The Map Editor is coming along nicely. It has now exceeded the functionality of the old one, and I'm starting to work on replacing the 'old' maps with recreations. A few of them will have to wait, though, as they'll be getting major overhauls to use the new features the Map Editor enables. Most significantly...
The Tutorial stage is going to be completely overhauled, top down. My playtime statistics give me a very clear picture right now - people are not bothering to pass the first stage. The three issues that I suspect cause this are the general lack of polish, lack of a quick narrative or gameplay hook, and dry mechanical nature of the tutorial. The former is something that will be addressed in the future, but the latter two are tutorial-specific and being actively worked on. Here's what I'll be doing:
Full rewrite of the opening section, and new art to accompany it. I don't want to spoil too much, but I have some snazzy plans to make the narrative hook here a lot stronger. The art is still on its way, but I'll be sharing the new sequence once it's done and implemented.
Restructuring and expansion of the tutorial stage itself. At the moment, it is both very dry and very short. That leaves it feeling ineffective as an opening, and barely effective as a tutorial, Using the new Map Editor features I'm working on, I'll be completely transforming how the tutorial works. Instead of a singular skirmish, it will take place on a dynamically expanding grid - adding new sections as the stage progresses. The hope is that this will add some dynamism and momentum to the tutorial, and allow me to focus on specific gameplay aspects a bit more naturally.
Combining the first two stages together. Once you complete the "tutorial" part of the tutorial, it will seamlessly transition into the 3-man battle. The hope is that this makes everything feel smoother and more elegantly introduces the gameplay. Each part of the tutorial teaches a mechanic, and the 3-man section gives a nice capstone to that without breaking the flow.
Adding mid-battle dialogue. This is really important in my opinion, and should be helpful for selling the narrative of the game at large. For the purpose of the tutorial, this is another piece to sell the narrative hook.
Tutorial-specific music. The Chapter 1 themes set a 'bleak, cold, yet hopeful' which fits the story overall, but is a pretty poor fit for the tutorial. A new and special theme will be added to help sell the desperation and intensity of the battle.
The actual tutorial prompts, and their presentation, will be reworked. I'm relatively happy with how well the average player (who beats a few stages) understands game mechanics. That being said, the presentation of the prompts and some of their wording is pretty poor. These will get a substantial touchup.
This pretty much summarizes the next 1-2 months of work. With the full complexity of the new tutorial on display, I hope you can see why a full-feature editor was needed. A lot of the features listed above (evolving stages, mid-battle dialogue) will be possible in the player version of the Map Editor once it releases (alongside the full game).
As tutorial work continues, I'll also be trying to make a new Chapter. This one won't make it into the demo, but represents an important milestone. My estimate is that it should take around 1.5-2.5 weeks to do all the required programming (once core systems are complete) for the new content. If this estimate is accurate, it bodes very well for the games future. I spent a lot of time trying to make a fast and efficient content pipeline, and am only now able to put it to the test.
In summary - lot of work left to do. Still no idea when the updated demo will be coming, but I'll make sure to announce that well in advance. 100% this year though.
As usual, I leave you with a new art tease. I wonder how the party ends up here?