Hi, The Diary fans!
First of all, sorry for taking such a long time to give a formal response to your queries. The development of the game hit some snags which resulted in delays. Here's an update on where we are at in producing The Diary.
Changes in the Team
Many unexpected things happened, but what affected the production speed the most was the departure of a team member due to family, financial, and personal problems.
The new programmer and artist I recruited needed time to get accustomed to the project. It also meant that the game development took much longer than anticipated. The good news is that our team has stabilized now, and we've gone from a 2-person team to a 3-person team that is determined to finish the job and do it right.
Status of the Project
We've actually completed the development of the first version of the second and third diary books at the start of the year, though the overall quality was lacking compared to the first book. We've chosen to redo the levels in the second and third books and try out a new art style to get them closer to our ideal version.
Screenshot of first version in development (abandoned)
This new art style introduction gave us new inspiration, but it also coincided with the changes happening on our team. It took us a longer time to get there, but the overall feel of the art is going in a direction that we're satisfied with.
Screenshot of second version in development (abandoned)
Screenshot of third version in development
The art style of the second and third diary books is now very close to the final version. We've restarted game development about a month ago, and we are making steady progress.
Our Plans
We'd planned on releasing a free prologue, but it was put on hold because we were not satisfied with that version. There are now changes on Steam that discourage devs from releasing separate prologues and encourage us to use demos instead.
We hope that you, our players, will bear with us as we sort this out.
We plan on updating our game demo and opening up a play-testing phase to give you a taste of our new content.
We will definitely finish making Her Diary, no matter what. We want to make sure the quality of the game meets expectations and would like to present it to our players within this year.
Thank you all once again for your continued support. The most difficult time for our game development has passed, so please be patient for a little while longer.
