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Devlog #3 - The Update Board

Hello everynyan!

It has been some time since our last devlog (3 months!) and we think is time to talk about what we are doing behind the courtains, our plans and, well, our roadmap.

This is our current roadmap for the demo before the release of Darkbound's Chapter 1. After this, the demo will not receive more content, just maintenance updates like game breaking bugs, as we will have our full focus on the development of the first chapter. And as you can see, we are halfway there!

The audio rework implies the incorporation of FMOD to the project, and it being the first time I use it, the tool proves a bit of a challenge as I am still learning it. Also, there are new sounds and systems that come with it, like the footsteps and cameras tracking Miauguel.

(Miauguel's footsteps sound different depending on the surface, when walking over liquid *splash splash * until his socks are dry)

As for the story added update, it will be a short introduction of a new character and a new cinematic to wrap up the demo. To make everything more cohesive we are changing some dialogues, adding/changing cinematics and polishing the story we want to tell overall. We are really excited about this new content and we hope you like it!

(Storyboard previa of one of the new cinematics because, yes, we storyboard EVERY cinematic)

Lastly, the translations update. Some people who enjoyed our game volunteered to localize the demo in other languages! We can't share many details yet but we are very thankful of everyone who is helping to make Darkbound available to other kittens around the globe.

This is a slow process as we have to gather all the dialogues in the game (new ones included) and send it to the translators. Then, make sure everything works and looks good in the game (without us understanding the language D:). When everything is finished, we'll post a build on our Discord server so the bilingual kittens can try it and send us some feedback. Many new things happened since our last chat, we've reached some impressive accomplishments! Like reaching 130 Discord members on Darkbound enjoyers! And reaching 7k wishlists on Steam! Thank you everynyan, we cherish every single fanart, message of support or simple reaction we get from you, it really gives us strenght to keep pushing through! I (Oruga), personally, like to keep track of every piece of content people make of Darkbound (I have a folder on my pc with every fanart I've encountered so far) as I'm the one in charge of our social media. Because of that I also have to deal with situations that fuel my social anxiety to its core. A month ago, while searching in youtube for Darkbound related videos I ran into a 500k views russian video where someone made a very cute summary of the demo. Ignoring the obvious AI images and the fact that I was watching it with auto-generated subs I was pretty impressed with the editing and happy that our game could be shared with a russian speaking community! Then, the summary ended with him extracting the game data and opening it in Godot (we were aware that this could happen) and leaking every piece of juicy content that we don't show on the demo but is included in the game files! Even if most of it is pretty outdated I was still dissapointed. I guess it's our fault but I'm sad now :( Anyways, thanks to this we have a lot of russian speaking followers now (привет!) the Darkbound virus keeps spreading around the world, nyehehe!~

(Insanely funny fanart by reallycrazyinconvenience posted on our discord server)

I also wanna talk about a part of gamedev that no one wants to talk about... The marketing and publicity production... I'm no marketing expert, I have no idea what I'm doing 90% of the time, but this is something exceptionally important when you want to realease a game! Because Trashdaw already has too much on his plate I take care of this burden, and let me tell ya... this is hard. Not only I have to squeeze my brain juices to create content for social media (mostly awful tiktoks) I also have to keep an eye on available events that MIGHT accept Darkbound. This last month we joined two Steam fests and we already set everything up for two more next year. Hope I get a raise someday!

(Process of the marketing images I make for the Steam fests, because I like to add my own touch to everything!)

Welp, that's everything we had to say! If you want to ask anything, we are available at our Discord server!

Until next time! ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ

- Oruga and Trashdaw

#darkbound #devlog #3 #trashdaw #orugadraws

Devlog #2 - Some time off

It has been a bit over a month since our last devlog! We have some important things to say.

This is a bit of a longer one, so buckle up!

We have been working on the game, both improving the demo and the release version.

We launched the demo with two patches worth of fixes and a tiny bit of content. We were eager to continue developing but the stress and struggle to get to where we were took some toll on us. Also, summer in our part of the world has been a little too hot and working while drenched in sweat is awful. So, we needed to rest for a bit.

And now we are back! And we want to talk about the future of Darkbound.

Since the beginning of developing this game, we have struggled to decide on the best way to support ourselves. Doing Patreon or a Kickstarter was off the table since it looked like a lot of work that would not be directly put into developing the game, and it didn't sit right with us to charge for something you can't play yet. Also, we looked at doing an early access and... UGH. Who in their right mind would do an early access for a narrative game? We looked at partnering with publishers too but we are not confident that we are in the best spot to sign a deal right now. Also, we are not near completion of the full game. But here's the catch: Darkbound has two more or less distinctive parts. So we could think about the overall story and progress. Then develop it and release, one after the other.

With this in mind, we decided to split the game into two chapters.

So, we looked at games similar to ours, like Sally Face or Poppy Playtime, horror games that have released chapters periodically! Just like we plan to do! So we could do that!

And then... I stood upon this article by the developers of Slay The Princess and Scarlet Hollow. And man... I was sold.

Early access sounds good to us now. We can release the first chapter and the players that bought it can play the second one whenever we release it. And without them needing to purchase any other dlc, season pass or whatever. They can also buy it cheaper! And we can develop Darkbound with less stress and be more in contact with you! Hooray!

The only problem is how people will perceive Darkbound because it will be an early access game, but whatever path we take, there will be downsides.

So, we will release Darkbound as an early access game with the first chapter at a lower price and then release the full game with the second chapter, increasing the price then (like Minecraft or Scarlet Hollow)

Also, this is part of the QOL update I mean to release next, but I am changing how the game is rendered so every resolution stays consistent. It will look a bit different, but it should look better.

(The screen isn't warped and you can see more input options now)

We are writing and planning what is left of the overall game (Chapter 2 included) so most of the stuff we are working on right now are on the spoiler territory and we can only show boring stuff for now! Sorry!

And that's it! We will hopefully have more to say on the next devlog! See you around! (Mainly on our discord server)

- Trashdaw ₍^. .^₎⟆

#devlog #2 #darkbound #trashdaw

Devlog #1 - The calm after the storm

This is our first devlog for Darkbound! Hello, hello!

We have a lot to talk about but I'm going to try to be as brief as possible.

Firstly: releasing a demo has been a very enlightening and stressing experience. After having to delay it from June to July we felt like the people who saw the trailer and believed our promise of delivery were being let down. We promised a date and we didn't deliver. It sucks. We felt the pressure of releasing it as soon as possible in July and that same pressure led to us being careless with the quality of the build.

And then the storm came.

Bugs, gramatical errors, softlocks, infinite juice drinking, things not working in general...

I had an anxiety attack and cried while fixing the most important bugs our community told us about. I felt like I forgot about my math homework and tried to rush it before the teacher came to my table. Oruga helped me overcome my anxiety, hard as stone while I was jelly. Later she crumbled as well. Man, making videogames is hard.

We took a week off and then released a patch to fix some of the other bugs, applied feedback... I think I'm much more content with what we have right now. A lot of people are making gameplays of the Darkbound demo and we are very happy to see everyone enjoying our game!

Finally: we are focused with the future of the game. We are planning all the puzzles, story, dialogues... I have to improve the demo and continue with the development in general but building the rest of the foundations for the game is our main priority.