First, I want to explain why there haven’t been any updates in a while. I started making private builds every month for the sprite arts to play. The time it takes to get that build-out always pushes past the first of the month.

Update on the dev side. I’ll break this into three sections gameplay, story, and art.

Gameplay:
Dungeons have been added. I’m going for a Persona 4 feeling, so several floors will be randomized and story focused floors won’t.
The combat system and AI have been reimaged do to the chaotic nature of 4v4 combat. So I am now trying to go for a knight of the old republic turn base tactical action combat system and it turning out smoother.

I’ve also added Unity 2d light to make the room invisible even if you’re not in them and giving the world a day-night cycle.

Story:
The game will be broken up into 5 dungeons that will unlock over 2-year time in-game. There will be activity and NPC to form a relationship with over the course of this adventure. Right now I have the beginning of the first dungeon and 2 core NPC stories started. Each main NPC will have 5-7 story beats before you finish their ark. In order to unlock a story beat, you will need to spend time with them or win approval ratings via story conversation. I am also planning to have substories that revolve around people in the town and helping them out.

Art:
Honesty finding a good artist that reliable is surprisingly hard. My sprite arts left the project this month because they want more free time. My character artist was MIA for 4 months and missed their new deadline again this month. The art department of my game is fuck, hopefully I can fix it soon. If the game is to fail, one of the main causes will be because of the art. If I had the time or experience I would do it myself, but because there’s so much that needs to get done in the game, I have to hire out and I have no control over the results. Basically, I cross my figure and hope it gets done and that doesn’t cost me an arm or a leg to produce. So I’ll be looking for a new sprite artist this month and maybe a new character artist if things don’t change.

Game Dev is great and a lot of fun, but relying on people sucks!