Early Access

Hey guys, I just finished sending the first version of the visual novel's Chapter 1 to the early access backers. I forgot to write on the campaign... check the spam folder if you didn't receive it.

Of course the estimated deadline was breached, but the early access is still earlier than the official release. :D

How relevant is this cat anyway?

I've been so busy, I didn't want to write about it, because if you heard what's been happening in my life, you would have thought the game would come out even later. Or perhaps I should give you a hint. Recently I've been comparing myself to Orchid and I was scared for my life. But I survived. :D

Campaign ending

The 30 days campaign on Indiegogo has ended. Since the basic goal was reached, it's allowed to stay "in demand", which, as far as I can tell, means perks can still be claimed.

Thanks again to all who participated!

I'll let the campaign stay in this mode for as long as it makes sense, probably a month or two. The voice acting stretch goals are unlikely to be reached, but we're considering partial voice acting anyway. We could probably pull it off with the funding, since the game will be coming out in 5 parts. Now, if only I had Save/Load in real life to test if this risk will be worth it, especially since people have such different tastes.

There is some technical stuff that needs to be done on Chapter 1. Among other things, I would like to make it possible to take a break from the conversations and click on some objects to "explore" and get a comment from the PC. As for the textual content, I'm looking for ways to enhance it so new players don't get bored before they've even met the cool bad guys, since the first part is mostly Orchid. I'll probably go through everything repeatedly and add more conversation choices.

Greenlit

Today, DH the visual novel got accepted on Steam Greenlight! Just as I was starting to read scary stories about games that stay on there forever. :) The voting had an initial spike and then slowed down, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but the percentage of "yes" votes seemed high for such a niche game.

Good guys Valve have greenlit the game while the Indiegogo campaign is still going, with 8 days left.

Thank you for all kinds of support! The most contributions came from blog followers, it's true that Indiegogo isn't a magical plane of wandering benefactors. xD

Campaign is live!

Indiegogo campaign is here.

If you have a Steam account, please vote on Greenlight!

Still alive

It's nice to be back and not see any "project/lamb is dead" comments. :) I have a super good excuse for why there haven't been any updates, but I'm not ready to announce private life stuff yet.

Yes, there have been a lot of changes. It keeps happening. I feel it's best if I don't promise anything, or someone might buy the game and not get what they were expecting. Remembering the Thayn storyline, I'm sorry it's not in this project, but I hope I can do a sequel.

Here is a Facebook page - still in preparation: https://www.facebook.com/Demonheart.vn

Until I'm ready to write a bigger update... Thanks for checking the blog. :)

The development process...

Here are some things I've learned while developing DH, in all its forms.

Production always takes about 3x longer than I hope.

I am the worst critic of my work and tend to forget the good sides of it. I just forget what I wrote, and when enough time has passed, I play and go like, "Hey, when did I write this? This is funny. Maybe it's not so bad after all O.o "

When I feel like something isn't right with the planned plot, I can't write anything. I can't admit to myself that the plot is wrong - I just get a writer's block.

I tend to get stuck halfway when trying to create a game with a huge plot. I remember how I first split the story in halves, and then split the first half into chapters 1 and 2, because as I worked on them, it became clear that chapter 1 is finished, while chapter 2 is nowhere near so. Likewise, I have now finished the first half of what I thought would make it into the game, and was totally panicked about the second half. So, the solution that has worked so far is to cut the part I'm having problems with. Then I have an almost finished game, as opposed to a huge mess!

Thinking about pleasing everyone definitely gets me stuck. I have to pick one way of doing things and stick with it, and it will be good enough to someone, somewhere.

The current state of the game content:

The game will be shorter than we all hoped, but finished, in a way. There's not enough time to go anywhere meaningful with Brash, and a relationship with Ari/Arana just doesn't fit (that's what had me stuck for so long - I literally have the game finished all AROUND the parts where she appears). But at least Raze will get an ending. :D Which doesn't have to be the end of it in case there is a sequel. But a sequel is optional.

You will be seeing more of the guys from the camp.

Raze will start talking in your head from the beginning.

The number of characters is limited, it's all about the major ones.

The ending will be content that has been planned for a long time and never published.

I'm looking into making fancy alternative endings if you play the 2nd+ time.


This is the wench who's been giving me so much trouble! (Ari) Now don't ask for more content with her, I'm going insane. xD