Just some general ramblings

I know I marked this as cancelled, but it's really hard not to work on something when... you find yourself with more time on your hands then you really expected (not gonna go any further into current events than that)

I've been waffling a bit about how best to continue on; I've thought about switching game engines (I've messed around a bit with Unity; nothing really substantial came from it, and I find I don't really like the setup much. I've thought of trying UnrealEngine but that looks pretty similar to Unity with less support for what I'd like to do. For other 2D engines, since I already have so much implemented into RPG Maker, it'd take probably more effort that it was worth to switch now...)  

I didn't mention it before, but the other reason why I felt the need to cancel the project was due to my laptop being on its last legs (it's slowly dying; the battery's pretty much dead and there isn't a replacement for the model I have. This isn't the first time I ran into this issue) Thankfully, being at home I have a desktop I can use for the time being, but it isn't really a perfect replacement.

On top of that, I've ripped out the battle system again (people might have noticed there was a change between the original game jam and demo; this was because the script stopped being supported. This time, I don't have a good reason like that. I just took it out and started yet again from scratch) I'm thinking of going a bit more simple. The system I was trying to do in the demo was a little too dependent on elemental weakness (and poorly balanced at that) along with a not fleshed out enough skill system that I couldn't figure out (which is bad since I'm the one designing it) Instead, I'm changing the skill system to be dependant on equipped weapons (expect for a couple magic based skills) and I haven't really thought too much about the elemental side of battle at the moment. I may add it back if I can figure out a good way to make it work. I'm also thinking of doing some sort of skill point system so if there's a skill that the player wants the character to keep they can put points into it so they don't have to keep that weapon constantly equipped to the character (I haven't entirely fleshed this idea out, yet though)

Beyond the battle system, I really haven't done much (which may be why I'm running into so many issues working alone) There's so much I'd like to do, but just haven't had the time for yet (or it feels like it anyway) I've been thinking of adding collectables that can cover for both achievements and an info gallery (I'm not sure how interested people would be in that, though) I'd like to work on more complicated puzzles than what were in the demo version, that are either dependant on individual abilities of different characters or have randomised solutions. 

I did add a preloader script and some stabilisation stuff which seems to have fixed some issues, but it's really hard to tell. I'm not going to release another demo; I decided that awhile ago. I'm either releasing a complete version, or it's not going to be released at all. Even though I am working on it, I'm not switching it off cancelled for this reason. There are still many ways (especially with how things are right now) that it can end up unfinished, though I am going to try to be as transparent as possible about how I'm doing and my progress.

I'm leaning more towards getting all the maps done before continuing to work on the game play though.  I like mapping (I find it rather calming) and it'll make it easier to finish up implementing the story (which I'm still between keeping linear or going with the branching style I originally wanted to do) When I stopped, I didn't have nearly as many of the maps done as I should have because the battle system was taking a majority of the time. Right now, I have 2 dungeon maps (or what could loosely be classified as dungeons), an interior map along with 2 maps that belong to a bigger interior area, a garden map, and a few different cut scene maps  (along with a test map that doesn't quite count) I have plans for about 3 different residential maps (the demon kingdom, the angel outpost, and a succubi village; I know those are definitely needed story wise, though I'm thinking of adding one more) and I don't have it in my design doc just yet, but I'm thinking of having one more dungeon area (at first I thought maybe a forest, but that's not really suited for the environment that Veyrra really has. I'm leaning a bit more towards making it a tower, though I haven't decided much beyond that) 

I'd also like to work on changing a lot of the sprites. There's nothing really wrong with the original sprites, it's just that it's a mix of resized Ace sprites with MV sprites and I'd rather have them all in a similar style (same with portraits, but since I can't seem to find an artist that can stick with the project that long, I'll work on the sprites first)   I'm not sure how others feel about it, but I did manage to cobble together a version of Trish using pieces from MV's character generator:

I don't quite like MV's chibi style, but I may do that with the rest (as much as I can) and then figure out a way to modify them to a different sort of look from there (at least they'll all share a style that way)