I can be brief about last weekend's progress: I got back to my job and got completely drained in days.  Kinda what I expected really. Took part of the weekend simply to gain back some energy.

Also, some of the new tile commissions are running into delays due to illness. Not sure when things will be back on track, but it's best to give such things time.

However. It's not all bad news! I decided to take another crack at the mountain tileset. And actually even ending up making some progress.
What do you think? This is actually the third attempt, starting from scratch. At least each attempt is getting faster. I doubt I'll have the energy to complete it during the week, but maybe I can get back to completing it by the next weekend. It's a lot of work still, but I'm getting more and more optimistic about this style.

Progress report:

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v0.27.62 (5 juli 2023)
* Fixed found issue with some item counts on the credits stats screen potentially being incorrect

v0.27.63 (8-9 juli 2023)
* Made progress spriting new mountain tiles

Well, that was the last of my free days from work  . It has put a real damper on my motivation this week so progress was less than expected. Also some real life arrangements had to be made.

So I do hope you'll forgive the placeholder assets in this new screenshot. I just really want to show of the new overworld statues as well as the water edges. Especially the later took fairly time to implemented across the entire game. What do you think? We've also been making progress on the starting house and the demo dungeon entrance visuals. Hopefully I'll be able to show that off next weekend, depending on when they come in.

As for the larger picture. These last three months have been pretty productive. I've been working on the game almost non-stop for most of that time, sometimes well into the night. As a result the first demo was been released with three follow up updates. Almost all of the character actions in the full game have been completed. Handpixeled by myself (which I honestly did not expect to be able to do beforehand). Work has now fully started on the demo 2 overworld area. This means tackling the biggest challenges like pallets, style, trees, mountains and so forth. So it's really laying the groundwork for future expansions. The first early spritework has been coming in for two more areas. Concept art and basic components just yet, but that too is essential. And about 95% of all the sound effects needed in demo 2 are now either done or commissioned, expected to be delivered by the end of juli. So all in all I'm looking back quite satisfied.

The next main goal will be to complete demo 2 before SAGE 2023, very early in september. I'll likely even target for an earlier date, but more news will come at a later date.

As a final note: the next week or two might be rough for me as I get back into work again, and am expecting a 3 month backlog waiting for me. So I might post a little less during that period.

Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.27.57 (26-28 juni 2023)
* Made a little progress on implementing villain group
* Made a little progress implementing some new terrain tiles

v0.27.58 (29 juni 2023)
* Tweaked and implemented water edge tiling
* Cleaned up world tilesets
* Started edited demo dungeon outside entrance room

v0.27.59 (30 juni 2023)
* Tweaked and implemented outside statue object
* Edited shallow water object for easier use in outside areas
* Finished editing demo dungeon outside entrance room (for now)
* Changed game starting position and gear
* Edited villain visuals slightly

v0.27.60 (1 juli 2023)
* Worked with artist on new sprite/tile assets
* Finished adding NPC for each of the villains
* Implemented new visuals for various containers, like bushes

v0.27.61 (2 juli 2023)
* Implemented more new container visuals

Alright. Yeah, I need to get my life in order.
I really wish you the best! Both with your project, and in life.

Oof, that's rough.
No worries about offending. It makes me motivated to make the game even better, if anything.

Eh, well, I'm pretty much the exception. I only make $60 to spend per month, and any indie games I see are usually roughly $20-$30.
I hope you're not offended or anything. It's kinda partly the state of my life, and partly what I've seen.
But I am genuinely interested.

You were thinking 20 dollars? Or less?

Like I said, the pricing can still change slightly between now and then. Both the project budget and pledge levels won't be final until I finish demo 2. So that I can do a final recalculation based on the latest state of development and lessons learned. All input is still very much welcome regarding pricing and kickstarter preferences.

Well, I'm definitely enticed. I don't think I'll be able to pledge. I don't make much money I can just spend on what I want.
So it'll be a while.

It's all still undecided, but I'm leaning towards:
20 euro (= about 22 dollar) for an early bird pledge
22/23 euro (= about 25 dollar) for a regular copy
25/27 euro (= about 28/30 dollar) for a copy incl your name in the credits and a special discord role

With higher tier pledges for more rewards like the OST, beta access and getting your name/pet/avatar in the game.

How's that sound?

EDIT: Note that I aim to include between 8 and 16 full sized dungeons (depending on the success) so it's a bigger than average game.

I'm curious, how much do you see yourself charging for this?
I'm interested. LoZ ALttP was a great design, and I loved Parallel Worlds.
I just dunno how much I'll be able to afford.

I like that idea! Shadow cast from the tree could really improve the visuals.
Putting it on the devlist right away.