Hey there! So I disappeared for a while. In April I got a job in software development and that has had me very busy all these weeks. On top of that, this weekend we have a very important election in my country and I'll be working both days helping people vote and stuff.

So yeah, very busy. But I'm writing this because I plan to get back  working in the game. First, let me get you up to speed with what I have right now.

The Game Systems

• An overworld application in which the player can move, explore and interact with objects and entities (that trigger scripts).
• A pause menu with a working inventory, and a couple of informative widgets that tell you about your party, moves, etc.
• A turn-base battle system focused in having every battle be a challenge.
• A simple cutscene system like undertale's, where there's a sequence of images and text and you press a to advance.
• A working title menu with configuration options, the ability to continue a saved game, etc.

The Game's Content

• The content of the demo that is 1/3 of the complete game
  • around 5 items
  • 3 NPC's
  • 2 Secrets
  • 8 Rooms
• The maps for the second area of the game
  • 11 Maps
• The design for the events for the second area
• The first two or 3 events and challenges for this new area

During April I started working for my final game editor, a piece of software that would help me create content very very fast. I actually managed to get the main functionalities working.

The Game's Editor (The main thing I'm working on right now)

• You can create and place the main type of entities that you find in the game in the editor.
  • Entities that are decorative
  • Solid entities
  • Entities that take you to a different room
  • Entities that show a dialog list
• You can place these entities in the map
• There's a system to easily define collisions for entities and the map itself
• A layer system to place entities
• Visual help for positions and collisions

My idea when I started working on this editor was to be able to create a complete level with scripts and stuff in it, and export it as a functional level in the game. However I learned that that's going to take me a lot of time. So after taking everything into account, here's the plan:

Next Two Weeks

During these next two weeks, I'll work on the last two features I want the level editor to have, which are:

• Being able to change the asset for an entity
• Being able to export the visible layers of the map as an image

I'm going to work two weekdays each week, I plan to work two hours on these days, after work (with a small break in between). During weekends I'll work 4 hours each day if I don't have something going on that day. I'll use these days like this:

• On weekdays I'll be working directly on content for the game and screenshot saturday.
• On weekends I'll work on improving the editor one of the days (this has priority) and the other day I'll work on content for the game.

Content includes marketing, art, music, levels, etc.

Roadmap

• First I want to set up a steam page:
  • Making a trailer
    • Make music for it
    • Collect footage
  • Draw a profesional looking thumbnail
• Next I'll finish the second area of the game
  • Make music for the area
  • Implement remaining events and interactions
  • Make missing sprites for NPC's and objects
  • Make missing battles
• (Side Project) Make marketing tools
  
  • Create a bot that collects data on views, hearts and retweets on my twitter
  • Create a simple page that visualises this information
• Fully desing the last area of the game
  • Design the different maps
  • Design interactions and story
• Use the editor to create the maps of the final area of the game
  • Create  the entities and more simple interactions
• Polish these maps and entities
  • Create all the art for this area and entities
  • Create song for the area
• Implement events for the last area
  • Implement every event for the last area
  • Implement the final fights and boss
  • Make music for the important events
• End of the game
  • Implement scene for the end of the game
  • Make music for this scene
• Post Production
• Add steam achievements
• Create cool art for desktop wallpapers
• 2 drawings should be enough

I don't have a release date yet, having a job means a lot less time to work on the game. But it also means I can get equipment to share my process. I'll try to start streaming and put more stuff on my youtube channel, so stay tuned for that!