Hi everyone,

as there are currently no new devlogs ready, there are some things piling up around the project I wanted to write about for those who are interested.

I have also released a pure concept log shortly before that, regarding the overall game structure and corresponding features (both old and new information). As I decided to link this into the game page, I wanted to keep this current update out of there.

Also another disclaimer: This is again a wall of text. If you are not following this project it will probably not interest you.

Note: This post is related to Late Shape Journey (Beta).

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Topic I - What did I work on?

I normally do not like to write about this until I finished what I wanted to add for a new project version - but as this will take a while for the reasons below, I do not want to leave you without a progress report for so long.

As I previewed on Twitter a while back, I made a pause from working on the sub-menus and looked into 'Swappable Contents'. These were ideas I had planned to put in for a while, but the way I could do that in terms of effort and how the engine works made them always optional and maybe not as polished.

Two (and maybe all) features are 'Controller Prompts' and 'Protagonist Skins'. The former will allow you to swap files within the application folder to make the interfaces I designed show buttons for either Xbox or Playstation controllers - instead of keyboard keys. The latter will allow you to swap out files in the same way to give a chapter's protagonist a grim, undead style by applying some filters.

While the controller support (visually - it somewhat works technically by default, more on that below) makes sense, the character skins are probably a bit more random. I simply wanted to dabble in changing skins for the characters, however my limited abilities and the amount of additional effort to implement them in each event condition would not make it worthwhile as full option. Still, it is a nice (mostly polished) gimmick you can activate along the run, even though the style does not fit as much as the default pictures. The later characters also do not look as good as the first ones because of their different art style, but it is still good enough for my requirements (barely).

The controller support is actually where I put in more effort to make it as polished as possible. Before, some features bound to the Ctrl key (like the map) where not accessible via controller, which of course would make using one a bit cumbersome. I did manage to change the mapping in that regard however, so you will be able to use it for everything beside the function keys (changing full screen and such).

There are some nit-picks with it: The control list in the configuration will not change, and you have to swap the interfaces out yourself as mentioned above. Seeing as this is an optional feature to what I intended to be a keyboard only game however, I think this is a good in-between. That being said, the engine actually does support controller by default - and one of the updates for a plugin I use added flexible controller prompts to the navigation bars. However, I decided to make my own very early own, as I needed the interfaces to be as accurate for my needs as possible. So yeah, that is how it is. I am also not sure if both controllers (Xbox and Playstation) will work out of the box - as I could not find a satisfying answer to that - but I would at least assume so. So there is that. I guess we will go into that more eventually after the game has been released and someone tried it out.

In accordance to that, I have also updated the Terms of Use to add the part about Swappable Contents, changed the Title prompt for Twitter to use Ctrl instead of the Mouse, stuff like that.

Next, I tackled the Credits scene. As the project is asset complete besides 4 dungeon tilesets now, I could finally do that.

That being said, we have jumped from the previous 6 prototype pages to 25. With that, I gave every bigger contributor their own overview page, as well as listing every asset (pack) I have used, sorted and filtered by individual chapters for you to get a better overview in case you are interested in acquiring some of them. I think that is a good solution to not only give a sufficient credit list, but also showing appreciation to both the artists and the future players. Of course, smaller contributions and additional information has also been accounted for accordingly.

And finally, I went back to the Portfolio menu - as I actually started implementing it in the editor.

This is where it gets a bit more complicated...

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Topic II - Future Plans and Schedules (Outdated)

The general gist is that I decided to change what content I want to finish for the completed foundation. Before, I wanted to have specific chapter content ready with a chapter's release. Meaning Portfolio, Arcade, Side Story content would all be accounted for when the chapter is done.

I have changed this to the following: Portfolio and Arcade content will be completed when the foundation is finished - meaning you can access this content from the very get-go. Side Story content will still only be available after the release of a chapter - as it simply needs content and concepts I have to come up with during the chapter's creation.

Now this probably sounds confusing to some. Why would I spoil content before the actual chapter for it has been released? But this way of doing things is not unheard of and is simply a combination of schedule and... approach? Let me explain.

So first of all, I calculated (again) how long this project will take me and... yeah. Let me start by 'I do not mind it personally'. I enjoy doing this and want to put everything into it I want to.

That being said: I have already bumped the planned date of finishing the foundation to at least the end of 2024. Seeing how much progress I made so far, what I still need to do and how I want to include more content into it, it will simply not work out earlier.

After that - the chapters. Knowing that I want to give everything when designing the dungeons and the scale of them - I have to account for at least 3 weeks per main area (which there are 3 of) and half of that time for each of the two sub areas. This makes 12 weeks per dungeon, multiplied by 4 we are at 48. This is not accounting for the entry of a chapter, the final area, the encounters and database content, as well as connecting it to the general interfaces of the chapter selection and what not - as well as the additional content of New Game Plus and Side Stories. Calculating the time for this becomes of course more difficult - but for now, overall I reserved at least 12-15 months per chapter. Seeing as there are 8 chapters, plus the additional game mode - you can of course see where I am going with this.

So changing up the expectations of the overall project and how I present stuff based on this should be a bit clearer now. The approach reasoning is simply put: 'How do I think people should get into the game in terms of experience and spoilers'. In regards to that, the game will already be very open in its approach. You can decide to skip things, unlock stuff, spoil yourself. I do not mind personally, feel free to play the game the way you like. There will always be people who do want to play the game in the *spoiler free* order - and they can still do so as well. And while this may sound judging I simply mean it that way - I want for you to enjoy the game how you want - both are totally fine and doable.

So having a really long taking game in terms of story chapters and the way you can already approach it - I think the picture of some content of the missing chapters already being there and explorable can make sense. That being said I can still decide to put some information out of the game before a chapter has been released if I really want to - but I am not sure on this front, yet.

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Topic III - The Portfolio Content

All of that described, I can finally get into why there are no new devlogs so far: Me deciding to do all the additional portfolio content right away. Which means writing Normal and Plus flavour text for over 250 enemies. So about 500+ entries. All of them more or less 4 short lines long - and all of them needing various steps to polish - from putting them into the event multiple times in the right formatting, to proof-read and re-writing them. While also working with the good old event editor of RPG Maker which you can still not adjust the window size of... *sigh*

Anyway... you can guess that this takes a while as I do not want to put some sluggish text out there. And while I was aware it would be quite some effort - and I actually enjoy writing the texts - it simply comes down to this: I have no idea when I will be able to put out a new devlog.

I want to finish the portfolio menu first, at least. As I am now thinking about making the mini games as well... I am not sure if I want to include those, too.  That being said - I am also starting to think that 0.6.0 will not be that accurate anymore if I do not put more space in between.

So yeah... I guess what I want to say is that the future log output may become more random, as I simply do not have too much to write about the things I have to work on now and in the upcoming months. I will try to put out something when I can as before - and as long as I make progress that will suffice. This also means there probably will not be a half-anniversary log next month, as there simply would be no point.

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End of Special Log

On a final note: I also decided to omit the 'maybe allowing donations in the future'  from the game page. While I chose so for personal reasons, I will take the opportunity to simply release the game (and future projects) free of an asking price and optional financial support.

I do not mind others doing differently, but I also appreciate if someone believes in offering their work free of charge - and I am aware that there is always a difference for people to be offered an optional donation, as well. Some will ask for it, some feel pressured by it. Every option would be okay, but I decided to go this route and am happy with it.

Like always, thank you for reading and have a nice week, everyone.

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