Hello all! it's your favorite game developer bringing you yet another monthly update for "Dysphoric Soymilk Lidocaine".
This one is going to be a bit different, because rather than reviewing some things I've been working on, I want to address what's been going on with the state of the game recently. I'm going to cut straight to the point and be real honest with you guys.
My problem is that I don't know what Dysphoric Soymilk Lidocaine is supposed to be. When I started this project back in November, 2022, I wanted to create an old-web simulator, akin to "Hypnospace Outlaw". A couple months in, and my game developed a story, and it's gameplay completely changed from a series of minigames to an RPG. Over the coming months and up to recently, I've been running into a recurring pattern: I add a feature, keep it for a while, have a complete change in my vision for the game as a whole, undo the feature to add a revised feature, repeat. I'm simply getting nowhere.
It wasn't until I allowed a select group of people playtest the early pre-demo version of my game that I realized something - nobody understands what the game even is. Heck, I don't even know what it is anymore.
I love this game, though. I love making games. And I love that I have a small community of people that are excited to play it. My options at that point were to keep on continuing the pattern of adding and removing the same features over and over again, or scrap the game completely and give up. I didn't want either of these things. I want to keep pursuing my dream, but it feels like I'm wasting my time creating something that is so far from my original vision that I don't even know what it is anymore.
So there it is. That is my problem. I sought out advice from my friends and people in the community and I came to conclusion for what my plans for the future of the game are to be. I am not going to give up on Dysphoric Soymilk Lidocaine. I believe that it has a purpose in the video game world and I would be doing myself and my community of soymilk enthusiasts a great injustice if I were to do so. I'm not the type of person to give up when things get difficult. That being said, I'm going to take a break. I'm going to take a break from developing Dysphoric Soymilk Lidocaine and I'll come back to it when I have a solid vision for EXACTLY what my game is going to be. I do not know when this will be.
All I know is that this will not be the last you're going to hear of Dysphoric Soymilk Lidocaine. This game will be finished, and that is that. It may look different when it's finished from the way it looks now, but it will still stay true to my values for the game. I'm not going to push my game out into the wild anytime soon, even for a demo, because I don't want to release anything that I'm not proud of. Given the state of the game as it is, I'm not proud. I value my community and I hope that my decision to postpone DSL doesn't cause any hard feelings.
With that out of the way, I want to talk about what I've been doing in my free time now that I'm taking a break from DSL. I've been working on a side project. Something simple to chip away at while I decide the future of DSL. Unlike DSL, this side project is very simple in concept, and will not take very long to get a demo out for. This demo will release in a few months. I'm very excited for it. I showed a couple friends an early prototype for what it is, and they're also excited. I will be officially announcing this side project in September. I'm very eager to tell you all about it. All I'm going to say about it now, is that if you liked the aesthetic of "Dysphoric Soymilk Lidocaine", you're going to love what I'm working on now.
I've also been working on a website for my newly formed indie studio, "MogDogBlog Productions". This is still in the works, but I'm excited to officially reveal this once it is complete. Below is the logo for my studio. I think it looks pretty great.
Again, this is just a side project to give me something to work on while I nail down the core gameplay of DSL. Thank you all for being supportive and following along with my game making endeavors. My side project will be announced soon, so sit tight. Your patience will be rewarded :)
~MogDog