Hewwo, hewwo! o((>ω< ))o

It's been awhile. I appreciate everyone's patience. Finally, after an extended time of not posting anything, I'm proud to announce the NEXT ALPHA BUILD of The Far Land of Magic: Mother's Cursed Spell (aka: Tomakunihahaji, aka: Touhou-At-Home)

I've gotten a little more serious with the development of this game now that I have taken some time to really ponder on some things. Considering that this is an Alpha Build, bugs and crashes are to be expected. I just never wanted to deliver you guys something broken. Again, this is an Alpha Build. But at the same time, I want this game to leave a very good impression for those unfamiliar with the genre. This is especially the case when it comes to those actually familiar with danmakus/bullet hells (like Touhou, Ikaruga, or Mushihimesama).

I was constantly fearful of the art, the UI, the overall game feel of the project that it resulted in me neglecting platforms like Itch.io, Twitter/X, etc. It's been nothing but static. I would sincerely like to thank you for dealing with my negligence for not being superb at providing timely and consistent updates. I hope for it to change in the future as I continue to develop this game more, and I continue to sharpen my skills in not only implementing game mechanics, but also music, art, and UX.

With that out of the way, I'd like to detail a few things brand new to this build that probably never existed in the previous one.

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Firstly, Stage 1 has actual sprites in it! You won't be seeing the letter "E" for awhile as a stand in for enemies. Although there are the same single sprite, this is what I'll provide for the time being until I can introduce more Common and Native Enemies into the game. 

Secondly, the main screen finally has a background (and it looks really nice). The main menu theme also got some changes, and I actually enjoy this version of it. The Stage 1 theme has also changed as well. However, expect more changes to the theme because although I do like this one, I've learned more about music composition and different techniques and methods to make the music more... well... memorable? Or at the very least tolerable.

As for gameplay, holding down the [L_SHIFT] key will not only put the player into Focus, but it'll also dilate time itself to better see where the bullets are going. This is also a feature you can turn off with our new option menu "Ease-Of-Play" where you can increase or decrease the difficulty of gameplay by restricting or limiting certain mechanics.

As for the actual playable characters, the only person that has changed drastically (at least relative to the other playable characters) is Hanabi Inoue. I used to have her sign resembling Taiko drums. But because it doesn't look visually as pleasing, for the sake of the game's visuals, I opted for Mitsudomoe instead (you'll get to see it once you play it). 

Hanabi also has increase Priority and Damage, as well as a couple other perks that makes playing her much easier (though still keeps it challenging as she's not as conventional as playing Raven and Maple). 

Overall gameplay, remaining in Focus and Dashing will consume Magus (Mana). This definitely changes how you play the game when you consider that shooting also consumes Magus. Perhaps no so much with Raven and Maple, but very noticeable with Hanabi, as she is the weaker character.

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Two additional subjects I'd like to mention is the Results Screen and also the ability to play using a Gamepad. Yes! You can play this game with a Gamepad now. Although partial supported, you can definitely play the game in its entirety with a Gamepad, making the playing experience much more enjoyable.

As for the Results screen, I actually composed a new Track for it called Youkai's Selfish Cry. The music in this was originally going to be part of a character's Stage Theme. But after creating an entirely new Stage Theme for this particular character, I reused music from that to create the Results Screen music. It's pretty awesome! I can't tell you how much I've learned about composing music for games, let alone making a whole Soundtrack for one.

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So... What are my plans from here on now that there's a new Alpha Build? Firstly, the Pause Menu would need to get patched and/or reimplemented. This is particular with the "Restart/Retry" option, as well as the "Switch to Practice Mode" option, which was made to be convenient to the player when they were doing a legit run of the game. Restart/Retry works as it should, but the results are moreorless inconsistent (which you'll find out when playing the game). As far as switching from a legit run to Practice Mode... 

(￣ε(#￣) Let's just say it hasn't really been nice to me over these past few weeks or so. 

Overall, what I really want to do is switch my efforts towards the Art, UI, and Graphics of the game, more specifically the Character Portraits for Raven, Maple, and Hanabi, as well as the enemy and boss sprites and their animations. Art isn't my strong suit, but over these past few weeks, I have been undergoing some art training in hopes to improve the aesthetic of my game. It may not be close to what I envisioned, but if it can endear you (the players) and appreciate the art, I think that's all I could ever ask for.

So that's what I'll be doing for the time being, along with working on creating an Alpha Stage 2. But until then, you can keep track of my endeavors through some of the social media platforms I'm on (which I should have on here). 

=￣ω￣= I've been posting a lot of my art stuff as I continue to improve, so watch my transformation.

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That's all I got for this devlog. It may be awhile until the next one. But again, thank you for dealing with my untimeliness and procrastination. I want this year to be the year of The Far Land of Magic. So from here on, you'll begin to see more of me online. There's a lot of bugs in this one that I do know about (and also bugs that I may not know exactly, but have anticipated). Still, feel free to reach out to me with regards to any issues you're having with the game, and I'll find ways to patch it up for you. The first suggestion I can give to you is probably resetting all Player data in both the game's directory, as well as in the player prefs defined in the Registry. I do plan on creating a Version Controlling mechanic where I can compare the version of the game and the version last saved on file, and then alter the Player Prefs needed just in case the game doesn't like the new data that it's reading. 

Confusing? Don't worry. You can always reach out to me! Your friendly neighborhood SHIBA!!!!

BYE BYE FOR NOW!!!!!  o((>ω< ))o