Blog 2023-01-04
Happy new years, everyone. It's been a few months since my first blog post, so I thought it was about time for a quick update on things.
Upcoming new game
In the last post I mentioned a new game I'm working on: An Adventurer's Gallantry.
The remaining assets for this game have now been finished. So the game itself is pretty much done, apart from testing.
Next up is getting a trailer made. This is currently slated for February.
I've also been going through the approval process on Steam. A game trailer is a requirement for Steam, so I can't quite complete the process just yet, but most of it is squared away.
Assuming the trailer is completed within the expected timeframe and there are no hold-ups with Steam, this game should be released in February or March.
Upcoming old game
I've also been working on getting Max Massacre, a short, free game I made a few years ago, onto Steam.
Much of the process is done. It just needs a trailer before I can try to get it all approved.
Some things will be added which weren't present in the original release, such as achievements and cloud saves. I'll also be looking at adding some new settings I've played around with in An Adventurer's Gallantry, and possibly higher res artwork in places.
In terms of story content, however, it'll be the same as the original release.
Progress of My Heart Grows Fonder update
The new content update mentioned in the last blog post is getting closer to completion.
There are still a couple of CGs left, after which it'll be testing time.
In the meantime, I recently wound up releasing an unplanned update for MHGF to fix a Steam Deck issue (more below) which included some things I was going to bundle into the upcoming content update. Most of it was steam-specific though (cloud saves, depot changes), so the update was only released on Steam.
Progress of Sable's Grimoire 2
Nothing to report here, and there probably won't be for a while.
It's being actively worked on every day. But it's a long game, so it takes a while for anything noteworthy to happen.
I might start sharing new sprites and/or CGs later on in the year. But right now the focus is on writing, writing, and more writing.
Steam Deck
I finally managed to get my hands on a Steam Deck recently. And the very first thing I discovered was that a) Renpy games freeze up on some steam decks and b) mine is one of those steam decks.
Luckily it's a problem that's already been solved in upstream Renpy, so I was able to apply a fix straight away. Though it did mean that my first day or so with the steam deck was spent debugging, patching, compiling and testing.
Now that that's sorted I'll be moving onto improving the experience of my games on this device where possible. The things I'm thinking of at the moment are:
- switching to fonts which are easier to read at smaller sizes
- implementing font size settings
- implementing sprite size settings
- support for different aspect ratios
- controller button prompts and general controller support improvements
Some of this I've already released or started testing out for new games.
Of the changes I've been looking into, support for multiple aspect ratios is the only one I'm really unsure about.
At the moment it's looking like a lot of work, so it might be something I only implement for smaller games, or it might be limited to Steam Deck specific builds (Steam does have an option for this).
Regardless, I'll keep an eye out for other changes which might improve things on the Steam Deck. And other platforms/devices, of course.