Password Retrospective (2019) (Patreon)

And so as the year comes to an end, I find myself thinking back on how the project has come over the time that it's been ongoing. It goes without saying that most that you've seen come to pass this year in relation to Password has come about because of you, and for that I am incredibly thankful.

I feel now's a good time to go over some of the things that I feel went well and some of the things that didn't before getting into what 2020 has in store.

The Bad

I think my biggest regret is the whole fiasco about Tyson and musk. I leaned to hard in the wrong way and had to deal with that for a while, but thankfully it's fixed. I'll admit that it's totally a thing that I did poorly and have to suffer the consequences of, but by and large hopefully nothing else in this sorta vein comes up.

Then we have the Oz interrogation. It was likely a little too lofty for me to shoot for but we got it... functional? Something different, didn't quite work out, but still work having I think. It'll be something I can use again in future so there's that.

Running the Discord server has been both a good and a bad, but the stress has gotten to me a few times where I've acted out of hand, and for that I apologise. For the most part it's a pleasure to talk to all of you on a near daily basis, and even for those no longer around, I still think about the time we've spent together.

The Good

Reaching 300 patrons is insane. Or at least I went in with this chuffed at the prospect of getting 100 but triple that is always nice. Hopefully I can continue to earn that patronage.

Also on the topic of reaching out to people, just being able to talk to other devs has helped Password and hopefully by extension other projects, some of which are looking promising for the new year. But not only that, Dyne (ExtraCurricular Activities) and Carbon (Minotaur Hotel) have shed insight on avenues for both merch and marketing respectively which should mean good things in 2020.

While I'm predominantly a one man army, tagging in some people for assistance has been a blessing. Maodun and Rocky assisted with some of the more finnicky parts of what I was trying to accomplish coding-wise. Civ has been a great mentor and person to collaborate with as far as composing and has made some great stuff for Password (more down below), and Taikah and Brosko have been plugging away at getting the new UI looking nice and fancy too (also more down below).

Stuff to come in 2020

Did someone say merch? No? Well I guess I will. It's coming, likely in shirts given the desire for some of them in particular, but I'll word people up when it's all finalised. 

Music! Civ (and to a much lesser extent me) have been putting together tracks for Password so we can move away from the two things plaguing it: Free Songs and poor mixing. No longer will you have that one track that's really quiet while the others are really loud! Well hopefully; once it's all done and implemented there'll be some tweaking likely. Same goes for sound effects.

UI! I said before Taikah and Brosko have been putting together some sweet stuff! Let's have a look, shall we? (Obviously these are subject to change but it's close to what we're going with)

First up... uh... Well it's very different, huh? Day counter is the main thing I'm hyped for. But an added objectives dropdown to keep track of things. Might not be useful now, but when things start getting a bit hard to manage, might be good. Rest of it is just moving away from the default Ren'Py UI into something more stylised and appropriate.

And of course, this extends to the other menus as well. Going for more of a notebook/journal aesthetic, but again subject to change.

We'll have more to show when things get locked in proper, maybe with some of the new sprites if I have the time after I get back from my interstate pseudo-vacation. But if you have thoughts or comments before we get to that part, by all means let me know!

All in all I'm hype for 2020, hopefully come this time next year we'll be well into the meat of the game and maybe near closing out some of the plotlines or character arcs before the final stretch. A lot is going to hinge on how the plot plays out and feedback (which as always, I read every last bit of it).

So from me, and the cast, plus everyone that has helped me along the way, thanks for 2019, and hope to see you around in 2020!