A Message from the Heart
Hey everyone,
I want to start this off with a big note. After the release of the recent update, the reception really demotivated me—not just with Bright Lord, but also with my next project, The Lighthouse. I’ve been struggling to figure out what more I can do. It caught me completely off guard, because I truly felt I had taken my work to the next level.
Thanks to my recent collaboration with FooxiedStudio, I’ve learned so much about what really matters in game development, and how things should be done. When I look back, I know Bright Lord was a mess early on. I made a lot of mistakes simply because I lacked experience. But over these past 13 months, we’ve worked hard to fix everything we could. And here’s what we’ve done so far:
- Translated the game into six languages
- Completely rewrote the first three episodes
- Fixed many spelling errors and rewrote dialogue throughout the entire game
- Added a new UI and new music
- Added achievements
- Gave Patreon supporters bonus images as a thank-you
- Added around 2000 new renders after the rework was finished
Despite all that, I’ve still received a lot of negativity for reworking and fixing the game. Some people said it was going to be abandoned—but I pushed through, and now we’re here. I know some of the earlier animations weren’t great, and a few were just… bad. I admit it. But I’ve since learned a new program, and in Episodes 11 and 12, the animations are much better (at least in my opinion).
Yes, some of them are short looped animations—but keep in mind, longer animations can take over 24 hours to render. Add in mistakes, bugs, and crashes… and suddenly rendering a batch of animations can take a month. Meanwhile, we’re supposed to be releasing updates during that same time frame. I’ve poured my heart into this game. I’ve invested both my time and money to keep improving it.
I know some ideas may have missed the mark, and some weren’t fully fleshed out. But when you keep learning from your mistakes and the feedback still sounds the same—“Animations are bad,” “Story makes no sense,” “So many grammar mistakes”—it really breaks your spirit. It makes me feel like quitting, because no matter how much I put into this, we end up back at the same point.
And then, out of nowhere, the game gets bombarded with negative reviews on Steam. I’m not saying it’s an organized attack (even though it feels like it sometimes), but it’s crushing to see negative reviews pile up—both on Steam and other sites.
I took a few days off to clear my head, and I realized one thing: I can’t quit. I won’t drop this project. But I am asking you, from the bottom of my heart, to leave an honest review on Steam, so I can figure it out what I can to do better.
It breaks me seeing negative review after negative review. It makes me feel like I have more haters than fans. And while I hate to rant and post something so downbeat, I can’t overstate how important reviews are. They help keep this project afloat. They help me get funding to keep working on the game and improving it for you.
I know it’s probably annoying to hear me asking for reviews again. But this is the sad truth of being a developer: sometimes, we have to beg for them just to get the visibility we need.
Haters tend to be louder than supporters. That’s why I’m asking—if you enjoy what I do, please take one minute to leave a review. It makes a huge difference and gives me the energy to keep pouring hours into this project and giving you my absolute best.
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I was pretty frustrated earlier because some people kept complaining about update speed and content size. So, I set a goal to double my efforts this week—and I did just that. Instead of my usual 100 renders, I pushed myself to create 260. This is a new personal record, and I’m proud of the progress.
We’re now about halfway through the renders needed for the next update. If I can keep up this pace next week, we’ll be really close to finishing. My goal is to release the update by the end of the month, and I’m confident that I can have everything ready in the next two weeks if I continue working like this.
I also bought all the parts for my new rig, opting for more premium components, which brought the total to 5,300 euros. Unfortunately, the rendering software doesn’t support the latest GPU line yet—but I’m hopeful that will change soon.
Just to prove I didn’t rush the work this week, here are some more examples. Enjoy!
