Devlog #3 - Ch4 Estimated Release Date, An Important Chat, & More (Patreon)

Hello again everyone.

I'm going to be very candid in this post and (try to) keep it short. First and foremost, I wanted to talk about the amount of time that it took for us to finish Chapter 4, as it's been eating away at me and weighing heavily on my mind.

To be completely frank: I am very disappointed in myself. I could sit here for an hour and list off different reasons for why it took this long, but the reality is we failed you all... and let our players down. Regardless of how or why it happened, I believe it is unacceptable and I have been feeling pretty sick about it for a long time. I couldn't bring myself to make this devlog without expressing this, not to mention telling you all that I'm sorry. Our players mean a hell of a lot to me, and I respect and love you all.

Dwelling on the past changes nothing, however. What I can instead do is show everyone how serious I am taking this... and will do just that: starting with Chapter 5. At the beginning of this year I began devising ways to accomplish two very important things: 1) Increase my productivity and come up with a more tenable method of developing, and... 2) Create a more practical structure for each chapter of the game... one that is more consistent and viable for the early-access model. 

While it took quite a while (since Radiant's first draft is already written more than twenty chapters in advance)... I was able to pull it off.

So what does this mean going forward? 

The combination of increased productivity, and each chapter being slightly smaller, but more consistent in size... means that you can expect updates to be released every four... maybe five months. I believe this is a reasonable timeframe when considering each chapter's complexity and (still larger than average) size. 

As for how this affects you guys: 

Well... aside from getting more frequent updates, chapters will be a more "viable" size. This doesn't mean they'll be "small" by any means: they were already written to be larger than most games in the genre, and will be still. That said... no more will we have behemoth chapters that are much larger than all the others. Aside from that and maybe less cliffhangers (lol), everything else stays exactly the same. I'd never cut content from the story. Instead, I've simply shifted things around and created different "ending points."

Now before anyone says it, because I'm sure there's a couple of you who are thinking it... I want to make something very clear: words are just words. Without the action behind them, they mean nothing. Given the context and everything I've said above... I don't really expect anyone to simply take my word for it when I say, "chapters will be released every 4-5 months." All I ask is that you wait and see, and allow me the chance to prove it to you.

Furthermore, I've said this before, but I wanted to say it again: please don't feel obligated to pledge to us every single month between updates. The beautiful thing about Patreon and platforms like it is that you can see everything that's ever been posted the moment you subscribe. Don't get me wrong, we do this for a living now so we greatly appreciate those of you who do stick it out and support us every month. But the economy is tough out there right now, and I just don't want anyone to feel obligated. Just know that even if you can only support us once or twice a year, you're greatly appreciated.

With that out of the way, let's get to the other important parts.

Chapter 4, when can you expect it?

The script is completed/delivered, the code is nearly finished, and testing on the second half has already begun. We currently have 23/26 "parts" rendered, meaning I'm just waiting for the last three parts (which also comes with a few animations). Alorth predicts he can have these delivered to me by the end of the month, and once he's finished it should only take me a few days to complete and release the chapter to you all. So we're looking at end of July or beginning of August (hopefully at the absolute latest). Once again, I can't express how sorry I am that this chapter took so long, and please rest assured that it is my goal to make sure it never happens again.

Speaking of doing things differently going forward... I'm going to give you guys a way to see/monitor our progress once Chapter 4 is completed. The plan is to create a chart, one that is displayed in real-time, that shows the estimated # of scenes required for the chapter to be completed. Each time we've completed a scene, this chart will be updated to reflect that. This will give our supporters a way to see exactly where we're at and monitor progress so that they're not completely in the dark and wondering where the hell we're at with it, or if we're even working at all.

I hope that by doing this, it will provide you all with a lot more peace of mind. 

Again, I'm not one to dwell on the past... but I am absolutely determined to make up for my failures. That includes faster updates and more transparency. To those of you who stuck around with us regardless: I can't thank you enough. You're the reason games like Radiant are even possible: it is a difficult, draining, and all-consuming job... but it's one that I love doing, and the fact that I can is only possible thanks to you all. For everyone else, please accept my sincerest apologies for the wait. I promise to make up for it.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, everyone, and remember that my DMs are always open.

Love,