The game is finally finished!
After so many years of hard work!
So many forms of struggles!
Technical, financial, health related, life related, hope related...
I've got to write something about it, feel free to ignore all my blabberings and just skip to the TLDR for the release date!
Neon Tail has been my biggest personal project so far.
I know every single part of it. I coded everything about it, I drew, modeled, rigged, skinned, animated, wrote the stories, imagined the world and the relationships between my characters, designed the gameplays and planned wildy and far beyond what was achievable.
And while I knew about this last reality, there was a glimmering chance I could have done it all, if I got lucky financially.
Didn't happen.
I got a lot in : Home made unique Roller Skating physics, open world with many colorful characters, a whole city to explore, you can get jobs, go shopping, eat crepes and drink bubble teas. I did a roller skating Combat system using super powers designed for my home-made skating physics. I believe I can say it's an achievement not many people can brag about... although it's also one nobody's trying to achieve in the first place, but I'll take what I can have.
I also got a lot out : Had to cut the SFS Pro Arc, tons of stories, the upper level city, the Mayor's arc, the Intergalactic Alliance arc, the big bad guy's arc...
However, turning back and playing the game, by trying to reach that unreasonable destination, I reached one I can still be proud and satisfied of.
The end of this project leaves me in a tired place. It probably won't go anywhere crazy, but that's fine.
I didn't reach my dream of living off my own games coming out of my insatiable appetite for video game creation.
But I had the challenge I asked for, and I gave it a fair try.
(TLDR)
Now about the release date announcement :
Although Neon Tail is finished, I still need time to prepare the release itself.
Create some videos, see if I can reach out to influencers, wait for answers, write articles, post here and there, etc...
The game will be released on February 17th.
Release version will have Japanese language, a rewritten ending, all bugs fixed (until some of you guys find new ones that is), along with all the achievements carefully discussed during one of my streaming.
Wish you guys an excellent end of the year, see you on the release day!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLskrshMIMw