Hey everyone!

I've been away for a bit due to my upcoming house move as i said in the last post—I'm almost there, but not quite yet. During this time, I took a much-needed break to refresh my mind, and it sparked a ton of new ideas. I've decided to make some key changes to streamline production, especially things that were holding me back. In the meantime, I've been fleshing out stories for the game's world and rethinking the gameplay in exciting ways.

Starting with the 3D models: As shown in the posted image, I'm switching from the previous one. While I found the old model super cute, it had some serious rigging issues that made future animations a nightmare. My collaborator, who's an animator, had never seen such quirky rigs before—haha! So, I'm moving to these new models with standard rigs, which are already more cartoonish. I've tested them with a few artists for texturing and even modeling add-ons like different hairstyles. I believe this will hugely improve the overall production flow.

On the game itself, I'm making some adjustments to the core concept. The tower idea is still solid, and I'll keep it for a tougher dungeon or hardcore content later on. However, building out the city with all its details—recruitable characters with unique mechanics, 3D objects, tons of NPCs, and recruitment systems—was getting overwhelming as a solo dev. It took up way too much time, especially since character and scene creation aren't my strongest suits. I'll save those codes for a future revisit, but for now, I'm simplifying to make sure I can deliver a functional and fun game first.

The new focus will be on a single playable character, without party recruitment. To make up for that, I'm shifting to a survival game style. The theme draws inspiration from the Age of Exploration: You'll venture into a new world full of dangers, adventures, and secrets. To start, I'm planning a maximum of three regions to test how this plays out—a desert, an icy area, and a neutral one. Each will have unique characteristics, with mechanics like temperature (bundle up in the cold to avoid freezing!), rain (stay wet too long and you might catch a cold), hunger, and more. The world will be a fantasy place maybe with some magictec and modern objects just for fun but rooted in those historical exploration and navigation vibes.

On the side, I'm brainstorming a little story as lore for this world—formatting it like a light novel, and who knows, maybe a manga down the line. It's mostly a guide for me right now, and the characters aren't the same as in the game, but it's all in the same universe. Perhaps someday they'll cross paths in the game! These survival changes make the mechanics simpler and easier for me to handle without getting too complex.

I'll be posting less frequently to prioritize actual development—editing images, videos, and text takes a surprising amount of time. But I'll pop in with some screenshots when I can. And once the light novel story is more fleshed out (nothing too elaborate, as it's my first try), I'll share it. I hope you all enjoy it!

Your support means the world to me—my goal is to create something everyone can have fun with, laugh, cry, and get lost in. This is a big step forward for the project! Thanks again to everyone who's been following along!