Crescent Prism - The Big Hiatus Talk

[torch60]

Crescent Prism… Oh, what happened to this project of mine? As some of this game’s subscribers may have noticed, production status was changed to Hiatus some time ago and there hasn’t been much of an update since then. And now that Brave Hero Yuusha EX is done and released, I was quite surprised that a few folks have been asking me how this project is coming along.

So I’m here to talk to you all today about that, where it stands, and where it’s going.

What caused the hiatus?

I originally started developing this game sometime after Soma Spirits was finished, sometime in late 2016. It wasn’t much more than a vague prototype by the time I put it aside to work on the commercial version of Soma, and I would ultimately return to it the following summer after I had a better idea of what kind of game I wanted it to be. And to delve into my personal life somewhat: it was also around that time that I found myself out of work for a while, and I was able to direct my full attention to developing my “big one”. Over the next six months, I managed to release a demo and then finish the rest of Chapter 1 thereafter.

I did find work again eventually, and by winter time development slowed down somewhat. After a few months, I was eventually given a full time position (hooray!) but that also meant that my time and ability to work on the game would quickly fade. And, well, sorry to say that as fun as making games is, it just doesn’t pay the bills. Crescent Prism was soon something I’d only work on during the weekends. Yet I found myself rushing through it, hoping to get as much done on this as I could before I wouldn’t have the time to work on it anymore.

Chapter 2 was ultimately finished as well, and groundwork for Chapter 3 was well underway, but due to a number of factors there was a noticeable drop in overall quality compared to Chapter 1. As one playtester put it, Chapter 2 felt like an “infodump chapter” and with the numerous pacing issues present in both the narrative and gameplay, I’m inclined to agree.

The number of changes I needed to make to bring everything up to par, as well as the time issue and the overly ambitious scope of Crescent Prism as a whole, caused me to put the project aside in July 2018. And then I set to work on Yuusha EX, a much more manageable and smaller-scale project.

What changes need to be made?

Only recently have I re-opened the project files and assessed what needs to be done and there are quite a few changes I want to make to both the narrative and game mechanics. I’m also looking at overhauling the gameplay for Chapter 2 entirely, for as it stands right now, at least two of the three dungeons within it just feel like corridors with encounters.

Before anything else, I need to sit down, re-evaluate the things that are noticeably lacking, and get everything organized.

When will development resume?

I know some developers who might say “Yeah, my game is totally still in development!” and by that they mean they work on it for 20 minutes a week and drip-feed vague updates for years. I guess that’s just the general way of things in indie development, but for a 10+ hour RPG like Crescent Prism, I don’t think that kind of development cycle is going to fly.

Only when I know I can dedicate more time to it will I be able to say it’s back in development. But for now, I’d rather not make promises considering I’ve already put the project aside twice already from burnout.

Deep down though, I know casting the entire project aside would be foolhardy. And I don’t think I could live myself if I looked at this half of a game, that I’ve already put two years into, and let it sit there forever. I looked at everything I had and I miss writing these characters and developing this world. More than anything, I want Crescent Prism to see the light of day. I just don’t know when this will happen, but I truly hope it does.

Now for some good news!

Many of the changes I need to make, outside of core changes to the gameplay, are in Chapter 2 onwards. I’ve given a lot of consideration to polishing up Chapter 1 and releasing it as a free standalone. I can’t make any promises about when this will happen, it will take very little time compared to the bigger-scale changes and the rest of the game’s development. So keep an eye on this blog for news regarding that.

Thank you all so much for continuing to follow my games and believing in these stories. I hope to have more information for you soon!