Hello again, friends! It's been a minute. I thought it would be a good idea to let you all know what we've been up to for the past 8 months before the year ends.

BIGGER WORLD?

Yes! I've fully mapped out what Chapter 1's areas will look like... on paper. Many areas have been added in and are walkable, but lots of them need decoration and are missing some functionality. Other areas, just haven't been added yet. However we've made a crap ton of progress in this realm since 8 months ago. This is a high priority and will be expanded and worked on in the very near future, of course!

BETTER BATTLES?

Mhm! The battle system has been improved significantly over the past year. We've polished it more, fixed lots of bugs, and fixed up inconsistency. I.E: you no longer earn peace points if you are hurting the enemy; you now will earn "crit" points for being successful in the battle mini game. The more crit points you gain, the more damage you can do to your enemy to hasten the battle's end!

And not only that, you can now run into enemies and they'll send you into battle! It may seem like basic functionality, but it took us a minute to get to this point. And you know what this means? Well, now there are two mini game battles in the game! Woo! Only 7 or so more to go.

A SHOP SYSTEM?

Indeed! This is the most recent addition. Got some money burning a hole in your pockets? Head on over to a shop and get some cool and helpful merchandise! You can even sell your own stuff if you'd like to gain a chunk of change and free up some inventory!

So, what else needs to be done?

Well, lots of art still needs to be completed (buildings and NPCs and background art for example), rooms need to be created, and some current functionality and visual polish needs to be done. Some story elements need to be fleshed out, more people with dialogue in certain areas used to progress the story need to be added, and more puzzles need to be built.

If I had to estimate an Early Access Demo release, I'd place it in late 2024. I'm going to be graduating from college in August, so work is gonna slow down around then until I get on my feet in my professional life. After all, this is just a hobby.

But hey, I've decided that releasing the demo in a rough but feature complete state will be okay. What does that mean? Well, the early access demo will have:

• Lots of OR some unfinished art

• Every feature we want in Chapter 1, if a bit unpolished and potentially buggy

• Every story beat and encounter will be accounted for. Some dialogue may not be final, however

• Some minor functionality may be missing

For the early access we will listen to suggestions and patch as many bugs as we can which are reported. It'll be so exciting to release the project to you all though!!

Well anyway, thanks for reading!! See you next year, friends.

(reposted from my profile)