Good evening!
I hope everyone had a wonderfully relaxing holiday. For those of you who didn't, I hope that this cruel world comes to understand even a fraction of your pain.
On account of taking a break in December, there isn't a huge amount for me to report this month. There is, however, much to be said about the game's fifth route, as well as the game's proximity to completion.
As a refresher, DATING OF THE FUTURE is a visual novel with six main "routes"; all of which are required to be completed to get the full story and reach the end credits. I have just completed the fifth, and work is well underway on the sixth.
Does that mean that the game is ~83.3% complete? Well, first of all, you're a massive nerd for even asking such a mathematically specific question. Secondly: no, it does not mean that at all.
The game's full feature-set is well beyond its narrative. Going purely off of features listed on the game's title screen, there's also a music room for listening to the game's music, a replay gallery for easily re-watching cutscenes, and an image gallery for viewing unlockable artworks.
In its current state, the game is feature complete in all these areas, but is lacking some content. The entire soundtrack isn't fully finished, and the final route's cutscenes do not exist to be put in the replay gallery. I say all this to illustrate where we're currently at with game completion; it's arguably far MORE than 83.3%! Most of the hard work is done!
I have for some time held myself to the concept of a summer release. I can confirm that the game will, without doubt, release before winter. Hopefully still summer, but I'm accounting for the likelihood of my computer spontaneously combusting.
That is all.
The game's fifth route is complete.
The writing has been completed, all art and programming is complete, testing is complete, and everything seems mostly in order. I believe that this news post will be going up before the build is uploaded, but that is primarily because I am still working on making sure that the very upload itself is air-tight and complete. Expect it in less than a day.
If it is not out in less than a day, presume that I have run into an unexpected and incredibly stupid bug, and then proceed to lend me your power like a Dragon Ball Spirit Bomb.
A few times now I have mentioned DTF's unlockable image gallery, but I've always been quite apprehensive about details.
Quite obviously, it's sort of hard to describe such a visual feature with words alone, but words will have to suffice right now on account of not wanting to massively spoil the game's contents.
Want to see dozens and dozens of original pen and pencil concept sketches for each character, location, cutscene, and more? Want to see a variety of miscellenous artwork made for the project that simply had no other place in the project?
If so, then that's a terribly serendipitous coincidence, because all of that is EXACTLY what you can find in the image gallery! Wow!
This feature has been potentially the game's biggest work-in-progress for some time now. The programming was relatively easy (I suppose, for my part, because I did not pursue Ren'Py's built-in image gallery functionality), but I couldn't figure out exactly how I wanted players to unlock content in the gallery. That put a strain on what content I could consider eligible/ineligible for inclusion, which put a strain on my ability to even get started with the process at all.
Well it's all figured out now, and the content is mostly complete. Nothing left to do except keep working on the final route now, I suppose...
I apologise again for the short report. To be honest, finishing up the fifth route was such a nightmare that it almost warrants its own manifesto-sized diary of complaints and frustrations. Alas, I simply do not give enough of a shit.
The latest demo build should be coming soon. I hope you're all excited! Also, happy new year!
Keep that Control Stick smokin'!
-Marina