Poll : Decide the future of the game
Hey everyone,
I want to have an open discussion about the core gameplay loop and the future direction of the game. I’ve been reading through your feedback, and I need your input on how we move forward.
Currently, the game is built as a sandbox. This includes a navigation system, dynamic schedules where characters move around based on the time of day, and stat-building mechanics.
However, I've noticed a few recurring issues:
Missed Content: Because of the complex schedules, a lot of you are missing out on scenes simply because you aren't in the right place at the right time.
Player Preference: A large portion of the community seems to prefer a straightforward, linear visual novel experience rather than having to hunt for the next story beat.
Confusing "WIP" Options: I originally added choices tagged as "WIP" to show you what to expect in the future and to keep the city from feeling empty. In reality, this has caused a lot of confusion, leaving many of you unsure of what to do next when you hit a dead end and can't interact further with a character.
Development Time vs. Reward: To be completely transparent, the sandbox system takes a massive amount of effort to develop. Having to render every single location four separate times in Blender (morning, day, evening, night), coding the dynamic schedules, and building out the navigation for the city UI takes up a huge chunk of my development time.
Right now, it feels like that massive time investment isn't paying off in a way that makes the game more fun for you. If I drop the sandbox mechanics, I can allocate all that time and energy directly into creating more story content, more scenes, and faster updates.
Ultimately, I would much rather back away from a flawed design decision—even after spending countless hours designing and building it—than be stubborn and hinder the game's overall development.
Because of this, I want to leave the choice up to you. Which route would you prefer I take moving forward?
Option 1: Keep the Sandbox System
Locations remain dynamic, and you have to navigate the map to find events.
Characters will continue to have complex, changing schedules.
MC stats will matter, requiring gameplay loops to unlock certain choices.
Light grind to advance in the story.
Note: Updates will take longer due to the complexity of building and rendering these systems.
Option 2: Pivot to a Linear Visual Novel (Episodic)
The game shifts to a standard linear format with lighter choices, split into Episodes (e.g., "Episode 1: Day 1 to 3").
The "time of day" system stays for atmospheric storytelling, but the game advances automatically. No more map navigation or guessing where characters are.
You will experience 100% of the story content without missing scenes, and no more confusing "WIP" dead-ends.
Choices will still exist to let you influence how individual scenes play out, but there will no longer be a complex branching system that splits the entire storyline.
Note: Updates will be more frequent and content-heavy since development time is freed up.
Please vote below and let me know your thoughts in the comments!
P.S. I want to quickly apologize for using AI to help write this post. I originally wrote this out in my native language, but since English isn't my main language, I used AI to translate and clean it up. Because this is such an important decision for the future of the game, I wanted to make absolutely sure my thoughts and reasoning were conveyed clearly.
Comments (3)
It doesn’t matter to me whether it’s a sandbox or linear game—the game is great either way. However, if you plan to add a lot of content to the game, it would be much better to make it a visual novel. That way, you can add more content with every update. Since you’re already planning to add so many different locations and clickable buildings, a visual novel will save you a lot of time.
I don't really like sandbox because a Lot of devs don't know how to do it, they just separete the content in a way that just make lose time and doesn't add anything to the gameplay, for me a real sandbox is: if you speak to a character before another you get this instead of that, or if you don't have this stat you get this instead of that, and it takes a very long time to program that, they just put random grinding for stats, differente story that are just parallel to each other and glued together in the main story or they don't even do that they feel like totally disconnected to the story. If you want to do sandbox it's okay but can I reccomend you at least to put markers or some guide in it, I found kinda of annoying to click every location every time hoping to get something new. You are the dev, so Obviously you make the decisions, just my opinion.
Hello, thanks ofr your feedback. I released a version earlier this week with character portrait on the map to make it less confusing.