Summer 2025 Update - Milestone 1 of the Moonshell Island Reboot!

Hey friends! Sorry, I’m a little late for this year’s Summer Update… I’ve been working hard to reach a point where I have something promising to share for it, and I believe I have succeeded!

Note: The rest of this update is text-only, but if you wish to see the daily progress videos and reports leading up to this milestone, I've shared them to all paid tiers right here.

In my last update, I announced that I’d be taking over the programming of Moonshell Island despite having only a beginner level understanding of coding in Gamemaker at best when I made that decision. It was a long shot, but I’m happy to report that I have not failed miserably. 

In fact, I’m very proud of what I’ve achieved in roughly 2 months (around 530 hours over 66 days so far!)

Insert Epic Training Montage Here!

Gamemaker has changed a lot since my early attempts at programming, so finding relevant learning resources was a challenge in itself, but I spent a good 6 weeks solid just devouring what I could find. That’s how long it took for me to even dare open the existing Moonshell Island project to see if I could understand and work with the code. 

Unfortunately, I could not. Yes, I still have much to learn, but this isn’t ordinary GML. It’s partly due to the custom external cutscene editor that was integrated into the project for my sake, which in its unfinished state now prevents me from using what was built. The irony!

To be honest though, after getting burned so badly throughout the making of that version of the project… my heart isn’t in it anymore. I feel physically ill when I think of trying to work with that code and staying in that headspace any longer. This has been a painful experience that has shaken my ability to trust and rely on others, and it still chokes me up.

Soooo~ I started the project over from scratch! …yayyy… ^^;

This version of the project will for now be code named Moonshell Island Reboot (MIR). I don’t have time to come up with something better right now, so it’ll have to do.

Moonshell Island Reboot!

After my intense 6-week training montage, I started building MIR from the ground up. It’s been 21 very long dev days total and some research days in between, but I’ve successfully built my own cutscene system with all the essentials accounted for on at least a basic level. You can see it all in action in the video above!

Nothing is perfect yet, but it’s a foundation to build on. In some regards I’d even say what I’ve built is an improvement on what we had before. Not bad for a rookie, if I do say so myself!

There’s also player and NPC movement/pathfinding and interactions. Those are working fairly well, but I’ll be fine-tuning them as my learning expands.

VIP Exclusive: 21 Days of Progress!

I’ll be posting all of the progress reports and videos from these first 21 days in the WIPs-for-VIPs channel of our Discord server, so sign up to a qualifying tier and join it if you wanna check those out! I would have posted that here if Patreon allowed more than 1 video per post, but I hope you’ll find it’s worth the inconvenience if you haven’t already joined. Very behind-the-scenes content awaits~

Future Outlook

There’s still a LOT left to build before a demo can be completed, and it’s hard to predict how long it’s all going to take. I’m aiming for 1-2 weeks per system, though some will require more time than others. I’ll also have to take additional time for research since I’m very much learning as I go, and finding answers is often like looking for a needle in a haystack.

As for what systems I’ll work on next, the existing systems still need improvement, but I’ll probably go the path of least resistance to keep things moving forward and play it by ear. 

On that note, I’d like to prioritize a proper audio system sooner than later this time. It’s been way too long that the game didn’t have audio. I’ve been testing these early features with sound effects I had kicking around and one of Anna’s tracks, and it already brings the game to life so much more.

All things considered, I think this is the best progress I could have possibly hoped for at this stage. If I keep up this pace, it may be possible to complete a demo by the end of this year or early next. That's highly ambitious though, and this is an intimidating challenge for me, so I can’t promise anything but that I will be giving this all I’ve got.

I consider this my last ditch effort to save Moonshell Island.

The last few years have been disheartening, and I can tell that the hype and support for this project has died down significantly. I get it. I hope somehow I can gain momentum again, but it's hard to manage so much on my own and stay active on socials or even answer most emails that come in.

I truly appreciate every one of you who has continued to support me however you're able. It's tough times for many of us, so I don't feel entitled at all, but I do need all the support I can get.

Feeling like this work matters to someone is part of what keeps me going. Your support has a powerful impact, and I don't take it for granted.

So thank you for sticking around to support me and this project even when it’s not going well. I hope it will be going much better now that I have more control over technical progress, and I look forward to sharing the journey with you all as I go.

Your friend,
Sam