Hey everyone,

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here, hasn’t it? Almost three years ago, I started working on an idea for an RPG Maker Horror game using MV3D, an incredibly dynamic and exciting plugin created by Cutievirus that allowed RPG Maker MV games to take on a pseudo-3D orientation and design.

A year and a half later, NIRAVASI would be released on July 6th, 2022.

Words cannot express how amazed and proud I was (and still am) with this accomplishment and how humbled I was to see people sit down, give NIRAVASI a try, and come out expressing their love for my little adventure. It’s incredible to compare the final release with my earliest sketches for the game’s release.

But it’s been over a year, and my end has been radio silent. So what exactly happened following NIRAVASI’s release? What about the update promising the revamped endings and Perfection Complex? What about Moksha?

Well, here’s what I hope this blog series will address. But before I get into the meat of things, I have some exciting news to share. As thanks for all the amazing support and love you gave me, I’m happy to announce that starting today:

NIRAVASI will become a Free-to-Play game

No more discounts, no more sales - ever. As the average player, who expressed interest in giving the game a try but was afraid of putting money into the project, you now have the chance to experience NIRAVASI for yourselves (You have no excuse now not to play it).

Right now, I will be actively changing the pricing of the game on all sites where applicable, and also go through the process of getting the pricing change for Steam. I will give more information when this happens at a later date.

With that news out in the open, let’s get right into the nitty-gritty of what’s happened since NIRAVASI’s release last year.

New Prospects

Here’s a little fun fact. NIRAVASI was never originally planned to be a paid product. Back in August 2020, the first lockdown within the UK was just simmering down, and shops were beginning to open to the public once more. Unfortunately, due to the struggles and effects of COVID, I took up voluntary redundancy from my previous full-time job and was out of work for almost half a year. During that time, I was going through the process of finding new places for work that would complement my skill set and also offer better growth as a professional.

But doing so during COVID was incredibly difficult, and I was either offered positions with salaries far too low to make a living at the time or had positions taken by people with years more experience working in those fields than me. I didn’t hold any ill will towards anyone in that period; COVID was crazy tough for everyone.

At the same time, I was experimenting with the MV3D plugin for RPG Maker MV and immediately saw the potential it yielded for an RPG Maker Horror game, much like Yume Nikki and Ib. The plugin allows me to emulate the style of the old low-polygonal games from the PS1/N64 era, like Paper Mario and Jade Cocoon. But deep down, I wanted to create a new game experience that blew my previous RPG game, BLANK, out of the water from a technical perspective and a narrative perspective. People have mentioned to me how amazing they thought BLANK’s story and setting were, but I always saw the game’s narrative as being relatively simple in scope. Sure, it didn’t have to have the most amazing story in the world, yeah. But it also could’ve been something more. I wanted this new game to outshine its predecessor in my mind and also a product that could be played at any time, any place by anyone.

As we entered the second lockdown phase within the UK, it became clear to me that finding a job during the Christmas break and beyond would be difficult. That’s why, under advice from my family and girlfriend (later Fiancee), I decided to start my own company known as SOVERAM and build NIRAVASI to be a viable product that could be used as a reference further to develop my skills as a videogame designer.

Future Passed

Following NIRAVASI’s release, I kept a close eye and track on the game and made sure to stamp out and remove any bugs crippling the player experience immediately. While some of the bugs in question were relatively minor in scope (doors taking you to the wrong map IDs), others were more damning (significant frame drops caused by bad event ordering).

But overall, the reception for NIRAVASI has been incredible. A lot of you have expressed joy at the sheer immersion and atmosphere of the game, as well as its narrative. Here’s a really good video analysis by SpaceySoundy that highlights everything that I hoped to achieve with the game, as well as some great, grounded, constructive feedback.

Now to address the elephant in the room: Patch 1.1 and Moksha.

Yeah, so a funny story about those. Remember when I said almost a year ago that I would focus my efforts on pursuing a full-time career again? Well, my work on NIRAVASI landed me a position at a great company almost a month after the game’s release. I’ve been working for this same company as a Social Media Guru / Copywriter, honing my skills with creative/technical writing even further. I’m not going to spoil the company, but I’m sure you can figure it out by simply looking up my IRL name and searching around.

I also briefly mentioned that my partner and I got together in December 2022, and we’re now also looking for a house to live in (and may have found a winner). Finally, I’m happy to announce that I am officially an uncle (no baby photos for you all, sorry)!

As you can imagine, these new developments have brought work on NIRAVASI to a grinding halt. I understand that this is natural given the drastic change in my work schedule, but it still is disheartening that I don’t have a lot of time to work on revamping the rough patches of NIRAVASI. But to give you a good idea, here’s what I want to do for the next patch.

• Added optional tunnel area for Ishani Bazaar [COMPLETE]

• Included additional geometry and stairwells for The Palace of Nira Ishan [COMPLETE]

• Improved spelling mistakes/errors [COMPLETE]

• Revamped the Perfection Complex [25%]

• Additional Endings [0%]

Yeah, not much work has been accomplished since the previous update. I do apologise for the current state of the Perfection Complex especially, and I do believe that over the coming weeks, I will have periods of free time to work on the game (if other life responsibilities are getting in the way).

Now as for Moksha, I’ve been having quite several back AND forth decisions about what I want to do for the project. Do I want to include it as a larger side-quest for NIRAVASI, or would making it a brand-new game be another possibility? I guess a good comparison to make would be the Ruin DLC for Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach. 

But I am happy to announce that some of the gameplay I have been working on looks incredible.

Conclusion

So this is the part of the Devlog where I wrap things up. I’m sorry I’ve been quiet about NIRAVASI’s continued development since the last update. Life’s been crazy busy this year, and it’s only looking to get even crazier. But just know that whatever happens, I will always be incredibly grateful to everyone that showed support for the game’s project throughout its lifecycle (from beginning to end).

With that said, thank you all very much for tuning into the game, and I will be doing my best to answer questions/comments you may have.

Kind regards,
Angus (Sangos)