I don't know who is following this, but I am currently in the midst of working on v4, which would be the UPDATED version of the first three books with the addition of the fourth book, Wizard and Glass. If you are wondering: yes, it becomes a game-within-a-game as you get to play a party as young Roland, Cuthbert and Alain in Mejis.
Why is this taking so long? I have made SO MANY changes to the first three parts, I am almost embarrassed to continue making 3.1 available! Some of the additions include:
- added nameboxes to ALL the dialog in the entire game (very time consuming!). This can be seen in the above video.
- a sort of mini-game in which Eddie actually carves the stick into the key in order to pull Jake into Mid-World.
- tons of tile and sprite upgrades
- added bonuses and Easter eggs. I will not elaborate. I love the idea that a player needs to search for something, rather than it be spoonfed.
- changes to all of the boss battle mechanics, for a much more interesting play (think Final Fantasy V)
Another reason this is taking so long, is I had invested a lot of time with QoL improvements (such as a Questlog), only for me to eventually decide I did not like it at all. I kept some elements (such as random battles only occur in the overworld maps, and enemy sprites initiate battles in area maps) but ultimately it was a waste of time.
My goal is for this v4 to be released this year. This Fall might be realistic. At this very moment I am designing the town Hambry.
If there's anyone out there who is interested, I can certainly post some clips of my progress.