Game Journal #108 - New Shaders, Demo Stabilization

Hey guys! Welcome back to my game journal series. It's been a while since my last one so I figured I'd post. Don't worry, I've been working on the game a lot!

Life-wise, I was finally able to put in the 2 week notice at my job. That's right, I've reached the point where I'm quitting my job to work on this game. Don't worry though, I still have one other job I'm working at (FedEx) so I still have a steady income other than this game. But I'll have a lot more time to work on it now, so that's great.

There's been a lot of changes to the game to prepare it for the Turn Based Fest. The demo out right now on Steam is pretty much how much progress you'll be able to make for a while. There will be a little more, but not too much (it'll go up to the first half of Chapter 1.) I plan on adding more visual improvements for the next few weeks to make it look and feel better to play. So story wise, you probably won't get anything new until next year. Speaking of that...

I wasn't quite happy with the way my game looked, so I did some research on how to have better shaders in my game. After a few tutorials, I was able to improve the look a lot! Just check out the difference.

Isn't the difference really crazy?! I had no idea that shaders were so powerful. I guess this answers the question of "why do game models look so different when they're not in their game"? It's because the shaders render them a certain way. Anyway, I really like the way it looks now, it feels a lot more professional. Even my crappy models look decent with the effects on, so that's nice.

In terms of the demo, a lot of bugs and quality of life issues have been resolved. You can now play through the first half of the first dungeon. Regarding any updates, I'll probably release a new build right before Next Fest (October 14th) so it'll be as complete as possible. So yeah.

Here's a video of me going through stuff that has changed. I made it kinda late at night so I'm rambling a little. But it's informational!