Hey Ponderers, Dropping a development update to let you all know where Orb of Creation is at!
I've been hard at work getting this release off the ground. I'm currently in the second-to-last stage of the process: the content phase. Most of the code that I need in the game has been written and I am fleshing out the content. My experience with the v0.6 beta release is that this portion of the dev process, whilst seemingly the smallest/easiest on paper, actually takes the most work. It is the process of constantly combing over sections to get as many wrinkles and knots out as I can. I gotta say though, this portion of the process is by far my favorite.
I am currently ironing out the content in the alchemy section, and hoping to start rituals next month. Then after that, the final remaining todo's in the content phase will be refining the achievements and new game+ content.
After that, the next and final phase will be getting most of the meta stuff out of the way. This will be playtesting and pre-launch bug fixing, making sure the game has proper branding/marketing materials, and other "out of game" stuff that will assist in its release being a success. This final phase will likely somewhat venn-diagram with the tail-end portions of the previous phase.
Once that final phase begins is likely when I'll announce a release date, and from there we will be off to the races! My goal and desire is to get this done by the end of the year, but I've been really bad at creating accurate timelines in the past, so take that with a grain of salt.
I also wanted to address some of the misinformation that starts to emerge around this part of the dev cycle for me: no the game is not abandoned. I'm here, and making this game is currently my full time job. My understanding is that most of the abandonware comments stem from a passion for the game, and desire for more communication from me. I'm really grateful you guys enjoy the game so much, and I'm incrementally (wink) getting better at this communication thing.
To close, I just wanted to say that my love for this game is in full effect right now. This version is probably some of the most fun I've had developing and playing this game. So many of little changes I've made have made such a strong impact on the overall feel of the game and I'm itching to share it with all of you. Its unfortunate its not that easy to share, since most of these little changes are really hard to nail down in a digestible dev log like this.
Though I'm confident. Once I get it in your hands I'm sure you'll understand. -Marple PS. Whilst I can't capture all of it, here are some nuggets haphazardly thrown into a single PNG: