Hi all,

Another small-ish progress update on the new version of Memories 3D to whet your appetite.

Workflow Changes

First off, I've decided to change up my strategy for how I work on the game moving forwards. At first, I was trying to do as much as I could on each map before progressing to the next.

Now as much as I'd love to keep working like that, it slows progress down on making early builds of the game dramatically.

With that in mind, I've chosen to instead do the minimal amount possible for each map initially so I can get all the eventing in place (since that's the main meat of the game). Only after the eventing is complete will I then go back and start to flesh out the maps and explore some of the engine's newer features more thoroughly (e.g. better cameras for cutscenes).

That will mean that the screenshots of new maps shown in updates like this might not look as nice as the first but, progress on the game is now moving at a pace I'm happier with. It'll also mean that there's likely going to be less "show-and-tell" on progress updates and more reading (some people are into that though!).

Actual Progress

Now that I'm in the groove with my new workflow, I've managed to:

• finish the introduction to the game with a very basic cutscene
• lay the foundation of a new big map (seen in screenshot) and finish adding a new tiny map
• make a start on eventing for the new big map

What's left?

There's still a metric boatload of work to do before even an early build of the game is ready. I still need to:

• add background music
• add sound effects
• finish populating the data for items, weapons and skills
• add enemies
• do initial balancing for player, party and enemy stats
• add at least 7 other maps (2 of which are pretty sizable)
• do all the eventing for all the maps (although the eventing is the fastest part for me)
• playtest (and inevitably fix the bugs from the playtest)

What can I expect in the early build?

I'm hoping that the first early build that I release will be in a fairly stable state and will hopefully get to the same point as the old version of Memories 3D story-wise. However, I'm a realist so chances are, what you get your hands on will be rough around the edges. The maps likely won't be finished fully, you'll likely encounter bugs and things like cutscenes will definitely not be what you see in the final/later version of the game but, it'll be playable and it'll give you a taste of what's to come.

What am I looking at in this screenshot?

The screenshot attached is a new map in its barebones state (in an older version of Memories, it was 4 different maps). It's got some effects a few objects scattered around and that's about it. Because of my new workflow, it'll likely stay that way for a little bit (it'll be a bit more fleshed out before the first early build).