Hey ya'll!

It's been a bit since a proper devlog. I hope we all had fun with last month's April Fools prank devlog! It was certainly fun for me to make!

Moving past that, let’s talk seriously. The game has been in a playable state since November, except for the Battle System. We’ve worked roughly 6 months on that mess, but the fundamental structure of the system wasn’t working. So a month ago I decided to move back to TML’s engine, which is why I didn’t write a proper devlog. I wanted to have this transition fully integrated before talking about it.

But here’s the thing: we essentially ended up replacing all the systems except for the battle system because we wanted full control over how things ran. I realized it was unacceptable to only use TML for its battle system. But my lead programmer, futuregamer25, and I have already spent six months failing to make a battle system. I’m not putting him through that again.

I’ve spent a lot of time writing systems and then changing either the design of that system or switching engines to rebuild that system. I feel like I’m in my personal hell for a game that I knew was, months ago, almost ready. Oh, how I wish I was optimistic like I was back in October! For clarity, the battle system ran fine. The individual parts were good. It was the underlining system of how each part reacts to each other that was the issue. Progress felt slow and painful, and the months stretched on.

Angel’s Lullaby has been in this state where I'll work on it every week and feel hopeless.

We were close to the finish line, but so much of it was a fight to make inches of progress. It’s my fault as the director; I should have realized this wasn't working and put a stop to it.

I'm going to do my best to make the battle system myself and give my programmer a break from the battle system. At this point, I want a system that works smoothly -even if it isn't the best-designed thing!

So I'm going to go back to an older version of the project and try to improve it. I'm going to rewrite the battle system myself and see what I can do. Thank you all for your patience. I'm terribly sorry I have not been able to make this game as I have wanted.

On a lighter note, in the process of messing with TML's engine, we've rebuilt and modified the systems in certain ways that have been amazing to do. While the attempt to use TML's has been a failure, the new code we've made is absolutely not. It'll take a minute to rework the code back into the older version of the engine, but I am certain the project will be better for it.

In addition to the better code, the game itself has had some visual improvements.

(img id: a screenshot of the TML's engine, heavily modified to work for Angel's Lullaby's new aspect ratio and coding systems. id end.) 

I've redesigned the menu system. I'm proud of how this has turned out.

(img id: a mock-up of the equip menu, showcasing a sleek modern style UI. id end.)

It sucks I'm essentially remaking the menu system again, but the end result blows the older version out of the water!

I'm afraid that's all I can really show for this version visually. Thank you once again for reading and for being patient. Take care. <3

Lastly, I'd like to say the following: I'm determined to get the battle system redone myself, but if someone experienced with GML wanted to help I could potentially agree to let them on. Please comment here with your Discord name (you can remove the comment after I message you back) and I can interview you on Discord! Thank you.

(img id: a crude doodle animation of the player character gesturing to text that reads: accepting help from GML coders id end.)