0.3 progress

 Survey results and an update on 0.3:

 

I apologize for the sudden vanishing act, some unfortunate stuff came up IRL and it ate up 99% of my time. That's not to say the update is not still coming along though, I have made a good amount of progress... The thing holding back its release is likely going to be the enemy animations currently. Most of the new areas are done and I'm pretty much just struggling to make the animations for the enemies right now. There are still a few other things I can work on in the meantime and it does give me the chance to add some extra flair to the game while I wait, at the very least. I quite like how both of the new areas coming out are shaping up to be, and they both have some interesting gimmicks in my opinion.

I admittedly have gone through a bit of development hell... And I was struggling to get some of the systems ingame to work the way I want them to. I believe I've overcome that hurdle though and now the update can move along pretty smoothly from here. As I said, at this point I'm primarily just waiting on new enemy animations. Unfortunately, the progress on those is a bit further behind than I would like, but that's because I was trying... VERY hard... To make a certain type of enemy work. I won't say why, but the situation I was trying to create for this enemy was not kind to the ai. I've spent like 4-5 days just trying to make it even work at all, but I think I finally got it. So now, theoretically the rest of the enemies should not be too hard to make from here in comparison. There is one other enemy that I have planned which is intended to have a certain gimmick and that could be a bit difficult to make, but the rest should be relatively easy. There is still a bit more I need to work on with the new areas of course, but they're almost done. I have a few other things planned in addition to those as well, so I would estimate, AT LEAST... 2-3 weeks until the release is ready with all things considered. No promises.

 

Anyways, I've been very quiet lately because I wanted to spend what little time I had for this project with just... Working on the game. I don't want to leave people in the dark though, so refer to the above. Additionally, lets go over some of the survey results together:

 This is the question I was the most excited about seeing the results for. Animals in general are the most popular (I approve of this), followed by insects and actual monsters. Everything else got relatively left in the dust, which I am a little surprised about. So... What do I take from these results? Well, I wanted to gauge what people like the most about what COULD be in this game, and avoid what people like less. Of course, this game has been planned from the start to be about the types of enemies you never see with a male protagonist. So the primary focus will remain on exactly what won the poll, and I will try to create an even spread of the popular choices. That's not to say other enemies can't make an appearance either... In fact, 2 humanoid monsters already exist, and HUMANS, the LEAST POPULAR choice, are going to have to appear sooner or later for narrative reasons. I may be able to mix that with furries as well, I really just need a few sapient opponents lol. There will likely be a few of every type of enemy here sprinkled throughout the game in some way when all is said and done, but it's clear what I should focus on. I also regret not asking if people would be interested in plant-type enemies as well, I would like to implement those in the game as well. All in all though, I am happy to see the weirder stuff come out on top because that's what this game is ABOUT!!!

 

I was actually expecting more pushback on the difficulty based on feedback given directly to me so far. Regardless, the next update will make the game a little easier, but I don't want to budge super hard on difficulty. Even so, I ALSO want the game to actually be enjoyable, so if I must sacrifice some difficulty for that then I will. The difficulty changes are already complete for the next update, and I think it will be a lot more bearable compared to 0.2. 

 

 

 

I'm glad most people seem to like the animations as it is, because I personally am dissatisfied with a lot of what's ingame. I've gone over this a few times already, but some early game enemies are getting reworked now that I have a better workflow going. I WANTED to do all of them for the next update, but I am likely going to settle on half in 0.3, and the other half in 0.4 to speed the next release along.

 

 

 

 

I don't have much to say on this, but I do want to make future areas more engaging going forward. I perhaps could've worded this better, because what I really meant was "Would you rather have more endless forest mazes, or areas that have more interesting gimmicks?" I feel some people may have interpreted this question as "Would you prefer if maps were made even more annoying?" When that wasn't what I really meant. More effort is going into map design for the newer areas, and they will hopefully be more interesting than just walking around and running into enemies.

There will likely be more non-NSFW things being added to this game simply to improve world-building and offer a break from battling 24/7.

 

 

Good :)

 

 

Also good :) It may have been a bit early to ask a question like this, but I was curious if people simply liked the premise that's been established more than anything. More to come on this as the game gets updated of course... 

 

 

Anyways, that's all from me. Thank you for all the feedback! I just wanted to offer an update on the progress of things and explain my absence a little bit. I apologize that the update is taking longer than last time, but I need to make sure it's good. I'm hoping 0.3 will establish a proper baseline for this game and polish it up. I think the game feels much more refined with the progress made so far, and am excited to share it.