Hi, everyone. It's time for another week's developer's diary.
It's also the time to announce the main story in Queensmouth is complete.
(Well, as the development is endless, there may also be more to be added to this. For example, we just added another new path in today's update.)
A walkthrough of the quest "Sins of the Father" is now also on the wiki. Be alert, it contains spoilers.
https://neolithia.fandom.com/wiki/Quest:_Sins_of_the_Father
There are also memes:
Right after what happened in Queensmouth, the story shall move on to another new area which is a lost city in Egypt. However, just as the previous story is not quite linear, I pretty much want everything to have a certain degree of freedom. The new areas will not be blocked by the story.
But, there is no rush to add more main story content right now. The new Egypt locations need to be constructed before the story can get in. We also still have some unfinished business and more alternative solutions to the problems in Queensmouth and other existing areas. During the next 4 weeks, those will be worked on.
Something fun just happened this week. Our game got a very special change number on Steam among all games and software.
https://steamdb.info/changelist/15666666/
The change number 15666666 belongs to us. Cheers! :D
It has two sets of 666 in it. I wonder if it may be a sign or something.
So, we got a new game mechanic. Get ready to make deals with Mephisto at the cost of your soul. :)
Mephisto has been with us since the release of the game.
It's time to let him have more useful interactions than just appearing in stories.
Because of what happened in the Prologue, he is kinda trapped with you. So, you will become his only available client that can make contracts with him. He can use his demonic power to instantly restore your HP or MP at the cost of a tiny bit of your soul. (More deals will be added in the future.)
Well, of course, it's a trap. If you lose 100% of your soul, it's game over for you.
On the good side, we also have a Steam achievement for this. :D
(Alright, this is just as silly as the traffic fraud achievement. Please don't make deals with demons in real life unless you are desperate and it's totally necessary. Also, even in that case, you may want to make sure you have a lawyer on your side, and the said lawyer must not be another demon before you sign any contracts.)
Now, let's talk about what it means to the game itself when the main story of Queensmouth is finished.
As mentioned previously, the game price will dramatically increase. That will happen at least 4 weeks after this DD is published. Thus, expect that to happen sometime after September 12th. There will also be one last discount before the price increase. Something I suggested to Paradox before they increase their regional price last time. I consider it a good practice. So, I will do it as well.Unlike other games that keep getting lower and lower discounts, the price of our game will always increase, as long as new content gets added. So, existing players will be rewarded both by receiving endless new game content and an increase in their Steam account value. As this is a true indie game and my personal project, I can care quite a bit less about taking efforts into marketing and attracting new players. However, as a cult leader, or so someone calls me, I care more about bringing more benefits to existing players. Just as I am always on the side of shareholders when I run a company. And, I am a shareholder of many game companies myself. I usually leave the marketing to other more talented people in this trade. Except, I don't have any in this indie game. But, so be it. I have no financial goal for this game at all. Let's just see what will happen. :)
Regarding the demo version. The previous plan was to retire it after the Queensmouth milestone is achieved. However, the demo version now has another purpose, which is to penetrate the censorship of China, to bring the latest news from Ukraine, and to let the truth be known by having that information among other game content. I have decided to keep updating the demo version until the end of this war.
It will still be free as I want to make it easy for people to acquire that information. Thus, technically, the game is somewhat free if you only play the demo version with no advanced steam features such as achievements and Steam Workshop. As I said, I have no financial goal for this game. And as Churchill once said, "The destiny of man is not measured by material computations."
Slava Ukraini!
So, the demo version will stay. It will just be moved to the right side of the store page instead of right above the purchase button to avoid confusion.
That's for this week. Let's march towards the future. One update at a time.
Today's changelog:
##########Content############
[Sins of the Father]Added Deputy Judy's path to finish the story. (It will cause the quest <> invalid if not previously complete.)
[Sins of the Father]We now have 3 different paths to finish the story. The wiki has been updated.
[Queensmouth]Increased the width of Deputy Judy's dialog option window.
[Deal with the Devil]New offer: Restore full MP at the cost of 1% of your soul.
##########Wiki###############
[Sins of the Father]Added a walkthrough of this mission on the wiki. (Spoiler Alert!)
##########DEBUG##############
Fixed a bug that a character's battle image may not display if they start the battle in an unmovable state. (For example, Sleeping)