For this weekend I took the time to write about the overall state of development.
First up: the starting post has been updated. Also, demo 1.3 has recently been released over on Itch.
Demo link: https://hornofbalance.itch.io/horn-of-balance-pre-ks-demo/devlog/571291/05-demo-13-releaseThis is a smaller incremental update to fix a bug, add a new feature, and overall show tangible continued progress.
There might be another small demo 1.4 update with more features coming before reaching 2.0. (Here´s looking at you bombs and/or shield strafing). But we'll have to see how things go.
On that note: In the past I have stated to expect a Kickstarter later this year. My personal goals were far more specific: to complete demo 2.0 by SAGE2023 (=end of august). And then to do a Kickstarter event during the month of November, after two full months of advertising. Getting 2.0 out before SAGE is not happening by a long shot. (I'll be attending with just version 1.3). I have also become doubtful about these Kickstarter timeline due to the reasons listed below. So I want to clearly communicate that the Kickstarter event will likely be postponed until early next year. Development is still going strong, and never say never, but I want to be upfront about this! Call me crazy, but if I promise something it weighs heavily on me if I cannot deliver. There are also benefits to this story btw (for you all anyway).
My three reasons to reschedule are as follows (in order of impact):
- Personal circumstances. I'll stay a bit vague here because sharing too much on the internet is unwise, but the last 1/1.5 month has been rough. Things related to my daytime job have changed significantly. Parts of my house are apparent in need of some costly repairs. And struggling with the creation of the mountain tileset, given the self-imposed deadlines, has been kinda draining. Stacking these factors has been putting me in a bad headspace, leading to delays, leading to a bad headspace, leading to delays, and so on. Nobody benefits from that, so simply pushing harder is a bad plan.
- I do not want to rush things. Even given the point above, deadlines can always easily be reached: just ignore quality... and that simply is not me. I'd rather spend more time to it something to be fully proud of. Consequences be damned.
- Doing a Kickstarter in November, December, January is not great given the holidays and other costly things people have going on (including other high profile releases they might prefer).
- There are also more and more rumours that Nintendo's new console is coming soon. Some suggest a 2024 release even. That last one I take that with a heavy dose of salt, but the rest aligns with my own expectations. Developing Horn of Balance fully takes years, so I need to look years ahead. Adding a Nintendo console port to the Kickstarter event (directly or via stretchgoals) is preferred, so waiting for more information has benefits. (It's scary to promise a port without console/cost/access details).
So, what about the upsides?
Well. I'm upping the development budget for this demo, to also cover the extra development time till early next year. So postponing the Kickstarter will have no effect on the actually completion date of the full game. Additionally, the later Kickstarter will give me more room to breath and to work on the connected demo 2.0. This allows me to take a step back and add more things in a way that benefits the long term development (rather than just the immediate demo). An example: Instead of strictly adding in the grass tiles needed for demo 2.0, I've taken the opportunity to also redo the digging system to have similar sprites and that fit within the same set-up. As a result you can now dig in way more places than before, the game is easier to develop long-term and I have more opportunities to hide secrets. (Uuhm, wait. Forget about that last one. There are no secrets related to the shovel planned for the final game. This blogpost is over..... Pff. That was a close one. Nearly spoiled my killer gameplay feature to beat all the competition)
I swear...