Hello everyone, Markystal here. It's been a while since I last posted anything up on here or the channel. I've been rather busy and have found some difficulty motivating myself to get something posted, but some stuff has to be communicated and it can't wait much since it's having a major impact on the activities I'm engaging in and how they're being done.
Let's start off with the big one: I've officially started college. I've been trying to properly start off my educational career for the past year and some change, but it's concrete now. The first classes I took were Wednesday of this past week and everything is in order. This is good news in a way since it means I'm on my way towards becoming a medical engineer, which in the long run should put at least one more person with a bit of authority in the areas needed in VR on the map and allow me to provide you all with much more accurate, reliable information than I've been able to in my current, amateur hobbyist status. As you may imagine though, this addition to my day hasn't come without a cost.
Time was rather rough to manage before this since I had my job and the long commute to it to thank for a lot of last time and momentum. Now though, despite the fact I've started school, I'm keeping my job and will actually be juggling both simultaneously every weekday. From 9AM - 9 PM, I'll effectively be completely written off for in terms of time since I can't compromise either or them for my current hobby projects unless they start generating enough revenue to supplant the contribution my job is. This is without considering that I'm getting homework which could easily take up more time than that, leaving me with little to no time in the week to work on the game unless I can become a machine that doesn't need to eat, sleep, or relax to operate. I'm doing what I can to barely scrape by at this point, but it's not an easy racket and I'm in a tough spot.
I'll be doing a short video covering where the game is at in the near future, but for the time being, I want to communicate that the targets being aimed for on the game have to be changed since I didn't expect for school to take up as much of my time as it is. Under these circumstances, along with my changed impression of what the game can be, I intend to expand upon the items that will be in the game to a certain extent, but more than anything, to do so in the realm of polish over time. Keyword here being over time.
At this stage, I've realized that there is no way for me to release a product that I can be proud to sell under these circumstances in the allotted time frame of 6 months. That wasn't very realistic to begin with, but the recent changes make that almost downright impossible, so I'm not going to try and bullshit you all into thinking that I'll be able to do everything that has to be done within that time period. It's a major disappointment to me since this was really meant to be an examination of my own abilities and it kind of just says that I suck, but it can't be helped. All that being said, I still want to release something in time for the release of the Oculus Rift so I myself can play through the fruits of my own labor (especially since Eve Valkyrie, Lucky's Tale, and Minecraft probably won't be enough to sate my VR hunger), so I'm going to try and compromise here.
Instead of releasing the full RPG on March 28th, I'll be releasing it as an early access item for users to purchase. This package will still be somewhat a complete game, just that it will be less fully featured and expansive than the RPG. Think of it as a bit of an offshoot mode for the RPG rather than the main campaign. Effectively, this component will feature 2 items, the player's combat abilities in the melee sense, and a few enemies to fight in a simple, horde or boss rush mode. I may incorporate some of the more advanced elements for the RPG in, since I'll be emphasizing replayability in this mode just as much as I'll be doing so in the main game.
Unlike the main narrative, where you'll eventually be able to max out every stat and skill available once you reach the maximum level, in the side mode, you'll primarily be playing in arcade like batches of play, where the skills you get would be limited by the few choices you get within the rounds. I'll make it so each run of the mode bears a different primary means of attack, encouraging you to play in a different manner or to take a different upgrade or skill path to better combat the opposition. One round, you may go for a speed build to avoid several foes, another you may go for all out power to beat you opponents out of existence, or maybe you'll just pick out an exotic build meant to allow you to play in a manner you really like, such as a mage knight, tank, or time manipulating maid. The game may not be entirely complete, I won't release something I myself wouldn't be willing to pay for.
While I think that the final value of what I'm making here may be worth a price of $20 dollars in its finished form (IF I can polish it to match the image I'm seeing in my head), what I will be offering at this initial release won't be as such upon release, I want to release that game at a discounted price and up the price as more features get added until that final, complete release is made. If you buy that game at the lower price, the updates are going to be entirely free, so think of it a bit like buying into the alpha and getting the final game for free. I'll be upfront about this of course so if you don't like the idea of buying unfinished software, don't entirely trust me, or just don't know about the nature of alpha software, you'll at very least get a warning ahead of time to let you know what you'll be getting into.
Well, that just about does it for most of the major news to discuss. Like I said earlier, I'll be posting a video update on the game's current progress soon, as well as a list of the planned features and content for the game in the near term for you to get a grasp of what kind of things you'll see in the game more specifically. Thank you very much for watching this video. This has been Markystal, logging out.
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