Large Update:

Been awhile since I've posted one of these! But, I've been hard at work regardless. As far as content goes, I was about 80 percent done with explorable areas before I decided on a large decision that is the central focus of this update. If you follow me on twitter you probably already know what this is about, as the last gif I posted looked pretty different than normal.

https://twitter.com/Pixel_trash_gif/status/1349714477952999425?s=20

I'm dropping the 4 color pallet, and just overall massively overhauling almost every art asset in the game. As well as taking stock on what works vs doesn't work at this point.

So why do this? After all, the minimalist, green color pallet helped give the game it's initial identity. It was almost it's marketing point, in a way. Well, truth be told I kind of grew to hate it. It ended up feeling way more limiting than I had initially thought - after designing 4 areas in all the same scheme, coupled with my limited art ability, they started to smear together and just generally feel bad to explore/navigate. It also ended up hurting the game more than helping it from a marketing standpoint as well. Every gif/screenshot I posted looked the same, at a glance - and especially to someone who is unfamiliar with the game they didn't know what part of the image to focus on or what the heck they were looking at half the time. Important info was obscured beneath a soup of green. 

To better illustrate my point, my most recent tweet with the updated pallet might be the one with the most attention I've ever gotten. That's not to say minimilism is going away - each area will feature it's own unique 4 color pallet - different from one another and different from the character. This will help keep the game in a similar style while giving areas their own unique sense and feel. The character, and other items  and HUD inherently linked to the character, will also be drawn in a unique 4 color pallet - a very warm one in fact. This creates some beautiful contrast to look at while also serving a very useful in-game purpose, Interactables and other important items are much more easily identified. I'm also looking forward to my ability to tell story with the use of colors. 

Anyway, this is a pretty giant change. But it's one im really excited about. It also means that I'll have to be redoing just about every piece of promotional material for the game. That'll come at some point, for now I'm going to focus on updating the areas of the game, creating some screenshots/gifs/trailer/etc and working from there. I'm also trying really hard to remove the more "amatuerish" feelings from the game. Nothing upsets me more than that sinking feeling that what you're creating just doesnt have that edge, or lacks that polish.

The downside is the release date is now in flux. Originally i had it listed for August - which is a date I definitely could have hit, had I not made this decision. But it's worth it, and in the end I know im going to make something I'm really proud of, and happy with. And I really cannot wait to share it with all of you. 

Thanks for sticking around!