Blog 2024-07-19

That's right, folks. It's time for another bi-annual update.

When did they become bi-annual, you ask? They didn't, really. But that does seem to be how often I post these updates.

If it's any consolation, a lack of updates usually means I'm hard at work developing games. It's actually a sign of progress... in a way.

So, what's been happening these past 7 months? And what's coming next?

I'll start with some housekeeping and then get onto the good stuff.

With BlueSky now open to the public, I decided to join the platform.

I'll continue to post on Twitter/X and Mastodon. So regardless of which platform you use, my posts there will be the same.

Links to all three can be found in the Socials/Links section of this website.

Website

This software used to build this website has been updated from Ghost v5.54.0 to v5.87.2.

There shouldn't be any notable changes, and hopefully nothing has broken.

Steam Deck verified

Two more of my games, My Heart Grows Fonder and Sable's Grimoire, have now been Steam Deck verified.

The latter is part of the reason why this blog post is a month later than intended. Between Sable's Grimoire being mid review and the Steam Summer Sale starting, it seemed like a bad time for a blog post.

Anyway, verified! That's 7 down and 3 to go.

Unfortunately the verification process is initiated by Valve. So all I can really do now is wait until they review another one of my games.

Sable's Grimoire 2

And now, the part you've been waiting for.

It's been 7 months since the last update, and most of that time has been spent working on Sable's Grimoire 2.

You may have seen some of my posts on social media with character bios and introductions. Those might give you an idea of how far along the sprites are progressing, but what about the rest of the game?

Fortunately, the rest is progressing just as smoothly. Let me throw some numbers at you.

18 new backgrounds are complete
31 new CGs are complete
all(?) sprites are complete
just over 500k words done of the writing
new music tracks and GUI not started yet

So, what does all of that actually mean?

Artwork

The total number of backgrounds and CGs needed can't be confirmed until the writing is complete, so I can't accurately express those numbers as a percentage.

With that being said, at this stage I expect another ~5 backgrounds and ~10-15 CGs to be needed, but those aren't solid numbers.

Similarly, all of the sprites needed are currently complete, but that might change. Maybe a couple more sprites and outfits will be needed, but overall I don't expect much to change here.

Writing

500k words sounds like a big number. But is it? It's hard to make sense of that number without a frame of reference.

To put that number into perspective, the original Sable's Grimoire launched at 350k words, and after a few years of updates it is now 585k words in length. So it's fair to say that the writing for SG2 is pretty far along.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. There's still a lot of work to be done.

In particular, the common route (ie. the core part of the game leading up to the individual routes) is not complete. So even though a lot of the game is done, it's not in a state where it could actually be released, even if some routes were to hypothetically be cut out and released later.

Also, keep in mind that this is the first draft. That draft is incomplete, and proofreading/editing takes time. So even though a huge portion of the game has been written, it's still a long way off being "complete".

Caveats aside, tons of work has already been done. The writing is coming along well, and everything is progressing smoothly.

I just don't want you to see a big number without context and mistakenly think "it's almost done!"

Routes

Excluding music, and without naming which routes they are, the above progress translates into:

Route #1 is complete. Writing, sprites, backgrounds, CGs, everything.
Route #2 is nearing completion. It needs a couple of CGs and a few more scenes need writing. Maybe one more background.
Route #3 needs a bit more work. A few scenes need to be written. 2-3 backgrounds are needed. A few CGs are needed.
Route #4 also needs a bit more work. It needs a few more scenes to be written, a few CGs, and maybe one background.
Route #5 might be pushed back into a post-release update. The CGs are done, and only 1 background is needed. But this is the longest route by far, and there's still a bit of writing needed, so more artwork might end up being needed.
Routes #6 and #7 have been started, but they're in the early stages. These won't be in the initial release.
The common route (ie. the game before it branches off into different routes) still needs a fair bit of work. Mostly writing and some CGs.

Music, GUI

Now that the rest of the game is pretty far through, work will soon start on the new music tracks and an updated GUI.

I usually leave music until later, so it can be matched to particular backgrounds and scenes.

Likewise, some of the GUI elements need other parts of the game to be finished first to avoid tweaking them later. This is particularly true of the route map screen.

Fortunately, work on the GUI is a lower priority, since Sable's Grimoire already has a perfectly good GUI. Updating it is something I'd like to do before SG2 releases, but it doesn't hold up the development of the rest of the game.

So both of these will be worked on while the remaining backgrounds, CGs and writing are being finished off.

Testing

Once all of the above is finished, it'll be time to start testing in earnest.

This part takes a while, and will be done in stages across different operating systems and different sections of the game.

I plan to start by making sure everything works from start to finish. ie. Someone can actually play the game. Not perfect, but at least playable.

After that I'll submit the playable build to Steam so it can be reviewed as early as possible and avoid delays later on.

While/After they review SG2 I'll be testing again more thoroughly, looking for things which won't stop the game from passing review, but which need to be fixed regardless. That means visual bugs, typos, refining scenes, or anything else which comes up.

Finally, I'll run through the game from start to finish "as a player". ie. Not looking for bugs, but trying to play the game all the way through without anything seeming wrong.

Once I can play the game from start to finish without noticing anything obviously amiss, it'll be ready for release.

Release date?

I know, I know. Hearing about "progress" is great and all, but when is it going to be ready?

The remaining artwork should be done over the next few months.

Music is hard to estimate, but there are fewer new music tracks than there are new pieces of artwork. So I don't expect it to be a cause for delay.

The amount of writing needed isn't huge, but it's still a few months of work. Followed by editing, which is also not a quick process.

And of course, testing can't be done in earnest until all of that is done.

So, where does that leave the release date?

If the initial release only includes the first 4 routes, then 2024 seems achievable. If it includes route #5, then Q1 2025 seems more likely.

For now I'm going to focus on the common route and finishing off the first 4 routes. After that I'll reassess whether or not to hold up the initial release for the sake of putting route #5 in there, or if it would be better added later as a post-release update.

So I'm going to disappoint everyone again by holding off on specifying a release date. I'll put out another blog post in a few months when some routes are fully completed and give a better indication at that time of when I expect the release date to be.

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