Hello, dear players!
There is an old saying from China: “玉不琢不成器 人不學不知道.” You may be wondering, “What on earth is this guy rambling about now?” Put simply, it means that just as jade cannot become a proper vessel unless it is carved and polished, a person cannot come to understand greater truths without learning and making an effort.
Since this game is a one-person project, I relied quite heavily on AI. For code, visual elements, and even various pieces of writing. But even with AI’s help, as someone whose knowledge of economics and many other subjects was little more than surface-level, I found myself having to study an enormous amount. To be frank, I never expected making a game would require this much studying. I think I may have spent more time studying than actually developing the game. I chose politics, diplomacy, and society as the game’s main subjects because those were areas I felt relatively confident in, but once development actually began, stuffing countless papers and books into my head turned out to be harder than building the game itself.
Maybe that is why, as all that studying and learning continued, I found myself needing AI’s help even more.
Of course, I wrote the “first drafts” of most of the text myself. And that is where the problem began. It has been a chronic habit of mine since I used to write web novels (though the views and revenue were... well, let’s not make things awkward for either of us), but no matter how positively other people respond to something I have written, I never seem to be fully satisfied with it.
With limited resources, hiring a professional fiction editor was simply not an option. And with the financial difficulties I was already dealing with, I eventually had little choice but to ask AI to review and polish my writing. I think that is where the feedback that “the writing sounds like AI” came from. This was even more noticeable in the foreign-language versions, since those texts were then translated by AI as well. In truth, the fault is mine for not properly reviewing the results afterward. I was so focused on studying everything I needed for development, and so pressed for time, that I failed to properly finish the most important part—the game itself—before release.
But...! Thanks to every single one of you who has been playing my game, I now have an environment where, at least for a while, I can devote myself entirely to development. (That said, it is not quite enough for me to spend months doing nothing but working on the game.) To be completely frank, I never expected this much attention. I thought the game deserved a fair amount of harsh criticism myself. Even to me, it was clearly still far from complete.
And yet, as the daydream finally began to fade and the wave of D-Day came rushing in, I casually looked behind me and found all of you there—cheering me on, and leaving countless reviews, suggestions, and opinions to help make the game better.
Thank you, truly. I honestly do not know how to put this feeling into words. I am sorry that all I can seem to say is “thank you.”
So, if you have been wondering why I have been sitting here rambling on at such length, and why I brought up effort and learning at the beginning, please consider all of this the build-up to the actual roadmap announcement.
As previously announced, the remaining work for Update 1.04 will focus on reviewing the translations and improving areas of the game that are still inconvenient for players. And now that I finally have the time to go back through the event texts myself, starting from before the point where AI reviewed them, I expect there will be quite a lot of changes to the writing as well. After all, I can finally spend at least the next few weeks focused entirely on making the game!
Accordingly, starting with Update 1.04 and continuing through every update from 1.05 to 1.09, I plan to improve the text to a degree where the changes are clearly noticeable. And until Update 1.1, I intend to keep working diligently while continuously referring to the many thoughtful suggestions and ideas you have left, with the goal of making the game feel completely different from the version that launched.
I expect the biggest share of my effort will go toward making the game more user-friendly. This is the first game I have ever developed, and even after repeated improvements, I still do not think the results have been quite satisfactory. So I will keep revising, refining, and filling in the gaps.
And now that I have written this much, I realize the digression has gone on for far too long. I cannot keep using up your valuable time with my rambling, so I will return with the next patch preview.
Have a wonderful day, everyone!
— Fultuka, Developer