With chaosrevenant commissioning art of his dusky writing fanfiction about my development hell RPGmaker game (I can't believe I typed that sentence out and DIDN'T want to immediately anhero) I thought I'd take a minute to talk about the current situation.
1. Deadline
Sala's Escape has been in on/off development since I acquired my copy of RPGmaker MV in 2018 (Four. fucking. years. ago.) and in that time I don't even have a base version of it out yet. I promised myself that this year, 2023, I would have a base version out by halloween. This isn't some gay little new years resolution, this is something I am absolutely hell bent on doing.
2. Scenes
Sala's Escape, like many RPGmaker Games featuring bondage, involves a lot of scenes. Still images, but still scenes none the less (See: Didnapper, Didnapper 2, Grove, Deathblight RPG, Slave's Sword, Mira Co Rescue, Cruel Serenade, if I listed every game ever, I'd be here all day, so moving right along.) These are all in full color so I can't machine gun them in the same way that I would with basic color commissions. This is the bulk of what's holding the game back from it's original release.
To give you an idea, there is a game over scene for the main character (technically two) that composes of 10 (ten. X) images. Drawing the images is only part of it, the other part is stringing them together in RPGmaker and writing dialogue for them.
There are six more CG scenes that need to be written, for the lesser spirit, ghost, shadow, dullahan, three darkeners, and the Risen One. An important note is that the CGs will only feature the main character, Sala, at the present time. See next part.
3. Additions
RPGmaker Games like Grove,Deathblight RPG,Cruel Serenade,Mira Co. Rescue and Didnapper2 are simply not content with just being an RPGmaker game with some sexy bits, so neither am I with Sala's Escape. I want all the bells and whistles that it entails. Just one problem: I doubt that I will have time to learn/impliment all of it before the afore mentioned deadline.
What I want for it, as it pertains to "additions." 👉 Character specific CGs/mechanics outside of the battle screen. 👉 In-battle bondage/hypno/encasement/corruption states (you can get tied up/hypnotised while in battles, not just when you lose) 👉 A simplistic CG gallery that can be unlocked over multiple playthroughs 👉 At least one secret level. I had plans for one, but I think I'm scrapping it so I can make something a little easier on me.
The base release will be slightly barren, but as I update, I intend to add more and more so repeated playthroughs are not monotonous. There will always be a new hallway of a dungeon, or a new game over CG, or a new regular cg, or a graphics update. There will be three types of updates: Bugfixes, lesser updates, greater updates. Lesser updates will be things like a character tune-up, quality of life improvements, maybe an additional CG (or a secret that gets snuck in.) Greater updates will be massive content updates: New areas, new characters, new quests, tune ups for previous areas, etc.
4. Testing
At the time of writing this, I have five people (counting myself) occasionally testing builds. When the CGs are finished and strung together, very extensive testing will be required prior to it's base release. Not much more to say about that. It should be self explanatory.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. Now get the fuck out, I got work to do.
