Contrary to appearances, I've actually been working on my game a lot, especially in the last month or so. It's been about a year now since I started working on it, off and on. It'll probably take at least another year to complete, depending on how much I work on it. But I've gotten over the hump of where I was stumped before, when I took a break to create Ascension, and have a much better idea of how I want to fill in the details of the game between the major developments now.
I haven't been very vocal about the game, either here or elsewhere, and that's mostly due to the fact that I think people have gotten over the whole "how's the game coming along?" stage, and haven't been asking about it much. (In fact, I'm having trouble getting them to even play the game I finished, which isn't real encouraging...). I myself have gotten over the "I have to show you what I'm working on!" stage which I was totally feeling when I first started working on the game, and was so excited about what I was creating, and just wanted to share it with anyone and everyone.
And it's just as well, I guess. At this point, and since people aren't even really asking about it anymore, I figure I can just hunker down and work on it longterm by myself, with an eye to pushing forward and not wasting time trying to "polish" parts of it for public release (because if there's anything I'm obsessive about, it's image). I re-adapted all the beginning parts that were absent in my latest release, and pared down the playable characters, like I think I mentioned somewhere along the line, and have, excitingly, moved beyond into new and un-previously-charted territories.
I thought about putting out a release of the updated first act of the game, but the one thing that I stumbled on was the combat. Too many decisions about mechanics are still left undecided, and I don't want to start plugging in stats and shit when I don't know yet what the curve of the game is going to be, in terms of character, skill, and equipment growth, from beginning, to middle, to end. Honestly, I feel like I'd rather lay the game out first, and then go through and work out the combat bits. Of course maybe that hesitancy is also a symptom of me not feeling as confident (or enthusiastic) about making the action work as I am about designing maps and telling a story.
Anyway, I'm currently working on a snow town that fits in perfectly with the mood of the wintery weather we've been having lately. I can glance out my window as I'm sitting in front of my computer and see the snow swirling around through the sky. It's a perfect symbiosis. After that, I have a castle town to design, and some more dungeons leading up to your first big encounter with a dragon in the game. After that point, things quickly (but not too quickly) race forward toward the exciting climax to the game. That description undersells the amount of work that has to be done yet, but I like to keep the ultimate goal in mind!
