I apologize for the radio silence regarding this game. It's long overdue that I address what happened and what I am doing now.

What happened?

There is a question I asked myself: "am I worthy of making this game?" My answer: no. To be specific, not yet.

The problem is not in the foundations, the progress, not even what gets in the way. It is actually the difference between the scope of the game and my current capabilities in game development. Greenlit has been planned out as a big fangame, something that shouldn't be someone's first project. It's definitely a beginner's mistake to make their first project be something they wanted to make for a long time, only for its scope to become too big for them to handle. It wasn't until the past few months where I began to realize that I had made this mistake, especially thanks to coming across this video:

https://youtu.be/I5dYkIB_DKc?feature=shared ("Why FNaF Fangames Keep Getting Canceled" by @deepraved )

I could easily cancel the game and turn Greenlit into nothing more than a piece of literature, but that is not the direction I feel like taking. I still want to make Greenlit an experience you can do more than read, but watch, listen, and play. As a result, I planned the game out to have a somewhat in-depth gameplay formula, comic book-styled cutscenes, decent artwork, and a meaningful post-game. It's not too much to handle for a capable game developer, but for someone like me, I am currently NOT at the right place to pull it all off.

I have ultimately decided to put Greenlit on proper, indefinite hiatus instead of cancelation. It is something I still want to create, despite not being capable enough to do so.

What now?

Now that I understand the circumstances between myself and Greenlit, why haven't I simply given up? That's because I also came to understand how to change such circumstances...by learning how to become a capable game developer.

Putting Greenlit on hiatus gives me an opportunity to pull off this initiative by now working on a project of a smaller scope! Since I am making the project with a smaller scope in mind, that means a heavy focus on gameplay with extra content like cutscenes and modes kept to a minimum. The development of this project will start with a planning phase, just like I did for Greenlit. What I won't be repeating however is putting up the gamepage for this project when it is early in development. This is a beginner's mistake I made with Greenlit. It is better to put up the gamepage for a project when its progress is far enough for it to be previewed properly.

The planning phase has actually started a while ago. I was able to turn a cute idea that lingered in my head for a few months into the basis of this project. Right now, I'm brainstorming all of its foundations. I'm also thinking about what the character roster may end up looking like...in fact, I may as well show one concept! Take a look:

This piece of concept art should give you a clear idea of what the project will be like. Feedback is appreciated! In addition, I decided to hold a few polls over at the Five Nights at Sonic's Fan Server (in #mod-announcements specifically). These polls allow me to understand if FNaS fans would be interested in seeing this project and how it would come to life. They also influence the direction of the project, so please join the server and vote if you're interested!

If you've (actually) read up to this point, thank you! I will provide updates on the new, smaller project whenever I feel there is enough new progress to report on. As for Greenlit, I will be deleting its GameJolt community and Discord server very soon. Both ended up super inactive and I do not see a need to keep them up anymore. As for the gamepage, it will stay up, but I will mark it under a state of hiatus. Stay tuned and see you next post!

~ Greenlight