The Power of Truth one-year celebration and reflections

Hi everyone,

This one is going to be long, guys; I hope you stay with me until the end. I am going to talk about this one-year journey, my inspiration, and my reflection on this year.

If you don't already know by now, I am a sole developer, working a full-time job, and have a family that I need to support. I have very little time to put into the game in general. Before releasing the game, I worked on it for almost a year. In that year, I learned how to produce renders, create animations, code with Renpy, create UI assets, and use AffinityPhoto (PhotoShop equivalent) for post-editing; I took a few courses on how to write a script, developed characters for my game and improved the characters as I go.
It was exciting to finally learn all the things I actually wanted to do in my life. It felt amazing.

I can't believe it's been one year since I released The Power of Truth. My first initiative was to release the whole first chapter, but I also wanted to leap into this world. But unlike other developers, I didn't know the AVN community before I released my game. Although I have played games before, I have never used Discord or Patreon to communicate with others. I had an account, but I never used it. The first time I used Discord was after I released the game. So, there was a time when I felt that I had enough material for at least releasing the first half of the first chapter, so I went for it. Oh boy, it was a hell of a ride. Literally a hell of a ride.

The first release didn't go well; I had a breaking game bug in the free roam part. I had to find, fix, and upload the game again. I also had performance issues in the free roam. It wasn't working well on low-tier and mid-tier computers. I never felt it because I have a powerful machine I bought to develop this project. But people were bashing me. I had bad reviews because of it. Eventually, I fixed it and learned new things. So, it was a very bumpy start. And you know, the first impression is everything, and it was shown. I didn't have a lot of followers at the start. However, some people recognized the potential and started supporting me.

One year in this industry is not a lot. I have so much to grow; I know I'll improve because I never stop trying. Let me tell you a bit about my inspiration. I love rap and hip & hip music, especially lyrical hip-hop. I take a lot of inspiration from my number one favorite rapper of all time, Eminem. He started raping in 1990 in Detroit's underground scene. In 1996, he released his first album, which was a complete failure. He was different and controversial and was rejected a lot in the industry. Eminem released a second album in 1997 and participated in the rap Olympics; he didn't take first place but caught the attention of the legendary producer to this day, Dr.Dre. He eventually signed Eminem to his record label, and in 1999, he released The Slim Shady LP, his first successful album; in 2000, he released the Marshell Matters LP, which was a huge success (I played it on repeat and listen to songs from this album until this day). I can continue, but the point is - it took Eminem 9 years to come to the point of slight success. The thing is, he never quit; he pursued his passion, and with enough time, he managed to be successful and get the recognition he deserved. Now, there is no doubt that he is an OG and one of the most successful rappers of all time. So, if it took him 9 years to be successful. One year is nothing. My eyes are looking at the horizon. There are so many years to follow.

Three months ago, I released a second game version with improved UI and performance, a more extended storyline, more animations, and more renders. I feel like it was the answer to my bad first release. I came more prepared for it and showed more of my capabilities. This version had an alpha and a beta version, which were edited and proofread before the release. I managed to get out a good version without major bugs. I released the game on more platforms, and now I have four times the supporters count in just 3 months. I see it as a small redemption for my dreadful start. Like the real first release happened 3 months ago.

Over the past year, I have met wonderful people who have helped me grow and made this job a bit easier. One of them is my longest-time supporter, MattyIce. He greatly helped me. He tested the game, proofread it, and edited the scripts, and he was always there to offer a good and supportive word. Thank you, Matty.
I also met great people along the way. Tom, the Developer of Sort of Justice, Amomynous Games, the developer of Office perks; Saint McDaniels, the developer of Perverted Tea House, he is also a dear friend of mine and helps me a lot. He is always there whenever I need someone to hear me out, FireValley games, the developer of Dragon of Calon Valley, JDOR, the developer Origin story, Sammy the developer of Hot shots, Jill/Catty, my Discord server admin, Cookie - and amazing good soul, Jonathan Hang who is always there to support on Patreon and mean always, and more people that I haven't added here (sorry for that).

I have a lot of plot to tell, and I wish I had more time to work on the game as I wanted. I take every second I can and put into the game development. This is life. Once I add more content, I'll get more recognition. I'll switch my full-time job to game development when I make enough money from the game's development. It may take time, but it will happen. I believe in myself. I feel like this is my spot, and I should conquer it. I have set this goal in my mind and am doing everything I can to reach it.

I am quite satisfied with the game's current state, but I have more ideas about what I want to add. I want to add more screens to the phone: one for a music player and another for a trophy room so a player can follow his dog and cat collection and understand which one to look for. I also want to start making the game Steam-ready; for that, I need an internal achievement system, and I also want to take the UI to another level. I know people want more and more content, and I understand that, and I parallel my work as much as possible. I give the content the first priority, but sometimes, I'll need to work on other stuff unrelated to the content.

I had my ups and downs this year: sometimes, I felt alone, and sometimes, I felt loved. I always try to stay positive and influence my environment so that it can also be positive. If you know me a little, you know I am always here to help anyone who needs help; I am here to listen to people and talk to them. I am here to help with Daz, Renpy, ideas, and whatever. I stand that anyone needs to be heard, and for other indie developers, I say we need to help each other as much as we can; that's why when I have something good, I'll share it if the fellow developer asks for it. Overall, it's been a blast, and I am ready for the following year.

Thank you for reading, and thank you to everyone who has supported me in this journey. I am here because you support me.

I hope you have a wonderful 2025,
Yours truly,
DogCat.