The bad news: After receiving some considerable (and long-anticipated) feedback, I've halted progress on polishing up Ascension, to take some time to consider what kind of significant changes I may want to make to it in the future. As such, I'm not going to have another release ready by the end of the summer like I had planned.
The good news: I've just got word that a new version of RPG Maker is due out later this year. Normally, I wouldn't be in a hurry to upgrade from a program I'm already familiar with, but this new version has some tantalizing features. In addition to a larger screen (and corresponding graphical resolution), it's designed to be multiplatform (so you can make games for both PC and Mac, in addition to mobile platforms). But most of all, it supports a sideview battle system, which has been one of the largest sticking points of the current RPG Maker program I've been using. Plus, it retains square character sprites (and not the tall, lanky ones of some previous versions of RPG Maker), which I prefer (because they remind me of the classic RPGs I love so much). So I might just have to switch to this newer program once it's released. Read more about it here: RPG Maker MV.
