SLARPG: General update November 2021 (Patreon)

Hi everyone! It's been a bit.

In October, I reported that the main story content of Act IV (of V) had hit Alpha, meaning that almost the entire main story of SLARPG is now playable with only some side content, the final dungeon, and the ending remaining.

Since then, I've been working on that side content! There's quite a variety of it. Some important treasure has been added for players to find in various locations around the game's world, for one. But most significantly, I completed two short but meaningful side stories that help flesh out the characters. (I'd call them "side quests," but these two are really just optional story sequences, not Quests.) One of them focuses on Claire, and the other focuses on Jodie. I'm keeping the details under wraps, but I think fans of those two are really gonna enjoy these.

Unfortunately, this busy month also came with a lot of distractions that slowed down my work - not the least of which was me getting sick at the start of November. (Don't worry, I'm better now. I think it was just pollen allergies.) I was also starting to feel like I had tunnel vision after so many months spent focusing on individual segments of the game, which isn't a great feeling on a big project like this. So, to reinvigorate myself, I did something I'd been wanting to do for a while: I played through all of the completed content from start to finish!

While we've playtested several times since then, I hadn't done a playtest this thorough since we got Act II to Alpha last December, and the amount of playable content has doubled in the 11 months since then. While it's obviously not done yet, a majority of the game is there, and it was really satisfying for me to see how it's shaping up as a complete experience. I'm already extremely proud of the state it's in. It was kind of eye opening, actually, to see how the story evolves over the course of a single playthrough. My humble RPG Maker game about gay animals might not be a 40-hour epic, but it's quite the little adventure if I do say so myself. I just had to take a step back and be like, wow. This is a real video game. (Also, a group of regular enemies in the Amber Woods managed to give me a game over this time through. I don't think that's ever happened to me before. I'm so proud of my little babies.)

So, with that out of the way, next up: more side quests! I've already knocked a good chunk of them off the list in the last month and a half, and will continue to keep chipping away at them through December. Work has now begun on what might end up as the biggest chunk of optional content in the game - but, again, no spoilers, so I'm keeping quiet about what that is. I'm not quite sure where I'll be at the end of the year, especially with family visiting around Christmas, but as always I'll keep y'all posted.