Devlog #5.5 - Holding Pattern

Quick update for anyone who's keeping an eye on these orky boyz. The next release is a while away so I just wanted to post and hold the space.

The next update is basically ready to go content-wise. I'm really excited about this one - I've plugged in a hint system which makes the game much, much more legible. This means that some of the more esoteric storylines might start making a bit more sense. I worry a lot about the accessibility of the game: it's often not sure how player choices actually affect the story. The new system should really help that while still retaining an air of mystery.

Unfortunately I can't release until my artist, Isaac becomes available. He's tied up for a few weeks so we're all just going to have to wait patiently for his triumphant return.

I'm also really struggling with time - I'm lucky to get two hours of dev time a week right now, and even when I get a window, I often don't have energy to make the most of it. Times are hard and I'm spread a little thin. It's also really hard to jump into an interactive story like this and just tweak a scene - you quickly end up breaking all sorts of things without realising. Or you do realise but forget to fix them two weeks later when you next sit down to work.

You might be thinking - but what else is there to do? Orkward already has several endings, the basic joke is delivered and as I've said previously, we're basically content-complete.

But there are a few hanging story threads, a long list of inconsistencies and issues, a few placeholders that need tidying up, and a few jokes which just don't land. Then there's some work on the user interface which is desperately needed to fix some layout issues and get the game working on mobile devices.

So after the hint system's in place, there's basically a long tail of polishing the script and ironing out bugs.

But I'm still at it, trying hard to make this stupid throwaway, free game idea as good as it can possibly be,

Stay safe, stay Orkward!