Development Update #99
It was indeed a very busy March. The prep for the Steam release of the first part of Volume 2 ended up being more involved than I planned. Though that is the story of game development as a whole. I found some further code issues, had a few long-standing issues that took time to sort out, and decided to bite the bullet and make a few more planned changes during all the other work. The upshot of all that work (and days of testing!) is that I've got a much better code base to work with in the future. There are still a few more code improvements, especially around Steam Deck ease-of-use, that I hope to have done by the middle of the year.
What all this means for the second part of Volume 2's release (in many, many more months) is that I should only need to update the walkthrough guide with the new content, and add achievements for Steam and test those. As someone who had no idea how to code when I started this, please just stick with me as I fix past Roy's numerous mistakes.
Apart from that, it was special renders for March, and back to the story development for To Be A King. I'm at a big inflection point with the story, and that has meant spending more time mapping out choices you get to make as a player and deciding what stays and what goes. I've got a nice plan for the rest of the story, with only a few more decisions I know I need to make. Sadly, I already know that even more choices will develop unexpectedly in the dark future of my game development journey.
With all the branches and options we have now, development time is definitely a bit longer for each release. Even if I had a nuke take out half of the love interests, there are still so many options. I'm doing what I do best: embracing the chaos and making a game that I enjoy playing. That is especially important as I probably play through the game at least 4-5 times with each release.
Environments for this next release are done, and I have just a couple of minor characters to get finished up before I can setup renders for their scenes. It has been nice to, once again, return to a development system that I understand fairly well and can be efficient in. Very good news as I see ever larger releases in my future.
With the story work, a few IRL curveballs, and other improvements, I've been spending time working on things you won't see until the next release. As with Chapter 11, Chapter 12 is shaping up to be very large, and I don't foresee future chapters being much shorter than it will be.
I'll be back in May with another progress report. Until then, I'll be staying very warm with all the render work. Take care!