Wish Creatures is Available Now!
How exciting!!! Thank you for following this project :)
Feel free to watch the launch trailer here. More thoughts are below!
"So you really did it?"
Yeah!! Yeah... it's kinda hard to believe I stuck with it 'til the bitter end. Near the end I wasn't sure how much of a video game I'd actually made. When playtesters asked how much time the game would take, I guessed 2 hours. It turns out most playtesters took 4 hours to reach the halfway point! I was really shocked.
"What's added compared to the Chapter 1 demo?"
5 more chapters. ːwinter2019joyfultearsyulː
More specifically when comparing to the demo release, there are 5 more towns, 10 more exploration areas, roughly 30 more recruitable Monsters, and over an hour of additional music. You can also hunt for rare Pulsar Monster variants, play the dojo minigame, and see the story to its end. There's even a little branching choice that affects the protagonist's personal feelings towards the end of the game!!
"How did launch go?"
Chaotic! I wrote tons of code the week leading into launch. I finished the game up pretty nicely for release on August 14th and set it to live on Steam.
I was trying my very best to release the launch trailer simultaneously, but... a tornado hit my home town and my power went out! I lost progress on the trailer! We had to shelter in place for 2 hours and by the time it was lifted, the exhaustion of last week's work caught up to me. It all got finished in the end. I've been resting lots over the past few days :)
"What's next?"
Patches, player guides, and a soundtrack release!
I thankfully caught the progression breaking issues right away. There's some loose ends I want to address (certain characters in the endgame are missing walking animations, I had to cut back a few minor features, etc).
My goal is to make it easier for players to learn the systems behind the game without tons of mandatory tutorials, so I will add a few button prompts in key menus and release a guide explaining finer details. More news on these things in the future!
The soundtrack of Wish Creatures is my pride and joy! It features 68(!!) pieces of beautiful music that are more fully realized through some collaborations with my amazing music friends. It will take a while to finalize the soundtrack volume, so in the meantime, enjoy a preview or two I've shared prior!
Last Thoughts
Wish Creatures originally released as a 2-week game jam entry for LowRezJam on August 14, 2021. 5 years later to the date, it's finally out! I'm not really sure how to feel just yet...! I know it feels relieving though. From here on I can make what I want, when I want, and do it for me. It's no longer a question whether I can commit to something like this. I think I'll let my passion for working with others lead me wherever it goes.
Thanks for playing.
-forteXP