Roadmap for Blackthorn

First up, don't worry, this isn't a bad news post.

The last couple of updates I created for Blackthorn have convinced me I need to have something of a rethink how I'm making the game, especially in terms of the loops and cutscenes that I'm including.

The main issues:

1) V0.02b added a whole gigabyte to the game's size, bringing us up to about 2.6 gb total. I haven't even finished the Priscilla scene, let alone added new animations for her daughter, and we're really only just starting out. Let's say I add another 20 encounters like the one I just created, we're going to be looking at 22 - 25 gb game size. That's way too big.

2) To animate the loops directly inside the RPG Maker MZ engine I have to plug in every single image individually (as large pngs instead of smaller jpgs) and then program them to appear on top of each other (a disappear again afterwards). One issue here is that RPMMZ restricts this to 100 images, putting a hard cap on how detailed the loops can be. Another is that this is hugely inefficient in terms of both time consumption and file size bloating. And a third is that it doesn't look that good; is jerky and can't handle large movements well at all.

3) Rpg Maker MZ is a bit like a toy game engine, it's fine for making little rpg adventures, but it's not designed to do what I'm doing with it, so I'm always running into problems.

The solutions:

1) I'm going to continue making the current tavern scenes on RPG Maker MZ, and then end this current "Chapter" when Ariana leaves the tavern. The file size at this point will likely be about 3.5 - 4 gb. I think this is about another 4 - 5 months worth of work, so nothing's going to change straight away.

2) Chapter 2 will obviously continue the same story but will begin in a new game engine. I'm thinking Unity, although Godot is also in my considerations list. The reason for this is that these are compatible with Spine 2d, which brings me to point (3).

3) Spine 2d basically lets you cut a single image into multiple layers, add bones, and then animate the layers of the single image. No more stacking 100 png images on top of each other to create a single loop. It will be 1 image (sort of), being animated live on the screen. This is the main reason I want to switch engines, and I think that the quality of the output will be massively improved as a result.

The general idea is that Chapter 2 will then take Blackthorn from exiting the Tavern to completion, hopefully at a fraction of the file size of RPG Maker MZ version. If there's an appetite at the end of the process, I could then go back and remake Chapter 1 within Unity(/Godot) using Spine 2d to recreate the previous scenes, and add it to the beginning of the game, so that in the end the whole of Blackthorn will be present and correct in its Unity(/Godot) version.

That's what I'm thinking anyway, but this is all completely provisional at this time. I'm inviting feedback / suggestions on this now to point out shortcomings in my thinking, or suggest ways this might be implemented. I'm 100% committed to the Blackthorn project, I'm just looking for ways to make it the best game it could possibly be. I just can't see how that will happen if I continue to use RPG Maker MZ. Anyway that's where my thinking is at for the moment.

Thanks for reading,
Casey