Pre-release Devlog

Hi all.

My name is Kat or Katlikesnero, I'm a solo indie developer from Arizona and I worked on this game as a small passion project.

That's basically the long and short of what this post is about, an introduction to myself and my work ethic as well as my general feelings for this mess that I'll be bestowing upon the prying eyes of the Itch.io "New Release" tab.

I wanted to document this project as much as possible, just to show myself in the future how much I've progressed as a game developer or just programmer in general. Some might say I've failed in this goal, as all I have to show for this project in terms of tangible evidence is this devlog, my GitHub repo, and the three videos I uploaded to my YouTube channel.

I want to start by discussing the aformentioned videos. They're not much in terms of showcase but they mean a lot to me because its something I can compare to the final release when I upload it tomorrow. A sort of benchmark for my progress.

The first devlog I ever uploaded for this project was fresh. I had just put code and mechanics into the game and everything was a mess. I didn't know what I wanted for this game when I first started working on it, in fact I still don't know what I want for this game. My first puzzles I ever designed for this project were just a mess and I'm pretty sure that that rust still shows through even under the many layers of paint I tried to put over it.

Back to the devlog, the video showcases the bare mechanic laid out for everyone to see. A simple connect the boxes together puzzle. I struggled so much to actually get this mechanic to work in the beginning and when I actually managed to get it in a working state it felt magical. Or, it would've if I didn't lose motivation for two days because of how annoying it was to fix. Nevertheless I finished it and sent it off into the realm of YouTube content for my subscribers at the time to see.

The second devlog was actually recorded days before I actually released it. I included an edit in the description talking about how it was outdated when I made it, as when I hastily put it together to show off to Viv and friends I was in the middle of actually making levels and progressing mechanics. There's not much to comment on for this devlog as it's just a showcase of levels and the general feel for the game.

The third and final devlog was just a small update to how mechanics were managed in terms of controls as well as introducing the Paint feature. It was a pretty revolutionary log for me, as I thought the idea of being able to paint connectors was a unique and genius idea. But, looking back on it, it really wasn't

As for my feelings on this project, I'm generally pretty happy and impressed with myself. A short history of the project ;  I started off this month wanting to make an Immersive Sim with photographed graphics, as at that time I was incredibly invested in Vampire : The Masquerade and was borderline addicted to it. I soon gave up on the project however, as blender was being difficult as usual and I really didn't want to waste weeks trying to model a simple human for the game. I actually made a few models and fully rigged them but they didn't behave correctly and I was just fed up with them in general, so I gave up.

Other than that, this project turned out really well in my opinion and I'm proud of the progress I made on it. Since this is my first "Official" game and the first "Official" release for Studio Nero, I hope that it doesn't set the bar too low for us. This was a heavily rushed and gross project that in my opinion does not show off anything I'm able to do as a game developer. I wish that I had more time to work on it and implement more levels that I had written up for the game but that's all in the past now. If I ever get the itch to work on this game again I might release new levels or even update mechanics, but don't get your hopes up.

That's all for now, thanks for reading this long rant-post.

Sincerely,

"Professional Vampire" Kat "Likesnero" Smith.