Desolation Devs Q&A Thread! [EP6 Edition]

[Posty]

Hi! I'm back from my little adventure to Japan so I can now reply to a few of these that Caz hasn't got round to! Apologies for the lengthy delay aha.

 

On 2/26/2023 at 10:32 PM, VMeemes said:

I've mostly noticed this with some of the Pokemon that got more of a 'showing' if that's the right word for it in Sun and Moon, when it comes to move lists and whatnot. How does the dev team determine what game to use which moveset when it comes to X Pokemon?

 

And when it comes to custom megas how does the design process tend to go? Is it the common focus of 'lesser used Pokemon get the megas' or is it like a dev team vote for which ones get the next mega and go on from there?

 

When it comes down to current movesets, we go off the Gen 7 Movesets (so USUM) and then for Gen 8 Pokemon... you can guess, Gen 8 Movesets. Recently, the Rejuvenation scripters, a few other helpers and I went through and updated every single Pokemon's TM/Tutor set up to Gen 8, which means that for the Pokemon that didn't feature in Gen 8, we gave them access to TM/TR/Tutor moves that we feel like they would have! Obviously Deso doesn't have TR or more notable Tutor moves at its current state, but in the future? these updates will come into play.

 

On 3/3/2023 at 2:49 AM, R.B said:

When balancing battles, what assumptions do you make about how players battle? (E.g., do you assume they will or won't use items in battle, do you expect a certain amount of level grinding, etc.)

With regards to pokemon distribution, especially in the early game, do you have common challenge runs like monotypes or nuzlockes in mind at all when making decisions, or do you mostly focus on the experience of a vanilla playthrough?

 

Ah yes balance, the part of development I both enjoy immensely and also suffer a lot with! To go through these...

 

1) When it comes down to balancing battles, I firstly think about the point of the game that the player is fighting them at and base their levels around that. For example, the first Amelia battle in Addenfall Woods is just before Tristan, with the Level Cap being 40 at that point, I look at that and know that she needs to be weaker than Tristan but still near the higher ends of the 30s. Also, going into these sort of fights I don't expect the player to have to do a lot of grinding, as the level curve should push player's teams to the point where they should already be ready to face a specific trainer, however ofc, players will pick up new party members, so Audino Trainers are in place for that! This is part of the recent why we edited the level curve this Episode, since the 20 to 35 jump from Connor to Aderyn always meant that the player had to grind. Besides that, the main thing I like to keep in mind is making sure a battle doesn't need to take hundreds of tries to beat, the game is meant to be a bit easier than Reborn and Rejuvenation but still appose a challenge to the player, which is why fights like Aderyn's and Tristan's Gym Battle were nerfed, while Aaron's and Garret's Gym Battle were buffed this Episode.

 

2) For this update, we didn't really have monotypes in mind that much, a few encounters were placed around to help some monotype runs, such as Ice with Smoochum now being moved to a Ranger quest reward on Route 2. For Episode 7, we do plan on doing something similar to Reborn with monotype passwords, allowing those players access to more specific Pokemon for their individual runs during their early playthroughs! Besides that, we mainly focus on the experience of a vanilla playthrough, discussing what Pokemon would be nice to have early, what's too strong at a current point in the game, and then moving stuff around as we continue to develop the game and see patterns. For example, Flygon was used on 85% of teams pre-Emily and was well, too good for that point in the game! So it was moved back a little bit.

 

Hopefully that's some informative insight for you in terms of balancing! Feel free to ask more questions about it if you or if anyone else here have some!

[sora21]

Hey guys  (hope Q&A's still open) 
I'd like to thank you for all the work you're doing , the game's undoubtedly amazing! 

 

1. Difficulty balances 
This can be purely subjective, but I felt that ep.6 went super smooth for me in difficulty ** maybe a bit more than desired** (although the QoL changes were very welcome).
I'm sure difficulty is a strange area, but I do feel some spikes here and there would raise the hype. 
Are there any plans regarding harder gameplay?

 

2. Darkrai and Desolation. 

Spoiler

Up to Spring 2023, my mind was Desolation was Darkrai , though possibly this was not the developer's concept.
All the escalation up to ep.5 finale was just OMG WOW.
Ep.6 introduced many new aspects, characters like Walden / Reeve , the "Voice" etc which was all definitely and by all means very well structured. 
But I'd like to see the game loyal to the original vibe - ^{<where the did Lilith go??! > .} Damn even the cover change got me xD.
On the other hand, I'm sure in your perception Desolation is more and should be about more. 
Any of your views on this? How to you balance between great ideas for future episodes  and the "sequel effect"?
 

 

3. Legendaries 

Spoiler

So far Legendaries have been implemented in truly amazing way - backstory, scattered throughout progress, where they can be part of one's team, 
instead of all clogged up in endgame poke-volley.
I know it's impossible if not undesired to apply this to all, even their number contributed to the "rareness" element.
It's nice to see their points in time with context and the whole "legendary vibe" , especially for some notable ones   ^{(<3 to early generations )} 
Are there plans to continue in this fashion ? What are your views?      
Will it possibly be intertwining with the game route player's choices?

 

 

 

 

 
 

[Posty]

4 hours ago, sora21 said:

Hey guys  (hope Q&A's still open) 
I'd like to thank you for all the work you're doing , the game's undoubtedly amazing! 

 

1. Difficulty balances 
This can be purely subjective, but I felt that ep.6 went super smooth for me in difficulty ** maybe a bit more than desired** (although the QoL changes were very welcome).
I'm sure difficulty is a strange area, but I do feel some spikes here and there would raise the hype. 
Are there any plans regarding harder gameplay?

 

2. Darkrai and Desolation. 

  Hide contents

Up to Spring 2023, my mind was Desolation was Darkrai , though possibly this was not the developer's concept.
All the escalation up to ep.5 finale was just OMG WOW.
Ep.6 introduced many new aspects, characters like Walden / Reeve , the "Voice" etc which was all definitely and by all means very well structured. 
But I'd like to see the game loyal to the original vibe - ^{<where the did Lilith go??! > .} Damn even the cover change got me xD.
On the other hand, I'm sure in your perception Desolation is more and should be about more. 
Any of your views on this? How to you balance between great ideas for future episodes  and the "sequel effect"?
 

 

3. Legendaries 

  Hide contents

So far Legendaries have been implemented in truly amazing way - backstory, scattered throughout progress, where they can be part of one's team, 
instead of all clogged up in endgame poke-volley.
I know it's impossible if not undesired to apply this to all, even their number contributed to the "rareness" element.
It's nice to see their points in time with context and the whole "legendary vibe" , especially for some notable ones   ^{(<3 to early generations )} 
Are there plans to continue in this fashion ? What are your views?      
Will it possibly be intertwining with the game route player's choices?

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

Hello! Yes this Q&A is still open, we mentioned about it again in our recent development blog post. So keep the questions coming y'all!

 

In regard to your question about difficulty, to firstly put emphasis on this, Desolation is meant to be easier "difficulty wise" compared to Reborn and Rejuvenation while still posing to be challenging in it's gameplay. We wanna put more focus on the story on the game over having players bash their heads against the wall not being able to get through a specific battle (looking at you E5 Aderyn). As we process further with the story, we have plans for future battles that'll be taking place which may potentially be the difficulty spike you are looking forward to, but ultimately as the main Gameplay Balancer, I will make sure that it's a fun experience for everyone! Now in terms of potentially an "intense" mode, similar to what Rejuvenation had, it's definitely not out of the question, but not on my mind for the time being. This would be something I would painfully put myself through working on nearer the end of the project, if I decide to go down that path for players who wish to suffer alongside me. (this would also mean i'll add an easier mode as well for players, but again, for the future.)

 

The other two questions I will forward to Caz as he would be more suited to answer those. 

[MollyChan]

hello dear developers, I really hope that the questions I have in mind are suitable for a Q&A!

the first game i found was rejuvenation, then reborn and then you all of desolation.

and especially now after finishing everything and getting to the end of ep 6 i'm impressed with the details of your game-

talking about details:

1- nickname

Spoiler

only after a second run of desolation done in a serious and competitive way did I discover the surprise of doing an mvp fight against an important character, different dialogue for not defeating any pokemon and direct mention of our mvp pokemon right?

now, saying aloud an obvious and very common thing by players of reborn rej and desolation as to give nicknames of important characters to their pokemon, how do you think?

for example, the first fight against Scarlet and an outright win situation happens and the mvp is torchic (female) named Scarlet? would you say something extra? Would that be an extra reputation dot with her?

or let's take the best girl Ava as an example when the time comes in the future, maybe it's me but imagining a similar situation I think she's happy or to say better, seeing herself beaten by a grass pokemon named Ava would make her digest the total defeat better! or even a Gardevoir called Rosetta

 

2- gift

Spoiler

more generic than the other question, passing between gifted items and pokemon, what do you think - if you plan to give reactions if we players use for example certain megastones in battle with the people who gave us the gift or if some event could happen growing up and bringing a certain pokemon to your team ( coff coff #576)

 

I have a third question but I don't want to dare further, it would be more of a what if on your thoughts on the probable (?) future side quest of a poor girl who, following a natural and honest writing and narration like this present in the plot, is really close to a burn out if not helped to really put her hair down e.e

you are doing an incredible job, each of you is great, I only conclude by wishing keep it up good work you all ^.^

[davidwarner007]

Hello everyone, I hope the Q&A is still open. I want to express my appreciation for the hard work you are putting into creating an undoubtedly amazing game.

Regarding difficulty balancing in Episode 6, I understand that it may be subjective, but personally, I found it to be relatively hair loss due to stress and anxiety easy, perhaps even more so than intended, despite the welcome quality of life changes. While I acknowledge that difficulty can be a tricky area to navigate, I believe that occasional spikes would enhance the excitement. Are there any plans to incorporate more challenging gameplay?

Edited June 4, 2023 by davidwarner007
missing words

[joffdavid]

The Desolation Devs Q&A Thread is a discussion forum where fans of the Desolation game series can ask questions and get answers directly from the game developers. The EP6 edition refers to the sixth episode of the game, which may have introduced new features, storylines, or gameplay mechanics.

The Q&A thread is a great resource for players who want to learn more about the game and get insights from the developers themselves. Players can ask questions about specific gameplay mechanics, storylines, character development, or any other aspect of the game.

The Desolation Devs typically respond to questions within the thread, providing insights into their creative process and explaining how they approach different aspects of game development. Players can also engage with other fans of the game and discuss their own experiences and strategies.

Overall, the Desolation Devs Q&A Thread is a valuable resource for players who want to deepen their understanding of the game and connect with other fans and the developers themselves.

[Amare]

OK... Reeve has to be wearing contacts, right? Like, that eye colour cannot be natural. If it is, what kind of divine being/mythical creature is represented in his parentage, and is it his mother or father?

[TypeNull87]

In episode 7 of Pokémon Desolation what Pokémon do you plan on having the MC choose when they are first stranded on the Island together with Conner? 

[Posty]

Hi Folks! I know this is extremely late responding to you all, and I deeply apologise, we have been quite busy with a lot of different aspects with our lives. I am here now and will answer what I can! Q&A is still open ofc, I will make a note again in a later development blog... Anyways onto the questions that are over 3-4 months old! (whoops)

 

On 5/2/2023 at 2:38 AM, MollyChan said:

hello dear developers, I really hope that the questions I have in mind are suitable for a Q&A!

the first game i found was rejuvenation, then reborn and then you all of desolation.

and especially now after finishing everything and getting to the end of ep 6 i'm impressed with the details of your game-

talking about details:

1- nickname

  Hide contents

only after a second run of desolation done in a serious and competitive way did I discover the surprise of doing an mvp fight against an important character, different dialogue for not defeating any pokemon and direct mention of our mvp pokemon right?

now, saying aloud an obvious and very common thing by players of reborn rej and desolation as to give nicknames of important characters to their pokemon, how do you think?

for example, the first fight against Scarlet and an outright win situation happens and the mvp is torchic (female) named Scarlet? would you say something extra? Would that be an extra reputation dot with her?

or let's take the best girl Ava as an example when the time comes in the future, maybe it's me but imagining a similar situation I think she's happy or to say better, seeing herself beaten by a grass pokemon named Ava would make her digest the total defeat better! or even a Gardevoir called Rosetta

 

2- gift

  Hide contents

more generic than the other question, passing between gifted items and pokemon, what do you think - if you plan to give reactions if we players use for example certain megastones in battle with the people who gave us the gift or if some event could happen growing up and bringing a certain pokemon to your team ( coff coff #576)

 

I have a third question but I don't want to dare further, it would be more of a what if on your thoughts on the probable (?) future side quest of a poor girl who, following a natural and honest writing and narration like this present in the plot, is really close to a burn out if not helped to really put her hair down e.e

you are doing an incredible job, each of you is great, I only conclude by wishing keep it up good work you all ^.^

 

1) I like the concept honestly, implementing an extra check for certain characters based on if your MVP has a name that's of the character you defeated could be an interesting little easter egg, ill forward this one to the devs and we'll see! Maybe an additional reputation point could be cool in certain situations.

2) Again, a very interesting idea, these sort of questions are more suggestions on what we could do over questions of the actual development tho aha, but I don't mind, I am open to feedback and sometimes player suggestions can lead into something for us on the team to think about and potentially implement at a later date, I will have a discussion with the devs, adding onto the new system we added for EP6 regarding characters is something I'm happy to continue to do if it fits!

3) Once again, could make for an interesting side quest! I can't really comment further on this since when it comes down to suggestions, side quests are ones we don't normally take from. 

Thank you for the kind comments and suggestions! We will continue to try our best 

 

On 5/5/2023 at 6:45 AM, davidwarner007 said:

Hello everyone, I hope the Q&A is still open. I want to express my appreciation for the hard work you are putting into creating an undoubtedly amazing game.

Regarding difficulty balancing in Episode 6, I understand that it may be subjective, but personally, I found it to be relatively hair loss due to stress and anxiety easy, perhaps even more so than intended, despite the welcome quality of life changes. While I acknowledge that difficulty can be a tricky area to navigate, I believe that occasional spikes would enhance the excitement. Are there any plans to incorporate more challenging gameplay?

 

Hi yes it's still open! (I'm sorry), thank you as well for the nice comments! 

 

Very interesting question, gameplay balance is something that I really had to tackle head on this episode and essentially re-balance the entire game due to changes we have made to certain fields, the addition of generation 8, and changing up teams we thought could be changed up. The overall consensus when it comes to difficulty compared to our counterparts Reborn and Rejuvenation is that we want the game to pose to be a challenge, however to be considered "easier". Desolation primarily focuses on the story, with many options that the player can take which can lead to different outcomes. With that said, I still like a challenge, and being apart of the Rebornverse means we will make sure the game isn't a complete walk through the park. Some of the plans and ideas we have for later versions may quench your thirst of "more challenging gameplay", but the main focus is still the story and making sure players can still get through the game without having to be stuck on a single battle for hours on end, we don't want people to quit after all! What I will say though, firstly, if people in the community wish to make difficulty mods for the game, then we are completely open and welcome it! I know a few have gone around, and it's cool to see the community create some cool stuff! Secondly, if I was to do a difficulty mode like "Intense mode" that Rejuvenation had until they axed it, then it will come along nearer the end of the Desolation's development, due to the sheer amount of additional updates I would have to do for each version, and I do not want to think about that right now! Hopefully that answers your question.

 

On 5/6/2023 at 8:26 AM, joffdavid said:

The Desolation Devs Q&A Thread is a discussion forum where fans of the Desolation game series can ask questions and get answers directly from the game developers. The EP6 edition refers to the sixth episode of the game, which may have introduced new features, storylines, or gameplay mechanics.

The Q&A thread is a great resource for players who want to learn more about the game and get insights from the developers themselves. Players can ask questions about specific gameplay mechanics, storylines, character development, or any other aspect of the game.

The Desolation Devs typically respond to questions within the thread, providing insights into their creative process and explaining how they approach different aspects of game development. Players can also engage with other fans of the game and discuss their own experiences and strategies.

Overall, the Desolation Devs Q&A Thread is a valuable resource for players who want to deepen their understanding of the game and connect with other fans and the developers themselves.

 

 

The heck is this ChatGPT stuff, but it's nice to know AI know who we are...

 

On 5/31/2023 at 4:50 PM, Amare said:

OK... Reeve has to be wearing contacts, right? Like, that eye colour cannot be natural. If it is, what kind of divine being/mythical creature is represented in his parentage, and is it his mother or father?

 

I'm no biological expert, but maybe his parents could have had multi-coloured eyes which was passed down to him! Or maybe he is such a fashion guru that he got those contacts from a cosplay convention as he wanted to cosplay the one and only Douma for Kimetsu no Yaiba but decided "im a boss ass motherfucker, ima rock these from now on"... he has heterochromia, its a real thing look it up lol

 

On 6/1/2023 at 11:17 PM, TypeNull87 said:

In episode 7 of Pokémon Desolation what Pokémon do you plan on having the MC choose when they are first stranded on the Island together with Conner? 

 

That is something I cannot answer! As for starters haha get it would be massive spoilers, and secondly, this is something I can't reveal anyways even if we were to change the stranded starters! You'll find out if we change anything when EP7 drops!

 

Once again, cheers for all the supports folks and sorry for the delay in my response! I will make sure this doesn't happen again ahaha...

[Luminescence]

One of the earlier questions about difficulty made me think about something that is completely optional, but adds an extra layer to the game difficulty: the post fight dialogue when the player sweeps the fights, or is a close call, and so on. My question is: where the idea to implement those came from? It's by far one my favorites features ever in a pokemon fangame.

[Yumil]

 

15 hours ago, Luminescence said:

One of the earlier questions about difficulty made me think about something that is completely optional, but adds an extra layer to the game difficulty: the post fight dialogue when the player sweeps the fights, or is a close call, and so on. My question is: where the idea to implement those came from? It's by far one my favorites features ever in a pokemon fangame.

 

Oh hey that one was my idea! I learned programming in ruby from scratch for it and it eventually got me into the team. Always cool to see people like it as much as I do.

 

Now what was I thinking when I came up with the idea, that's a good question. I was unemployed during that period of time and my sleep schedule was drifting around the clock, and I always come up with strange ideas around 4-5 AM.

 

But doing some digging in my post history around that time, I think I had replayed Undertale shortly before that, so that game was probably in a corner of my mind. I've always loved how that game reacts to things you do inside the game, it's got a comment for everything, it's great. I really love when games acknowledge not just your choices in the narrative, but how you play them, how you solve the problems they present to you, and I think games like Pokémon are perfect for this because you have so much room to express yourself with how you build your team, how you choose to play the battles, So I pitched the idea out loud and Caz was like "ayo this would be great but i have no idea how to implement that" (Caz isn't a programer), and. I had spent three years doing programming in school, so I was like, no, no, I'm 85% sure I could make it work if I really tried. So the next day i bought RMXP and started learning essentials and ruby from scratch to figure out how to make it work. And. Yeah it turns out that it pretty doable.

 

I hope we find some time to expand it this episode, I think there's more to do with the feature than we did in e6, but it can be kinda hard to find the time and space for it.

[vlekje513]

Are there any plans for Gen IX / Gen 9 in either Episode 7 or 8? I believe there was quite some power creep in Gen 9 so I'm not sure how easy it would be to balance adding some of them.

[Posty]

On 11/8/2023 at 2:02 AM, vlekje513 said:

Are there any plans for Gen IX / Gen 9 in either Episode 7 or 8? I believe there was quite some power creep in Gen 9 so I'm not sure how easy it would be to balance adding some of them.

 

We genuinely haven't thought about Gen 9 so far in development, at the very least you can expect Hisuian Pokemon will be coming to Desolation first, but if I was to make a note now regarding Gen 9, it would be highly unlikely they'll be added to Episode 7. Primarily due to balancing issues, since it wouldn't just be adding them to the game, but we have to... 1) Update Teams (including regular trainers) 2) Add them to Routes 3) Balance it all together, its a lot of effort that i've done... for the past two Episodes with Gen 7 & Gen 8. So we'll see how we go, for now the focus is and always has been the story!

[Aldebaran]

What's the path forward for you guys? What exactly does the development roadmap look like? Is the story already fleshed out and written and the ambition is just to program it to life, or are you still making things up along as you go? Aside from the actual implementation of your ideas, where are the gaps you still need to fill in with respect to character arcs, story beats, sidequests, etc.? As a team, aside from the actual programming and spritework, what are the biggest challenges you're facing? What are the three resources you feel would immediately make your life easier, whether it's from a human resource perspective or some external materials that you're unable to get ahold of and therefore have to build up from scratch yourself?

 

Lots of questions, but I come from an entrepreneurial background so I'm really curious to see how your experience developing a project like this maps with the experience of a dev agency or a startup.

[Posty]

On 11/18/2023 at 11:10 AM, Aldebaran said:

What's the path forward for you guys? What exactly does the development roadmap look like? Is the story already fleshed out and written and the ambition is just to program it to life, or are you still making things up along as you go? Aside from the actual implementation of your ideas, where are the gaps you still need to fill in with respect to character arcs, story beats, sidequests, etc.? As a team, aside from the actual programming and spritework, what are the biggest challenges you're facing? What are the three resources you feel would immediately make your life easier, whether it's from a human resource perspective or some external materials that you're unable to get ahold of and therefore have to build up from scratch yourself?

 

Lots of questions, but I come from an entrepreneurial background so I'm really curious to see how your experience developing a project like this maps with the experience of a dev agency or a startup.

 

Some very interesting questions! I do get you, I also get curious about how other companies and development teams run their projects, especially when comparing an industry setting to a more indie one. So to go through these one by one, I'll split them up into sections like so:
 

What's the path forward for you guys?

The main goal at the moment is to get organised and get going with development, with each member on the team having their own areas of expertise, it's easy to delegate tasks and move forward with the project. We are currently hitting a bit of a wall due to some issues out of our control, and I haven't made a big post about it outside a small note on the development blog but we are somewhat on a bit of a hiatus until some stuff clears up, but we will be back soon enough!

What exactly does the development roadmap look like?

Well with each Episode, we layout the content which we will be adding to the game, this primarily revolves around the story, and then sidequests, new mechanics/features, balance updates and new encounters follow suit. How development normally goes is that Caz (our lead dev) would prioritise the story, then the rest of us will go about our individual tasks. We start working on an Episode with main story, our artists begin to do their design work for characters and other assets, our music man begins cranking out music tracks for the sound design element, our programmer suffers in coding hell, and I work on various things. This keeps up until we near the end of the cycle with some of us also helping out in other areas once their main tasks are finished up, at this point we all look to QA test the game (obviously we're QA testing throughout, but a main playthrough), then it goes towards Alpha Testing which is with a selected amount of trusted individuals, then Beta Testing (available to our Patreon!) and then finally once everything is done and dusted and we've promoted release, we drop the game! Ofc the first few weeks of release there will be a good amount of updates due to bugs that we've missed, and once we hit the point of "games good now" we take a short break and resume the development once again for the next Episode, that's roughly how we go about it!

 

Is the story already fleshed out and written and the ambition is just to program it to life, or are you still making things up along as you go?
Caz has the entire story fleshed out, all the way up until the final Episode! Like all projects, some bits and pieces are changed up and adjusted throughout the process, for example we had a lot of early game updates to the story in Episode 6, sidequest content is something that a lot of it is made up as we go along though, such as the Fossil Quest in Sunshell (I did all the content for that one  outside mapping Visinite, Crim did that and they smashed it).

Aside from the actual implementation of your ideas, where are the gaps you still need to fill in with respect to character arcs, story beats, sidequests, etc.?

This is probably more of a question that Caz can answer, I can forward this to him but its unlikely he will be able to respond anytime soon sadly, so I'll answer the best I can. When it comes down to character arcs, it'll mainly be essentially how certain reveals/developments would make sense in regard to the story, take Scarlett joining Crescent's Arc for example, in Episode 6 we implemented a good amount of new scenes involving Scarlett, to give more of a perspective towards her reasoning behind joining, so it didn't just feel like, she "betrays" you and then you battle her in Blackview. We go back to adjust these part when see fit, and even throughout a development cycle, we may go back to adjust dialogue and add additional content in retrospect to events leading up to that current point in the story. This also follows into adjusting story elements, we may go back through the story and look to fill in gaps where we feel like the story is weaker at that point, or if something doesn't make a "lot of sense" given the situation, it's good to be critical of your own work and sometimes put yourself in the shoes of the player, would this make sense as it is or are there some additional content that you could add? Sidequests we just go along for the ride and then see how they play out, the Fossil Quest is something I adjusted a good bit throughout the development cycle, and with the help of some proof reading, amended some elements which may have been a bit confusing/not really necessary for the quest as a whole. Finally with like balancing, we mainly leave that until testing for others to give opinions and feedback, with that I then go back through, add some stuff in, adjust other aspects, and prepare it all for full release.

 

As a team, aside from the actual programming and spritework, what are the biggest challenges you're facing?

This really follows up from the first question but right now... getting back into the swing of things to be completely honest. I won't go into many details but with an "unplanned" hiatus going on, we are all itching to get back into development and want to bring Episode 7 to you all eventually, but life sometimes get in the way of things, and with current events that are occurring, development is sadly taking a back seat. Though I am hopeful that soon enough, once a few things have settled down and I get some resources that I need, development will resume! Ofc with the holiday season coming up and the team spending time away with family, development may be a bit slow but, as long as we're chugging away, there will be more updates, there will be reasons to keep checking by, I assure you all that as long as we have the passion for the project, it will continue.

 

What are the three resources you feel would immediately make your life easier, whether it's from a human resource perspective or some external materials that you're unable to get ahold of and therefore have to build up from scratch yourself?

A fun little question to finish off! Let's see...

 

1) A 4th Layer on RPG Maker (or multiple layers as whole)

I think I would speak for all Fangame devs here who work in RPG Maker that the limitations of layers is so incredibly frustrating at times that just, more layers! or even just ONE MORE LAYER would solve all my problems... but RPG Maker XP is an older program, you gotta make do what you got...

 

2) A second version of myself

Double the development speed, less likely to burn out, work can be delegated between me, myself and I... if only this was possible... jokes aside we have a really good team of dedicated individuals on the project and I couldn't ask for anyone else than the people who are behind me! But another me would be great...

 

3) The ability to hire an office and move everyone to the same timezone
This one seems to be weird at first reading it, but if you don't know... our team is quite global! I'm from the UK, we have two living in EU, three of us are in America... and then Caz is from New Zealand, the timezone difference can be extremely difficult sometimes to organise development meetings and other aspects throughout the development cycle, but that's what happens when people work remote these days. If I could only... move everyone to the UK, hire out an office for our shenanigans and vibe together while developing the project we love, that would make life so much easier.

 

Thanks again for these questions! These were pretty fun to sit down, go through and think about, and hopefully for those who have been wondering about the state of development currently and some curiosity about these things have a sense of clarity now!