Project Status (and a new one?)

Heya there! Erebus here.

First of all, I want to say thank you to everyone who has played and supported this project! Sometimes I still can't believe I've made my own VN. It's not perfect, but I'm really really glad that it's been generally well received.

It's been a while since I posted any updates. Some folks might wonder what's going on with this project and when the next update will drop, so here's the status...

As you might know, Moonlit Field was made for the May Wolf 2023 Game Jam. It's a hobby project and mainly a means for me to learn and experiment with Renpy before going to the main project (more on that later). As I have mentioned before, story-wise, Moonlit Field's beginning and ending are complete. While I still want to add more interactions between the two main characters, the story's conclusion will not change.

Originally, my plan was to expand Ray's story further. Remember the stargazing scene?  I have written additional materials and more in the draft. Unfortunately, I'm a little too ambitious for my own good. I set the standard a bit too high and wanted to add lots of stuff including more object interaction, conversation branches (LOTS OF THEM), screens, and possibly parallax / camera effects lmao. Learning the fundamentals took longer than expected and due to how busy my life has been for the past couple of months, I could not execute things the way I wanted.



It's a hard decision, but I have to put Moonlit Field on hold for now. Thankfully, most of the critical assets are done. It's just a matter of finding extra spare time for me to finish it.

I think I can come to revisit the project around next May Wolf Game Jam 2024 since I want to make some time to participate again (definitely not as a solo dev). I haven't teamed up with anyone just yet, but I'd be happy to support the coding department as I still want to learn more stuff with Renpy. I should be able to switch between projects because I don't have to deal with art and writing anymore at that point.

So yeah, so sorry for this. But I think it's for the best. I don't want to deliver a half-assed result just because I want to wrap things up as soon as possible.

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In other news... I've started writing one of the main projects I want to make. It's basically a semi-anthology of 5 different short stories, with each story taking about 2-3 builds at most. The first story is currently sitting at 10k word count (and is being reviewed), and the sprites are being worked on by the talented Manyy_Style. Here are some previews!

I don't have an estimated release date yet because the arts take time and I have a very specific visual direction I want to go with. I still need another artist to do the CGs, so if you are an artist specializing in abstract / silhouette drawings, then, *wink *wink

The good thing is, it should not be as technically complicated as Moonlit Field. Hopefully, I can release the first build sometime next year, but just keep in mind that it's a hobby project. I'll keep y'all posted later. Cheers!