Neon Tail News

The game is finally finished!
After so many years of hard work!
So many forms of struggles!
Technical, financial, health related, life related, hope related...

I've got to write something about it, feel free to ignore all my blabberings and just skip to the TLDR for the release date!

Neon Tail has been my biggest personal project so far.
I know every single part of it. I coded everything about it, I drew, modeled, rigged, skinned, animated, wrote the stories, imagined the world and the relationships between my characters, designed the gameplays and planned wildy and far beyond what was achievable.

And while I knew about this last reality, there was a glimmering chance I could have done it all, if I got lucky financially.
Didn't happen.

I got a lot in : Home made unique Roller Skating physics, open world with many colorful characters, a whole city to explore, you can get jobs, go shopping, eat crepes and drink bubble teas. I did a roller skating Combat system using super powers designed for my home-made skating physics. I believe I can say it's an achievement not many people can brag about... although it's also one nobody's trying to achieve in the first place, but I'll take what I can have.

I also got a lot out : Had to cut the SFS Pro Arc, tons of stories, the upper level city, the Mayor's arc, the Intergalactic Alliance arc, the big bad guy's arc...
However, turning back and playing the game, by trying to reach that unreasonable destination, I reached one I can still be proud and satisfied of.

The end of this project leaves me in a tired place. It probably won't go anywhere crazy, but that's fine.
I didn't reach my dream of living off my own games coming out of my insatiable appetite for video game creation.
But I had the challenge I asked for, and I gave it a fair try.

(TLDR)
Now about the release date announcement :
Although Neon Tail is finished, I still need time to prepare the release itself.

Create some videos, see if I can reach out to influencers, wait for answers, write articles, post here and there, etc...
The game will be released on February 17th.

Release version will have Japanese language, a rewritten ending, all bugs fixed (until some of you guys find new ones that is), along with all the achievements carefully discussed during one of my streaming.

Wish you guys an excellent end of the year, see you on the release day!

[previewyoutube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLskrshMIMw[/previewyoutube]

- Fixed Toast's weapon mission's end dialogue missing.
- Fixed dances animation issues for all characters.
- Added dances to Ram.
- Fixed pointing dances on Emote Wheels selecting wrong icon.
- Fixed basic melee slaps range to beneath 5m.
- Fixed Natixta's gun pointing on her Gun acquiring mission.
- Natixta is also able to slap Zombeanies now.
- Fixed Ram's melee attack on his first Combat mission
- After the Ruby reveal party, Max Zombeanie count is doubled.
- Fixed Localization bug with Tybalt Von Badyke's mission.
- Fixed Skybox loading inexisting lighting setup on main menu.

Thanks to bug report from awesome players, I could fix game crashing bugs I missed!
I spent a lot of time testing the game, and fixing other issues, here's the list :

- Fixed game blocker bug : loading second dream after strange meeting crash.
- Fixed wrong music playing in both dreams.
- Fixed AutoCam settings reset on character switch. Finally! I've been saying I'd fix that each stream for months now!
- Removed testing invasion hotkey from Early Access. (I think it's time)
- UD46's camera's far distance clipping now independent from settings. Now we can see the ceiling.
- Fixed Meet the Acid Frog mission thief caught dialog bug.
- Fixed going inside Neon Tail shop first time crash (same bug as first blocker bug).
- Tybalt's Marketing strategy has a clearer end message.
- Fixed eyes look at something when head is sideway, creating weird eye rotation and awkward starings.
- At night, outfit glows no longer turn our screens into lamps.
- Battle XP now don't appear before Invasion start, causing first apparition of Zombeanie display a message in the middle of a dialogue turning player canMove on.

I'm also preparing the end fight... I hope you will like it.

Slowly, tediously, finding tidbits of time I can squeeze in some work to finish this project!
It will happen.

- Updated Steam Achievement list. Don't look for them yet, they aren't activable for now.
- Total new 23 Steam Achievements entries listed.
- Many of them are quite convoluted so only like 15% of the code is done.
- An Achievement for collecting all the Figurine (the easiest) is written.
- Added an achievement locator system to load locators on conditions.
- I had to remove soundtracks due to complications, but will be replaced in the near future.
- Added new mission : Ruby reveal. Probably will need dialog improvements, as usual.
- Fixed test setup left accidentally. Natixta and Ram won't show weapons anymore when they aren't supposed to.
- Fixed Ram's Zombeanie mission broken due to wrong identification.
- Now Drone Menu can be opened even when enemies are nearby.
- Camera Transition is still bugged, but it's at least working.
- Added a new Enemy type : The Sorad Elite. (Not visible in game yet, to be implemented in new mission soon)
- Rewriting the ending of Neon Tail to fit the inexisting budget of the project.
- Keep working hard! Will eventually finish this crazy project of mine!

- Fixed mission finding cat saving after finding the cat and reloading bug.
- Added XYZ position in the world on the Debug visuals option
- Updated Sorad Elite's AI (WIP).
- Fixed baseball bat holding without Baseball Bat.
- Added HUD scaler in the options for people with weird screen setup.
- Added Ram's mission, race reveal party mission.
- Added random battle missions.
- Ruby's ponytail now floats when ennemies are nearby.
- Added Optrellian's Combat system.
- Added Toast's Combat system.
- Added Natixta's Combat system.
- Added Ram's Combat system.
- Added combat introduction mission for each characters
- Started studying Network coding...
- Fixed a lot of bugs.