It's been a minute. First and foremost, I'd like to apologize for the wait and thank you for the patience. Had a lot going on near the end of the year (not an excuse) that delayed the release a bit, but we're here. Finally. Aside from fixing up some sfx and a final playthrough for bugs, we're ready to go.
There was a lot of lessons learned with this update, and some things that'll be changed going forward. Specifically in the case of workflow. For this update, I basically prepped all 2100+ renders and then just rendered them all at once, then did all the writing, then did all the music, and so forth.
Going forward, I'll likely be doing this on a per scene basis. So, for example, Scene #1 is going to be rendered, written, and postworked before moving on to Scene #2. This might extend the immediate development time a bit, but I think it'll overall be faster and cause less burnout this way. With less burnout, I'll be able to move faster I'd think.
So, going into 2025, I'll be taking a short break. Nothing massive, likely just a week or so. This isn't just to step away from the game for a little bit. There's actually some stuff I need to do in relation to the game.
While not all-encompassing, a general roadmap of the month following this update should look like this:
One of those things is a NAS. Thanks to the help of some other developers, I'm gathering all the parts for it as I'm writing this. Still waiting for the PSU and Case, and will be buying the drives soon here. We're adding a 10gbe network in preparation for a second PC that'll hopefully see a second person helping out once they pick up the software(s). Not an immediate thing for the second person, but definitely a plan.
I'll also be changing out my RAM kit as one of the sticks died. Along with that, I'll be changing out the Boot/OS drive for the main system. It's a shitty 500GB m.2 from Teamgroup whose health fell to 31% in just a couple years. It's been something I've been putting a bit too long, and not something I should be using in a system like this. Will be dropping in a SN850x I got on Black Friday.
Following those, we'll be working on a website for easier and more transparent daily progress of each update. This won't be replacing Steam or Patreon, but simply more of a general hub for information and more BTS than what you'd find here. Progress reports and such will still be posted on here, SS, and Steam. As free as they've always been. Discord should soon follow this.
Episode 3.5 (no new content) will feature the character page (finally) along with some minor updates to the UI of the music page. The attribution page will be removed and placed inside of a text document. Neither should take very long, a few days at most. However, this will be done alongside prepping renders for Episode 4. But it will be out fairly soon, though it won't necessarily demand a whole new download for anyone who's played Episode 3.
That should be it in pure relation to the development of MTC.
For something more personal, there's a real possibility I'll be moving again in March or April. No drama this time. The guy who hired me at my current job (here in Texas) is starting up his own place in Nevada and has offered me a pretty nice job there. Definitely a hard one to turn down, especially as I don't plan on doing development full time until it's been proven I can make a comfortable living off of it.
So, there may be a gap somewhere at that point as well, but I'll post a more personal update about that later if I choose to accept. But I think that about covers everything I want to say here. More or less, at least. Could probably be forgetting something, but eh. I'll cross bridge when we get there.
Anyways, once again, I'd like to thank everyone for waiting and the patience. Life can be tough for a solo dev sometimes. Hopefully the update is worth the wait. :)
- MF