Hello, hello! It feels like forever since I wrote the previous devlog post, despite the fact it's been only a month and a half since! However, I looked at the game page today and immediately locked in the thought: "WRITE THE MAY DEVLOG NOW BEFORE YOU FORGET."

So here we are!

What have I been doing?

As I mentioned last devlog, the development of Night 6 was going to likely extend into May. The features I implemented for that night had bugs that I needed to squash, and also fix minor issues with its feature enemy. That said, I was partly wrong, as I can proudly announce that I finalized the development of Night 6. With it, I've finalized the gameplay of the Main Game! And I did so super early into May, too.

So what else did I do in May? Well... The Post-game content. There is a bonus 7th night available after the main game which is more challenging than Night 6, but is likely easier than Night 5 MAX. It was really easy to implement, actually.

What took me more time was the Custom Night I said the full game will have, and it's unlocked after Night 7. It has its own menu since it has major differences to the one from the main game, thanks to the lack of the main game's currency system. Custom Night is what you might expect from these kinds of games, but it also has some challenges!

There are some enemy features that you simply can't see in the main game, so the Custom Night can let you see them with dedicated challenges. And of course, a Custom Night means there's a Max Mode. There are two of them, actually, and yes, they're hard. As of writing this, I was able to beat one of them, but the other is still pending since it turns out it's way harder than I expected.

The way I playtest nights is first with a developer debug feature that tells me critical data from all enemies. Though it's cheating, it helps me get a feel for what a strategy might look like. Once I get a feel for that strategy, I disable it and try to re-beat it that way. If I can, then it is most likely possible.

Once I got Custom Night working and playtested its features, I spent the rest of the month working on the remaining unimplemented features. The Extras Menu has all its features and seems to be functional *Knock on wood* and all enemies seem to be working as intended.

I also added an anti-frustration feature that dynamically increases enemies' knowledge if the game notices the player is repeatedly dying to the same enemy multiple times, called the Pity System.

Due to the way the Research System was designed, players won't know an enemy's new tricks until they've completed a night having experienced those tricks, since it goes with the whole discovery and experimentation theme the game has. However, I understand that it can be frustrating for the player if they can't figure out how an enemy's new tricks work, which can lead to them suspending their session to look up a guide or quitting outright.

This is where the Pity System comes into play, notifying the player of new research getting added after they die a few times to the same enemy. The Research System was always intended to be a diegetic in-game guide for the player to learn how the enemies behave, and I figured it should share knowledge for players that may need more time to learn new enemy abilities.

I also implemented the Document Stash system that I mentioned the full game will have. I haven't talked about them before, so I might as well do that now. It's accessed in the Extras Menu, and the Documents show tidbits of lore, worldbuilding and storytelling.

The cutscenes were written to be tutorials first and foremost, being Manalith's replacement for the phone calls, and this had a side effect that they didn't get to tell much of a story to tell. Though the story is simple and straightforward, there's more to this world I want to tell in-game. The Document Stash is what I came up with.

They're presented like the Sunken Scrolls from Splatoon: Bite-sized pieces showing a visual of the document itself, accompanied by a text exceprt, being here an in-universe comment from Tellany. You can toggle the text excerpt off if you want to look at the document, and you can also click it to get a closer look at it.

As the menu shows, you have to find these documents. You'll find nearly all of them in the process of getting all achievements, but I wouldn't want to leave the player guessing. So, when the player selects the entry of a document yet to be found, the game will give them a hint on how to acquire it.

I hope that you'll enjoy the glimpses into the world Manalith takes place in.

How close am I to release?

I'm pleased to comment that I believe the finish line for the game's release is in sight. I still have a few things to implement, but they're the last things on my checklist, and they're also lengthy.

Those are the cutscenes for Nights 4-7 in their entirety, and remaining Documents, since most of them haven't been drawn yet. That said, these two features are already fully planned out and designed, so it's just a matter of producing their relevant assets and implement them once they're done.

Once these two things are implemented, all that will be left for me to do is playtest the entire game and make sure that everything is functional. Squashing bugs, making sure all dev build features are disabled, and having a proper candidate for release!

Since the release of the Second Demo, I thought and gauged how long the full game will take me, and the goal was to release it July/August. That time frame is still very much possible, though it will all depend on how development goes!

One more thing before I conclude this article. I thought about it for a long time, and I decided that Manalith's full release will be paid. Like I've mentioned before, I've been seriously working full time on this game for almost a year now, and there's really nothing stopping me from monetizing the game as far as I can see, so why not? Regardless, due to its small scope and budget, it'll definitely cost less than 5 USD. That sounds fair, no?

Though I know what you may realize. GameJolt has already flagged this game as a fangame, and you can't really sell fangames here, so I won't be releasing the full game here in GameJolt. I'll probably release it in another site, though you'll have to wait and see about that once I get that sorted out.

That's all for this development update. It's been a journey, and I've enjoyed it all the way through. Looking at my game now compared to when it was nothing more but a distant dream for me almost 5 years ago now makes me proud of how I was able to make it a reality over the course of almost a single year. I'll save my hopes for when I actually release the game. Until next month!