***************************** On the Update(s) ****************************************************
And the update is released, which concludes our current round of updates designed to add more romance to the game as per the poll. While I feel most romanceable NPCs have had some content added, I do note again that none of these romance paths are complete at this time, nor have all NPCs had content added with these updates - there are a few noteworthy NPCs that I just didn’t have time and energy to reach with these updates. In a future update hopefully they will get their due. Though top four voted for, however, have what I feel is significant progress on their content.
Now, I should note that this last update was more edgy than I intended . . . still all clean regency, but there were a few scenes that I felt had triggerable content portions. Obviously read safely and responsibly. I think in a future update I shall endeavor to balance out the edgy content with at least some additional cozy, lighter content - but for now, some of it is out of balance. Not that it was all gloom and doom - to be honest some of my personal favorite bits were the lighter stuff.
Also, I am sorry to say chapter 8, where this last batch of new content was added, is turning out to be another rather lengthy chapter - if I could stop that chapter where it is now, it would probably be of the voted for size, but unless I add another new chapter in-between chapter 8 and the current chapter 9, that just isn’t going to work. I am definitely going to endeavor to have some of the future chapters be a bit shorter, though some by necessity will have to be longer.
Also, there may be some new logical inconsistencies relating to the new content. Some of the scenes used a ton of variables and these variables will need to be referenced in latter chapters to make things flow appropriately so that the causality of the story isn’t broken - in short, expect some things that don’t add up going past chapter 8 for now. Once more will endeavor to get that fixed up in a future update.
Lastly, I shall note that this final update before the pause was a bit of a tough one for me. There was a hard push at the end and probably a bit more errors - both in terms of bugs and typos - than I would have liked, but I think it is still very playable with some acceptance that these can and do exist. Most bugs are not game breaking and usually the main jest can still be inferred despite typos.
*********************** **Going Forward ***********************************
In the near term, on addressing between all my various projects, here are my plans.
As discussed previously, Sense & Sorcery will be paused for a while. The pause, barring some major life changing event, will be temporary, as I feel the project is moving ever closer to being finished (though it still has a loooong way to go!), and I am excited with its progress and eager to share more of the story with everyone. I am not 100% sure, but probably we shall return to S&S late to mid fall, possibly in the winter of this year.
In the meantime, what shall I be working on? Well, there probably will be a very brief break as working on this has been a ton of screen time, and I feel like some sort of weird text-based video game making lich at this point. There are a lot of real world things that need my attention and care, and honestly to much screen time just makes me feel so unhealthy after a while. This break shall be very brief, however.
After that break, I shall review some editing from the late winter/early spring for Dice & Dungeon Masters . . . after hopefully reviewing that sufficiently and getting the final agreement with the editor, there will be an editing update for that game. And then I shall be working on new content for that game. People have made it clear that they are most looking forward to the game within the game, i.e. actually playing D&D with their character in the game, so I shall be probably prioritizing that content over all else. Once that has been suitably done, there will be an update, perhaps a couple, before that game goes on pause for a while.
After that, assuming it hasn’t gotten to late in the year, I shall probably take another brief break, followed by perhaps some work on some of my other projects waiting in the wings, i.e The Ice King’s Call, Lives of the Star Child , and Super Sorority, amongst others. Probably smaller updates on these, though at some point I am hoping to get them forum worthy and adequately presented on here . . . ah, someday, someday!
Now, to keep this particular thread going and to make progress on *Sense & Sorcery * even while it is on pause, expect a few things:
-More polls, along as people don’t get to sick of them. These do give helpful information as sometimes I think a bit differently than the group consensus, so yes, anticipate those.
-More linear stories: I have two that need to be finished but haven’t had time to reach. Original goal was to write seven stories, though lately I am thinking of making more as I think they help flesh in the possibilities of the world of this sword & sorcery regency mash up in a fun way.
-Progress on the Alt Starts: These are designed to be smaller versions of the game exhibiting a different persepctive on the events in the main story. Probably don’t anticipate a ton of content, but so far I am happy for these as well and intend to continue them.
-More and new art: While I probably won’t go crazy with it, there’s a good amount of art I’d like to add to the main game and the linear stories. Haven’t really had the time to work on art recently though, so it will take some time before there will be content this way. This leads to the webcomic . . . next part of the story is very written, but doing the art will need to wait until I have suitable time to work on that. Hopefully sometime over the next five or so months though . . .
************************ *Polls *********************************************************
Figured I’d end this post with a couple polls.
First one is fairly simple and self-explanatory: Which non-romanceable character would you most like more content for?
- Ravana
- Morgan
- Glea
- Stara
- Sophia
- Mera
- Alaris
- Prot’s Father
- Prot’s Mother
- Prot’s Uncle
- Prot’s Aunt
- Farmer living at edge of Prot’s land
- Asylum’s gate keeper
In the Introduction to Society Chapter I had the free roam portion end when the player selected to do so. My original thoughts was to have the free roam automatically end after a certain number of actions or simulated time was spent, but it takes a bit more coding and i just failed to have it in me to do that this time around. However, it currently plays pretty smoothly and allows for players to do more, but it seems less realistic and gives the player more control than was intended. Would people like me to leave the scene as is where the free roam ends when selected, or ought it end when the prot has spent a certain amount of turns or spent enough simulated time?
- Keep as is - free roam should end when player selects it
- Change it - free roam should end after a certain number of turns or time spent
- Make it an option that can be selected by the player for one or the other
Lastly, there are obviously huge swaths of the game that need to be worked on yet. Excluding romance this time around (and fear not, that will continue to be worked on expanded regardlessly) which sections would players most like me to work on?
Note: I’m going to add combat to this poll, but this will be a simplified combat. The intended combat section will someday be added (at least that’s the plan) but from even doing the simple dagger tossing mini game I can see that it will probably take literal days to actual weeks to finish that section, and life is just to busy and hectic right now for me to afford to work on that yet.
- Clothing and Fashion
- Combat (Simplified Variant)
- Fill in Some of the Incomplete Sections
- Fix Bugs
- Fix Logical Inconsistencies
- Spells and Magic
- Spirit; i.e. Expand on dealing player/prot/spirit interactions
- Religion (expand on what is already there and add more scenes)
- Travel (actually get the travel section working properly and fully)
More polls and other items to posted about eventually; I’ll probably let these run for a while.
I hope the update is enjoyable and I am very grateful for all that have given my game a fair try.