Hey everyone! It's been several months since the last public dev update. Chapter 2 is almost done, so it's a good time to make another update. Let's go over some of the major stuff that happened since May.
Chapter 2 content complete + playtesting begun
Over the past 4 months I've worked on implementing all of the content for the 2nd chapter. This includes the entire spaceship area, puzzles, main story routes, side quest and the next Ashmedai quest.
Earlier this month I finished implementing the content and have shifted to fixing bugs in preparation for the internal playtesting.
The chapter so far went through several rounds of playtesting by a friend of mine. He found so many bugs and issues that I've been busy fixing them all last weekːsteamsadː. After I'm done fixing these issues, I'll send a build to a couple more playtesters to gather feedback before moving on to chapter 3.
Zlonki
Chapter 2 introduces a new character to the cast, Zlonki!
Zlonki is a little gaming gremlin alien who spends most of his time playing "League Of Heroic Marvels: Legends Of Fortwatch". You may have caught a glimpse of his presence in the first chapter 👁️👁️.
Zlonki plays a major role in this chapter and the next ones, so I hope you'll like him!
He was designed by the super talented Taxiderby, who made Undertale Red and is part of Deltarune's development team. I asked Taxi to make Zlonki a funny little gleep glorp alien and they absolutely delivered!
Kawaiwai's new design
For quite a while I felt like I wasn't happy with Kawaiwai's design. I wanted him to look like an ugly parody of anime's magical girl mascots. You know, those cute creatures that exist to make you buy merch.
The problem was that he looked more like a weird cat than a magical girl's mascot. After several months of iterations and vastly different design attempts, I've settled on something that makes him look more magical without making him look like a different character
Magical girl mascots are often designed around a theme. His new outfit makes him look a bit like a jester, so let's say he's the mascot of a magical clown girl. I heard the internet loves those.
Kawaiai no longer looks like a weird phallic cat. Instead, he now looks like a weird phallic magical ambiguous animal who still resembles a cat, but not as much.
Oh! And the sparkles in his eyes are animated!
Spaceship improvements
Here are some screenshots of the new area you'll be playing in during chapter 2. There are still some placeholders and polish to do, but this is mostly how it'll look
Major performance improvements
Nothing visual to show here, but I've been working on major performance improvements that should affect everything in the game, including chapter 1's castle. Before the optimizations the castle used to run at 50-70 fps on my computer. Now it runs at about 150. This should hopefully allow many more players with weaker computers to play the game.
What's next
For the next month there are going to be two things I'll be focusing on:
1) Playtesting chapter 2. This is done not only to find bugs, but also to get an overall impression of how fun it is and improve its flow. Hopefully the playtesters feedback won't be too harsh, so I'm aiming to finish this playtesting phase in less than a month.
2) Preproduction work for chapter 3. I should probably take this opportunity to explain the structure of the game so it'll be clear how much work I have left before the game will be released.
Dead Watch will have 6 chapters in total, but not all of them take the same amount of work to do
The first chapter/demo is in the castle. This is a major chapter that took the longest to make because I had to create all of the game systems from scratch.
The second chapter which is on the spaceship's deck. This is also a major chapter that has even more content than the first. This one is nearly done
The third chapter, which is in ?????. This is the last major chapter, which I hope to start implementing next month.
Chapter 4A + Chapter 4B. These are minor chapters that shouldn't take as much work to finish as the major chapters. Chapter 4A is what most players will get by playing normally. If you finished all 3 secret side quests from the first 3 chapters then instead you'll get to play chapter 4B.
Chapter 5, the finale. It's also going to have different endings depending on whether you played through chapter 4A or 4B. Despite being a finale, I still consider this to be a minor chapter in terms of how much work it'll take. Let's just hope I'm not wrong
Originally, I expected to release the game in 2026, but that was a bit too ambitious. With the current pace of development I now estimate it would be released in mid 2027.
I know it's still a while and that it's disappointing, but please be patient. I promise I'm using this time to make a game that will be worth the wait.
Patreon
If you'd like to support the game and help it release faster, then consider visiting its Patreon page.
I use 100% of the money pledged there to pay artists and musicians, which helps the game release faster and increases its production value.
Special thanks to the active patrons who've been helping make this game happen
Hazy S., RGU, Mafoo343, Jatoh Kira, Max Sims, Sobol14, Khangaskhan, MiningNatureYT, Kate Kiesel, John M, DaVince, Lucianne Weekend, Crabeleton, FatCat, Aki, Ramifrix, Wren Brier, Monsieur Miro, Infinity868, Walker Hubbard, TheCreativeGod, Nemo, Critical Loser, BariPhonic, Baitero, MartinX, Yaron L., Kiett, KomaDemon, Wayfaring Shantyman, goon life, Allen McCumber, Ryan Smith, DarkSchneider0, Richard Young, Markos, jarofapplesauce is not a joke name, MrCowdisease, Thanassis Diamantis, animatorisenter, Y4NITE, Yunus Emre Korkmaz, Corb Cob, Samallemon, 근 최, T.D.S., Halbaro Navarro Barba, Carson Anderson, Lucuma, Joel Cowart, Buttery Horse
Where to follow
First of all, on Dead Watch's page. This is where I'll be posting big announcements
View game pageOther than that, there's Discord, Reddit, and other socials where I post stuff occasionally
Interlocked
A friend of mine is making a burr puzzle game called Interlocked: Puzzle Islands. It's a super chill game and a continuation/reboot of "Interlocked" which he released on mobile many years ago.
If this speaks to you then please consider wishlisting his game. He's going to release a demo in October, so you won't even have to wait that long to play it!
(Ignore Steam saying it's for VR. It will be playable without a VR headset too)
Conclusion
This is a conclusion.
(Thanks for following the development of Dead Watch!)