Various Improvements (and an update on art posts) (Patreon)

It's been a great month for progress, most of which is showcased in this video. The biggest win is a rewrite of the collision system to be 4 times faster, easier to understand/modify and more robust than it ever has been. Other improvements are covered in the video if you'd like to know more.

The only thing I'd like to add which isn't in the video relates to art posts. Last month we revealed the protagonist and a few other tidbits. The reception was great and I'm really looking forward to showing more but it's a bit of a catch-22. As I mentioned before, Betelgeuse differs from the other projects because it was primarily inspired by a world I envisioned rather than some specific gameplay idea I wanted to pursue. As you now know, it's a world of alien insects so I hope whatever story we convey can be done without dialogue. There are many aspects of the world/story which I'd like to reveal naturally through the audiovisual elements rather than just explaining them outright. This makes me hesitant to reveal more art since I'd rather not have to explain all the details before players have a chance to go through the game. All of this is contrasted against my desire to provide value to patrons in the here and now since a fully finished game is still far from guaranteed.

Here's the compromise I've arrived at. When it makes sense to do so, I will occasionally share concept art but I won't explain in detail what any of the art depicts. This way, even if the game doesn't release, you can experience some of that discovery for yourself as we reveal more details about the world just by showing you more stuff. I suppose this means you might form some misconceptions about things but maybe that's fun in its own way. My hope is that this approach will leave enough gaps for there to be some mystery left should you actually get to play the game.

If this is a dealbreaker for you, let me know in the comments. Unless I see a lot of pushback, I'll use this as the art posting policy going forward, it seems like the most balanced approach to me.