Hey folks! I hope everyone is doing well this holiday season. Time for another update on FuTanya. While I've been a bit busy in my personal life these past few months, I've managed to get some more writing taken care of. Unfortunately, there wasn't much progress on the art side. My artist is part of another project that needs to be finished ASAP, so his efforts are there for the time being. We should be back in business next month. This gives me more time for storyboarding, so I can be ready for his return. But don't fret, I managed to have some new art for you, and it's in wallpaper format, for the truly brave!

The future and a new engine... 

After discussing things with my friend, and future publisher, we agreed that the game should switch to a new engine. Until now, I've been making FuTanya in Visual Novel Maker. It's not really designed for a point and click adventure game, but making it work was a nice challenge.

Part of the reason I chose to make this game in VN Maker was for the challenge alone. "Can I make this happen? Can I build a system with these tools to make it function as a Point and Click Game?" Short answer: Yeah, I was able to. The longer answer is that it's a bit of a pain, and not the most practical thing to do. Don't get me wrong, it was a lot of fun! But now, after FuTanya has grown substantially in size and scope, VN Maker just doesn't feel appropriate anymore. 

Soon, FuTanya will begin being rebuilt using Godot, or rather, a custom fork of Godot. This will make updates, patches, upgrades, additional languages, achievements, (basically everything), easier to implement going forward. As that's happening, I will continue with the writing and working on the H-scenes.

I hear you, "Oh great. A new engine!? We'll never get to try this game!" About that, I'm actually planning on making the game playable very soon! Over the next month or two, I'm going to be putting together a demo using VN Maker. You think I worked on this for 4 years in VN Maker to not show off my work!? This will let people finally play FuTanya for themselves, and in the future, they will be able to compare the VN Maker and Godot versions. Please look forward to it! I want to get it ready ASAP!!!

Random thoughts... 

Thinking about delays and things that set me back... Years ago, VN Maker had a massive update. It was more like an overhaul. It fixed a lot of bugs and improved the quality overall, but it also completely busted my game. I had to create a new project from scratch. That cost me about 3 months. After that, some things led me to completely switching to a new artist. That set me back an entire year! 

The engine update allowed me to create a more refined system for choices and the non-linear mechanics, as I was working with the benefit of hindsight. My new artist works much more rapidly compared to the previous guy, allowing me to do more in my scenes and make them more accurate to my vision. If the engine switch is half as productive as I anticipate, then making that change will be more than worth the effort.

That's enough from me! Take care and have a great holiday!