Howdy Hellions!
I know it's been a little while since I checked in, life has been busy. As a solo developer it means everything takes a much greater amount of time. Now, update time.
Q: So, what is happening with UNLEASH HELL?
A: UNLEASH HELL is currently on hold, temporarily. Why? I imagine is the next question. The reason is UNLEASH HELL in scope is pretty large. My ambitions for this were a little "over ambitious" and thus I ended up in a bit of an Uncanny Valley. Once the game was featured in E1M1 things really took off and I wasn't really ready for it, but as a solo developer I couldn't let the opportunity pass me by so I jumped on it and hoped like hell I could pull it off and I almost did.
Q: What do you mean by Uncanny Valley?
A: My focus on the game to that point had been mainly on the game play, not the actual final art so the art and animation at the time was super early and still very stiff, thus I feel it didn't come out good enough but I was under a deadline to deliver a trailer for Realms Deep. I also made a few terrible choices in how I made the original trailer, the trailer was not for that audience so it translated poorly in my opinion.
I say Uncanny Valley because I was thinking initially about going for a more realistic looking art style but the further I got into it the more it started looking like doom, too much so. This put me in a spot where expectations of the look were affecting the reception of the art that was being used which really means I have to now try and mimic the talent of id... not gonna happen.
Q: So what does all this mean for the game?
A: It means I have stepped away from it to get fresh eyes and identify what needs to be changed to get the game to where I want it, but also re-structure some of the initial scope to be accomplished in a realistic time frame by a solo dev. Good news is, over this time away I have figured out quite a bit and when I get back at it towards the end of the year, I will hit the ground running full steam ahead with freshly recharged batteries and the direction needed to get me to the finish line.
This is all a good thing for the game because, even though it seems like forever, the end result is going to be a better game.
Now, as a side note... the time away has still been productive for NoLight Games. All devs have tons of side projects and I had one that was calling my name and is a game where the scope is totally realistic and short enough to release pretty soon. I have been chugging away over here on that project which I will announce soon. I am hoping if it does decent enough I can use some of the funding to step up the work on UNLEASH HELL and maybe get some help!
Thank you to all who have read this far, I know it was long and your time is valuable.
I will post soon when I announce the new project.
Thank you so much for all your continued support!
-Foamy
Founder: NoLight Games