Almost...

Finally, the game is mostly done... however...

First, I own you an explanation of how it got heavily delayed in this final stage. I finished Hippolyta on time, but then some hard issues came in the way.

1. I believe Hippolyta's the BEST SCENE EVER. It's probably the best animation I've ever made. And then, when I ran the game, I realized that almost the rest of the scenes paled in comparission with Hippolyta. I decided to fix it, but it meant re-rendering 70% of the images. A huge work for my desktop, plus the extra time of improving the images.

2. In another of my game runnings, I felt confused as a player. If I as the developer was confused, it would mean you as players would be COMPLETELY LOST. So, that needed to be fixed. It was because the game's way of checking progress was deficient. Practically, I had to made this part again, and I added a new feature for it. I built a new Check Progress section where you will be able to check the scenes you've unlocked and the ones that are still missing. The "Check Progress" section will also include a replay of all the scenes you've unlocked. This means that if you loved certain scene, you can replay it anytime. Unfortunately, this feature created a "Programming Frankenstein" because of inserting, attaching or replacing code lines all over the game. Like Dr. Frankenstein putting a limb, a foot, a head on a dead corpse. A little necrotic analogy, but that's one used in music production when a music track is made by dozens of recordings. A trick to make a mediocre singers sing perfectly (like it happens in most pop-singers, besides the use of auto-tune) is to make them record the song by parts, make about 4 takes of each part, and then mix all the takes, picking a phrase, a word or even a syllabe to create a perfect (but fake) performing thanks to a very hard meticulous edition process. I've worked in productions where an audio track is made of 100 micro audios glued like Frankenstein's body.

3. Half of the music still need to be done. As this is about my profession, it's something I have much more control over it. Simply, because of 1 &2, I haven't had any time to sit at my keyboard and play...

While my desktop keeps rendering, I'm running the game and still tuning it. Most are micro changes, like improving rewards system, difficulty, or esthetical aspects and spotting minor bugs.

WHEN IT'S GOING TO BE OUT?

As I said before, from now on, to avoid any kind of disappointments, I WILL NEVER, EVER AGAIN SAY AN SPECIFIC RELEASE DATE. I will report my progress weekly, as I have been doing, and give you an APPROXIMATE DATE, but that's all.

Now, the APPROXIMATE DATE is NEXT WEEK. But, take this as something APPROXIMATE. And please, nobody, not even me, should take it as granted. So if it takes more time, it would be normal. Like when Netflix said Stranger Things final season was going to be this year...

After this game, I've realized, no matter how hard I try, my predictions can't be accurate.

Why? Because I don't know if tomorrow I will face an unexpected BIG BUG that would take some days to solve, or when I see the final product, I realize a scene needs to be changed, re-rendered, or completely re made from the scratch. It's like when a movie is finished, but the filmmakers, producers, the company, or even worse, the audience from test screenings, don't like it and the film goes for re-shooting. And because of it, it's pushed forward for 2025 instead of 2024.

My big, BIG, mistake was pretending I could accurately predict the complex process of making a game.

Now, to compensate this uncertainty, I will publish monthly content I can control. Like videos, GIFs, or different versions of previous games, like I did with Mrs. Rachel.

Now that I'm liberated from the stress of not publishing a game on time, I'm working better, less pressured, (except for the pressure of my income not improving because of not releasing something new). So, the final result must be better. However, there's always a chance the game doesn't became a hit. In this case, I think it will, as it turned into a FEAST OF OTK SCENES. Here are some examples... (the best ones are not here...)

If you're a spanky-religious person, give a small prayer to THEMIS, so that I don't find anymore issues in this game. Let's hope the final stage of BRATWATCH, finally runs smoothly.... and that tomorrow the solar flares don't turn unexpectedly heavy and fries all the electric devices on Earth (Sorry, I'm a bit panicked about it...).