THE TWILIGHT REVERIE
Status Update
December 2023
INTRODUCTION
Hello again.
Happy Winter Solstice! Can you believe it's been 3 months already?!
Well, I can't. Cause i'm writing this in November. Ha ha ha ha ha ha...
PROGRESS UPDATE
Up until recently, I've been sort of "Duel-Wielding" development of both Chapters 1 & 2. However, I have still been working on pieces of later chapters, such as bullet patterns and dialogue.
For Chapter 1, I'm finally creating the middle overworld area. You could think of it like the "Hotland" from Undertale or "Scarlet Forest" from Deltarune, but for this chapter. With this complete, the chapter will finally be playable all the way through...!
(Fun Fact: I composed the melody for this area in 2021 on my Yamaha YPT-270...)
This Chapter is made of many different pieces... so it's been hard to understand exactly how everything was turning out. Now that things are clearer, I just need to roll over the entire game with a steamroller and crush out all the bumps.
There are still things to add, things to fix, and things to remove… But many pieces have been quite polished already, so it won't be too bad.
You’ve probably noticed, but a lot of what’s been shown recently is concept art or music. That’s because I’ve been spending most of my development resources in doing something very important for the project.
I’m working on a thing, and I’ve gotten quite a few things done for it. But It’s a very important thing that needs a lot more things before I can properly show it.
As for Chapter 2, I've been plotting out the progression for it’s story, including things that you won’t see unless you’ve done specific things in Chapter 1. This is, in part, related to that “thing.”
It's all still very early, and there's not much playable just yet, but I figured it was worth a mention.
STATUS ESTIMATE
As with last time, we're going to be looking at everything in numbered estimates because I like statistics.
CHAPTER 1
Phase 1: Design
Main Design 100% (dialogue, etc.)
Initial Setup: 100% (stuff involved setting up the base to make the game, adding debug tools, documentation, etc.)
Phase 2: Implementation
Art: 60%
Cutscenes: 33% (100% are started, needs second-pass)
Bullet Patterns: 90% (enemies are all but completed, bosses are about 75% done, needs second-pass)
Non-Bullet Battle Elements: 99.9% (All ACTs are done and all SKILLs are done except for one. Literally one, because I can't figure out how to implement it without breaking the entire game.)
Audio: 100%
Maps: 70% (All are started, most need second-pass. NPC interactions are completed in all spots where written.)
Other: 40%
Phase 3: Finishing
Balancing: 25%
Bugfixing: 10%
Secrets & Extras: 33%
Polishing: 25%
Release Readiness 5%
CHAPTER 2
Phase 1: Design
Main Design 75%?
Initial Setup: 100% (stuff involved setting up the base to make the game, adding debug tools, documentation, etc.)
Phase 2: Implementation
Art: 10%
Cutscenes: 0% (A handful are started, needs second-pass)
Bullet Patterns: 0%
Non-Bullet Battle Elements: 5% (Some SKILLs that were initially going to be available in Chapter 1 have instead been pushed to Chapter 2, which is the only reason there's any progress here.)
Audio: 33%
Maps: 10% (Needs second-pass.)
Other: 0%
Phase 3: Finishing
Balancing: 0%
Bugfixing: 0%
Secrets & Extras: 0%
Polishing: 0%
CHAPTERS 3+
Phase 1: Design
Story and General Game Progression (First-pass) 100%
Cutscene Dialogue (First-pass, lacking cutscene instructions) 90%
Map Design (textual) 75% (varies per chapter, earlier chapters totally completed)
Map Design (drawn) 0%
Enemy Design (conceptual) 66% (all bosses are known)
Enemy Design (bullets/visual) 50% (varies per chapter, earlier chapters totally completed)
Music (Concept) 95%
Music (Completed) 45%
Visual Design:
BG concepts (First-pass) 80%
Important Characters, Bosses (First-pass) 100%
Phase 2
Sprite Art 25%?
Other Content Creation 0%
Phase 3
Release Readiness 0%
MINI-PREVIEW
Finally, some pictures! This time, I'm going to be showing exclusively Chapter 2 stuff, because it's the Chapter I've shown off least. For some reason.