First of all, thank you to everyone who has added my game to their wishlist and is following its progress since the Steam Next Fest! Baby steps are important steps when it comes to indie game development. Welcome, everyone!
I'd like to take a moment to share with you all that "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, FATHER?" (WHYDF) is, first and foremost, a humble attempt of mine to create a game from scratch. I myself am an artist with a traditional background in painting and drawing, but I have always been passionate about crafting interesting virtual scenarios for others to explore. Naturally, 3D was the best solution to bring all those envisioned places to life. However, one of my biggest challenges was figuring out how people would interact with these worlds and experience them.
Creating a narrative walking-sim type of game seemed to be the easiest solution, but for an artist with zero programming knowledge, this proved to be a significant challenge for me! Although I haven't submitted the fully finished build of WHYDF to Steam, I am proud to say that this is my first game I have fully programmed by myself, with some advice from my friends, of course. Regardless of how the game performs in the end, for me, it is already a huge success!
Unreal Engine has done an amazing job with its node-based programming system for this. I remember when I was working a few years ago on Gray Dawn, I would immediately close any blueprint I opened by mistake out of fear of breaking something. But those days are long gone!
*not indicative of how many chapters are in the game!
The biggest challenge for me was saving and loading the game. I think I have come to a fair solution in the end: since the chapters are really short and not very complex gameplay-wise, I have decided to save each chapter (level) as you unlock it, allowing you to replay them at any time!
Now, onto some progress updates. I am working on adding some additional content (you may have seen the priest pictures and the fashion magazines). The optional content offers a broader perspective on the game's story and the background of St. Mary's Church, as well as the fashion magazines, which hide some spicy content that will hopefully pique your interest! Hunt them down, as some of them reward you with achievements!
On a different note, I would like to address something important regarding people's expectations and what some of you may think the game will offer. Some players have mentioned that the game looks good, and naturally, many who are not aware that this is the product of a single person with a limited budget may expect a longer and more complex game in terms of mechanics, content, and production value. I hope this won't upset anyone, but the game is just a short narrative experience that can be finished in 1 to 2 hours. Anything longer or more complex is beyond my capacity and means of production.
Some of you may want the game to be fully voice-acted, and I understand! I would love, from the bottom of my heart, to have all the lines voiced by good-quality actors, but this would simply require a larger budget (the characters in my game have rather long dialogues) and thousands of dollars, not to mention that I would have to find a good solution for facial capture.
With this project, even I have to keep my expectations in check.
See you soon!
The game is coming out in a month or so!
Have you played the demo? Leave me some feedback in the discussion group or join my Discord for a friendlier chat!
https://discord.com/invite/FWDkNhm