DR4X News

Hey folks!

I apologize for the lack of communication over the past month. My "real life" job has had me working on a big project for the last several months, and the workload on it has increased significantly in the past month. I volunteered for the project, so it's my own fault, heh.But due to the sheer size of the project (and no, I won't go into details, as I want to keep my real-life software engineering work separate from my own endeavors. You know how it is—sometimes companies prefer not to share any details to prevent the leakage of proprietary information etc.). I just havent been able to work on the game.

TLDR, I've been working from 9 am to 10 pm on this project soem days, which, as you can imagine, leaves little time for game development.

On the personal side of things, my adorable doggo Bella hasn't been as energetic lately. She used to beg me to play every five minutes, but now she only wants to play once a day if that. However, she's been eating well (she eats super fast, heh) and enjoys her daily walks. Her temperature is normal too, so the reduced energy might just be due to the heat. Still, it (and her seeming stuffiness) worried me enough to schedule a vet appointment for Monday. So I've switched to a clinic vet (appointment-based, not walk-in) because the veterinary hospital felt too impersonal. And Bella's odd behavior makes me think they might not have done a thorough job. This means she'll be getting a full physical on Monday, and I'm sure they'll be able to tell me if anything's wrong. I also want to get her up to date on her vaccinations.


Also, i will be going on vacation starting on the 8th and be gone for the week after, so no game dev will happen that week either.

Still, I have managed to get SOME stuff done.



-All the planned noderooms liminal portrait art is done, which is a total of 30 images.
One Example:


-Added sound for donut (If ya know you know)

-More names are handled in operator name checker.

-Can no longe name the operator after some more important 'characters'

-if you name something empty string it now gets a special name

-Added new possible win condition/goal to noderooms maps with an interesting twist to it.
--Its for capturing all the "nodes" and has some other things it does heh


I also managed to get some work done on my less intensive side project, NoUtopia (which might get a new name). However, this will remain a side project as long as I'm working on DR4X, heh.
But I have plans....

https://untrustedlife.itch.io/no-utopia-a-postmodern-space-rpg

Oh and i've also gained a crippling starfield addiction after their latest update lol

Join the weeklyish dr4x art stream.
https://www.twitch.tv/natch_evil

I think i've gone through like 4or 5 different styles of changelog at this point.
Heh

Anyway. Hi there. Man that last devlog got a lot of upvotes. It is good to be honest I suppose!

I want to return to bi-weekly changelogs so here's one today! Some major updates: I added a new, pretty nerve-wracking intro to the game that I'm really proud of. Also tweaked a few things, introduced a new program to the terminal, and added a hint on the main menu that shows you how to "exit" DR4X to the new start screen, I also sped up loaidng times. Plus, I made a bunch of other small changes here and there.



-Added a new intro sequence to the game that introduces some concepts that were lost on some players.

-Game asks for 'operator name' now, which is used in...some spots for sure.

-Tweaked hints and other such things.

-Fixed a bug when running the aboutRBI program on NodeOS (not ProNode)

-Corrected an oversight where error messages on ProNode were displaying NodeOS.

-Massively sped up the initial load time (reduced from roughly 30 seconds at first startup (which just felt way way too long) to just 5-7 seconds.) Turns out i was just loading some stuff on that main menu very inefficiently. So thats all fixed.

This improvement also speeds up other loading screens.

-Added quite a few new Easter eggs.

-Updated many of the new liminal portraits to have better shadows etc


Thats it! I know its not massive, but theres some good stuff in there.
I think the new intro will really make an impression.

Join the weeklyish dr4x art stream.
https://www.twitch.tv/natch_evil

In my last devlog i was like "the next couple weeks should calm down so i can work on the game more" or some such thing to that effect.
Well I was wrong. Work stayed super ridiculously busy this week, delaying game dev further.
*sigh*
Sometimes i feel like giving up ya know.
Anyway.
Put out a tiny update today,
New batch of art is in, its great woo.

(There are 3 new ones but i won't paste them all it will ruin the fun!)


-art woo

-made tile effect descriptions a consistent text size

-buffed rosebud tavern more

-Improved hints for things, ya know none of these weird things about DR4X are unintentional right? They all have meaning they are all pointing to something. Ugh
Added more hints as folks clearly need more guidance towards finding the good and bad endings. There are points where i literally S=G P=X E=Q L=L L=L it out for ya ya know. Like 8 times or something. Heh, maybe not 8 times, Its hard to get people invested in something so cryptic.


*deep breath*

So, I kinda know how the next chapter will go now. I've got outlines for all of them, but getting there is the real hard part. Looks like it’ll involve some noderooms antics as that seems to have gotten some good feedback from folks, but you’ll also need to have gotten the good or bad endings—something only about 0.6% of players have managed so far! This might mean there’s a spot where players are dropping off, or maybe the unconventional victories needed for these endings are just too tricky to figure out. Either way, i’ve got some tweaking to do!

This small update will start to fascillitate that, though it updates the ending you get with new hints. SInce i know many of you have gotten those endings so wont get these popups, heres a hint for those who got a bad ending (AFAIK no one has gotten the good ending yet, I know one person got very close though)

You are playing on a terminal in DR4X, if you know his name, TYPE IT THERE (On the main menu) and something will happen and also do that during the ending sequence (something happens in both places heh).

For those who have only gotten a neutral ending:

The dr4x codex can guide you to all the endings and hints at what you need to do, some of it is encrypted, so get out a pen and paper and if you want to figure out the secrets, actually try to figure it out, figure out the ciphers etc. There are enough hints there that you don't need to figure out the cipher itself and instead can essentially treat them all as alphanumeric subsitution ciphers. And to get the ending you dont even need to figure out the ciphers at all, just read the signs and hints. the ciphers just make it easier

I will be adding hints to the chapter 1 unconventional victories to nodenet, if you know what that is heh good job.

Also, ive decided ill be adding achievements for each mission, unconventional and standard, as it will help me get an idea as to where people are getting stuck. And ill also do the same for a bunch of skirmish goals.

...
I've also decided that Chapter Two will be locked behind achieving either a good or bad ending in the first chapter. If you haven't unlocked either of these, you won’t be able to access this new content. It’s as straightforward as that. Neutral endings will keep it locked. The reason for this is that achieving these endings is a crucial part of the game—perhaps the most important part. Therefore, I simply can't let you proceed to the next chapter without having secured either the good or bad ending to Chapter 1

The truth is, it’s becoming a bit frustrating that no one has figured out the way to do this yet. I know these are challenging, but I genuinely believe you can figure them out and this was meant to be a TUTORIAL campaign. About a thousand of you have downloaded DR4X across all platforms, including Itch.io, so there’s a solid amount of people who could dive in and could help others actually get to the cool stuff. That said, maybe we’re facing a collective hurdle here.

This isn’t just about progressing through a game—it’s about pushing the boundaries of what’s possible within a game. I'm here, rooting for you to break through these barriers. And if i get frusterated enough i might just say fuck it and make a guide myself.

As a small indie dev, it’s already tough enough to get anyone to care about what I make. Let alone to actually put effort in to figuring out the deeper parts of it. I know that if someone managed to record the good or bad endings and the process to get there, way more people might be willing to give the game a shot. And if not, well, I guess I’m kinda doing it for the art. I'm lucky to have a day job that pays well enough that I don’t have to worry about whether a lot of people play my game—it’s just a passion project. I'm lucky in many ways; I own my own home, have an adorable doggo, a literal white picket fence, and a supportive family, although some relatives used to wonder why I was creating roguelikes instead of 'cool 3D games.' . Maybe it’s a passion project with puzzles so difficult nobody will figure them out until after I'm gone or something, but heck, it would be so cool if someone did.

Anyway, skirmish updates are still a thing, my focus isn’t shifting. It’s just that the focus varies based on my motivation and what part of the game I work on at any given moment.

A lot of indie developers gain attention by making YouTube videos, but for me, given the small free time I have, it's really just a choice between working on the game or making YouTube videos. I can't do both without risking burnout and potentially quitting altogether. So I don't like to think about "how can i get popular" its a waste of mind power tbh heh it just makes me depressed.

I used to make videos regularly; they were unscripted. Maybe I can go back to that? But then again, the time I would spend on videos could (As stated earlier) be spent working on this massively ambitious game. I'm 28 now, and I can't do this forever. I don't know how someone like Tarn Adams stays sane. I used to think it's by switching tasks within the overarching project to prevent burnout, and doing 'end of month projects'—that approach worked for a while, but I didn't keep it up. Again, every second spent on something else feels like a wasted second in terms of DR4X development. I feel like I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place.

I want to work on DR4X, and that's pretty much all I want to do. If it means languishing in obscurity until I die, that's okay. I've made something cool—at least, it's cool to me and to some people maybe, unless all those positive reviews are just people being nice, which could be true. It's something I've poured my heart and soul into, 4 years of it. I'm happy with how the project has turned out. I'm proud that people like the noderooms stuff. I'm just happy anyone at all in this shitstain of a world gives my coffee-adled brain the time of day at all.

Did you know? There's a message hidden in the game for someone really special to me, who I met when I was 12 years old. I don't even know if they're still alive or if they will ever see the message. But it's there. And so is DR4X, I guess. I dont think they were the videogame type heh.

I also lost a friend of mine when I was in university. There’s a message for them in the game too. They'll never see it, of course, but it’s there for them, a monument i guess. He was passionate and really good at counter strike, heh.
I guess you could say he was TENACIOUS, at least.

There's also a message in the game dedicated to the late wife of a friend of mine. She passed away a few years ago, and she will of course never see it. Even though he (the friend) helps me on this project by doing 2D art, I'm not sure he'll ever see it either. Wild, right? In fact I think that if he reads this, this will be the first time hes heard that that is a thing.

I'm tearing up just thinking about it, to be honest.

Maybe DR4X is a message to me.

If I died tomorrow, would I just be a nobody? Would the game disappear into the ether? I don't think anyone would even bother archiving it TBH. Or maybe, many years from now, someone will appreciate the art. I would guess not, but...

I have to do it for them. ya know.