Quick Update | Rough Timeline | Devlog
Moon Munch StudioCreator
September 26, 2023
Hello all! I hope 2023 has treated you well. Just here to deliver a quick update.
As you know, I have still been working on finishing the story alongside the skeleton structure of the game (Mechanics, variables, the play-ability elements etc.) Chapter 8 is divided into two sections, the first being much meatier and difficult to get through. Thankfully, it is done!
There has been a few quality of life updates and mini tweaks I have gone back and done throughout the game, or fixed when I realized I had forgotten something. This led me to come across a terrifying bug that didn't let me load any of the other scenes randomly - thankfully fixed as well!
I am very excited to get the last few scenes of the game done, and finish the story once and for all. Below will be a timeline of some things I still have to accomplish before the game itself is fully complete and ready to be ruthlessly tested before launch.
First - the word counts ^^
From Last Update - 150,336 words
Story word count - 170,064 words
In-Game word count (Including code) - 225,965
*While I don't fully pride myself in word counts, it serves a nice glimpse at the escalation in work that has been done. The rule is a longer story never necessarily means a better story. But in this case I have already overshot my estimations on when the story would be done.
I felt some elements were missing that make the situations feel more real and also allow the player to exist within the world of MoonFire while they still can. So some things were also added to better gamify the, well, game!
And finally, a quick timeline to what comes after the Story is finished. Unfortunately the game is not finished just because it's technically playable start to end. (Shucks! If only haha)
Character Sprites & Additional Assets - I'll finally be able to go back to where I left off in chapter 3 and start working scene by scene adding all the character sprites and other assets. Thankfully this will be such a nice breath of fresh and won't have to worry about juggling multiple tasks here. A lot of tedious tasks but should go way faster as well.
Major UI Updates | Journal entries, Lore Book, etc - Mostly making things look nicer in the menus as they still appear somewhat rough and unfinished. As well as finishing the settings menu/fixing sound quality/etc.
Game Officializing | MoonFire Prologue - The fun begins here when I make sure all is great, adding the official OST we have as well as anything else remaining to make the game go 'Gold'. This is when we reflect on all the work that has been done, then cry every night because I find 13 more bugs crawling around the timelines. (Hope not!!)
Steam SDK and Testing - Just because the game is ready, doesn't mean it's Steam ready! Got a few more things to do here with the code, then ready it through Steam. I'll be testing most of the full game in steam to make sure things function as intended here.
I believe that is all. I am sure my jumbled brain is missing something as it is a bit of a rough draft timeline, but these are the things left to be ready for launch 2024. As always, thank you so much for everything!
Cheers,
~ Taylor Zane ^^