March 2022 Monthly "State of the Game"

Hey everyone!

I really appreciate the support you've shown over the last few weeks and wanted to give you a better sense of where the game is at, what we're planning, and how we're using the money you're giving us through Patreon support.

What we're planning

Right now, I am planning on entering alpha phase sometime early summer.  That means the initial development is done.  But the game is probably buggy in places, could use some more love and interaction in spots, and certainly could always use some balance fine tuning amongst the classes to ensure they're all viable.  This phase will just be me and the producer(s) testing the game.

I want to enter beta phase by late summer.  Everyone reading this will be invited to the beta phase of the game.  I am hoping at this stage the game is stable and only small bugs remain, although there could be many of them.  I will be adding new features based on user feedback.  I will be leaning on beta testers heavily for feedback, as this is the first time the game will be opened up to a larger audience.

I want to fully launch the game by winter of 2022.

So how are we tracking on those goals?

There are 10 mandatory, main story zones in the game.  Five have been completed, and zone #6 could be wrapped up as early as this weekend.  I've budgeted about two weeks per zone.  So I"m feeling good that we'll hit our alpha phase milestone.  There could be two optional zones in the game.  I have finished one of them, and it remains to be seen if I will develop the second one.

How are we using the money collected your Patreon subscriptions?

We bought a developer's kit called RPG Maker MZ.  While it's an intuitive, good toolkit for beginners like me, it comes with baseline graphics.  The graphics are decent, if you don't mind more old school pixel art.  Right now the game is being developed with all placeholder, stock asset artwork.  If it releases like that, I think it would still be an "ok" game, but I don't think it would be good.  To be a good game, especially in appealing to ticklers, we have decided to invest in hiring an artist to create custom art assets for the game.  We want the characters to look unique, and have tickling focused artwork.

On that note, we've collected enough money to do the following:

1.  Full artistic assets for the four main characters.  This means a full body shot of the character, but also a series of reaction images as the dialogue takes place (the character being frustrated, happy, angry, sad, etc) 

2.  7 full body artistic assets for important, supporting NPCs   I think this is important in bringing characters to life.  The RPG Maker MZ toolkit allows you to make your own characters, but they're just headshots.  To make it look good, I think we needed to hire an artist for more important characters.

3.  12 artistic assets sets for important, supporting NPCs tickled in the game (basically bust shots of the character in a normal state, then a laughing/tickled state) 

4.  10 tickling pinups, only available through the game, of scenes appearing in the game (basically one per story zone)

The attached image

I'm attaching a screen shot of the map used in the game for the Whitelands, a sub-arctic area in the northern parts of the Aedylon empire.  It's going to be featured prominently in zones/chapters 5-6.  The Whitelands were referenced in The Cyriaan Chronicles #3, and have now been brought to life.  I think it's fun to share random items from the game as it's being developed, and I hope you enjoy it, too.

Thanks again, and I'll be back next month to give remarks on how we're progressing!