Devlog is finally out, what happened?

Long time no see, everyone! I don't know if anyone's still around here... but I'll write this update anyways XD

After 5 long months since the jam ended, I've finally published my devlog (FINALLY!)

Give it a watch & let me know what you think about it! ✨

Now let's address the elephant in the room... Why did it take me 5 months to finish this devlog...?!

What Happened…?

So I've been planning this devlog for a while. I've recorded the footage, written the script, all that's left is just combining it together into an entertaining video. Sounds pretty simple right? 

Unfortunately, I suck at writing scripts XD. The first few scripts were just incredibly boring... I would explain things normally... which sounds fine… but it's boring. Let me give an example:

[Old Script]

[New Improved Script]

Personally I prefer the new script, it flows a bit better & it's waaay more interesting (at least in my opinion!). This took me several rewrites to get right & that's basically an entire month gone just rewriting the script multiple times...

Alright the script's locked in right? Well let's record the voiceover & create the visuals. It should be smooth sailing from here on out right?... right......????

Nope, I got stuck on creating the visuals for this devlog for 2+ months!!! But why... couldn't I just slap commentary over the recorded footage? Well yes, but some parts like the beginning ideation part requires extra footage, like concept arts or something to convey our thought process. But the question is what to put there when I don't have enough footage for it...? For my previous videos I was just winging it by adding images & reference footage from other games, but for this particular devlog I want to try making an entire storyboard detailing what to put on each scene. And oh boy that was a mistake!

This was incredibly helpful, but this process took too long! I think I've spent maybe 2 weeks just drawing storyboards, time that I could've spent actually editing the actual devlog. But no worries, with the storyboard done, creating visuals for it would be really easy right? Once again... nope... there's 9 pages of storyboard and in total I needed to create 71 unique designs for each of the scenes. It was definitely waaay too ambitious!

Another month goes by... And at this point I was just feeling exhausted. I'm not going to go too much in detail but basically it was a pain to edit, After Effects keeps crashing & it was just overall a tedious experience! Lesson learnt, maybe scale down on the visuals a bit for future devlogs XD

Alright so that's the gist of it, did I enjoy the final product though? Absolutely. Is it perfect? Absolutely not, it's just at a point where I'm proud enough to publish it into the world. Definitely learnt a lot from this, would definitely make simpler devlogs in the future!

What's next for the game?

Alright enough rambling about devlogs, let's talk about the future of the game. Believe it or not, while I was stuck in devlog hell, I still continued to develop the game alongside it!

Behold... A working android port!!! (Next devlog is going to go in depth into this whenever it comes out)

I'm also trying to touch up the game a tiny bit by re-adding cut content such as bosses, adding several more power ups, & that's it. Not planning for anymore future updates, just simple enhancements as the "definitive" experience for the game & I'll move on to a brand new project.

It's not live yet btw! I'm planning to release it to the Google Play Store in the next few months, so I'll be sending closed invites in a month or two. I'll announce it here & on YouTube so stay tuned if you want to try it sometime soon!

Alright that’s all from me for now, what about you guys? Anything interesting that you've guys been working on? Any jams that you’ve guys joined recently? Haven’t really been keeping up with anyone so please give me some updates if anyone's still reading this!

Thanks for reading this long post, have a potato 🥔!