I've been doing my best to report, ban and delete every time I see them but this bot problem in Itch really is getting on my nerves. Seems I'm deleting them every day and it comes in waves.
I'm trying to address this in the next update. I increased the text size which will make the text easier to read while also spacing out the text into multiple text boxes instead of being crammed into one or two dense text boxes. The introduction is all optional and the opening can be skipped for players who don't care or don't wish to read it. However, for those who do wish to learn about the world and the context of the story, I want the player to be able to view it. As the game pads out, I'll have more opportunities to re-write sections so players can be eased into the setting instead of being lore-dumped in an intro.
Because to have that button, I would then need to implement that feature. Localization is a very big task. There's a ton of text to translate, and many things don't translate well from one language to another so having a local speaker to proof read and adjust the text is a huge undertaking. Then there's that I'd need to modify the text engines, every prompt, every UI element with text on it, to reflect the text from that region. As a one-person developer, that's just too much work and would delay the game for months, if not years, and cost me way more money than I'm getting back in support and donations. At this time, it's just not feasible.
We still need a few illustrations, some writing and a lot of testing. I am still finding more little things that need to be done, features to implement, and playtesting the first boss to make sure it's just the right level of challenging.
I'm really glad you like the style! I've put a lot of time and work into ensuring that Warrior of the North Wood doesn't fall into a generic or artificially generated look. Every character, every scene, every background, every visual element has been drawn by hand by me.
At the moment, the only controls supported are touch and mouse. I wouldn't rule out controller or keyboard support in the future as it would certainly be something I'd like to put in eventually.
There's certainly a lot of updates and upgrades to what's already there and a bunch of brand new content too. I'm trying to pace myself so I don't burn out. A game like this is a marathon, not a sprint.
I don't want to spoil too much but we're definitely delving into new fetishes and scenarios with the next patch. I just finished putting in the last of the new outfits for this update today. I've still got a few more illustrations to do, some writing to do, and then to plug it all in to the engine. Then it's on to QA and bug fixes.
It's hard to say. Game dev takes a lot of time, especially when everything is hand made. Content-wise, I'm getting very close but once all the content is in, it goes to QA and that can add weeks or months as we try to eliminate all the bugs and make for a stable release.
Still kicking, in spite of everything! And it's been a delight to pick this project back up. Making this game has really been a passion project for me.
I can say that every enemy except the boss has been coded in. There's a handful of new illustrations to do, I need to code in the new area and its new exploration mechanic. Then I just need to plug in all the dialogue into scenes. It's hard to put a date on things became setbacks and bugs are always a possibility but things are going well, much better than the last few years combined.
Getting seriously close to an update. I'm well beyond where I was before the engine rebuild. I'm doing new illustrations and writing for new content and the engine is all in-place so adding new content is a breeze. I hate to make timelines for game dev. You never know when an obstacle will suddenly set you back and I haven't done any proper QA yet so I can't say for certain how much longer it will be but I can say that things have been going very well.
Still mid-engine-rebuild. Exploration and combat are functional with new features being added as I add more content. 4/10 opponents imported. Still need to implement saving and settings menu.
The rebuild is going well. It's hard to say how long it will take but we're entering the testing phase to see if everything runs like it should. Once we have the combat running smoothly on one enemy, it should be quick work importing the rest, including the four more enemies we already have graphical assets for.
Bigger news, rebuild is FINALLY going well. We're working in Godot now and it runs way smoother than GDevelop. Still a ways to go before we catch up to our previous state but these past few weeks have seen more progress than the previous year combined.
