DevLog #47: March Status Update (Patreon)

I hope you guys are safe and healthy with everything that's happening in the world recently.

I live in France near Paris so I'm confined in my apartment since a few weeks now. Thankfully I'm a solo indie developer so I can work in these conditions just fine, and my projects are actually progressing quite well! Here's what I've been working on.

First, thanks for voting on the poll about the (very) early access for Light Fairytale Episode 2! It seems most of you guys are excited to play this episode as soon as possible.

Actually as I've been progressing fast on this episode, I think I should continue working like this as doing an Early Access will actually slow down the development as a whole.

For instance, even if the 1st dungeon is playable I didn't implement the wall colliders yet, so making a build for the public will require a bit more work. It's easy but it's time consuming, and it's the kind of things I prefer to do at the end of the development as I might want to change the layout and thus will need to redo the colliders work.

This is not the only reason. I think the 1st impression on a game is vital, I'm sure the core fans will be happy with the current build, but I also imagine that many of the players on Steam will complain about the lack of polish, and even more on the lack of content, and it will be worse with just one playable hour on this build.

I will do an Early Access though, that's for sure, as there are features that are not vital for a day one release yet are very time consuming - such as the Japanese translation. I will also need the feedback on bugs, balancing etc. as I don't have enough testers internally. I'll welcome any ideas / suggestions / feature requests during this EA!

Speaking on progress, as planned in the previous devlog, I've completed the 1st hour of this episode, including the 1st dungeon, 2 towns and many story events!

But I've been working most of this past month on the 2nd dungeon: The Ice Lair. I've already implemented a few new locations, enemies and story events.

Next, I've received a new Anime cut for Episode 2: The 1st encounter of Haru with the mysterious girl.

Actually, this is a scene that's been remade by multiple artists during the development. Here's the same scene done by me, then by the portrait artist romiy.

I've also been experimenting with a vital feature: Alternate costumes!

Here's a look on the mizugi skins for Haru and Kuroko. Would you actually play like this?

Also, would you pay for it as a DLC? The reason I'd do it as a paid DLC is that I'd order new portrait illustrations, and maybe even updates on the Anime cutscenes. I think that would be fun!

I'm a big fan of stereoscopic 3D, that's why all of my games (on PC) have a built-in 3D mode.

I've been testing Episode 2 in 3D using Virtual Desktop on my Valve Index, and I think it looks great!

I've captured a few 3D screenshots in half side-by-side (left-right) format. You can view these on your 3DTV or VR headset. Here's the link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3dynno2xxap1ji3/%5Bneko.works%5D%20Light%20Fairytale%20Episode%202%20-%20Screenshots%20%284K%20Half%20side-by-side%203D%29.zip?dl=0 

I've been making (sort of) games since I was a kid, but started getting (kind of) serious when I switched to Unity. That was in March 2014... 6 years ago!

That's also when I consider having started the development of the Light Fairytale series. Here's a look on a prototype from 2014 running on the PlayStation Vita, and how this same scene looks like now.

On these 6 years, almost 4 years have been documented on this Patreon via monthly devlogs. Please have a look on my early devlogs to see how my projects have evolved!

Over these 6 years, I didn't work exclusively on Light Fairytale. I've released the arcade racer Super Night Riders and many other side projects.

One of these projects is Dark Fairytale, it's still at concept stage but I plan to make a playable prototype before the end of the year.

Actually, I've said the exact same thing in DevLog #7 in... November 2016! Sorry about that, I have too many side projects like this, but it's so hard to find the time... Anyway, this year I'll do it, promise!

My developer landing page on Steam has just reached 1k followers. Thanks everyone!

Please follow me if you don't yet:

https://store.steampowered.com/developer/nekodotworks 

Bonus, here's a 4K wallpaper (yep, 4K from now on!) from the Anime of Light Fairytale Episode 2: The Encounter.

Exceptional Bonus #2 due to the current dark times, here's my cat doing his best respecting the containment measures.

That's it for this month!

Thank you so much for your support through all these years.

Stay safe everyone! And wash your hands.