Hey everyone, with this game being placed under hiatus I'd like to discuss a little more of the background context surrounding how the game reached the current point that it's at. I figure I might as well be open with what's been going on.

This is going to be a lot of reading so sorry for that, if you don't care for this kind of development stuff then this is a post you can really easily skip.

V1 PUPPET THEATRE

Puppet Theatre development started way back in January 2023 as I've previously mentioned, though it was on a different version of the game. This version is Puppet Theatre V1, which was the original version of the game set to release in Fall 2023 (if you remember from all the way back then lol).

This version reached maybe 50-70% completion before I decided to scrap it. It's kind of hard to give a good estimate of the completion range, because there wasn't much of a plan going into it. I was sort of just making things up with very few real ideas, so I'm not sure how that game would've turned out if I decided to actually finish V1.

That mismatched development & my lack of planning was basically what killed that version; it probably could've released, but I wasn't personally satisfied with it. It was just too mismatched and lacked a clear vision. I don't even think it would've been necessarily bad, it isn't something I wanted to release.

Ultimately, I decided to scrap it and restart development from the ground up around September-November 2023.

V2 PUPPET THEATRE

Going into the V2 of Puppet Theatre, I wanted to have more of an overall plan of development to avoid the pitfalls of V1. This is the version the game is currently in.

I originally planned to finish V2 very quickly, around Spring of 2024, though this was a really unrealistic expectation and naturally never happened. Since a lot of V2 does recreate parts of V1, I assumed it'd be really quick to make at the time, which is part of what influenced me restart development in the first place. This release window ended up never happening.

V2 in its current state is sitting at about 70-80% completion which means it's actually farther along then V1 ever was. Practically speaking, most of it is actually playable. The gameplay (what you'd consider the "office" sections of a fnaf game) are finished. The real roadblock I've ran into, and the major cause of the hiatus, has been the story & cutscenes.

The cutscenes and story are just too much to make with the current plans; this has grounded development to a halt. However, with the story being so integral to the game it's kind of hard to get around making it.

I'm still looking for solutions to this problem believe it or not, but it's difficult to reconcile not wanting to cut my vision for the story with having something realistic enough for me to make.

One solution I've been considering is maybe getting some people to assist with putting together the cutscenes though there's no guarantee I'll do this.

CONCLUSION

Hopefully this can provide a little more background information regarding this game. This entire period of development has just been really mismatched with unrealistic expectations, poor planning, and overambition. I'd still like to release this game at some point but like I've said before, nothing is really guaranteed at all. With how far in development it is though, it's just really difficult to fully give up on. I guess we'll just have to see what happens.

For now, this game will continue to be in hiatus.

also merry christmas & happy new years soon i guess