December 14 Update (Patreon)

First, we have some pixel fanart from Isa Lansky! It's always cute to see characters in a different style. ^-^

I guess for this week I'm going to do a report on my ongoing work on Slave Rehabilitator, one of my future projects. I'll trust that people can look back to past posts if they want to know more, but this is my management game that's partnering with Kali.

There's a functioning build, it's just not ready to show. What's needed for a version 0.1.0? Well, that's a subjective question, but my goal is to include the first chunk of the game that also covers all the territory that would be included in a vertical slice. It won't be hours and hours of gameplay, but I want it to feel like a meaningful segment.

The first section of the game is the story introduction, which is basic visual novel stuff plus the tutorials. This is actually almost completely playable, though we need a few more art assets. I have the management mechanics functioning, just not complete.

My larger goal, and the major hurdle to actually showing Slave Rehabilitator to patrons, is that I want to get most of the game mechanics hammered out, at least a first draft of them. A huge part of this is being able to generate randomized patients, as I'm thinking after the player finishes the story they'll be dropped into an unlimited mode where they can play around with the overall system. I'd like to get this in a fun state before launch, but I fully expect revision based on feedback, since tuning a management game is tricky.

As usual my focus is on the mechanical details, but we probably need to put more work into the presentation. That means stuff ranging from actually making the title screen (designed but not implemented) to making the UI (there was a design post earlier, but that was mockups and tests, not actually fully implemented UI) to sound design and other details.

All of that is the bare minimum, but how much more do I want to include? Do I extend the plot enough to introduce an additional main patient and monster? It's a tricky question and I admit to feeling some pressure, as this will be my first major announcement after TLS. The trouble is that SR 0.1.0 will be compared, even if subconsciously, to TLS 1.0.0 with a decade of work behind it. Way back in the first build of TLS the characters weren't nearly so developed, and the investments weren't even introduced until the fourth build!

Speaking of investments, one thing I don't think I've articulated is that SR will be the spiritual successor to this aspect of TLS. That is, managing resources and changing the world through investment instead of combat or heroism. I think it's a very good match for management mechanics as well as the themes of the game. It won't be the world-spanning investments of TLS, but I look forward to exploring what can be done with this in a fresh project.

Anyway, that is my overall report. I'm not sure when to say about future timing, because version 0.1.0 depends on more than just me - Kali and others are taking vacations around the holidays.

I'm not, though! I'm here still working hard, so thank you for your support. ^-^