arewar

What's up next, Doc?

Added 2024-02-23 01:00:04 +0000 UTC

Thank you to everyone's who has purchased Alex's DLC & to everyone who has supported the development on Patreon! Alex's DLC has been a great success and I'm thrilled!

Steam players, I'd love to see more reviews for both the main game and DLC if you can take the moment to write one! I have nearly 90 reviews on Itch (omgyay!) but only 20 on Steam, and reviews on Steam help a lot to encourage sales.

(Also in general, I'm quite guilty of re-reading the game reviews during rough personal periods. They are incredibly motivating and supportive!)

Finances

Just like with Obsession initially, because of the Patreon funds during development added in, I'll break even on expenses with Alex's DLC despite the large number of new CGs within the month, which is very exciting. That was a gamble on my part and I'm glad it paid off.

Again, thank you so much Patreon supporters! The game & DLC both would not be what they are today without your help.

So just like Obsession, I've paid a bonus to the primary CG artist. They did amazing work. After that (like Obsession too), all profits are going directly into funding Remembrance. I'm tracking every single cent.

New Side Content for Obsession?

I'll straight up admit - my creative brain is currently dead. Alex was a lot of work and my muse is refusing to cooperate. I've made some attempts at writing the new side content and I have some story ideas, but all writing just sucks right now. ^_^;;;

I still fully plan to deliver new side content for Obsession, but I have no ETA at the moment. I do want to deliver it within the next couple of months though. I'll share details as things develop.

Remembrance - Track Early Progress

There is a LOT to do in preparation for Remembrance before writing even starts, and I won't lie. It'll probably take a month or two (or three?) for ~everything~. During this period, there won't be any playable builds.

But, cause I know that's a bummer, I want full transparency with you all while I'm in this prep stage about progress.

So, I've made a public Trello board with all the tasks in my queue. This board will be in constant flux. Things will get added and removed. Things may go on pause or get delayed. Some tasks are dependent on other tasks. Anything could change (and nothing listed on here is a promise), but I want it to reflect the current state of development at all times.

I will keep this updated to the best of my ability and with NO spoilers.

TRELLO BOARD (no spoilers ever):

https://trello.com/b/6kkRewda/remembrance-setup-planning

Due to the quantity of tasks, I've got them split into categories (instead of not started, in progress, done). Things that are "In Progress" have a green label.

Yes, I switch around tasks a lot, so multiple things will always be 'in progress'. As well as some things (like the content nav structure & framework) are dependent/being tested/being updated along with other stuff as needs develop. And art delivery schedules are generally out of my control.

I'll keep this board going until I start delivering playable builds with new content. So you can check this out at any time. (I will link it on the pinned post, too.)

Please do be patient with me during this period, I am merely one person. All of this type of stuff was done for Obsession before it was ever put on itch and long before the Patreon existed.

Remembrance - What can we expect to see soon?

I will be sharing everything that is sharable during this prep period! Spoilers galore for those who want them. Character outfits, any CGs, BGs, voice samples, cover art, screenshots, flow charts, planning details, whatever I can get my hands on.

But as always, anything I share is subject to change.

Backgrounds are in progress now. The CG artist is working on a coverage image now. I have raw voice lines for Sebastian that need to be edited before I can share them. All the new sprite work is done. I've collected a lot of royalty free music tracks I need to sort through. Lots of stuff coming up that I can share.

Remembrance - Build Progress So Far? (No spoilers)

Everything you see is a placeholder, including the routes & tabs. Anything can change and everything's currently inherited from Obsession.

I have already started setting up the game framework for Remembrance. This includes a ton of backend changes that aren't visible, but a few small front end changes as well!

Biggest visible change #1: NO MORE CRASHES (i hope?).

It was a reoccurring problem that navigation & missing content due to new builds would cause the game to crash. I want the game to handle that in the future, and here's the progress so far.

I can't promise this will fix every crash, but I hope it does. XD

Now, instead of the game crashing, you'll see "error" icons and labels as shown below. (Yay!) Whenever you see this, your build or content is most likely out of date. But the game is still playable! Woo!

(In the real world, an entire tab would not be erroring out. This is forced for testing.)

Visible Change #2: Icons are better!

There's now a specific icon for "locked" and "incomplete". Hopefully this makes things more clear.

Padlock = Locked, and the unlock criteria messages will still exist!
Error = Something's broken, but game isn't crashing
Star = New, recently unlocked
Check = You've read/completed it
No icon = Incomplete/unread (side stories & mini stories)
X = What If has an incomplete ending

(This state created for testing, lot of weirdness about it. Just showing off the icons & labels)

Also, choices / prompts will now use the given icons.

Hammer & Wrench = Content is under development and not yet accessible
Padlock = Locked, you gotta do something to unlock it
Speech bubble = Dialog only, doesn't change the ending. (Generally will be seen on a prompt, not on a choice, but shown here for demo purposes.)

All the "info" screens have been updated with this information.

Worlds & Obsession Abridged

The world screen still exists, as do the other worlds.

As mentioned in previous posts, because of the extreme content and the future plan to have an adult DLC but non-adult base game for Remembrance, 'Obsession' will have a short abridged version to catch the player up on the Particles plot and mystery. (No side content or branches included. One long story hitting the core story critical events.) Also useful for a recap a year later when you've forgotten everything.

This work for abridged is already underway and shouldn't take much longer. So anyone at any time can join the Patreon and follow the story even if they didn't play Obsession.

Particles will work the same as it did in Obsession and continue where the last game left off.

There will be intro screens that direct the player to start at Obsession or Particles later, for now I have the red messages that explain what to do.