A Lot of Words on the Current Progress of Savage Eclipse:
A lot. You have been WARNED... Hahaha. I'm INSANE!!! But at least I'm passionate.
Before I talk about 0.5, I think I'll talk about difficulty a little bit. It's always come up a lot... People want me to nerf the game, and I have stubbornly refused. People cheat through the game with things like Mtool because they find it too difficult or annoying (which is fine btw, I can't stop ya nor do I intend to try). It's like, constantly a discussion point. What do I have to say about it? Well, I may piss some people off with my thoughts but I think you deserve transparency on how I really feel:
-I still want the game to be hard, I've made my stance very clear on this. Yes, even if more people hate it than not. TBH, do you think this game would even exist if I was making it to appeal to the majority? In any way? Nope, it would be cute monster girls. If you like the nsfw material in this game, trust me, you WANT me to be this stubborn in a general sense at the very least... But you'll have to deal with my stubbornness on things that you may not agree with me on as well.
-It is harder to make and balance the game when I make it this way. but I'm still gonna try. You gotta understand, nothing is final... I will continue to fine-tune the difficulty until it seems reasonable enough. With an in-development game, you have to kinda expect that it isn't going to be super clean, or even fair at times. So if the game seems overly difficult, especially in specific sections or locations, feel free to voice your opinions. I will respect valid oppositions to overtuned difficulty if you can explain why you feel like it's too much. I may be a very stubborn person, but I try to be receptive to feedback and communicate openly about my design logic... I WILL budge on certain things if you make a reasonable argument. Player feedback means a great deal to me, I just... Only really internalize feedback that respects the vision of the game. Difficulty is a part of that vision.
-Understand though, individual opinions are not necessarily enough. I need a general consensus, and I don't plan to overly nerf things into the ground even then... But I will try to make it more bearable.
-Some people REALLY do not agree with my take on this. But respectfully, your opinion on difficulty doesn't MEAN much to me anymore if it starts turning hostile towards the notion of difficulty as a whole. That sounds bad, but I feel this way because... I've already decided this is how the game is and always will be. I've already decided and won't budge on it, so statements such as "this game is too hard, it would be better if it were easier" mean nothing to me. That's all. Please remember that this is my game, and accept the planned direction.
-That said, I still don't intend for the game to be painfully grindy, unapproachable to "less skilled" players, or annoyingly hard. I just want you to lose sometimes. It is near impossible to remove the requirement of grinding for players that are struggling more, when comparing them to players that are able to get through the same sections WITHOUT grinding at all. I've tried to add some systems to expedite grinding, And I will continue seeking options. The point is increasing accessibility a bit. But I can only do so much. If you struggle with parts of the game, you may just need to power through, grind, or cheat. I am sorry.
-I am the dev, so I know EVERYTHING about the game which obviously gives me a massive advantage when it comes to playtesting... So I really don't mean this in an egotistical way, but I don't think the game is that hard. You can say there is not much depth/skill expression in this game because it's a turn-based rpg, and in a lot of ways, that is true. However, I think there are enough tools available to allow a player to succeed, and better players will utilize these tools better. I have SEEN this many times while watching various people play or describe the game. I have seen player "X" struggle greatly on a certain part of the game, while player "Y" breezes through this same section. From my perspective, you have to understand how difficult this is to play around. I want the game to overall be challenging.
As rude as this may sound to some... I am sorry, but I cannot yield to the lower end of player decision-making or skillsets when I want the game to be challenging across the board. Do you see the issue? I want it to be an adequate challenge for the better players too.
Some people have suggested separate difficulties... To which I say NO, because "hard" is the intended experience of the game. It is a very specific direction that I want to maintain, and separate difficulties take this away by giving player agency on something that I don't want them to have. Nope, I want the enemies to be good at banging you against your will, that's the point. This is in line with some of the other controversial decisions I've made about the game, such as... Not being able to run away from combat, or only being able to save with those blue crystals rather than from anywhere. I take your agency away on THESE things, but I (try to) give you plenty of agency and freedom on the PATH you take to complete the game... Within the restrictions to your freedom that I've decided you shall face.
That's why we have things like crafting, a skill learning system, quests, the guy in Aldren that assigns you enemies to slay, the player house, armor (and armor upgrades), multiple avenues of sanity recovery, etc etc... You have a lot of options on how you achieve progress or fight your way through sections of the game. With all of these tools available (and more to come), TRULY no offense, but I have to attempt balancing the game around the assumption that you are using these tools effectively. If you AREN'T, I can't entirely say it is the games fault anymore. I don't mean that to diss whomever may be reading this, I mean it very seriously as an objective reasoning behind my stubbornness.
Like... EXTREME example here, but look at the Dark Souls lineup. These games are meant to be pretty challenging. If someone plays a Dark Souls game, and then complains that it's too hard... Is that an issue with the game? DOES the player have valid criticism on the game, if challenge is the intended design behind Dark Souls? Maybe in some ways this player does have some valid criticisms. But to say that a Dark Souls game is inherently flawed for simply playing into its identity... I cannot get behind that logic.
Don't get me wrong, none of this is to say that Savage Eclipse is perfect or that it's fair and balanced... I am not saying that. It certainly is not. This game is still young and ridden with issues/concerns that are valid. But it IS hard to weed out what I deem "valid" criticisms to the games difficulty from ones that I don't feel are. In my eyes, It isn't the games fault in some of the complaints I've seen. I am sorry if any of this sounds harsh, unfair, or even offensive... I am just trying to be objective here. I cannot and do not want to nerf the game into the ground, ever. I DO want to carefully prune away some of the issues people have with the experience to make it more enjoyable. I will do this where I can without sacrificing difficulty outright.
If you understand my mindset but disagree, it would be best to approach me with an understanding that I am not gonna budge on difficulty overall... But I can be reasoned with. You will get somewhere with me as far as difficulty goes if you can explain why something in particular is frustrating or poor design to you. However, you will not get anywhere with me if you just complain in a very general sense, that the game is too grindy or difficult. That doesn't convince me on anything. As far as I can tell, the thing you're complaining about is completely DOABLE with no grinding required, if you utilized your tools better. So I do not feel the need to change anything. Does that make sense? I know it sounds harsh but... Please remember and respect my mindset on the direction for this game. I want it to be hard, so I don't want to budge easily on difficulty.
This is all to simply say... Don't ask me to make the game easy. That's NOT happening. I can not stress that enough. It is not happening. But do tell me when something about the game feels inherently unfair, poorly communicated, excessively grindy, or badly balanced... Maybe I can do something about THAT.
Yes, I typed a lot on this topic... But I'm not mad really. I know it will probably always be a discussion/contention point no matter how much I say in regards to it. This was just my attempt at trying to offer a very thorough explanation on my reasoning and mindset. And why it won't change.
Now, onto 0.5 development... The midway point:
Erm... I said midway, but I should be transparent. I'm probably about... 35-40% done with the update. Why is it so slow-going? Well:
-My pickiness is slowing me down (A double-edged sword)
-Lot's of overhauls and new systems... LOT's. The game will look and feel very different in 0.5... Some of the changes have required me to go back to existing areas and features to DEEPLY rework them. It's a little scary because I find myself frequently attacking the fundamental building blocks of the game... Wondering why I'd be doing that? You'll see eventually.
-Real life getting in the way. A lot. Frustratingly so. I hate being an adult (don't we all).
Still, progress is being made. I'm working on it every day. I just find myself scrapping attempts at progress often... Be it nsfw animations that I feel like could be better, or other things that I can't say here :)
If I were to gauge my progress into smaller sub-sections, it looks more like this:
Maps/areas: 50%
Story/cutscenes: 40-50%
New systems/mechanics/etc: 50%
Other (general polish, defeat scenes, bugfixing, etc.): 40%
NSFW animations: 30%
Yes, believe it or not. The ai generated animations are by far and always have been, the hardest part of making this game. I have found myself struggling with it quite a bit in this update, particularly the underwater enemies... They are hard to get right. As of right now, I have... ONE underwater foe complete. I have another one that is close-ish to being done, but I want to revise it a bit more... Still, it looks promising enough.
Don't worry too much though, cause I happen to be a verry sporadic worker. Enemies for later areas have been made, and are complete... Plus about 2/3 of the planned remakes of existing 0.45 enemies are complete. Yet, despite all of that, this is what I am the most behind on. At the rate I'm going, I am lucky to get 1 enemy a week... And I put quite a bit of time into this part of the game, probably more than anything else. It just takes time... I don't like if the animations look goofy or have weird ai artifacts. I think it's worth being this stubborn... The enemies look better. But it does make things more slow-going.
I pumped animations and enemies out a lot faster when I first started making this game, but now I find myself going back and remaking the majority of them anyways. I didn't care as much about the animation quality then as I do now... So please bear with me. The NSFW will likely be the reason this update gets held off. I'm suspecting there will be a point in time where it's the only thing I have left to work on. I will try to make it worth the trouble. These enemies look better if I bang my head against a wall for each individual one. Whether they were made with ai or not, trust me, each one is being made with a lot of manual work and elbow grease... TRUST ME. I wish I could do it faster. I work on it every day and this game is very much a high priority in my life lol. Porn or not, pretty much any free/alone time I have, goes directly into this game 24/7. I've always been a gamer, but I don't even PLAY games anymore... I MAKE this one. I don't have the time or desire to game, when I should be working on this project instead. Don't worry, I am having fun with it... I really only mean to mention all of this as reassurance that yes, even if the development is a bit slow-going, it doesn't mean that my motivation has died or anything.
THAT said, progress on every OTHER aspect of the game is going very, very good. A lot of this does tie into NSFW in various ways... Be it lore, lewd mechanics, or... Other things.
I sit here and really, really want to explain these parts of the game. Trust me, I do. There are so many cool new things I wish I could talk about, so badly. I REALLY want to see what people think of it. But I'm gonna have to skirt around the details here... We have to wait. I don't think it will be as enjoyable to you when you play it, if you already knew what was coming. It may seem annoying that I so insistently refuse to show off "the big things", but I hope when you play you'll understand why. I don't really want to sound prideful, but when I sit here and look at all of the improvements or additions in 0.5, I am really happy with how polished things are starting to look overall. I'm very critical of myself and the game's quality to a FAULT, so when I say that about the game, I know I actually mean it... Which is a nice feeling.
I think I should mention story as well. I've had a lot of discussion with some people (Yes, a few people know some of what's coming)... A lot of debating, disagreements, agreements, etc... All to try and shape an actually compelling story. 0.45 is honestly, kind of bare-bones story wise. So part of what I've been trying to do is go through existing areas to add some additional detail and world flavour, small revisions to some parts, etc.
As far as 0.5 story, I will happily say that it is by FAR, the most in-depth and narratively driven part of the game currently, and things will happen. As far as the story FOLLOWING 0.5, I have a solid foundation on how I want the rest of the entire game to play out... Up to the ending. Before 0.5, I always had a rough idea on the things I've wanted to happen, but it is all so much more refined now... And the path forward is pretty clear. DAYS upon days of just considering every single teensy tiny detail about the logic of this world, the reason x exists, and if x exists doesn't that contradict Y? Well no, because... Z. Yeah, you get it. Or I sound crazy. Mehhh. In 0.5, things will become a little bit more clear in the grand scheme of things. I don't think I should say more than that...
Some may not care about the "story" part of the game... But it's very important to me by now, because it's a motivating factor. Part of why I am becoming so attached to this game is because I started to view it as like, an actual world with rules, reasoning behind everything, and characters that struggle in various different ways... Male, or female. Games like MGQ have fascinated and inspired me with the amount of care and attention to detail put into the world... It is clear that MGQ meant so much more to that team than just the porn. My game means more to ME in this way, I hope I manage to make it mean more to YOU too. Hard fact, lotsa people are just here for the porn... Which is fine. I am just hoping that I get some people a bit attached to what I myself have become attached to as well lol. And weirdly, I hope the narrative also makes the porn part more... Lewd? Because you will slowly learn why everything is happening the way it is. Within this game's world, it all makes sense, and has logical merit. Remember THAT when a bunny is trying to bang you...
...I feel like I should say SOMETHING that is at least slightly revealing about 0.5, because I keep talking in vague circles. So, if I had to give the absolute vaguest of hints on some random detail about 0.5 that I'm very happy with (and also a little bit nervous about because of how heavily it shakes the foundation of the entire game), that I VERY MUCH do NOT want you to know yet... it would be:
Press D on your keyboard for something new to happen. Something that I doubt is in any other porn game. Something that opens up a lot of possibilities and very dynamic situations...
Yup, that's all I can say. Sorry if I'm just making the wait worse by being so sneaky lol. I really am going as fast as I can, and putting in as much time as I can... But I am just one dude. I can't let time pressure rush this, lest the game does not end up being as good as I would like it to be. A day will come when 0.5 is out, and I eagerly anticipate the day you get to play it.
So... Well, here's the plan as far as presentation and progress. I'll show some pictures of things that I don't feel the need to hide, right here and now... Don't expect anything too crazy, and no nsfw previews yet.
Later, probably when the update is around 60-70% done, I will release a trailer similar to how I did for 0.4. It'll show more and some nsfw stuff, but even this trailer will be keeping a lot of 0.5 hidden...
I have covered some of these things in the discord server already, but for a more official presentation... Here are some of the things added in 0.5 so far:
First, a few underwater pictures... I have not been very secretive about this location. Yes, there will be an underwater section if you didn't know
A light puzzle in an underwater cave
More underwater cave, with underwater sucky vortexes that are probably safe to walk into and nothing bad happens
Lighting in general has been massively reworked with a new system... This is the flesh cave for example.
...Or Aldren, at night. Cause yup, this new lighting system also let me add a new day/night-time system. Which now exists. Something else that's interesting about this day/night system, is that I can make certain things only HAPPEN at daytime, or night-time. For a simple example, a special enemy that only appears at night...
A cute little adventurer group of males... Only one of them is human.
Did the game always have this many menu buttons? Hm...
There are other things I could show right now, like... Not spoilery-at-all types of things, but these blogposts are more meant as just being a wordy update on my progress, not necessarily me trying to showcase the game a whole lot with ingame pictures... So that's probably all for now. Stand by for the trailer video a bit of time from now... And thank you for the patience. I know this is taking a while... But I think you will like it
