Quick poll because I’m curious what everyone’s thoughts on how I should roll out the content releases in the future after the demo for chapter 1 is out. Regardless of the poll’s outcome I would be doing bug fixes in between releases.
0 voters
Just some two cents of mine about software releases in general:
You don’t want to make releases too infrequent because it’s easy to never get anything done, OR to spend most of your time on the fun parts and never quite get around to some of the boring parts that are necessary to make the product finished.
However, you don’t want to make them too often because making a build release-worthy often comes with a decent amount of extra work (compared to your typical dev build) AND post-release you often get lots of little bug reports related to UI nitpicks and resource loading errors that can collectively take lots of time to resolve and keep you from working on what you want to (because you get this feeling that you need to fix bugs FAST because people will be inconvenienced otherwise).
So try to release often enough to motivate your self to work on release aspects of the build, but don’t release unless you’re mentally prepared to handle the post-release cleanup work. For me, if I still feel drained from handling the bugs from a previous release, sometimes I’ll put off a subsequent release until I have fun adding a few more features 
I would say release each chapter as you get them done, then review it after it is “done” to see if you like the flow and how ideas and time changed the story from chapter 1 to end chapter
I would definitely go for chapter releases. Gives you a chance to have people test and provide feedback. Makes it harder as you add more chapters to test properly.
Sorry for the radio silence, I got a bit carried away with a break. I did get the first phase of the armor measurement quest drawn and colored though. I might add a generic background, not sure yet. How is it?
Looks good to me great job 
and no need to apologize, the break was well deserved I’m sure.
Oh nice, well done. And yeah, dw, taking breaks is always fine.
Couple miscellaneous things. First is I wanted to better describe how the spells are got for the mage. Everything in the previous post about the topic will remain the same, but I wanted paint a better picture of how exactly it works. I’m making 4 maps (fire’s is done, and water’s is almost finished) themed around the elements that you can go to by activating the corresponding elemental statue in the class room. The spells are given to you by going up to crystals I placed into the map, they will describe the spell it is providing and how much elemental XP it will cost. The spells are broken into three tiers per element/subtype, each tier having more spells than the last. The sub types have less spells than the primary ones. Number of spells for each tier goes as follows: Tier 1 primary = 2, Tier 2 primary = 3, Tier 3 primary = 5, Tier 1 sub = 1, Tier 2 sub = 2, Tier 3 sub = 3. When you enter the map you will start at a crossroads, one road leading to the primary element’s crystals and the other leading to the sub type’s crystals. I designed the maps to reflect the elements associated (the water map is the best example, head south and the islands with the water spells are lush and green with rivers running through them or head north that are little icebergs that hold the ice spells).
Second is a new minor game mechanic. With the rogue being able to do a stealth minigame, and the mage having the most in depth character building from the magic system, I wanted to do something
for warrior, even if its not as involved. Given her role being a more physical one than the other two, logic wise, she probably would be eating more than them to maintain her weight. However, that diet requires being more physically active to avoid gaining weight. I’m thinking of adding a laziness mechanic for the warrior. On the most basic level, what it does is for everyday that the warrior doesn’t do some kind of demanding work (work that drains HP/MP or going into the adventure field as any character), the variable will go up by 1. Doing demanding work will lower the variable by 1. Once the variable reaches 3 or higher, the warrior will start gaining weight every day as long as it remains above 3. The higher the variable gets beyond 3, the more weight per day she will gain (at intervals of 2, we’ll call it the laziness level). Having high laziness will trigger certain events and I’m thinking of making it raise the warrior’s max HP by 2*laziness level (maximum laziness level is 5) so that there is a benefit as well as downside, since running at max laziness will make it difficult to keep the warrior available the whole game. Rationale behind the max HP is the same as eating at restaurants. Note that a run will be about 100-110 days (chapter 8’s time limit is flexible, unlike the others which are all 14 days).
Speaking of the warrior gaining weight, I got the measurement quest’s second stage done:
Now that the very beginnings of the combat system are starting to be implemented, I’m noticing that the early game is a bit tougher than I had in mind. First off, lv.5 is to long for the mage to get their spells, she’ll be getting them at level 3 instead. I’m debating on whether or not to make all enemies drop 1 gold on death, because it became clear that gold was the limiting factor from my testing (I ran back and forth killing slimes until I was level 5, I had 6 days left in the chapter when I was done. I didn’t upgrade much at all and spent all of my money on healing items). I lowered the cost of eating out significantly, from 100G per meal size, down to 25G per meal size.
I also changed how MP works. Due to how the damage formula’s work in RPG Maker MV, skills don’t really fall off in usefulness unless you make enemy’s stats ridiculously high. So I made max MP for each character a set number that doesn’t increase from leveling up. That way I can more easily work with the skill/magic attacks in battles. So the rogue and warrior have 100 max MP, and the mage has 200 max MP. I will have ways for their max MP to be raised in game, but it won’t increase from just leveling. The mage will get an additional 5MP every time she learns a new spell, don’t know what I’m going to do for the other two.
Just wanna say this looks amazing, and I can’t wait to see the result! If you need anyone to test or to check grammar or something I’d be happy to help!
Just out of curiosity is there a link to the discord? I’m very interested in seeing how this turns out and could beta test, grammar check, so on and so forth
As of now, there is no discord for the project. I’d rather not have to deal with moderating (just not really my thing). I wouldn’t be opposed to being one of the creators on the unnamed stuffing project’s discord though, if they’d be fine with it. This might change though, if just the forum or being a guest on the other discord isn’t sufficient.
I’m having beta/demo open to the public, so anyone will be able to beta test and give feedback or help with grammar/writing. I also will probably need some assistance with map design since it’s proven to be the most draining part of the project for me.
Is the beta on here or is it exclusive access?
It’s not done yet, I need to keep working on it. I’m making the first part of the game and then releasing it, then I’ll go back and change parts of chapter 1 and start on chapter 2 as feedback rolls in. I could release a really feature incomplete version if people want it though, since it is technically playable.
Probably best to give you feedback and input/bug reports on a version that is mostly the way you want it released in my opinion. Especially since you’re planning to do chapter releases.
I also agree that just posting a demo with the features in place can help give some feedback that you yourself might not see. I certainly loved posting my first versions here. Since different perspectives really help find problems you may have missed.
that, and people love hype 
Alchemist plant quest is finished, making it the first quest I’ve finished for the game. It’s got two outcomes that can fairly drastically alter what you can do in chapter 1, or leave it mostly the same. The plant’s custom enemy image is nearly done too. Both outcomes will give you 300G for completing them.
Ending 1 gives you access to a new healing item that you can purchase from the magic academy after this chapter (the sap becomes a consumable) and makes it easier to get the good ending for the town itself. I intend to add some form of cooking system to the game, and if you do this ending the recipes involving the sap will be available much sooner than the other ending.
Ending 2 is the one that changes how chapter 1 can play pretty significantly (mostly for the mage, and more so the earlier the quest is finished). Without spoiling too much, it allows for 1 new job that either the mage or warrior can do (collect sap from the plant at the cost of additional weight), makes the potion shop job pay more but the mage will put on weight when she works there, and has an optional scene for the rogue that makes them put on a huge amount of weight (20 lbs., there won’t be that many weight dumps like this during the game). The scene also gives the rogue a perk that makes her heal more from the sap item but also gain an additional lb. The sap won’t be available for sale, but you can get 1 everyday from the magic academy, and the recipes that involve sap will appear near the end of the game instead of only a few chapters later.
EDIT: We also now have an animated blob sprite for ending 2’s scene for the rogue (it’s not the rogue who is a blob), which can also be used for the bad ending if you lose to the plant boss.
This is the kind of work ethic I admire. Really looking forward to this.
Size 3 (chubby) is done:
I also recolored the grass tiles so it looks less saturated. Not a huge difference, but it is much easier on the eyes since the whole map for this chapter will use a lot of grass whenever you’re outside. I also made another set of grass for use in chapter 2, to make it more distinct from chapter 1 & 4. I changed it to be orange/amber to give an autumn feeling for the farm chapter (I’ll need to make a recolor for the trees as well).
I’m adding a special location for the rogue that will appear in all chapters except for 8 and maybe 3 (due to these chapter’s gimmicks). There’s a Thieves Guild location in every chapter that sells special items to the Rogue. Items like lockpicks, special accessories that are more unique than the ones sold at the armor shop, and butter. Lockpicks are fairly self explanatory, some chests and doors are locked with a simple lock (both during the stealth minigame and out in the adventure field), if you have one and the rogue is in the party, you can spend the lockpick to open it. The butter serves two purposes, first is that it is a fairly poor healing item that is only any good in chapter 1 (but is best avoided unless you want someone to get fat quickly) and for greasing up windows for the stealth minigame (as well as some passageways in the adventure field), allowing fatter character to get through them.
The location is hidden somewhere in each town (always the town, not the adventure field) it’s available in, you have to find it first to get any use out of it. Only the rogue will be able to go inside or find it, so don’t bother looking as the mage or warrior. They won’t be extremely well hidden, but I’m not telling where to find them either. Chapter 1’s will be pretty easy to find.
I will probably add a pick pocket job for the rogue here as well. It would count as a crime, but it would offer a fairly steady source of income that doesn’t drain her MP or run the risk of getting caught in a minigame.
