Howdy folks! Ghostly here!

Sorry it's been taking so long for a new update. I'm trying to settle back into a routine after getting back from my trip, and it's been taking a while to get there. Speaking of my trip...

MAGFEST 2020, BABY!!! :D

MAGFest was a great time! I brought a few friends along for the ride, including the artist I commissioned for the booth's vertical banner. (Which looks sick btw. Go check it out on his twitter!) It was my first time attending a convention as a developer, so running a booth was a new thing for me. My booth setup was rather basic compared to the other ones I saw, but it got the job done.

People seemed to really like the game. There was positive feedback from players who didn't normally play games in the genre, as well as diehard fans, which must mean I'm doing something right. ;) We had a lot of players, but there were a couple highlights.

There were a couple times that young girls came to the booth with their families, which was adorable and heartwarming. Clearly I'm training the next generation of bullet hell queens.

I found this one particularly entertaining. These two would switch off who was playing with every continue. Just goes to show that teamwork can overcome any obstacle. :)

Here's a pic with me (on the right) and Thomas Moon Kang (on the left), champion of the Typhoon Unit leaderboard challenge, and developer of One Step From Eden. His top score beat my personal best by several million points!

Release window! Kind of.

Out of the questions players asked me, the most common were variations on "When will the game be released? Is it out yet?" I don't know why I wasn't expecting these questions, which I would definitely ask if I was in their shoes.

Now, I don't like giving deadlines to major milestones until the end is in sight. From my experience, it leads to a lot of broken promises and disappointment. "I'm aiming for sometime in 2021" ended up being my go-to answer. It's intentionally vague, but I think it's somewhat doable if I put in the work.

Granted, unforeseen problems and delays can always come up. That's the nature of any long term project, not to mention that developing a game solo is no easy task. That said, I'm going to do the best I can to meet that goal.

When is the next demo version?

v0.1.536 is coming very soon, actually. It's gonna be another minor update, but I've listened to feedback from players at the convention, and have put in some quality of life changes. For example, Casey's punch now has a proper visual cue to show you how much range it covers.

So, about Chapter 2?

As mentioned earlier, when it comes to major milestones (like new chapters), I don't like to be specific until the end is in sight. However, I feel it's fair to let you guys know that I'm aiming for either March or April this year. It might seem like a long time, but the amount of development work that goes into creating and polishing a new level is actually rather daunting.

I'm looking forward to sharing more details with you over the next couple months. It's gonna be a lot of fun!

As always, thank you for reading! I'm doing my best, and I appreciate your support! :)

-GhostlyFeline