Isn't it crazy that the last devlog for this game was 2 years ago? In that time, so much has happened, both with the game and with everything in general. Anyhow, with the release of PUPPET THEATRE approaching (WATCH THE TRAILER!!!!), I thought I'd throw together one last devlog to talk about a bunch of things relating to this game.

What took so long?

Short answer: Just about everything that could have went wrong with this game, did go wrong.

Long answer:

Without going into too much detail, the game was sort of mishandled from the very beginning. I didn't have much of a plan going into it, and so I kind of wasted my initial motivation on the game working on a version of it that wasn't really what I wanted it to be.

The game could never really regain its footing after how poorly I handled it in the first 6 months of development starting in January 2023, which lead to this really prolonged development cycle. It was really hard to find a solid "vision" for this game for a long time after that, which made working on the game really hard. It didn't help either that the game changed a lot over its creation, which means that a lot of what this game is has shifted over time.

I'll spare you the details and just say that the way things have ended up with this game have been really good in my opinion, despite all the troubles. I'm not quite sure if everyone is going to like this game, and it's far from perfect, but at least in my opinion the end result was more than worth it.

Game Page Updates & Changes

You may or may not have noticed by now, but the game page has been updated! The poster and thumbnail have been updated along with the screenshots on the game page. The game synopsis was updated some time ago as well, though it's a pretty minor difference. Gamejolt compression is probably gonna destroy these screenshots, but oh well...

What even IS this game now?

I guess I should clarify everything related to what this game is because there's been a lot of confusion about it before, especially with how it relates to my old projects.

To keep it simple, if you aren't aware of my old games: good, keep it that way, and if you are: forget about them going into this game.

While this game may have originally been tied into other things I've made before, the story has largely developed in its own direction. I'm treating this game and its story as being its own thing. There may be similarities to games I've made in the past, but if you're expecting a perfect continuity you will probably be disappointed.

Puppet Theatre is NOT a continuation of any games I've previously made.

That being said, if you aren't really aware of the history of this game then none of this matters to you, feel free to ignore this!

What to expect

I really don't want to spoil much about this game because I think it's more enjoyable when you know as little as possible but I'll list a few of the things you can expect from this game:

• A story-focused experience which directly shows the story as opposed to having hidden lore. The story practically IS the game, and that's not an exaggeration.

• Task-based, highly strategic gameplay where the player is responsible for nearly every little thing that happens, good or bad.

• mildly okay graphics by me

• An amazing original soundtrack created by @OnlinePool and @iffybruh consisting of 18 total songs.

• Several hours of gameplay (Beta tester playthroughs have averaged a total 3-5 hours of playtime, though this can vary...)

Speaking of the OST, here's a sneak peak at the track list...

On the RAM situation...

The other day I made a post where I said the game faces a real issue with RAM crashes because of engine limitations, so I figure I should update on that.

The situation seems to be... largely resolved? I was able to come up with a fix which seems to get rid of a lot of the problem which basically involved turning the game into a launcher program (think Deltarune for example). This does have the downside of making the game unplayable without internet, and patches for the game are really annoying to make now, but those are sacrifices I'm willing to make if it makes this game run better. HUGE thanks to @Levy2007 for his help with setting up the launcher program, it literally could not have been possible without him.

If there's any new developments on this matter I'll do more updates.

Closing Thoughts

I guess all that's left to say is that it's just crazy that this game is finally releasing after all this time. It feels surreal and honestly I don't really think it's even fully hit me yet that this is it.

If you guys are interested in this game, I'd appreciate it if you spread the word on its upcoming release. I'm very satisfied with how this game's turned out, and I'm hoping you guys will enjoy what I've made too :)