#log: gameplay development

[objectgames]

BLOOD MORGUE LOG #0002

(07.04.2025) the characters have been given hesitant names and their designs have been refined as well as a few artistic choices with them.

(07.04.2025) first drafts for the starting screen and embiorment have been made.

(07.04.2025) first drafts for gameplay and gameplay mechanics have been made.

(08.04.2025) gameplay concepts have been refined.

(08.04.2025) character designs have been refined more.

NOTES -

(read: 2 & 3.) i'm pretty happy with what i have so far, especially movement wise.

(read: 5.) i've always been happy with my designs- for this characters, at least- so i've been doing but minimal details. i suspect they'll change much more when i get to modeling them but i don't think they will change drastically.

[bruhstation]

“Do you know why humans often say the phrase "It’s a small world"?"

From the studio that brought you Love Train, Senja/Bruhstation presents:

🚧🚂 CASA TIDMOUTH ‘85: SUMMER PHANTASM OF THE RAILWAY 🚂🚧

Your name is Edward. Two years ago, you were thrown into the island of Sodor without your memories or your sense of self intact. The years working as a driver for the NWR 2 have shaped you into a highly reliable, amicable, and strong man of perseverance. The only thing that remains of your long forgotten past is your insatiable thirst for knowledge, and the only thing that you have obtained is a set of golden eyes that you’ve been keeping a secret from your two friends.

When terror lurks among the rails, you are thrust into a journey to send the wraith that’s been using people’s bodies for sustenance back to where he belongs, knowing full well that you might not be equipped to confront what lies beyond the fog.

Unfortunately, the people you’ve been shielding from the horrors only known to you will be caught in the crossfire. Still, you’ll do anything to keep the island safe, no?

This game features:

Fully voiced cast

Original soundtrack

Six different endings

30+ hours of gameplay

Gallery of CGs and character files

Secrets... perchance?

With the subject matter that this story brings, this visual novel is not recommended to:

Those who are sensitive to sudden sounds, flashes of light, or intense imagery

Those with health conditions such as epilepsy or heart problems

Those who are sensitive to portrayals of possession, dereality, bullying, and ableism

Those who actively seek momentary happiness in an otherwise bleak world 

Those who take pleasure in destroying themselves and their loved ones

Those who are elitist about a specific season or media of a certain talking train franchise 

Wishlist on steam | itch.io link

Development log:

I’m sorry.

[2headedb0y]

Dev log for my upcoming free to play yandere boyfriend otome RPG: 2-Headed Boy. Story-driven/choice-driven gameplay with exploration and various activities.

You can wishlist a 2-Headed Boy of your own today; visit his Steam page 🤍

Development began January 2025.

Current stage: Production (stage 2)

Estimated overall completion: 23%

Game is not suitable for children. People with severe relationship trauma might proceed with caution. Also contains flashing lights.

Content warnings: toxic relationship, manipulation, gaslighting, various forms of blackmail, love bombing, verbal 4bus3, stalking, obsessive behavior, s3lf harm, e4ting d1s0rder, guilt tripping, violence, d34th, drug 4bus3, character backstory references to chi1d 4bus3.

Donation/Rewards Info Here

Story and gameplay concepts below! vvv

You have been staying in Japan after traveling there for a highly advanced medical procedure. Your only friend, Koyomi, sees how isolated you have become here, and is encouraging you to get into dating. She offers to introduce you to the sweet, normal, well-adjusted single guys she knows in your apartment complex. But for whatever reason, she doesn't seem to want you to meet Kage, your next-door neighbor.

"There's something really off about him. If you decide to talk to him, obviously I can't stop you. Just...please be careful. He's really...fragile."

Every choice you make with/towards your yandere neighbor will have a disproportionately larger impact on him than all the other dating "options," for better or worse. Also, be careful about the other "options." Every choice you make with them also affects Kage.

Build your guys' stats through interactions and cute dates. Figure out what they like and make them cute gifts. Witness Kage become increasingly unhinged and navigate the fallout of his wacky antics.

What you say, do, don't say or don't do all matter. Especially to your yandere!

Why has he latched on to you so tightly? Reach the "true ending" to find out, along with answers to other questions raised along the way.

Choose your name, gender, and appearance. Choose your birthday for some fun birthday surprises. Choose your guy, or guys. But remember Koyomi's advice: be really careful with Kage. He's fragile.

[the-fandom-crossroads]

So Kingdom Hearts Missing Link is Dead

Square just announced they were cancelling development and focusing on kh4.

I'm going to discuss why this might be a good thing.

The reason they gave is quote "we determined that it would be difficult for us to offer a service that players would find satisfactory over a long period of time, leading us to the decision to cancel development."

The obvious answer is GPS walking mobile games only work if you are pokemon in the west.

Either they had too much story and so you'd have to walk miles over months to unlock all the story cutscenes.

Or they didn't have enough story. So would have to stretch it out to have the game live long enough to cover the cost of development.

Khux had months of no new story updates. But the grinding was just logging in and slide your finger across the screen to fling medals. If the grind is walk a quarter mile a day no one's going to do that unless there is a story cutscene to work towards.

Third option is after the play tests complained about how much walking was involved to level up your characters. The dev team tried to pivot to minimize it. Unfortunately the core gameplay loop required you to walk or spend premium currency. They realized it was impossible to rework the gameplay loop without just cutting out the GPS part. Which is like 70% of the code of this mobile game. Meaning completely reworking the game and they just didn't have the time and budget for that.

4th possibly best option. They are getting closer to wrapping up kh4 and realized if they staggered the release of missing link cutscenes. The important plot beats you need to know for kh4 wouldn't be out before kh4's release. Remember how the Elrena and Darkness reveal happened in khux like a week after kh3 came out? they had that stuff timed perfectly.

The good news is it sounds like a lot of the story cutscenes for the game have already been made. And since some of this is supposed to tie into kingdom hearts 4. They might just release it as a movie like Backcover. Or they will rework it into a console only game like everyone wanted to begin with and that will just have to come after kh4.

So yeah I'm sad we won't be getting any new kh content anytime soon. But it makes me hopeful they are getting close on kh4. At the very least the next kingdom hearts news we get HAS to be kindgom hearts 4 because Missing link isn't in line before it anymore.

[omorimodreverie]

Reverie Devlog - March 2025

Intro

March is here, which means it’s time for another Devlog! This may be the final log for Chapter 4, as we approach the finish line. We’ve made a lot of progress ever since the New Year, so let's get straight to it.

Progress

A major amount of progress has been made, this time mostly on the battles - as it's one of the later things to be polished.

Restructuring

ALL enemy data has been restructured to a new system, for ease of development.

- In technical terms, each enemy now occupies one slot in the RPGmaker data editor instead of the base game’s four.

As a result, all previous enemy AIs have now been standardized based on emotion, as opposed to being hard coded percentage differences (With exceptions for certain bosses).

- Angry increases the chances of offensive skills.

- Sad increases the chances of defensive skills.

- Happy increases the chance of special skills (less chance to use a basic attack).

- Drop rates based on emotion have also been standardized to be consistent.

Fixed a lot of broken or unintended AI behavior in Chapter 1 and 2. Some are also getting a total overhaul, like Kite Kid.

Others

Extra area maps are now finished; these are singular large maps to explore, with extra rewards and battles.

Most new enemies now have AI.

Some skills have been rebalanced and tweaked for functionality. Namely, AOE emotion skills are now acquired before level 20 and are usable on both sides.

The majority of equipment and charms have been implemented, with some being buyable or extra challenge rewards.

Quality of life changes, with ailments being visible with particle effects.

Common buffs and basic attacks are now standardized to use the same skill and state across different enemies. This is also so translators do not need to translate the same exact basic attack 40 times.

An accessible guide book has been added that lists the gameplay changes that have been made in the mod.

What’s Next

Extra area gameplay, mostly setting up troops and meaningful reasons to go there.

Extra optional area cutscenes; these tend to be smaller.

Properly make the ending scene for Chapter 4.

Some skill animations. 

Moving on into early playtesting.

Final Notes

We’ve made tremendous progress so far, and chapter 4 is now nearing release. This is likely to be the final devlog for Chapter 4.

Anyways, as a thanks for reading this far, here's a teaser for a battle theme for the Castle area.

[tabababyyy]

Sources for LBP's Development

good morning everyone reminder that LBP's concept art is online and you can look at it for FREE here are tons of sources i've collected for anyone as autistic as me who want to try replicating the style. The underline portions are links btw :3 LBP1 CONCEPT ART: This includes mainly conceptual images for the making of sackboy, but also includes some costumes along with environmental pieces for levels appearing in the first game.

LBP2 CONCEPT ART: Similar to LBP1, however includes tons of collage pieces and way more environmental ideas. Includes costumes and concepts for many beloved characters!! Probably my favorite out of the 3 due to the extensive experimentation.

LBP3 CONCEPT ART: I dont know why its so hard to find sources for this one? I've only been able to get reddit links and this was the most concise one. I will try to look for more. I did also find these interest concept works for LBP3, but each image has an individual link so what's the point of giving that when i can just put it right here!

I have ALSO found developer logs on youtube showcasing early LBP gameplay along with concepts. Playlist dedicated to Developement of LBP, usually showcasing milestones or tech demos.

Documentary on LBP's original team and sort of the creation of media molecule and LBP itself. 6/12/24 I FOUND MORE STUFF FOR LBP3!!! These are some alpha builds of the game that include playable levels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGEak9jGkCs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMcTNnVHZQo

This channel is honestly a great resource if you're super into LBP3 and just curious on what levels could've looked like/how they were made. https://www.youtube.com/@zedLBP also found some unused music for LBP3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDrxsMOiPNs&t=1111s i would love to find some articles but i lowkey might make a google doc to organize LBP3's content since so much is in video format or on youtube.

Errrm that is all i have for now, take care :)

[forevergoldgame]

2 MORE DAYS EVERYONE!!

LS here. Today I'm going to talk about my favorite thing: UI design. When it's good, it's utterly invisible, but when it's bad, everyone notices!

There were definitely some hurdles and hiccups in the UI design of the demo. Part of it was me being unfamiliar with my tools, part of it was not understanding some of the in-built features of the sugarcube twine template. Since then I've brushed up on my JS and restructured things to make the game more intuitive.

First up, we now have two different options for the choice menu! By default, the game displays the "scrolling list" as seen on the left. Using either touch controls or your mouse scroll wheel, you can cycle through the available options before making your choice... or if your device lacks touch/wheel options (or you dislike needless UI animation), you can set the choice menu to "static list" and have your options display in a plain list.

Next is the top bar! At first glance, the buttons might look the same as they did in the demo, but they are not. Yes, the larger of the two still leads to a (new) character summary, but the smaller button now opens the new glossary rather than than being a redundant link to the inventory.

The glossary is a small feature a few readers suggested and it does exactly what it says. It combs through the current passage and looks for vocabulary words which may be unfamiliar to readers.

As always, the glossary feature is meant to be a convenience for readers who may have taken breaks in their playthrough and would like a refresher. It's an anti-frustration feature, not "homework!"

The settings menu is much like it was before, but with a few new features. Changing the theme now changes the UI popups as well as the main layout, so no more white text on dark backgrounds for light theme users! Mobile users will also be happy to learn that you can adjust touch sensitivity - this should hopefully fix some of the issues with people triggering the touch menu when scrolling down the page.

(The touch sensitivity range given in the menu might be tweaked later though - I've only had a few people test mobile for me so my perception of "the average mobile device" has a lot of holes in it. Mobile users, you'll have to let me know if the range is too great/too small to be useful!)

The "You" page has been separated from the Party menu and overhauled. This was mentioned in a previous post, so I'll move on to how the Party menu has been restructured!

Wanting to have as much information as possible easily available, I did away with the individual subpages in favor of these smaller summaries you can scroll through (using touch, mousewheel, or buttons).

The longer, unclear lists of companion thoughts are now represented by almost equally vague relationship icons. The left icon gives you an overview on "what" your relationship is, while the right icon gives you an idea of its "tone." Broadly speaking, "low tension" relationships are ones where the given companion and Quincy largely agree, and "high tension" relations are ones where you do not. A friendship with high tension might manifest as a cheeky rivalry, while a low-tension enemy might be someone who resents Quincy but stays polite for the sake of shared goals.

The travel log has gotten a similar retool for ease of use. We've chosen to drop the framing of "quests" in favor of plainly listed "tasks." Itemizing story events as "quests" was a sort of holdover from early development, when we were still conceptualizing what "gameplay" for an IF story like this would even look like, but as development progressed, it became clear that was kind of an overcomplication.

The timeline on the synopsis page has also been done away with in favor of this woven history log which tracks the beginning/ending of arcs and some big ticket player choices. You can scroll through the squares for a brief reminder of what you did in your specific playthrough!

The inventory has been redone to better reflect how we're putting the inventory system to use in-game. Doing away with "notes," we now have three categories of inventory item: actual items, Quincy's observations, and oaths. What is an oath? You'll just have to find out!

The codex has received a ton of QoL updates - namely, better options for navigation and a simple search function. We've also altered the categories somewhat and reassessed what "deserves" an article and what should exist as an amendment to a larger article, as - for example - giving each and every named location a codex entry like we originally planned would very quickly spin out of control and overwhelm players. We hope the end result is a cleaner codex experience!

And, finally, we have the retooled map. Instead of awkwardly navigating submenus, we now have one huge map with everything on it! The player can navigate by either clicking the points on the map or the list of available locations. A selected location will display in the corner, and list any active story tasks associated with that location.

And that's all for today's post! We're so close to release, and I can't wait to hear everyone's thoughts on what we've made!

-LS

[sloshr]

After watching through Side Order... I have a Few Thoughts.

[Spoilers ahead]

My Review of the Side Order DLC - Its little more than Gameplay.

Initial Opinion

- - - - - - - - - -

Overall; I like the gameplay mechanics initially, but the story absolutely feels lacking to me, imo. It feels like they were really banking on Side Order being Hard but... multiple of my friends finished it on their 2nd or 3rd run through the Spire.

That in itself isnt a problem! But... everyone felt sort of unsatisfied? There were no developments in the story, as we, Agent 8, were just assigned the task to Get to The Top of the Spire -> The Player Does That -> You beat a Boss -> Credits Roll (?)

On my watchthrough I literally said Please Say Sike 😭 because, dont take this poorly, but they were advertising Side Order as;

• Difficult (stated Multiple Times in basically every Trailer)

• Story Driven (You Uncover things as You Climb)

• Character and Lore Intensive (as shown by the trailers with all the concept art as well as promo art)

I dont feel like it was wrong to expect more based on how it was advertised.

But... if you complete the DLC in 1-2 runs, which is Very Much Possible, no buildup happens at all. The story was banking on the player struggling, and putting all the content behind repeat runs, which falls through and Doesnt really work/feel satisfying if the main goal is achieved in such a short time. I Feel like anyone who regularly plays Salmon Run will likely have a similar experience. And I feel kind of cheated? Because what we got was something that was Tell Not Show rather than the Show, Not Tell formula. And in my opinion, it really doesn't work as well at all. It puts all the major lore that the game has set up behind repetetive climbs (which never change btw, despite each climb being generated differently, its the same after a while) and you get about 1 Sentence of Exposition, with a Modlog from Marina if you are Lucky.

Side Order was (to me), after watching it all;

• Not Difficult, But Repetetive Gameplay (This easily runs people down, which would be fine if the tower had more than 1 setup or phase)

• Inital Story Setup with no complexities or stages. You climb the first Tower, Save Marina, Climb the Second Tower, Beat Order, and the credits Roll. In its most complex, you could fit what Side Order's Story is in 2-3 Sentences. Rather than Lore being revealed During the story, it feels Pushed to the Side as all of it is either in Text the player may never see (different climbs) or care to read (Marina's Mod Log)

• Use of Character Drops with no explaination / mention (The Agent 4 Boss, Anyone?) (This felt very Bait-y, with No Payoff)

Rating

- - - - -

If I had to give Side Order a Rating

4/10. At Best.

I am a bit disappointed with this as I feel like I was promised more, Storywise, and honestly a bit gameplay wise. I think it fails where other DLC has succeeded Due to being Built in such a way where anything engaging is stuck behind barely changing gameplay. It is not built in a way where the experience cant fail to show you whats important to the characters and the worldbuilding. It relies too much on telling you whats happening rather than the world showing you. Its too Simple, and It Doesnt Work, personally, in a series that contains Octo Expansion.

Which is Sad to me!! It had so much wasted potential and I really hope this isn't the last we're going to see of the concept, we get to see ideas actually built into the story, and... maybe find Agent 4.

Conclusion

- - - - - - - -

Tldr; Side Order had a good concept, but failed in execution for being simple and gameplay dependent, which was ultimately disappointing due to it being advertised as something more for all involved.

It was an alright attempt. The experience will just be known to me as... well. Baby's First Rouge-like. Nothing worldbreaking.

(PS, this isnt meant to be mean spirited or overly critical, I just love the Splatoon Series so I give it Tough Love. This is just my personal view on the DLC)

Thank you for Reading! Feel free to share or add any thoughts!

[magbongwater]

ULTRAKILL INDULGENCE Development Log (18/01/25)

Hello! In order to prevent me cluttering my youtube page and Purgatorio socials with small updates and teasers, I have decided to set up a small development log about my project here on Tumblr!

For those who aren't in the know, Indulgence is a custom ULTRAKILL layer I've been working on since May of 2024 (oh my god has it really been that long jesus christ) and there is currently 1 level avaliable to play, I-1: THE DEATH OF PARADIGM, which you can download on Angry Level Loader, an Ultrakill Custom Level loader mod. I've been making strides on I-2: IF THERE WERE NO THUNDER (pictured below) for several months now but I've been slowing down on teasers recently due to not having much major content avaliable to show that wouldn't spoil the first-time experience.

Anyway enough with the introductions, because most people reading this probably came from the discord, today I'll be providing some small updates on what I've been working on in regards to I-2 and beyond.

- Is that fucking Five Pebbles -

(Everything is WIP and subject to change on full release.)

Some of you may know that I've been working on remastering the intro of I-2 due to it feeling pretty lackluster and rushed in comparison to the main section of the level (mostly because it was)

I've been leaning a lot more into tighter spaces instead of large, open rooms. And the pipes transporting blood are a lot less present, instead opting for a lot of smaller moving parts and environmental sounds to make the whole place feel more alive and active. I think I did a good job.

I spent most of yesterday working on the large outside vista again, most of it is untextured since I'm waiting on some stuff from Lea to texture it with but I have hope it'll look good, holding off on a lot of the detailing as I prefer to do that alongside textures to make sure they blend together nicely and don't look awkward, especially since visuals take focus over gameplay especially in the case of the intro because there's a single enemy encounter here.

- Closing Thoughts -

With that said, I'll try to have a blog out every couple days if I have any updates to give. I'm mostly working on visual stuff right now but as I approach work on the more technical side of the level expect to have to read a lot of nerd shit here that you don't understand.

If you find my project cool it'd be even cooler if you let other people know about it! You can find me at scavgender.bsky.social, and more in depth project info can be found on the Project Purgatorio Wiki.

And who knows, maybe an old friend from I-1 will be getting some updates too...

(Hermes model by Lavender, WIP and subject to change.)

make sure to follow this blog for updates or whatever idk I've never used tumblr bye nerds

[yetitakinginventory]

Rise of the Guardians Dash n Drop

The mobile game by PikPok and released in the App Store and Google Play. It stayed online for years but ultimately was taken down in 2016.

This game, by every right, should have been what was released on game consoles everywhere. The graphics, music, and gameplay are all brilliantly done. The game is fun, addictive, and incredibly challenging without being frustrating. It has only one single control, something that should make this unbelievably simple to play but creates a difficulty in maneuvering around the constant enemies approaching from all sides.

This likely encourages the purchase of boosts in the workshop, but the lack of negative consequences to losing a level means you don't experience the frustration that fuels in-app game purchases.

The price of coins is reasonable for the cost of each lower level boost. For $20 you can get 1,500 Holiday shields, protecting you from 4,500 nightmare attacks. (In 2012 I was making $10 an hour, the cost of the ticket to see this movie was $8)

And that's not the only boost, as you progress across the cities you begin to gain support from your fellow Guardians, who will attack or block the Nightmares to protect your sliegh.

From Sandy turning them into Coins, recouping part of your purchase, to Jack freezing them in place making them harmless or easily breakable if you run into them. These boosts are not just a purchase item, you can collect them as you go, either by themselves or by rescuing Elves on the way.

Like all mobile games they keep you coming back with daily goals, and get you started with rewards for logging in on Facebook and joining their group or liking them. So you don't have to spend real money on coins if you didn't want to.

And a Leaderboard so you could see how you were stacking up with fans around the world.

If you never got the chance to play this, or are feeling Nostalgic, TouchGameplay on YouTube has a video with 15 minutes of gameplay.

And shout out to Pokémon Trainer Ryan on Youtube for attempting to archive the music.

Although its no longer in the app store if you have an older Android phone, or download the Vmos app and run an older version of Android on your phone, you may still be able to download and play the game HERE. This is a fully downloadable app, but I have not been able to verify if it still works disconnected from the developers.

All my love to game archives that do their best to preserve old mobile games.

[splatsvilles-fashionista]

So over the week I've been replaying Return of the Mammalians, because I haven't played it since the week Splatoon 3 launched and I wanted to see how I felt about it without the excitement of playing a brand new game clouding my critical judgement.

(spoilers for RotM below, just in case)

That said I didn't feel like it changed my opinion very much. RotM's biggest problem is that it feels like the developers thought of a couple of really cool ideas (The fakeout in the intro, Deep Cut being bosses, the lore in the Alterna Logs, the final fight against Mr. Grizz) and then put them all in the game without really trying to connect them all in a very tangible way, and as a result Alterna is a very nebulous space that doesn't make any sense from a narrative standpoint (if it was a human settlement why is it full machinery and tests only inklings and octolings can use? What even IS the treasure we assemble except "a tool that just happens to solve the current problem?) but only really exists for gameplay.

The story also suffers as a result of this, too. Narratively nothing really happens until the very end of the game, where we end up just kind of stumbling into Mr. Grizz's plot to fuzzify the world right as he puts it into motion. Octo Expansion got around this by using its lore snippets to give the supporting cast a story of their own that unfolded as you progressed through the game, and ultimately it's Agent 8's actions that push the story of OE forward. In RotM we just happen to be there when things happen.

But despite all of its problems RotM also just plays really well. The combination of OE-style shorter trial levels with Hero Mode-styled hub areas you have to explore for levels and secrets work really well together, and those hubs in particular are an absolute blast to dig around in for secrets and open up a little by little. Deep Cut are incredibly fun as ineffectual Team Rocket-esque villains, and the whole final fight against Mr. Grizz is really good, especially the music. I don't even think Calamari Inkantation is especially good by Splatoon standards, but 3MIX is genuinely just an astounding track.

But I think what ultimately makes me feel more positive than negative about RotM is that I think its' thematic undertones actually really work for me. Mr. Grizz's actual involvement in the story might have been mishandled but as a villain he works. I've already written about him a bunch so keep things brief Splatoon has always been about the dangers of clinging to the past, and Mr. Grizz pushes that idea to its limits, because he is the past. He is a relic of a lost age, and he is so desperate to return to the world he knows that he will burn the future and turn back time (metaphorically) to achieve it.

But there's also the Alterna Logs and the reveal that it was human dreams of seeing the sun that drove sealife onto dry land. I think there is a compelling argument to be made that they didn't need to explain any of that to begin with, but I also think the explanation works with everything the series has been setting up on a thematic level. Humanity is gone, and will never come back, but our dreams lived on in the minds of the inklings and the octolings (and the jellies, and everyone else), and while they didn't know why, they reached for the sun together, and by achieving humanity's dreams they earned the right to take our place.

TL;DR: RotM good actually

[bartgames]

Dev Log #1 – Introduction to The Eclipse Mage

Hi! I’m Liya (also known as Bart van D’Art), and I’ve once again set out to create a visual novel—this time, a dark fantasy story called The Eclipse Mage.

My goal is simple: to finish the game. To make that possible, I’ve decided to keep things manageable. I’m working on the entire project alone, which means focusing on what I’m comfortable with and what I enjoy doing. I’m not chasing perfection or ambition for its own sake—I just want to create something complete and heartfelt.

🎭 Main Character

You’ll play as a woman (you can choose her name), but further character customization won’t be available—at least for now. Since she’s a premade character, she comes with a partially developed personality and a backstory. That said, how she grows throughout the story will depend entirely on your choices.

📖 Story

I love dark fantasy settings—harsh choices, dramatic consequences, and political intrigue. You can expect mature themes and difficult, sometimes uncomfortable situations. If you enjoy stories inspired by Game of Thrones, The Witcher, or Dragon Age: Origins, this game may be for you. Because of these themes, the game will likely carry a 16+ or even 18+ rating for violence and mature content.

💖 Romance

There will be at least one romanceable character, and I’m currently considering adding a second. However, romance is not the main focus—it’s more of a bonus for players who enjoy it. Relationships will take time to develop; don’t expect flirting or love confessions in the first few chapters.

⚙️ Gameplay & Mechanics

Choices matter. I want players to make decisions that significantly impact the world and the narrative. There will rarely be a clear “right” or “wrong” option. I may also experiment with timed choices. Starting from Chapter 2, I aim for 80% of the player’s choices to have meaningful consequences. Multiple endings are planned.

📅 Development Plan

The full story is mapped out, all the way to the final chapter. Chapter 1 took me about two months to complete at a relaxed pace, and I plan to follow a similar schedule for the rest. For now, the game is planned to include 9 chapters total.

🖥️ Platforms

The game is being developed in Ren’Py and will be released for PC on itch.io, completely free to play. You can follow this dev log here on Tumblr, or check out the itch.io dev blog for updates, behind-the-scenes content, and future announcements. itch.io

personal art blog

[askmerriauthor]

regarding pokemon sleep, it looks like you’re just looking for things to complain about. it’s designed to be this chill thing you check on during the day and leave running at night. to play it, all you have to do is sleep and feed your pokemon. no one’s telling you you to have to be the very best at it or pressuring you into paying for stuff, let alone the game itself.

If I was just looking for things to complain about, I'd still be out here whinging over Pokemon Cafe's delightfully charming art style being absolutely wasted on a junk puzzle game instead of a full RPG or cozy slice-of-life Sim.

Regarding this post here.

Hi, I'm MerriAuthor. Apparently we haven't met because anyone who follows my blog would know that I've worked in game development well on 20 years now. I've worked across the industry from little nobody indie houses, to overseas gacha-fodder, to big ol' AAA major studios. Video games and their design are a big part of my life and, boy howdy, do I have some FEELINGS about the direction the industry as a whole has gone in as the years go by. Especially in regards to the predatory monetization of gaming and how it actively preys on children, uninformed parents, people with addictive behaviors, people with hyper-competitive personalities, and similar behavioral traits solely for the purpose of making money at their expense.

it’s designed to be this chill thing you check on during the day and leave running at night. to play it, all you have to do is sleep and feed your pokemon.

As with the previous person I spoke with on this topic, that is the base function of the game. But it's by no means the design of the game. Pokemon Sleep's entire game play rotation and marketplace are designed around encouraging the Player to interact with it as much as possible within an intentionally limited time frame. Meanwhile, the game's own time scale is such that it expects Players to log hundreds if not thousands of hours of interaction with it. Its own base gameplay loop is a weekly schedule and its shop schedule is monthly. Some Pokemon require a bare minimum of 150 hours of logged sleep to even access. Pokemon Sleep wants you to be in it for the long haul.

It's also based on collection; nearly every facet of the game is listed numerically and with a percentage value or progress bar, which are functions designed to produce urgency to complete them in the Player. Human brains don't like seeing an unfinished goal, especially one represented so overtly as an unfilled progress bar or a percentage value with a decimal. Want to have your favorite Pokemon as your napping buddy but don't want to put in a ton of effort playing the game to boost up your Snorlax's power score? Better hope it's one of the low-tier Pokemon assigned into the lower brackets of the gameplay progression, because otherwise you're never going to see it. Though you could always just fork over some cash. Nearing the end of your week with Snorlax and you're just shy of a milestone you've been aiming the entire week for? Good luck! You can pay money for that extra little boost, and once you've done it you'll resent its absence enough to want to buy it again! Do you want to level up that cutie first Charmander the game gave you at the very beginning specifically to ingrain itself with faux emotional value into your favorite Charizard? Want your Eevee to evolve into one of its most popular Eeveelutions? Want a Lucario, period? You'll need to put in hundreds of hours of consistent sleep to save up enough Sleep Points exclusively toward that goal... or you can just buy access to it immediately, through first purchasing access to the Premium Subscription! A Premium Subscription which, again, doesn't auto-cancel if you delete the app and can't be canceled through the app itself, for all you distracted parents who don't pay attention to fine print and wonder why your kid's game is running up a bill on your credit card each month after the 14-day free period - just long enough for you to have forgotten all about it in the first place. Snorlax wants a specific kind of Berry this week, but none of the helper Pokemon you recruited gather that berry, or they do and are just too low on Energy to manage it? Aren't you lucky! The shop will just sell you solutions to these problems the game itself created specifically to get you to shell out money!

no one’s telling you you to have to be the very best at it or pressuring you into paying for stuff, let alone the game itself.

Here's some screen shots from the game's own app page. Buttons to make purchases and drive interaction - the app store, sleep pass, how many dream shards you have, a prompt to buy more inventory space, your missions, your current goal, the progress meter and rarity values of your Pokemon's sleep styles, your collection and their levels, etc - are all constantly and prominently displayed. The entire first day of actual gameplay in the app is a tutorial explaining how it wants you to do more than just sleep and passively collect to the point that it literally sets a daily schedule of activity for you. The mechanics explanations are so egregiously long that the Professor character literally apologizes to the Player for being so long-winded about it. Oh, an adorable moment of self-depreciation and understanding! How humanizing and encouraging of empathy from the user, done with a cheeky wink and nod. Now that we've softened your emotional state ever so slightly, here's some more microtransaction-driven gameplay elements!

If this was really just a cute little game to idle around with for its own fun, there wouldn't be a cash shop, nor would the game require a consistent internet connection to its servers. The big thing with games like these is that they're not made for the Player's benefit or entertainment. They're made to make the parent company profits. That's it. If the Pokemon Company didn't think they'd make substantial returns on the investment of development, support, marketing, and online distribution costs to put this game out into the world, they never would have made it. That is a core reality of any product put out these days. I just spent this last week helping my studio's marketing and sales team make sales projections for one of our upcoming titles, figuring out how much we could reasonably charge our potential customers literally down to the penny. And the game we're selling isn't even a service with any kind of microtransactions or DLCs. Profits are fundamental in any studio production and, where microtransaction apps are concerned, are the core focus of why the app exists.

If you're perfectly happy with playing Pokemon Sleep as an idle "pop on every once in a while, poke for a few minutes, then forget about and never pay a cent" kind of game? Totally fine, you do you. But understand that Pokemon Sleep doesn't want you as its player and will not cater to your experience. The core gameplay of Pokemon Sleep is already designed to actively degrade into a subpar experience for those who don't pay to play and that rift will only become more pronounced as time goes by. Everything around the cash shop exists for no other reason than to encourage you to use the cash shop. Over time, the gameplay will further contort itself to drive more interaction with and reliance upon the cash shop as the app sheds its non-paying users who just tire of it and move on, instead doubling-down on the lingering, paying users who have already proven themselves a reliable stream of revenue. That is how these things always go and have always historically gone.

There's also the consistently apt adage of "if you're not paying for the product, you are the product". Pokemon Sleep requires an internet connection any time you want to interact with the app - there is no offline mode. Further, the actual fine print in the terms of service (not the bubbly, legally-meaningless assurances put into the game text itself) addresses that it will collect and may share your device information, user ID, and app activity (ie, the schedules, timing habits, and spending habits the game itself has ingrained into its interaction with the Player) for analytics and advertising purposes, and that they're okay with sharing (ie, selling) that information to third parties without naming who those third parties are. And boy, does the game really want you to link your Google, Apple, and Facebook accounts to it as part of its core functionality! Worth keeping in mind as well is that the app requires constant access to your microphone and can pick up sounds as minor as a sheet rustling when you turn over in bed. The game's bubbly, meaningless text assures you that it doesn't save or transfer the snippets of sleep recordings it makes of you each night, but it makes absolutely no assurances whatsoever in the fine print that it's not using your microphone for other purposes. It does, however, point out that it will be making use of your phone's functions even when you're not using the app.

So, yeah, I'll just still be over here not playing Pokemon Sleep and encouraging others to do the same, as well as pay closer attention to the nature of so-called "free to play" games.

[omorimodreverie]

Reverie Dev Log - 2024 January + February

Overview

January and February saw ups and downs in activity, but overall significant progress was made. The start of the year was initially slow due to breaks, but activity picked up slowly. You may have noticed that there were less promotional posts or updates in general during this time, as we were focused on development. Thanks to these efforts, though, we’re fairly optimistic that this will be the final dev log for Chapter 3.

As for me (Stahl) personally, I have not been able to do much this time round as I have been busy (hence lack of public updates), but this time round invaluable progress was made by others in the team.

Quick rundown:

First round of playtesting has been done - This was a very rudimentary one aimed at finding basic bugs

NPCs are now mostly finished, and our writers are now working on flavor text and side writings

Portraits are all done and implemented

Battles have been planned out in more detail

Various organizational changes

Extra writers and RPGMV members have been recruited

Updates

The first round of playtesting is complete! This one was rather rudimentary, containing only basic story points. The aim was to test progression and to fix major bugs, both of which we’ve now finished. There are still some major aspects missing, like flavor texts and quests but vital components to main progression like cutscenes and maps are completed and being tested. Hopefully, this round of playtesting should wrap up soon, and more will follow. 

Minor and Side contents

There’s still a lot of design decisions to make, mostly regarding seemingly minor aspects of the game that actually take large amounts of resources. A lot of thought must be put into whether these features, like flavor text and shops, are worth the amount of time needed to make them, and if so how much. 

Due to this chapter being a real world section and story centric, the remaining gameplay would be left to mostly side quests. This is an interesting challenge, as unlike base Omori, Sunny is not familiar with the city like back in Faraway town, meaning it’s more challenging to find opportunities to give him quests. 

As for Reverie specific side content, battles won’t completely be abandoned in the real world. They’ll be taking forms in various challenge battles found throughout the city. For a rough idea, think of the Jackson poster found in Hobbeez from the base game.

Miscellaneous Changes

Another thing yet to be done are tweaks to previous chapter content. They will mostly affect quality of life, but some will also be major gameplay changes. Here’s some examples of planned changes (not exhaustive):

Picnic allows the player to change difficulty mid game (Trust me, later dream world chapters will feature major difficulty spikes and players may get stuck)

Hit Rates on equipment changed, mostly heavily nerfed. This makes evasion buffs actually relevant (and also, 300% hit rate is just silly).

Some skills entirely changed (e.g. Spaceboy Preserve will change into another Attack skill instead).

In game info to indicate that emotion influences Enemy AI very strongly in reverie compared to base game.

Conclusion

Overall, development on chapter 3 is reaching its later stages, reaching the first round of playtesting. This should hopefully be the last dev log in relation to Chapter 3 development.

As thanks for reading this far, here is a remade portrait of real world Sunny! It’s a bit more softer than the previous one, and the proportion has been improved as well.

[thefirstknife]

so, with act 3 put into perspective (and, further, echoes + the old model) how much hope should we actually have for the next episode being better from a storytelling perspective?

the stories themselves have still been great imo, even if I have a few hangups about revenant myself, but the sudden switch in formats made the pacing extremely weird and I think the story suffered for it.

and I'm 100% in agreement about the media literacy issues in some parts of this community. I think some of that wouldn't be as bad with better pacing where people have to actually think about it before immediately getting an answer, but ofc the people that are rushing would still get one somewhere else (eg. leaks, youtube, etc) and probably go into it with an equally fixed idea of what they want to see.

I think rushing to change the release schedule when the episode was already mostly developed was an awful, awful decision. I understand they want to listen to their community but I think it could've/should've waited until they were structuring it with the new schedule in mind

I don't have the same amount of perspective for what could be, though. I've watched playthroughs of the whole game so far, but I didn't actually start sinking money into expansions until ~last August, so I feel semi uncomfortable weighing in since I don't really know the difference (ie. how seasons used to be.)

I've tried to look but I've been a little lost. What do we know about Bungie's plans for next ep?

thanks :)

Yeah the release schedule stuff has been very rough for Revenant. I believe it was more or less unanimously disliked. It definitely didn't help with the literacy or with people wanting to be engaged with the story, despite the story being really good.

Personally for me, the best schedule was Echoes. I don't really mind 8-ish weeks of story in a row we've had before that, but in Echoes it really felt nice to me to have an act of 3 weeks and then 3 weeks to chill and think about it and craft theories and keep the fandom alive. It was a nice cadence to me, not too long and not too short. I would like to see more of that, but I doubt it's happening.

Before that, seasons had between 7-9 weeks worth of story and it would be delivered week-by-week in a row at the start of the season. So first two months of the season were story each week. Some seasons had finales with epilogue happening at the end which would usually be some kind of special mini story update for the last week with a mission or something like that. It felt fairly cramped, depending on the story, and sometimes it also didn't get the pacing right because some weeks would be more packed than others. A lot of people complained that it felt very FOMO that you had to log in so many weeks in a row, despite the fact that you could play these weeks whenever you wanted so you could wait for the story to be over and then play all weeks at once. It definitely felt busier, but also sometimes very exhausting. This is why I enjoyed the 3 by 3 week pacing a lot.

Heresy wise, from the end of the year developer update:

Additionally, we’ve been evaluating feedback from Revenant’s content rollout, and we’ve made changes to Heresy that strike a better balance between everything dropping on day one of an Act vs. meaningful reasons to return throughout the Episode. We’re taking an approach where the vast majority of the activities content will be available on the first day of an Act and subsequent weeks will add or evolve the content based on the story. Also, we’re adjusting the Act rollout schedule so that there is less downtime in the gameplay calendar later in the Episode. Heresy will be our last season in the Episode format.

Genuinely unsure what this will entail. We seem to be getting a whole act at once again, but there will be more stuff that will require coming back next weeks and there will be less downtime between acts? If I'm understanding it correctly. But without seeing it, we don't know what that means. "Vast majority of the activities" will be available right away, but "subsequent weeks will add or evolve content based on the story." Perhaps there will be additional story-related subquests that will pop up in the weeks between acts maybe? Like fieldworks but different? I don't think we'll know until we get there. Probably spoilery to explain it in more detail.

My hope is that they had more time to adjust the way the story functions with the release schedule they're going for so that it'll feel a little more natural than Revenant did. I don't necessarily mind bigger drops on day 1, my main issue was a long waiting period in between and how that day 1 drop feels like. Because of the experience with Echoes and seasons before that, I kinda have an instinctive feel of how "long" things should be, so with Revenant I kept overthinking it and trying to "sort" the story into weeks, without much success. What would've been week 2 in act 1? No clue. I'd like that for Heresy it'll be a little bit better organised.

Generally it doesn't impact my enjoyment of the story almost at all as it's fairly easy for me to adjust to the feel of it and chalk it up to the technical issues as usual and just accept it and move on. But I would vastly prefer if seasonal stories were crafted with the schedule in mind because it always simply feels better to experience them as they were designed to be experienced. Really hoping that they had enough time to do that for Heresy and that it won't make people pass, ignore or dislike a good story because of it.

[love-and-deepspace-wiki]

"Ashwa Snow Village"

Type: Videogame

Developer: Planet Lab

Details:

"Ashwa Snow Village" is a videogame developed by Planet Lab. It is described as a city-builder game, featuring houses next to a plaza and the Ice Palace located at the summit of Mt. Ashwa. To claim the Ice Palace in the original videogame, the player had to log in consecutively for a hundred days. If they miss a single day, they have to start over.

Zayne and the protagonist visit the "Ashwa Snow Village" themed role-play experience at Planet Lab's Cloud Island holographic theme park. After changing into their costumes for the game, they pass through the preparation zone before entering the simulation. Once they pass through the door, the game begins, and their roles and objectives are revealed.

According to Planet Lab, they recreated the setting from the Ashwa Snow Village videogame "down to the last snowflake". The staff said they even used real snow and ice to create the scenery. In the simulation, there are snow-covered mountains in the distance. One of these mountains is Mt. Ashwa. The Ice Palace, situated at the summit of Mt. Ashwa, is a crystalline structure with a towering spire. It is in this Palace that they will find the fabled treasure. Scattered throughout the simulation are various cabins with blue signs. These cabins (below) be used as shelter from blizzards or rest areas. The cabins are equipped with a fireplace, wicker chairs, a bed, a stocked kitchen, and a simple wooden sled.

Plot:

In the game, the players act as Winter's Emmissaries (left). These halo-wearing heroes must work together to ascend Mt. Ashwa (right) and find the legendary treasure that will banish the winter's chill and bring the villagers warmth.

Gameplay:

At the plaza where the game begins, villagers speak of legends about "those who have halos atop their heads - Winter's Emmissaries". They say only Winter's Emmissaries can find the treasure that brings warmth to wintry days. Only Winter's Emmissaries are allowed to step foot into the mountains and make their way to the Palace. But the villagers say that, once they reach the Forest located halfway up the mountain, "the solution will take them directly to the summit" of Mt. Ashwa.

In the simulated experience, Zayne and the protagonist actually had to climb the mountain path. When they eventually reach the center of the Forest, they find a "never-ending cave". A cute cream-colored elephant named "Solution" emerges from this cave and says it can take them to the mountain's summit.

Once there, they push open the iron gate and enter the Ice Palace. Its icy blue great hall (left) has a skylight and pieces of parchment lie scattered about. The parchments are notes written by other Winter's Emmissaries over the years. Some of these notes were actual clues for finding the treasure, while others were red herrings. In a corner of the hall, they find a "crystal ball"-shaped telescope. Using the staircase in another corner of the hall, they reach the palace's terrace (right). From there, they are able to use the telescope to spot the legendary treasure - hot springs in the distance.

Zayne's Review:

After the experience concluded, Zayne submitted the review shown below. In his opinion, the journey was "much more memorable than the treasure itself".