Act 3 Progress and FAQ!

Hey folks! 

Just wanted to thank you all for your continued interest in our game! It's honestly crazy that there are new comments on this post almost daily, and new folks giving it a shot! We're really stoked to see that!

I just wanted to do a FAQ/Update to answer some of these questions. It probably won't prevent folks from continually asking them, but if you're keeping your eyes on our game, then at least you'll have some answers here!

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• "How do I unlock [Content] ?"

Soon, we'd like to add gallery tips for unlocking each of the items! Just something quick, nothing too spoiler-y, but should provide enough direction to unlock all the content in the game! Until then, check out this fan-made site which does have hints for the unlockables! https://theforestoflovecharacters.carrd.co/#hints

• "What is [Item] for?"

The nature of releasing a game in parts like this, is kind of like presenting a multi-layered cake one layer at a time. 

Some items won't come into play until later. Some Critters won't come into play until later too. 

Unfortunately, there is no good way of saying "this doesn't have any use yet" - and it's just an unfortunate side effect of releasing a game like this as we update it. Just know everything does have a purpose, or we wouldn't spend time putting it in the game!

Perhaps we'll have a better solution for this in the future, but for now we haven't been worrying about it, despite the confusion it has brought up!

• "Will we be getting an Android Version?"

Yes! We've been thinking on how we can adapt this game to be entirely touch controlled, and there are a lot of options. But it does require certain rework in some UIs. We'd want it to work well, not just be one of those overlay ports. Though tbh, not a bad quick fix...

HOWEVER. We have also considered that we could just temporarily NOT support touch, and let you guys use a Bluetooth controller and play that way :O! It's not "official phone support," but it WILL play if you use an Xbox/PS4/5 controller or whatever. We are looking into making this happen relatively soon, but we've found out there's a system we use that can't be compiled to Android. So it does require some rewiring on our part.

We'd also like to get our "cheats" in toggle-able options before our Android port. Currently you'd have to use a bluetooth keyboard to type in a cheat, which makes troubleshooting a huge bitch.

• "Why don't you guys update this page more?"

We're usually pretty busy, and big ole posts like this take a long time. We do keep our Patreons up to date with weekly posts on what we've been up to. (and Monthly builds!) But in general, we aren't really posting too often anywhere else...

This is probably just our fault though. Personally, I don't ever wanna be that guy who's just spamming ads for their project the whole time. But I can definitely post more about our progress here and there. I think the last time I posted to Twitter/FA/IB about the game, it was when Act 2 was out, nearly 8 months ago...

I should try to make at least a monthly post to those art sites. And for Itch, I should figure out how the HECK I should be using these devlogs. I think I'm doing this one right lmao.

• "Where is development at now?"

So a few months ago we started Act 3 Content. But had to stop pretty quickly due to needing a MASSIVE rewrite of our games core systems. Mainly speaking, this games getting REALLY BIG and we needed a data base. So Vixel made one! But now he's been combing through EVERYTHING in the game and rewiring it to work with the data base. He's also been rewiring new systems to keep things more efficient, this way we can support phones and hopefully larger WebGL builds (Act 2 is already pushing the limits of mobile browser tabs support!) 

So effectively, Vixel has made a fork in our projects. The 2.0 project has been built from the ground up, and is going through all the processes to get it up to speed. Meanwhile, the "main old project" is still being updated with content for our monthly patreons!

See, our game has Linear, AND Non-Linear content. All the non-linear content is stuff like gossips/dates/etc. These are pretty quick to add, mainly visual content and written content. Linear content can sometimes require entire new SYSTEMS. That's where we are at with Act 3. The next campaign content will require a few new systems, and there's no point crafting them 2 different ways for 2 different fork builds. SO, we are halting campaign progress while Vixel prepares our 2.0 project!

As I said, that does not mean there is halted content. I've been making many illustrations, and writing lots of juicy content for our newest Critters of the forest, Melody and Charlotte! (They were introduced at the beginning of Act 3.) We also did an entire winter event with like, 15 or so more illustrations and a pretty decent quest chain! It details the critters favorite holiday!

• "What's the ETA for Act 3?"

That's hard to say... I have a majority of the dialogue/story content written out, like the very last section of Act 3 isn't finished yet, but it's pretty dang close. And I have a majority of the animated scenes roughed out or even semi-animated. But we will be having a few unique systems and mini games to design and build. Not to mention finishing up the migration to the 2.0 project. It's a lot of work, and we are tackling it one step at a time.

And that's the actual game dev stuff. We spent a good amount of time going through getting our Steam Page up and live, as well as new ads on E621 and Yiffer. All of these things take a good amount of time to design and launch. I also got a bit inspired for some possible merch ideas after going to BLFC.

Everyday we're tackling something about the game, but whether it be actual game progress, or game-dev clerical duties, some weeks it seems like we didn't get much done, but the reality is there's a lot more that needs to get done behind the scenes. 

That all said, I can't give a definite ETA for Act 3. There's a lot that needs to go into it, so I'll just say hopefully this year.

• "I ran into this bug!"

For the most part, we are very interested in what bugs people are finding! BUUUT, this build is several months old, and pretty out of date. Especially once we consider the 2.0 project - it's entirely possible whatever random bug is just a byproduct of an older system that will be completely irrelevant and fixed with our newer build.

By all means, please continue to report stuff, as we always look at them. But we won't be doing another Act 2 Bugfix.

Now, once our Act 3 build is out, we will DEFINITELY be looking for a lot of bug feedback xD!

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OK! That's all I got for now!
I will try to use these Devlogs a bit more often.

And thanks again for your guys' continued interest <33! It means the world to us!