A Shot in the Dark - Chapter 4
A Shot in the Dark: Dev Log 08-Mar-2024
This dev log was originally posted on Patreon and SubscribeStar on March 8, 2024.
Cue the hallelujah choir!
The end of the development cycle is near!
All of the animations for Chapter 4 are posed and now we just have to wait for the remaining ones to finish rendering. Let's kick this celebratory dev log off with some animation previews from the ones that have already rendered:
The last two scenes of Chapter 4 are in the process of being implemented into the code. We still have a lot of little polishing tasks and basic testing before we can hand things off to our testers, but the bulk of the coding is done.
This update was by far our most efficient in terms of coding implementation, and we have been happy with how quickly and smoothly that part has gone. Not only have we learned quite a bit from previous updates on how to "touch things once" and not duplicate work (which is harder than it sounds with a game as complex as this), we also have someone helping with coding who has been able to automate some of the more tedious aspects of the code implementation.
Right now, we plan to do everything in our power to release the Chapter 4 BETA on Patreon and SubscribeStar during the last week of March. It will take a few weeks to prepare the final version for Steam release (we have to do further testing, add Steam achievements, etc) so that is tentatively planned for mid-April.
We know this development cycle has been a long one and we appreciate your patience with us as we navigated a lot of challenges and competing priorities during the second half of last year. With most of that out of the way, we have been happy with how things have gone so far in 2024 and we are feeling good about things going into Chapter 5.
Speaking of Chapter 5, we have also been doing the early work of planning and setting up a new chapter. As mentioned before, the plan has always been to do something really different with Chapter 5. We won't say more right now, you'll have to wait until after we release Chapter 4 to find out what that means exactly. So, stay tuned!