No AI Use Statement & Development Update

I know I'm not posting much lately. I'm still working on it and I'm making progress. There are a couple of things that I'd like to state publicly:

The game will contain no AI content. I abhor AI. I've played around with it in early 2024 with some dialogue options and reference images, but ultimately decided to use none of it. The game will never contain any AI created content (including code), and that will also hold true for future instalments. 

Yes you can hold me by my word.

I've been working on this game for 10 years. I know exactly how much sweat it takes to write code, to write music, to create levels and landscapes, a story, a script ... and there's a good reason why that sweat needs to be spent by human beings (or just by myself for the lack of a crew)

During the day I work in a job that forces me to listen to AI-created music all the time. Every day I get smacked in the face with generic creations. Many of these uploaders don't even create their own song titles.

Think about that. Not even the title.

I'd rather spend another 10 years on this thing and work at Starbucks than have my final result sound and look like that.

Brave New World

Only slow and creeping progress this year ... 

- Created a new zoning and level loading system (centralized inside the Game Instance)

- Split the starting zone into 3 isolated zones

- Lots of debugging of the deep house

- Fixed Load Game bug, that would cause the camera to freeze while the player was still movable

- Fixed FPS issues across the map, including light complexity issues inside the monastery

- Created the outline of the narrative and the players initial path towards the king's throne room

- Fixed zone transition issues

- Loading screens now load much faster

- Re-added night time passive damage system, that forces players towards light sources to prevent incremental damage of -0.5

- Fixed a ton of aesthetic issues related to the environment design

- Created a new "Check" system (still WIP) that doesn't just alert the Queen when the player is seen by the forest watchers, but also other officers that act in tandem with each other (so the player has to potentially ward off multiple boss and regular shadows at the same time, if he moves without care)

The Knight's Path

 

Section 14 - Paundraka

 

Yo I can upload images again!!!!

 Working on the deep house.

I know. What you're seeing makes no sense.

But then again, the deep house makes no sense.

Working Towards Release

I'm working towards a probable release date. For the first time in almost 11 years I can see it.

Blogspot won't allow me to post screenshots anymore, so this is awesome.

It feels like the internet is slowly falling apart ... 

Anyway ... there's a lot of work being done right now. Altogether I'm missing two boss encounters and shit ton of QA and testing.

And I hope to set up a small publishing company in order to get some kind of legal protection before I open up the steam page.

Either way, progress is being made. I'm hoping to post more frequently again.

S.M

Blogspot Is Causing Issues

Blogspot has been acting up over the last couple of months. It won't let me post or upload images and sends me into a Google account login spiral instead, asking me to repeatedly login again, despite the fact that I'm already logged in. I hope I can post updates again soon.

I've been tirelessly working since June last year and will soon send out more updates.