October 18 Update (Patreon)

First, an update: the DStP demo is now live on Steam, theoretically enrolled for Steam Next Fest starting tomorrow. Will this matter? Hard to say, but the demo alone seems to be generating wishlists, so I'm glad I jumped through all these hoops.

Okay, let's talk about what needs to happen for the official 0.2.0 build of Four Liars.

Writing/Eventing: Technically what exists is completely playable, including the new content I've mentioned, but I'm planning further tweaks. I also hope to add a whole new chapter to the game and the new stuff is still WIP as I wait on resources.

Coding: I think all systems are functioning fine, actually. Not saying things are in their final state for the final game, but no obstacles here.

Pixel Art: This is the issue, since while I don't need 0.2.0 to be 100% custom, I do want it to be an at least somewhat cohesive experience for players. Here are the various things and how I prioritize them:

Character portraits/expressions: These are essential for my work and right now I have most of the ones I need. Once the main characters are done, it's okay if NPCs take longer to get custom faces.

Character sprites: All the field sprites are done! I'd like to finish the battle sprites so that the player characters have a cohesive visual identity, though. NPCs will also get custom sprites, eventually, but I trust players can deal with NPCs being tiny without too much snickering.

UI: Dialogue window is done; battle menu and other tweaks are lower priority.

Tiles: Eventually the whole game will get custom tiles, and maybe parallaxed maps, but this isn't necessary for version 0.2.0.

I wish I had art to show with this post, but I don't have much. =/ The three artists I've chosen have been good overall, but I'm not paying them full time and they have other things going on.

Here is an example of some WIP art:

This is a "pixel sketch" - you can't sketch outlines with pixel art the way you can with conventional drawings, but artists can figure out the basic shapes while putting way less effort into the shading and details. The purpose of this is to decide on the basic positions and angles for the characters in combat. I hope people like these, because these are the designs I approved.

It's good to have this, but we're a long way from finished. The above sprites need to be finalized, then made into idle animations... then we need to do a lot more combat animations. I'm not sure how long this will take.

Of course I could work harder than I have this week, because there are always more things to do, but I could be 200% productive and it wouldn't meaningfully move forward the timing on Four Liars, Slave Rehabilitator, or Don't Save the Princess. =/ This isn't me merely beating myself up, because without promotion, I'm not keeping up with Patreon attrition.

To keep myself busy, I've done a few things that aren't really a priority now, but at least are discrete tasks I can check off the list. An example is changing all the RPGM sound effects to a set of custom sound effects. Not truly important, but hopefully it makes a little difference.

One thing I'm struggling to put any time into is choosing music for the project. I originally went with no music in the 0.1.0 build, but people objected, so I put in some RPGM placeholders. If I'm doing that, though, then maybe I should just push forward with figuring out the final music, which is one of my least favorite steps of the project.

I'm thinking I might use this guy's library of songs:

https://anttinorthwest.wixsite.com/anttiluode

But there are literally hundreds, so it's hard to sort through. Does anyone with strong musical opinions want to give them a listen and call out any they think are particularly good for game music? I know I'm trying to delegate here, and I'd get it done eventually, but I'd appreciate any help with this more than you know.