What to Expect (short blog)

TLDR: Demo on track for next month. Second demo the month after.

PLEASE if you have time, do me a solid, have a look at the questions at the end, and let me know your thoughts.

Personal blurb

Guys, it's been quite the journey for me.

When I first took this project on, I knew the coding side of things would generally be a piece of cake (apart from some pesky RTS math that's mostly been the case).

This is because I consider myself to be a strong dev, I already have most of the custom tools I need built on previous gamedev projects. So things are looking good!

But as you can imagine, life gets in the way. A lot has happened, originally I had the demo scheduled for the beginning of this month, but being hit with the flu twice, house flood, production outages at my work and general discontentment there, things moved to the right. Also there is the whole being a new dad (he is now 8 months ) it takes a ton of time! BUT...and it's a big butt ;)

Fear not! I've managed to make key breakthroughs in RTS, character ART (all finished now) and code (runs a lot faster and easier).

So here is my aspirational updated timelines (but first a flavour of what i'm aiming for).

Vibes

1. A return to traditional gaming.

2. No uglification of characters.

3. Easy to pick up, hard to put down.

4. Lots of choices, but no FOMO. I want you to feel fulfilled after the first playthrough. But if you have time, you can see a lot more through different paths, but the ultimate fate of life in the galaxy will be the same, just you'll experience different flavours and vantage points.

5. Pro-Aliens Pro-Humanity but with nuance. No Avatar style self loathing, but it won't be full on Mary Poppins either. All races will have good and bad factions - and you will have your own faction.

6. Community, after the game is done, i'll still build on the story either via books, merch or a sequel if demand is high enough.

Timelines

Demo 1 (mid-end of July)

What to expect? First three chapters, abduction, wandering around the ship, meeting key characters and your first couple of battles.

This will have long plot intro sequences which sets the foundation for all the plot. You'll get a chance to get in Fel, Kira and others good books early on. And will be faced with challenges and tough decisions.

I'm hoping to give you 4 to 9 hours of gameplay.

Beta testers highly desirable, i'll need plot proofers, game testers and more.

Demo 2 (Mid-end August)

This is pretty huge, you'll get to find out what happens to Earth and be part of the aftermath too - I can't spoil whats going to happen but suffice to say were talking Asimov, Liu Cixin and Ian Banks level of epic scifi.

You'll move on to meet your second race, the Mirilexians, help them in their evacuations and working together to figure out how to stop or at least divert the drone fleet.

Expect a lot of RTS here, and character development as your choices on and off the battlefield impact your relationships.

Demo 3 (Unknown - aspirational mid september)

Here I will showcase the last two gamemodes, which will then complete the final look at what the game will be like.

Effectivley you are going to play a multidimensional saga, where the main thread that ties everything together is the visual novel. You chose your path and how much you want to go into RTS, Explorer, Minigames and....the other 2 huge gamemodes.

 At this point, i'll want to have three VN modes fully fleshed out:

• Monogamy

• Harem mode

• Lone wolf

You will be either swung into a passionate multi-partner dynamics or deep smitten with your chosen partner, where your relationship ebs, flows and grows. Alternatively, if you go Lone wolf, it will be more about friendship dynamics, trust and your choices (struggles) between altruism and self-preservation

Final Release (unknown - aspiration, Christmas)

The end game will have at least 9 different systems to explore and characters to meet (you already know of the Mirilexians, Drakhans, Vionites, Foxes, Wolves etc)

Plot wise, there will be enough content equivalent to 2 SciFi novels or say a 1 and a half FF7 games.

2 months before things close in, i'll begin working on NSFW expansion and throwing lots of polls at you guys.

This is where i need to focus hard on marketing, word of mouth and localisation.

Last thoughts/Questions

What do you think will make the game succeed?

Please tell me what do you think of the above (if you have time)

What do you think will make the game fail?

What do YOU personally want to see more of?

Finally, the hard question - are you happy with the content/direction so far?