Cliffeltip - Door One EXTENDED DEMO Announcement
11/10/24
Hello! I'm very happy to finally be writing this. I've been putting off making this announcement for a while (mostly due to my inconsistent workflow), but I'm happy to announce that I will be releasing an extended demo of Cliffeltip - Door One this December! This extended demo will include just about all of the work I've put into the game so far since the first demo. This demo consists of about 50% of the story of the full Door.
There's a few new finalized features and tweaks that I've made for the game since the first demo, so let's go over those quickly!
- The Replacement of "Chapters/Parts" with Doors -
When I first released the demo of Door One, I was a little unsure what to call each segment of Cliffeltip's story. I didn't want to call them chapters, and it didn't exactly feel right to call them parts either. So, after thinking for a while... the definitive answer came to me! Doors! It makes perfect sense considering each section of Cliffeltip's story is represented by one of five doors in the Door Select room at the beginning of the game. So, that's what each section of the game will be referred to as from now on.
- The Finalized Replacement of RPGMaker 2003's Menu with the Pause Menu -
Before this menu was created, I used RPGMaker 2003's default menu. This included many things that I do not believe are relevant to Cliffeltip's gameplay style or story. Things like dedicated character icons, character classes and equipment, inventories and skills aren't things that are neccessary or important for the game. I'd much rather have the player focus on talking to characters and advancing the story than focus on stats or equipment that don't ultimately mean anything. The problem is that I couldn't remove just those things from the menu, so I ultimately decided it was better to remove the menu and create my own simple one, pictured above. It's very rudimentary, but that's the point. It's only there if you really need it.
I know that many things became broken in the Birthday Edition version of the demo because of this pause menu, but I can assure that all of those issues are fixed and dealt with.
- The Introduction of the Character Log(?) -
This feature hasn't actually been properly added yet, but it is something I do intend to have included in the extended demo. Every time you meet a new character, they get an entry in your Character Log! (Still haven't decided if it's officially called a Log) The information that gets added to these entries includes basic information like their name and gender, and also any crucial info the player might've learned while interacting with that character. I think this is a really fun feature, and I'm excited to add it! :)
While I am very excited to get this demo out, I need to express something for the future of the development of this game. I have pretty bad motivational issues. I'm not entirely sure what it is yet, maybe burnout... but there are long periods of time where it becomes very hard to bring myself to work on something, even if it's a project I'm really passionate about. This happens a lot with Cliffeltip and all my other creative projects (including this website!), and is a big reason as to why this game might seem to take forever. It's not that this game ever gets stuck in development hell or anything, this game is actually pretty fun and easy to create. It's just these motivation problems that make this game take forever. I'm not sure that it will ever get better, but I think that if you become a fan of this game it's important to know about that. My goal is to get this story out into the world before I die, and I'll do whatever I can to make sure that ends up happening.
I'll try very hard to motivate myself to ensure this demo comes out before the end of 2024, but if it doesn't... I'm sorry. If for whatever reason it doesn't, it won't be long after December. Like I said though, I'll try my hardest to ensure the demo comes out before this year ends.
With that out of the way, let me show you some bonus art! I have quite a bit this time :)
Doodles of Toi!
Doodles of Maec!
Doodles of Lune!
Toi thinking positively about his keytar for some reason!
A 3D model of Maec!
A 3D model of Toi!
A 3D model of Lune!
With all of that being said, I have nothing left to show as of now. I hope you enjoy the rest of your 2024, and I hope you enjoy the Extended Demo when it comes out. Bye bye now!