Blog 2024-12-25

Zetsubou -

Merry Christmas! Or Christmas Eve, depending on your timezone.

It's been 5 months since the last blog post, so I guess that means we're due for a progress update.

Let's dive in, starting with the usual housekeeping.

Website

This software used to build this website has been updated from Ghost v5.87.2 to v5.105.0.

Like usual, there shouldn't be any notable changes, and hopefully nothing has broken.

Google Play removal

Surprise! My games will soon be removed from Google Play (again). And not due to their content this time around.

Google Play now requires developers to go through a verification process, and to provide more personal information and identification than before. I have decided not to comply with their updated policy, so my games will be removed from the store (at some point in the future).

I have only ever put my free games (and demos of commercial games) onto the Play Store, and not many people downloaded them anyway. And you can still find the Android versions of my games on Itch, including full versions (rather than just demos) of the commercial ones. So hopefully this decision doesn't have any major impact on anyone.

Steam Deck verified

On a lighter note, one more of my games, Tomboys Need Love Too, has now been Steam Deck verified.

That just leaves two more to go until all of my games are verified. I just hope that my next game will be verified prior to release, rather than years afterwards. Speaking of which...

Sable's Grimoire 2 progress

Overall progress is good. It's all gradually coming together.

TL;DR:

  • only 1 or 2 backgrounds to go. Likewise for sprites
  • around ~8 CGs are still needed, but this number might increase
  • the new music tracks have all been started, but aren't yet complete
  • writing is maybe 80% done
  • no solid ETA. Likely Q2 2025

Artwork

The amount of artwork needed changes as the writing progresses, so it's hard to pin down any exact numbers here. That being said, I don't expect any major changes with the sprites or backgrounds.

At this stage there's only 1 new sprite (+1 new outfit) left, and a couple of backgrounds.

CGs are the only bits of artwork which are still subject to change. The 8 remaining CGs noted above should be enough for the initial release, but I can't promise that. If history is any indicator, there will end up being at least a couple more.

Writing

Another 110k words of the script have been written since the last update, bringing the current total to 610k.

However! What I neglected to explain last time is that this number includes work on routes which won't be in the initial release. So the total amount written is 610k words, but only 570k of that will be in the initial release.

Anyway, what matters in a progress update is the degree of completion, not the length. And that leads us to...

Routes

Since the last blog post I've mainly been working on the common route, as well as one of the character routes. The current state of progress is now something along the lines of:

  • Route #1: done
  • Routes #2-5: mostly done. Each between 70-90%
  • Common route still needs some work. Maybe 80% done

I'll start posting images/info on what those routes actually are early next year.

Music, GUI

All of the new music tracks are in progress. The first drafts have been composed and approved, but the final tracks aren't quite done yet.

As far as the GUI is concerned, I'm probably going to update the existing GUI (like with Man And Elf and A Dragon's Treasure) rather than get a new GUI made. That should help to keep the theme/vibe of the first 3 games, and will save a bunch of time.

Release date?

I was aiming for Q1 2025 release. However, it looks like I'll be unexpectedly busy IRL in January and/or February, which makes this unlikely (and illustrates why I try to avoid setting release dates too early).

It's also worth noting that the initial release of Sable's Grimoire 2 is turning out to be much longer than planned. At this rate it'll end up being double the length which the first game was at launch (350k words vs currently 570k words).

Right now I'm thinking Q2 2025 seems likely, but it'll be another couple of months before I have a better idea. To that end, I'll post the next progress update sooner than usual (probably February or March), and hopefully I'll have a better idea by then.