for the quests – that’s even better!!!
4) Once again you release an unfinished short story, where some of the dialogue options lead you to a message saying «work in progress», this is disgusting! Like, seriously, this is not that kind of a game you need to work on balance for years, trying to make new textures and places. Why keep it early access for so long? Are you just trying to get some money as soon as possible? It’s silly, the game’s split into episodes which isn’t great and mixed reviews won’t do any good to the sales either.
Our answer:
1) It depends on the player. Some like it, some not so much.
2) Yep, that we can.
3) As usual, some players don’t like it. However, since we had to split the game into episodes, which impacted the density of quests, we had to add it.
4) Yeah, why else would you release a game into early access? Mixed reviews only hurt my self-esteem, and they do it less and less with each passing day. Lately I’ve been going through these mixed reviews with pleasure. I wouldn’t say that I noticed any real negative impact from having mixed reviews in terms of sales.
Overall, of course we all work for money. Like any other person out there. What else do people work for? What do you work for? Of course, we like our job, but we’d also prefer not to work at all. It’s possible that one day I won’t have to work anymore. No, it’d be correct to say that I’d work only for my own pleasure. I mean, it’s more like a dream right now, it’s clear that we’re making a niche product, but I’m satisfied with the income I get from my «niche».
Lately I’ve been working in a quite slow tempo. Yes, sometimes we have to crunch but overall, I’m trying not to overwork myself as much as possible. After all, the income of our team and my income directly depends on the release of new games.
And yes, we’re doing this for money. I think it’s obvious. What matters is that I’m not willing to do anything for «money». There’s a type of content I don’t want to add even though adding it usually means a lot of money. However, I’m simply ashamed to add that type of content. What I’m not ashamed of is releasing an early access of the game. The game will eventually come out of early access. The people who’d already bought it saved money compared to those who’ll buy it only once it’s a finished product. Everyone was warned that the game isn’t finished. Why’d you buy an unfinished product? Did I force you? Or did I hide the fact it’s not finished? If this wasn’t clear by reading the game description, how do I make it even more obvious?
Overall, if nothing happens, we’ve got a few more months of work ahead of us. However, something does usually happen, someone gets sick or some personal problems appear, etc. That means delays but we hope that we’ll be able to avoid all that.
We all wait for the release. You wait to be able to finally play it, we wait to earn some more money out of it. That’s all for now.