Hi, this is Tortas Max, I'm the Depper Jar guy.
I don't wanna do the "Haha it's been a long time LOL :D" bit but yeah it's been like a year since the last actual devlog and I kinda forgot to make something for last year's anniversary.
I'm gonna reach that topic on the post later, because I have some little surprises for you!
Starting with, the next major update of the game, which is gonna be probably released hopefully soon and contains...
COMPLETELY OVERHAUL OF THE GAME
COMPLETELY REDONE ENEMIES
NEW ACTIONS AND ATTACKS
Welcome to Depper Jar in 2024!
Yes, I'm making a Test 1 remake that completely changes the whole game, and is gonna be out hopefully soon. My plan is for this to be part of an upcoming 1.7.0 version of the game, which is gonna be the last major update before Test 2 eventually comes out. Here's a list of most of this remake's content:
Test 1 remake features:
Every enemy has been remade to be at the same level of quality as in Test 2, with more attacks and new designs!
Almost every promised feature of Test 2 is here, Like Charms, the Chain and Stylish moves!
Completely remade overworld zones with better designs and actual puzzles!
And, an actual plot with a few characters.
I don't have a release date for this update yet, it was suppoused to be out two months ago, but I kept planning more stuff, making new systems, etc. I can say, that, by the time I'm writting this, 45% of the update is done (without cake mode), including 3 enemies out of 4, half of the game overworld, all of the main systems of the game and all of the writting done.
I have a lot of reasons on why I decided to make this instead of rushing Test 2, one of them was UNDEREVENT 2023. I wasn't happy with fact that most of you all first experience of the game was with a version made in 2022, which is just an update of a game that came out in 2021 that I started making when I was 15. You all deserve way more and I know I can do better.
I also got tons of new ideas for the game while I was making Test 2, new mechanics I could play around with, new designs for the UI, new ideas for Test 2 and it's story, etc. I already implemented most of them too! Take a look:
New game features and changes:
New battle feature: Charms and STAR points
(This is a feature that has been in the game already for a LONG time and I kinda forgot I haven't even said what they do here... )STAR is a new stat that everyone in the party shares. In battles, you get STAR points, or STARs, by succesfully executing normal attacks (Those little stars that always appeared? They weren't just for show!)
You can only get up to 100 STARs, and they are used to execute different special attacks, like Charms!
Charms are equippable attacks and side effects for battles, you can only equip one per character and they cost a certain amount of STARs to execute.
New battle feature: The rate system
When you execute any type of special attack (Attacks that consume STARs) you get a rate based on how well you perfomed it, the better you did it, the better your rate is and the more STARs you get back from the attack.
Note: This doesn't apply to normal attacks, the only "rate" you can get there is Stylish, which works in a very different way.
New battle feature: The Chain and Stylish moves
The Chain is also like a new stat that the whole party shares, you can see this as a combo meter that increases everytime you attack an enemy in their turn, it can go as high as it can get before getting damage and reseting it back to 0.
Meanwhile, Stylish moves are a "secret" input every normal attack in the game has, executing them succesfully gives you more rewards based on the size of the Chain. In this case, the stylish Jump gives you even more STARs!
Note: Not all stylish moves are unlocked by the start of the game, and they're also disabled in battles if the Chain is below 4.
Overworld feature: Better solo actions + Boomerang
All overworld actions got remade and polish, adding also a new action!
The Boomerang is a completely new action that replaces the Wind and the Ocarina, you can charge your throw to make the boomerang stay in a place for some time and you can stun enemies with it!
QOL Improvement: Controller Support!
It's finally here...
QOL Improvement: Better looking UI and Dialogs
I really disliked how dialogs looked before and it took me a while to get them to look "just right", here's a small comparasion between the two versions:
QOL Improvement: New battle transitions
Misc. changes:
Originally it was very easy to fail the Jump attack and you did almost no damage when that happened, the Sword also did almost no damage if you fail it in anyway and it just ended the whole attack right there.
Now the Jump feels way better and closer to the one in Mario & Luigi: Bowser Inside Story. The sword feels better too and it's easier to do so.(I know the difference is not that noticable but trust me, you can feel it)
The player now has 8 angles of sprites.
I had to animate the sword in 8 different directions.Because of the Test 1 remake, I decided to change how stats work in the game, now playable characters have way less defense but more HP, and MAX HP actually increases leveling up, like, you know, in any other RPG?
And because of this too, I changed every enemy to have new stats that fits with the game now, and I also coded so that different attacks have different chances to appear, like, you know, in any other RPG?
Never say I don't work on this game.
There's still a lot of things I have done for the game behind scenes and even more stuff planned for the future.
You may noticed that I didn't talk about Test 1's extra mode "Cake Mode", so what about it?
Should I divide this update?
My decision on making this update is final. Test 2 is not gonna release before the Test 1 remake and all it's new content. It sets the future of the game.
However, I wanted this update to release on June and there is still a lot of content I haven't finished, like the new Cake mode and other aspects I prefer to keep in secret.
If you're curious, here's my new pitch for the new Cake mode, let me know what you think:
Here's where I want to hear what you all want, should I divide this update?
Maybe release just the Test 1 remake first and in a few weeks release a second update with Cake mode and other new stuff, would you all like that?
Please, let me know in the comments below.
Test 2 has been in development since December of 2022, the enemies that I showcased in the trailer were made in 2022, and the first months of 2023. Most of the overworld is already made with their own puzzles and almost every feature is already implemented, the writting was also finished at that point and I could have finished the game last year.
So, what happened?
Test 2's designs sins
What happened is bad organization, not in the team but in my own thoughts. Sometimes I think I have this idea, and is gonna be the best and final idea that I'm gonna use, and when time arrives to implement it I just think about something else completely different and go for that instead. That's pretty much what has been happening with the WHOLE project ever since it started.
There's a lot of flaws in the story, enemies's attacks have inconsistent quality, puzzles are very mindless, the overworld zones are way shorter than I expected, etc. This all ends up making me no longer happy with what I was going for in 2023.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not gonna re-do Test 2 (at least not entirely), I just have a lot of cooler ideas now that could benefit the game and requiers even more time to implement.
What's the plan now?
My plan is to release the Test 1 remake with all the new content, and then, see what I can do to make Test 2 better. This means Test 2 is not gonna release probably until 2025, which is fucking awful but, hey, you're getting the game!
Still, I really wanna know what you all think about dividing the update, please, let me know in the comments.
If you wanna get for information regarding the development of the game I actually did a post on Twitter with some cool stuff regarding the development of Depper jar including Test 2 and the Test 1 remake before I implemented the Chain, you can actually see an early idea I had for it too, check it out.
https://x.com/the_real_tortas/status/1774865467024531690
There is one last thing I want to talk about, which is the whole situation with my ex(?) Patreon page thing.
Tortas what the fuck are you talking about?
For those who don't know about this, last year I made a Patreon page that lated 2-3 months were you could support me and the game.
I still stand for most of what I said in the page, but what I do not stand for is my stupid decision on making Patreon builds of Depper Jar.
I'm ashamed for doing something like that with no experience, and still being less than 18 years old. Depper Jar is still in that weird gray area between original game and Undertale fan game, but even then the patreon builds still had some UT/DR assets that were not made by me. So not only was I monetizing the game but monetizing stuff that wasn't made by me.
Yeah, that was stupid. The page is closed now, and the Discord server that was made for the patreon is mostly used to document the development of the game, everyone who supported the game is still there and now are beta testers too!
(Shoutouts to bran, plat, bread and luff, I love you all)
I'm sorry for this whole situation, it was a stupid idea and I will never monetize a project like this again, and I'm still in the process of removing every single thing in the game that is not made by me, luff, ray or xeron.
Depper Jar will always be a freeware.
Conclusion
There's a lot of things I couldn't cover in this devlog (like one very particular RPG that was just announced very recently...)
But, in conclusion:
Test 1 Remake is in production, part of a 1.7.0 update.
I want to hear everyone's opinion on dividing the update in two parts so the Test 1 Remake releases sooner.
Test 2 is gonna be released in 2025.
Depper Jar is freeware, don't think to much about it being original game or fangame
That's it for today's devlog, I hope you all have an amazing day and see you in October 2028 when Depper Jar 1.10.0 gets announced with a title screen remake and a better items menu UI.
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