Hey all,
I wanted to jump on and let you guys know what's been occurring and what'll be occurring in the coming months.
I'll start by saying that Wizard and I are no longer working together. I'm not going to go into much detail about why, but work from the both of us over the last 6 months to a year just hasn't been as good as it should have been, and I think it'll be better for the game if I continue on my own. I made promises of speedy releases, and over the last 2 months, we have around 300 lines of code and around 40 renders to show for it, which isn't on at all. Wizaed said he had another 700 lines done, but I never saw it, so I can't honestly vouch for it. I have no reason to disbelieve him, but it never made its way into my hands.
So, what does that mean for The Cabin? Well, the first thing I've done is pause Patreon payments ( which wont effect you guys ), and they'll continue to be paused until I make some progress. The second thing I want to do is go back through episodes 1–5 and make notes of any plot points and track all variables so I know what everything does. The third will be to write out a plot for the entire game, something I've wanted to do for a long time but could never get Wiz to agree on. The process of tracking variables, plotting points, and writing a draft of the whole game should take me around a month ( but could move into 2 ), and I hope to have it finished by the end of March. Once that full draft is done, I'll then convert episode 6 into a renpy playable script and work on the art for it, which I hope will take another month, but that process could be as long as 2 months. Once episode 6 is finished and released, I will then convert every other game episode into renpy format and get the whole of the game finished (in terms of script) before starting on the art for episode 7. I want to do that since that'll make releases past episode 7 so much faster.
I know it sounds like a weird way of doing things, but trust me, it's what I did for Nordstrums Treasure, and I loved the process of doing that. I know this'll make the process at The Cabin faster, and I know it'll make me start enjoying working on The Cabin again.
I know this isn't the news anyone wanted to hear, but I feel like it's something I have to do if I want to have any hope of actually finishing The Cabin. I think in 2023 we will release 2-3 episodes, and that's just not enough at all. I'm not saying it's Wizards fault, not at all; I'm to blame for a lot of it too.
Working on Nordstrums Treasure and Adverse Affects has shown me I am capable of doing it alone, and I look forward to what I can do for The Cabin. I feel like a lot of developers in this position would just abandon the game and start fresh under a new name, but I refuse to be one of those developers. Even if it takes me 20 years, The Cabin WILL see a finish! (although I hope it doesn't take 20 years.... 👀)
I'll try to keep you updated over the next couple months with what's going on and how far I've come, and I hope you guys can understand. I also understand if you feel the need to remove your pledge, but Patreon will be paused, so either way, you won't be charged.