End of Year Thoughts (Patreon)

As Christmas and end of the year draw near I'll do some reflecting on this year's progress and our latest release - episode 4. I tend to ramble so bear with me :)

We released Episode 1 in December of 2018. So we are now one whole year from the moment we introduced the world to Twisting Vines. Releasing three episodes in the span of a year is looking good to me! Especially when you take into account the complex choices, possible stories and number of images required for one episode. Let's also not forget that Twisting Vines is not an open ended project - in case you forgot there're ten episodes in the story so with the release of Episode 4 we're at 40% of the game.

Twisting Vines is different in many ways from the other games out there, and one of them is that the main creator, that would be me, is not an artist. I've seen and played plenty of other games and they're mostly being created by an artist being the lead, writing the story and creating the visuals. With us, it's different. I have the artistic abilities of a disabled banana but I imagine the story and write and code it. Helped by our great artist Tharin it comes to life. The images don't always reflect the story as I imagine it but it's the best we can do and I hope you're all enjoying both in the game!

As there's a lot of horizontal content in the game episodes sometimes appear short - I noticed this especially in Episode 4. When running through some tests it appeared very short to me. But I know everything that's in there so I kept repeating it and making sure to test every possibility I spent more than an hour - just on the Sunday part of the game. That's quite a bit of content. Not to mention that to get every possible situation you need to make different choices in the previous days (episodes). I think that the addition of the gallery will help a bit here as you'll know whether there's still some content you missed.

And so, talking of new content and Episode 4, I want to mention that this is a very important episode in the whole story. This is the day which you spend mostly with Claire. Of course if your interests go in a different direction you're free to make different choices. But remember that you should definitely save your game here as there's a big branching in this episode - one which will make Episodes 5 and 6 (and partly 7) completely different. There's also a chance to encounter a dead end in episode 5 so...tread carefully! If you run into any problems or need hints there's always the discord channel where we will gladly give you hints and a helping hand.

Now, where was I... I warned you that I tend to ramble :) Oh yes. I feel we made good progress through the year. I would be even happier if we got more supporters as that means two things - that people really like Twisting Vines and that we'll have more income which will help us turn making games into more than a hobby. I can not stress enough how grateful I am to each and every one of you, our Patrons!

You see, I really really want to turn making games into a job for me. Stop going to work every day, just turn on my station at home and delve into the world of game development. If we manage to gather enough supporters with Twisting Vines that might become a reality.... but I digress again!

I wanted to mention that we made good progress. It's very busy right now but we shall be releasing Episode 4 regular, extras and full version in the next few days - as soon as we make sure that the early access is bug free. As the new year starts work will begin on images for Episode 5 - you should already know from a previous post that Episode 5 will be huge, biggest so far. That being said I don't want to speculate how long it will take us to finish the images but we do have a plan on how to hurry that along...it will require funds however so we'll see how that goes.

Also, I'm currently coding Episode 6 and am close to finishing that! So one thing you don't have to worry about is progress on Twisting Vines. We're here to deliver and finish it. I believe 2019 was good and hopefully 2020 will be even better.

Okay I believe this is enough talking from me. Have I said anything useful? I hope so. Just count yourself lucky I didn't tell you about how 2019. was for me personally...I could write another novel right there!

Go play Early Access and then stay tuned for full release of Episode 4 as well as some other news coming in the next few days!