December, 9th

Hey, hey! I’m 25, I’m also very refreshed! I had a wonderful 2 day break to celebrate my birthday earlier this week! I’ve also began playtesting for the beta version of Lord of Lies this week. 

I also received some incredibly sweet messages and gifts from friends! Specifically, this piece from Chimeriquement (or Chime to me) who made a Lawrence and Gala piece for me. (Lawrence babygirled with tears 👌) so huge thank you to all my dev friends for making my birthday extra special this year!

In general the reception of Lord of Lies has been wonderful! So many people have showed huge interest in it without playing a second of it. And for my playtesters: Snakks, Lacy, and Alex they have showed interest in the story before playing and I’ve luckily managed to still maintain the love for it. 

Huge thanks to my playtesters who are the true heroes of this fairy tale. They’ve not only encouraged me along the way but have taken precious personal time to play through the game and give me their thoughts, ensuring that the end project is as polished and enjoyable as possible.

The reception has been wonderful. I’ve been so blessed to have such honest and thorough feedback! It’s enabled me to be the best version of myself as a creator, and to put the best of Lord of Lies out in the world. We’ve officially got 3 weeks and I am super excited and nervous!

Since the main story is completed (just in need of editing), I have continued working on the combat/dungeons, campsite dialogue, and npc’s. This has been very fun to fill in these towns my characters travel through. (Also a bit overwhelming, as I am on the verge of burnout, but know I only have 3 weeks left and then the game is out in the world. So regardless of how busy I am, I need to finish strong 💪

What’s most important is that the bones are good for this project, so if everything else is just ok, the story itself is good. I just have to beef it up and make it pretty. (I swear I’ve said this like every week for the last 5 weeks). 

My current plan is to have all this extra stuff added in before Christmas and spend the 26th-30th of December playtesting before the final release on the 31st!

(Also, this devlog would have come out sooner if I didn’t decide to watch the H.Bomberguy Video on Plagerism lmfaoooo.)

Playtesting Fun

This is my first time having anyone playtest for an RPG game I have made and it’s….

Terrifying!

However, my playtesters: Snakks, Lacy, and Alex currently have all been so helpful, patient, and encouraging!

We’ve found plenty of game breaking bugs, typos, inconsistencies, and though it was hard and plenty embarrassing to receive the feedback, it’s better to come from close friends rather than a player on itch.

The game is free, and a means to challenge myself to finish this story in a certain amount of time while working full time.

I have no intentions of making the game commercial or anything, but I do want it to be: half decent, enjoyable, and not broken upon release. (Also balanced to the best of my ability so it’s not too frustrating to go through). 

(Lacy’s Note)

(Snakks’ Note)

(Alex’s Note)

Ooooo Numbers So Sexy Mmmmmm

As promised this week, I wanted to give you all stats!

The general playtime for just the main story cutscenes is about 2 hours (these are based off my own 3 complete playtesting sessions.) 

This amount of time is still absurd to me, because I one: read fast. And two: knew exactly where to go in dungeons, so you can just tack on some more hours for players.

There are 9 towns/cities in the game. Meaning a space you can unwind, talk to NPC’s, shop, and explore.

15 dungeons. For the sake of clarity, ‘dungeons’ don’t necessarily refer to dark caves with puzzles and such, but rather a section where you fight enemies. (Some are quite short, and some are complex with multiple levels.) Some of these dungeons are in caves with puzzles however. 

There are 9 bosses in the game.

30 different enemy types (at minimum). 

There are 60+ main cutscenes for the game.

40+ campsite dialogues with all your companions. 

20 levels, and 75+ skills/character combat abilities in total.

There are a countless number of NPC’s, and 200+ maps (now keep in mind I make cutscenes on their own maps-not all or even half of these are walkable.)

All this is for the main game, I have not made optional cutscenes or optional dungeons. I still may not depending on how much time I have left, and that’s alright. I feel really fulfilled with the sheer amount of content I am left with despite the deadline and having a full time job.

I only cut a few locations here and there, but for the most part I haven’t had to cut back on what I wanted to do by much at all. (And the story certainly wasn’t abridged, that’s for sure lol).

Next Week’s Devlog Sneak Peak

Next week I want to start integrating ✨community content ✨- specifically, I want to integrate some written content from fellow devs, friends, and whoever may be interested to have a piece of them in the game! These can be items, weapons, armor, food, npc’s, dialogues, etc…. Just little things I can add in. (This is credited of course!)

It would be my way of paying you guys back for reading these little devlogs! You’ll be immortalized in my first ever RPG! I’ll have a document put together for requirements, and more info! I look forward to it!

As for now, I’ll be getting back to work. ONLY 3 MORE WEEKS AGHHHHH!