Roadmap for MKM (Strategic Plannings part 2) (Patreon)

Hello again!

Quick heads-up: work on the remaining bad ends continues, but it is demanding more time than I had anticipated, therefore I'm pushing the next release to December. So please expect the next version to be released around the 20th of next month, right before the holidays.

When I release that update, the alpha phase of development will be officially over. It's been a long journey, but we're in the endgame now. In the upcoming beta phase, I will begin to add features and systems that have been sorely missing, insert story elements and then refine and polish everything up for the final 1.0 release.

Therefore in this post I will be laying down some of the features that I want to add. I have a spreadsheet containing all of the remaining tasks that I want to get done, so I'll sum those up here. Buckle up, because this is going to be a long one!

But before I begin, let's take a quick look at a post I made here, years ago, with my general goals for the game, back when it was just a short demo: Mystic Knight Maya - Project Goals

Wow, that post makes me nostalgic! But back to the point, as you can see, I've managed to reach a huge majority of those goals. The rest are exactly what I'm going to work on in the upcoming phase, but a couple of goals will become discarded ideas. More on that later.

Please keep in mind two things:

1) The list bellow is non-exhaustive, meaning that there are some other/minor things that will also be worked on or added which aren't mentioned here, like assorted refinements and polishing for the gameplay and other areas of the game.

2) The list of features is subject to change; such is the mutable nature of game development. I may add/remove/modify any of  the ideas listed.

Without further ado, here's the general plans for the remainder of MKM development:

-------------------- [TO BE ADDED DURING THE BETA PHASE] --------------------

-> New Items: More usable items (I've been considering some kind of shovel, for secrets and treasure), new potion types (with unique effects and even some with bad/interesting effects on Maya), new upgrades for Maya (increases potion carry capacity, unlocks new belt slots, accessories that Maya can equip for passive buffs). This range of new items will help flesh out the gameplay, and serves as fun rewards for exploration discovering new secret/side areas.

-> Story and dialogue: I will be adding new cutscenes and dialogue throughout the whole game, fleshing out what is going on. I also want to add notes (a new important item) written by different characters, and these notes will be spread out or even hidden around the island. Collecting these will further help expose the story and its mysteries.

-> Haruna's Shop, Currency and Lust System: Those 3 different systems are actualy all connected. Haruna will be a major character in the game, and her shop will offer a range of amenities and helpful items to Maya (including aforementioned new items, and possibly even key progression items).

But Haruna only accepts a unique form of currency: "island essence" (I'm still working on the concept). Basically, Maya will have to harvest said essence from the enemies, by intentionally engaging with their ero scenes (or find essence inside rare hidden chests).

Which finally brings us to the lust mechanic: the higher Maya's lust is, the more essence she can gather, but high lust also make Maya act more erratic, take more damage from enemies and be allured by them, so it's overall a dangerous state for her to be in. These systems are still under development and will require more brainstorming and a lot of work to be implemented, so they are still subject to big changes, but that's more or less the gist of it.

-> Intentional Armor Removal/Undressing: Related to the above, it is a way for Maya to be able to remove her clothing at will, as this would allow her to intentionally engage with enemies.

-> Grab system rework: Still unsure about this one as it is an ongoing design process, but I'd like to revise the system from a simple button mashing to something a bit more involved and fun. When Maya is grabbed, a cursor appears locked into a circle around her, and good and bad icons would move around this circle, so players would have to press the button on the good icons and avoid the bad ones to make Maya break free. The lust mechanic could also factor in here, as a third icon: hit this icon to collect more essence, at the risk of prolonged exposure to the enemy's ero scene.

-> Farina's interactions: Maya's companion, while she will be stuck inside the castle's hub area she will still be very helpful, and I will need to implement all of her interactions for that. She will serve as an in-game guide/walkthrough, explain some lore/story elements, offer a way to restore Maya's clothing, and other helpful stuff that I may come up with. Additionally, she might even make an appearance in some of the bad ends, I might add her retroactively to certain scenes, where she might attempt to rescue Maya but fail and join in on the fun.

-> Main antagonist encounters: I'm still undecided on who I'm going to reveal as the final "big bad", but one thing I'd really like to add would to have the antagonist be a nuisance and even fight with Maya throughout the whole game, right from the beginning. At some points the villain would close a gate in Maya's face and/or summon a group of enemies in a closed area to trap Maya in, and there could even be some "light boss battles" against this villain spread through the stages. But honestly this could easily become a scrapped idea, given the tricky amount of work required. We'll see how it goes.

-> Final Boss and ending: Whether the previous task gets implemented or not, we need a final boss no matter what so this is 100% getting done, but I'm still figuring out which type of encounter and what kind of enemy it will be. I need to finish that task of the "story and dialogue" before I have a more concrete idea on the final boss design, since the final big bad has to be teased and revealed via the plot and lore bits. Then I will know for certain who it will be exactly, among the few of my "secret" candidates.

-> Redesign level layouts and add new side areas: I will be revamping the current stages, both in terms of structure and layout, changing their topology and add new side and secret areas, and just overall re-balancing the game's stage progression.

-> Balance of enemies and bosses: I will take a good hard look on balancing all of the enemies attack damage, health and behavior. Specially since I will be adding new items and power-ups to Maya, i will have a better idea of the player's average power scaling. But I for sure want to remove any bullet sponges from the game and make the whole difficulty scaling more smooth.

-> Tablet of secrets: Something like a menu screen which will keep track of every secret/collectible in a given biome (beach, forest, etc). It will serve to foster exploration, maybe even giving hints on how to find some secrets, and help player's to track which power-ups and such they have already collected and which are yet to be found.

-> Debug/Cheat mode: At some point I will remove the current debug keys, but for the final version I will implement a menu or console where players will be able to manipulate the game's values and state.

-> Additional Internal View: A few of the current ero scenes that don't have any sort of internal view will get one, wherever it feels appropriate.

-> Miscellaneous: The game will be released in 2024, as early in the year as I'm able to complete all remaining tasks. It will release on steam, itch.io and dlsite (additional platforms also likely). I also want to translate the game into a good amount of other languages.

-------------------- [DISCARDED OR UNLIKELY IDEAS] --------------------

Truth is, every single game in existence, from Nintendo to indies, had some form of cut content. it is just the nature of the game. In my case, the main factor is time. I want to release the game as soon as possible, but working as a solo developer is tough to manage all the required work for cool features, so if I want to be realistic with the game's release, I have to let go of some ideas.

-> More friendly NPC around the island: This one really stings for me, because when I originally envisioned this game's idea, having interesting NPCs around the island was a core concept. These would range from other humans who also got lost on the island like Maya, to friendly monster inhabitants who would talk with Maya. These NPCs would offer additional dialogue, adding to the lore, but could also have extra interactions such as side-quests, and even could have ero scenes where Maya could engage with them in fun and unique ways. It wouldn't be hard to implement, but sadly it would require an insane amount of extra time, making a release next year unfeasible.

-> More stages/biomes and thus more bosses: My original vision was to have a much bigger island, and have it be more interconnected with side pathways and such (and to populate it with aforementioned NPC). Hidden tunnels, underwater areas and sky temples, to name a few. Consequently, these new areas would require new bosses as well. But stages actually take a surprising amount of work to lay down, and the same goes for bosses, so ultimately the current stages will have to suffice, making the island smaller and more contained than what I envisioned.

-> Alternative costumes for Maya: Another of my original desires for the game, but it kinda fell to the wayside somewhere along the way. These alternative costumes could even provide different benefits to Maya, but I'd would have to redraw every single sprite for Maya, in two layers (fully clothed and half/underwear) which is a ton of extra work, considering I'd like to have 3 to 5 extra costumes.

-> CG art for boss scenes: I did those for my previous game and it was a lot of fun, I wanted to do it again, but I don't think I will have the time to create new ones for MKM. I've considered commissioning art, but a unique problem arises: given the wide range of fetishes of my game, it is virtually impossible finding a single artist that would be OK with drawing all of them... and the alternative would be using various different artists, which would cause a mismatch in the art styles.

-> Full rework of the combat system: The current combat system as it stands, remains more or less unchanged from the prototype phase. I would like to remove "damage on touch" and make the combat more dynamic with combos and the like. But that would be a hell of a rework which could even affect negatively other game systems, so I've scrapped the idea.

-> Rework/refinement of old ero animations: After 4 years of constant work on pixel art, I've certainly improved a decent bit since my old days, and this shows itself in the discrepancy between some of the ero animations. Specially the old ones are quite stiff when compared to more recent ones. For the longest time I was determined on going back and refining/polishing those old animations, but now that I'm set on releasing the game as soon as possible, I have to prioritize other key areas of the game and this is one task that I have to let go.